Click on image to enlarge
Two and a half days after Carpal Tunnel Release surgery, this time on my right wrist/hand, and here I am taking it around the block for a thirty-four minute spin on my iPad in the Sketch Club app. Still transfixed by our trip to Scotland, I felt the urge to recall some of the extraordinarily ordinary chimneys we saw everywhere.
Sketch Club stats:
Scottish Chimney Stats
Great tour and tour guide at the Speyside Cooperage not far from Aberlour, Scotland. Funny thing, there’s one in Jackson, Ohio. Another funny thing, I painted the guide’s portrait and posted this up here at 30,000 on the flight from Edinburgh to Philadelphia.
Our guide at Speyside Cooperage
Click on image to enlarge it.
Yea, thanks to Storm Boelo and that 12-hour power outage it caused during our stay in Portree, Isle of Skye from October 22 – 26, 2026, I had some time to draw on my iPad – an opportunity to see the extraordinary in the ordinary.
I’m not quite sure what happened to the pheasant’s long feathers.
Inspired by a drive earlier today through St. Andrews in Scotland.
Fore
Looks like Annyth caught me at the Ferryhill House Hotel Bar in Aberdeen, Scotland drawing “Fore.”
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Jorma Kaukonen has appeared on this illustroblog multiple times to one degree or another as you can see here. He’s legendary, not only around here in Athens, OH where he lives, but pretty much everywhere else. We’re lucky, we get to see Jorma and John Hurlbut playing around Athens pretty regularly, and what a treat it is! Getting to see Jorma and Jack Casady reunite as Hot Tuna, that doesn’t happen so frequently. Check out this clip of them in 1969. So, Annyth and I, thanks to some good friends who jumped on 3rd-row, Stuart’s-Opera-House tickets for all of us back in February, got to see Jorma and Jack doing what they do best; and they did that and more along with special guest, harmonicist extraordinaire, Ross Garren! I wish I had four ears instead of only two!
When my ears weren’t completely blown away by the music, my eyes would wander off and dwell on Jack’s expressive face. If I had brought a 25 lb. block of clay with me, I would have sculpted it right then and there!
That was Friday, July 17, 2026. The very next day I sat down with Jack, well, a photo I took of him, and spent some time with him and a few of his features.
Jack, rounded up to the nearest 100
Technical: I painted Jack’s “portrait” on my iPad Pro using an Apple Pencil and these apps: Sketch Club, Procreate, and iColorama. It’s pretty orange, isn’t it? Here’s the reference photo I took and used. Because of the lighting, things got pretty orange.
Reference photo… 🍊
Nevertheless, lot of fun!
A fascinating part of the history of Athens, Ohio, make that the history of automobiles. Evidently, Athens has been funky for a long time. Athens’ residents Claud Dry and Dale Orcutt, airplane pilots turned car designers, developed the King Midget as part of their Midget Motors Supply operations in Athens, OH from roughly 1946 and 1970.
Some links:
1. Check out this funky, Athens-related history yourself.
2. Join the International King Midget Car Club!
3. See other posts here on this illustroblog tagged Athens, OH.
Free-hand iPad painting in the Sketch Club app (click on image to enlarge)
About the iPad painting: Freehand digital iPad painting in Sketch Club using an Apple Pencil and a final tweak in iColorama. Here are the Sketch Club stats:
About the depicted King Midget:
The car depicted above, Lot 55, sold for $10,450, including buyer’s premium, at Barrett-Jackson’s Las Vegas auction in Las Vegas, NV, on October 14, 2016. https://www.sportscarmarket.com/profile/1962-king-midget-model-3
Midget Motors Corp.. Athens, Ohio
Yes, that’s her full name. She recently spent a weekend with Annyth and me, well, she and her mom, one of Annyth’s oldest and dearest friends, whom I’ll refer to as J. J told us that she only uses Kira’s full name when there’s some sort of lesson to be learned after the fact. I never heard that. I did hear “Kira Jane” a lot while they were interacting. See what Rumi has to say about Love Dogs!
(Click on image to enlarge and see Kira Jane’s eyes.)
Technical: I drew this on my iPad Pro free hand with an Apple Pencil using my go-to app, Sketch Club, followed by a tweak or two in iColorama. See Sketch Club stats:
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Other dog posts on this illustroblog.
Here’s a really quick progress video:
…there was this guy up in the air.
back a few rows
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A buddy of mine got me thinking about Sand Hill Cranes here in Ohio. So, while Annyth gets her hair cut, I had time to play around…over a Great Lakes Conway’s Irish Ale
Freehand iPad drawing in Sketch Club with an Apple Pencil and a tweak of iColorama (click to enlarge)
