“Dennis, you sound phoney!” I freshly recall dad’s complaint made decades ago.

For months, I’d been harvesting speech nuance from radio personalities whose confident delivery I admired. It must have been noticeable.

The bothersome complaint was not enough to quash the effort, but it did remind me of art school where instructors at the Community College made a big deal about calling off student attempts to corral themselves into a signature ‘style’ and they were right to do it. Too often, the so called ‘style’ gets in the way of the basic skills acquisition. I was diligent to avoid that trap.

Since I already knew English, an evolving style of elocution wasn’t going to be a problem beyond just annoying people, which I was willing to risk.

Now I’ve reached that same point with drawing. I’ve mastered fundamentals and want to hone the delivery. There are drawing styles that I want in my tool kit.

The first time that I noticed that it matters was a drawing on the protective cover of a hardback copy of Les Miserables in my fathers collection. The penciled image was rendered in such a way that I felt the power of it in my gut. I must see if he still has that book so I can track down more work by that illustrator.

The next time was at the art school where I fished a great piece out of a waste basket and still have it to admire. Two students sketched each other and at least one of them tossed theirs. Something about the sketch grabs me. It’s wonderful work!

Now and again I come across modern artists whose drawing style has an element of ‘cool’ that’s visceral. I want to be able to produce illustrations with that flavor, so I have been studying the ones I admire to own that nuance of expression.

In a sense, it’s a style. But my objective isn’t to stand out from the crowd or make a name, it’s to say what I want to say with calculated impact.

We know there is no substitute for sincerity or a foriegn accent, but when a story is being told, it sometimes requires actors and actresses. They aren’t the part they play, but they represent it’s reality. This venture is similar. Actors conform to the character so as to tell the story convincingly. With a pencil, I aim to do the same.