96 golf digest | issue 4. 2020
oops▶Even great players make mistakes.things get interesting. Now
the drawing invents its own
laws, and the challenge is to
find out where it wants to go.
I have to be brave and quick-
witted enough to abandon the
original plan if that’s what the
drawing demands.
I draw with colored
inks. I love the density and
versatility of the pigment.
I can create delicate lines
when I use a pointy quill or
a mad cloud of color when I
pick an inch-wide brush. I’ve
developed a decent skill with
the technique, but it remains
unpredictable. Especially
when I start adding water, the
ink starts behaving erratically,
derailing my composition or
jump-starting unexpected
beauty. The competition of
control and chance works best
when the drawings remain
fairly abstract. Ideally the
beauty of abstraction is what
you don’t show—readers have
to add their experience and
expectations into the art.
I often work with negative
space. Instead of drawing
an object, I fill in only the
surrounding parts. The viewer
essentially looks at a blank
piece of paper but ends up
projecting a vivid image that
can feel more convincing than
the most detailed rendering.
The most challenging
aspect of drawing with ink:
There is no Command-Z.
Every stroke is final. This
is nerve-wracking, but the
inherent tension of the process
creates an artistic urgency
that I don’t experience when
I work digitally. Often I start
with a number of confident
shapes and feel good about
myself. But then a fear sets
in—I don’t want to mess up
what I’ve done. The impulse is
to carefully carry the drawing