Projects > EARLY WORK

Ink drawing by Julie McNiel
Terminus
sumi ink, charcoal, on paper.
24 x 30"
1992

I spent many hours wandering the train yards of Emeryville and Oakland with a sketchbook, and camera with black and white film, in hand. Such wanderings would result in drawings like this one. I dipped my brush into ink and drew the lines, later filling in shapes with charcoal. Rarely were these drawings planned out prior to their execution. Years of figure drawing in art school had prepared me for this kind of memory-based intuitive drawing. Hours spent reading speculative fiction had their effect as well.

This drawing was a bit unusual for me, at the time, because it was relatively large and I had found and worked from a photo of an actual scorpion.