I grew up on Nantucket Island, 30 miles off the coast of Massachusetts. The island definitely has an aesthetic, from its weathered cedar-clad homes to its decades-long fascination with pink pants for men (It’s salmon, dammit!). There are certain other visual icons that are associated with the island too…whales, nautical flags, daffodils, scallops and lobsters are among the most common.

I’ve tried a couple times to draw inspiration (literally and figuratively) from my childhood on the island but all the projects have been left in the shallows, unfinished…until now.

I’ve been playing with drawings that bring together watercolor and graphite/charcoal in combination. I don’t see the two used together often and I liked the idea of loosely colorizing portions of tighter, black and white realism drawings. I thought a lobster would be perfect for this. It’s visually complex with both a smooth and textured body, protruding spines and hairy fringe. It’s also equally interesting in color and black and white.

I tried to talk myself out of it initially because frankly, it sounded hard. I’m so glad I didn’t back out. The Lobster has turned out to be one of my favorite pieces. Every minute was a joy to draw—and there were many of them. It took about 14 hours to complete the 11×14 piece. There simply isn’t a single boring inch on these animals.