t started because I was bored. That was in a

        magazine class at the University of South Carolina taught by William A. Emerson, a former editor of The Saturday Evening Post. John Gregory Dunne, one of his former writers, called Emerson a “Rabelaisian Southerner” who “liked to manipulate words to make them sound more impressive.” He would talk about drinking “Co-Cola” as a kid and pronounced naked as “nekkid” (referring to chickens).

     It’s hard to see how I could have been bored, but it’s appropriate that my start in drawing began in a magazine class, since I’ve intertwined the two for years, earning my living mostly with words while drawing and painting on the side.

     That first artwork was done in pen. Eventually I took up watercolors, then Photoshop in a misguided attempt to create a video résumé. That at least provided me a more forgiving tool than a pencil or paintbrush. I dabbled in illustration styles and eventually recognized the potential of a technique I call simulated pen-and-ink, which relies on many of the skills of observation I honed using more-traditional instruments.

     My first published pieces were pencil drawings in The Crisis magazine, where I was an editorial assistant. Then came watercolors for a friend’s blog about Frederick Douglass and, most recently, a series of portraits of chefs and doctors for New Jersey Monthly.