Over the past three months I’ve made about a hundred-thirty pen and pencil drawings inspired by two public domain novels. Not much about these drawings is particularly new as far as approach or technique; the novelty is in the way they relate to the source material and in the heavy reliance on photography for visual reference.

The first book was published in 1851. Most of the shots of ships and sailors I drew from were made 1830-1850. It was the dawn of photography. I never tried to recreate these pictures, only to use the positions of people to objects correct, to catch some of what they wore, and, of course, which way the sun or moon lit the scene.

The second book is from 1922 so there are a lot more images to choose from. Having already made ninety drawings for the other book, I was conscious of not just repeating what I just did. That’s why I switched from ballpoint to pencil. It’s not night and day but there’s definitely a difference.

In all the books I made before, the pictures came first, before the words. Now Melville’s and Lewis’s stories were dictating what I drew. When I was studying art as a kid with set designer Alexander Okun, he used to try to make me illustrate books of my choosing. I fought him tooth and nail. I only wanted to draw things I made up rather than somebody else’s work.

Look at me now.

I need to make ten to twenty more pencil drawings for Babbitt before I’m done. I’ve got two more novels queued up to illuminate after, but I’ll probably take a bit of a break to let things settle. I need to make sense of what this latest frenzy of activity adds up to.

In the meantime, I’ve decided to sell all the new drawings for fifty bucks a pop. You can choose from Moby Dick or Babbitt or just get a couple postcards.

I wrote about a Kenneth Lonergan play for the Reader.