a painterly approach to drawing

these are two sketches that i have been working on recently and that am looking forward to getting back to. i am trying to determine the range of tone that i want...basically whether or not i need a black.

new new new

i spent this weekend in new york visiting my friend nick who was showing as part of 'on the road of knives' with zak smith and shawn cheng. these are basically the only two pictures that i took as we were busy watching ufc clips on youtube. this one was added if only to make him look taller.
im Really excited about his new work and the potential to spend some time in the city working as well. nick was an excellent host, save for his misleading retelling of my border crossing nightmare.