A sketching touchstone is a subject that I return to over and over again.

And the Pt. Arena Lighthouse certainly deserves the title.

I have sketched this beautiful lighthouse several other times, but from different angles.

Point Arena is a special place because it is the closest part of the United States to Hawaii. It is the furthest west you can get in the Lower 48.

I drove out to the lighthouse and pulled over at a dirt lot and started to sketch the scene before me.

I was a bit far off from previous sketches but I like the way the power poles and lines leads the eye to the lighthouse in the distance.

My constant companion during the sketch was the world’s largest songbird: the common raven. The corvid was finishing up a meal on a fence post.

The raven then proceeded to give a post-repast repertoire of its gronks, groans, and bill-slapping. It was hard to take my eyes off the entrainment as I was sketching the lighthouse. I added the raven to the closest power pole.