“Bridging the Ohio” is a colored pencil drawing by local artist Nathan Klare. When it comes to creating his artwork, Nathan strives to create pieces that exhibit a great sense of realism. This process, apparent in each of his floral and animal drawings, is also very present in his drawings of architecture. This is especially true for this piece, “Bridging The Ohio” which depicts the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge. The majority of Nathan’s architectural drawings focus on personal residences that customers ask him to draw as a way to memorialize them. This sentiment of memorialization was the underlying intent in the creation of “Bridging the Ohio”.
Nathan received a request in 2022 from a friend to create this piece for her upcoming wedding. The idea was that the guests would sign the piece’s mat, instead of a traditional guest book. Nathan learned that the bridge bears great importance to his friend and her husband because his friend is from Kentucky, while her husband is from Ohio. In order to add more emphasis to the bridge itself, Nathan’s friend requested that the buildings in the background of the reference photo be omitted from the final drawing.
Nathan started this piece by using a pencil to roughly sketch out the majority of the composition, before adding large areas of base color using Prismacolor Colored Pencils – his standard medium. After establishing the initial layers of color, he then worked on adding more colors and details to start refining the overall drawing. The piece was very time intensive. However, Nathan says it was all worth it after he saw the look on his friend’s face when she saw the finished product. This piece now exists as a cherished memento of the couple’s wedding day.
The finished piece is 16in x 20in and Nathan worked on it on and off for about two months. Even though it wasn’t possible to render every single detail of the bridge, he worked hard to make the piece as realistic as possible. This dedication paid off as he is extremely happy with how it turned out. Over the past couple of years, he has participated in several local events selling his drawings, prints, and note cards featuring his works. The prints and note cards of “Bridging the Ohio” have been very well received.
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