In the first semester of my freshman year in high school, my family lived in Sønderborg, Denmark. We visited Eggeskov Castle on one of our trips within the country and I thought it would be fun to try to draw it.

Can you find Waldo in this photo? Yes, that’s me with my sisters Celeste and Emily in that order. Before I tracked this photo down, I had already picked a reference photo taken from a surprisingly similar spot.

I hadn’t drawn anything since my early 20s, but I made a decision to try some right-brained pursuits because, well, databases, programming, and finance don’t make for the liveliest dinner conversations. I also had never drawn much in ink before, so this was a fairly new experience for me. I drew this entirely with a 0.01 mm pen (yes they make those and it is 1/3 the width of a micro gel pen) and it’s possible to write smaller than 1 pt font with it. Best pen ever.

I admit I almost gave up after finishing the first wall on the left, but I stuck it out and I’m glad I did. It took about 20 hours to complete. I framed the finished drawing and gave it to my Dad on his 76th birthday.