Rumors from Anselm-istan

steampunk gal

2012-01-03T10:06:00.000-08:00

for fun! developed from a sketch i did from a steampunk cosutme workshop last year. overall pretty happy, though there are bits i wish i had handled differently. still, good start for the new year!

planes, trains, and...more trains...and coffee shops...and laundromats...

2011-12-31T13:20:00.000-08:00

Last few months i've been pretty diligent drawing from life at every opportunity. I usually get these chances when I've escaped from my ~~dungeon~~ apartment to run some errand or some such thing, and find myself on MUNI. Since everyone else is idly fondling their various smart phones or E-readers, I get out my sketchbook so that I also have something to do with my hands. These pages are mostly from these little trips, with a couple other random things thrown in.

Many artists keep a much more organized and carefully composed sketchbook, and thus their works are much more presentable...I am not one of them, sad to say! I have drawings facing every which way, not necessarily relating to anything else on the page. One thing I have been trying to do though, is to pick out smaller compositions and fill out any blank space. Makes for an interesting if sometimes hard to decipher overall impression.

Happy New Year! Health, Happiness, and Good Fortune to all in 2012!

steampunk gent

2011-12-23T16:39:00.001-08:00

for fun, finally getting around to painting some stuff from the steampunk costume workshop some time ago! here's the first. more to come (if they don't completely suck).

new(ish) figure drawings

2011-12-11T17:32:00.001-08:00

these are from the workshop at the mission cultural center. great models always! not without flaws, but overall i'm happy with them.

jenny

terry whom i've drawn since my art school days.

chris who has such a sculpted physique, he is a walking
anatomy lesson. i've also drawn him many times.

interesting model - very pale hair and
eyebrows...interesting face.

this one i did some time ago at the gallery girls costume workshop..although i had a pretty good night, i felt a little hobbled by the drawing tool i had on hand. lately i have been keen on the lyra water soluble 9B graphite stick for my drawing needs. they are thick and soft so a great range of value can be easily reached, and large areas of paper are easily covered. similar to charcoal really, but less brittle. anyhow, on the eve of this workshop, i ran to the store and grabbed what i thought was just that. however, it turns out what i grabbed a 'normal' 9B graphite, which was significantly harder. as a result, i didn't had to work much harder to get the value i was expecting, and my drawings turned out less than i had hoped for. still, they are decent studies, and i have been working a couple of these into paintings. i will post them later when i'm done and if they don't suck.

slow loris

2011-11-25T14:29:00.001-08:00

for a friend...so i guess one could now say it's in a private collection, heh heh!

Fontana di Trevi

2011-11-24T10:11:00.001-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all!
A small 4"x5" study. Probably the first of a few.

albino dwarf

2011-11-19T20:14:00.001-08:00

a sketch of an idea a friend of mine had: an albino dwarf (hence the red eyes). probably his arms might be more muscular and hands larger, but oh well..there were other aspects to this character that i didn't really address...perhaps at a later date.

halloweenie

2011-11-01T18:09:00.000-07:00

the remainder of this year's halloween sketches...didn't get to quite as many as i'd hoped, but there you have it. i was lame this year - no costume at all...we went to see the rocky horror picture show on the saturday before halloween, and it totally didn't occur to me that that actually might be the night where people go out and dress up and have fun. as a result, we were the only weenies at the movie not wearing any sort of costume at all. oops...

from last year

2011-10-18T19:48:00.000-07:00

Must have forgotten to post last time...quite happy with the way this turned out...has a sort of 70s horror film feel to it, somehow...not that I've seen many on which to base my conclusion...

halloween approacheth

2011-10-18T19:44:00.000-07:00

good excuse to do stuff for the hell of it...looks to me like he has just said 'cha'...

fleet week

2011-10-08T19:44:00.001-07:00

this (USS Bonhomme Richard) was an intimidating amount of detail and proportion to tackle..whew!

V22 osprey parked at the front of the ship...never seen one for real until today.

sailors waiting for the MUNI train...

Other

2011-07-04T17:09:00.000-07:00

My dear father in law doing the crossword puzzle, plus more impressions from a train...this time going to the Neuburger Schlossfest, which is basically a renaissance fair except in a real castle! A beautiful castle, and a lot of fun. It seemed a good 75% were in costume, and the costumes seemed pretty consistent to the time period, as was the food to some extent (so i understood). I had no time to sit down and sketch, but i took a ton of photos of costumes and such...will do studies from them some time. A pity we missed the tournament of knights...

A kind of imposing looking fellow I saw above a video surveillance store. Probably some bishop or something:

Between Munich and Augsburg

2011-07-04T17:08:00.000-07:00

As my sister and her family and other friends live in Munich, we do much shuttling between the two cities. My impressions looking out the train window...an interesting exercise:

Another view from the train (the three young people in front were so annoying); looking up towards the Theatinerkirche in Munich as we took cover from a sudden downpour at an outdoor cafe; some chocolate cake, and my niece's impression of her aunt and uncle (my wife and I);

Princess Kate!

And the contribution from the nephew (who has soccer on the brain): Allianz Arena, where FC Bayern Munich and TSV Munich 1860 play:

Cafe Puck in Munich, where we always seem to end up, and where I always wonder where my friend Julia (who created the logo) has gotten to..

Augsburg

2011-07-04T17:05:00.000-07:00

In the living room, with the knitting obsessed wife:

My dear mother in law..I'm always a little hesitant to draw people i love and care for, for fear of offending with a bad likeness. Except for my friends..they are not safe from me! This wasn't too bad though i think:

A lovely coffee shop in Augsburg. It seems to have been remodeled from an old theater perhaps:

Ah...the Damenhof was an oasis of cool in the blistering heat! I think I might have accidentally left a stray pen mark on their impeccable white linens, though...oops! It's water soluble ink though!

Amsterdam pt 3

2011-07-03T11:05:00.002-07:00

Our last day in Amsterdam was spent just roaming the streets, mostly in the Jordaan. Sigh! Really nothing better! It was, however, a little odd to see so many trash bags left strewn about the otherwise clean streets there that day. We assumed they were waiting for a particular trash pick up time?

Damn good apple cake! Mmmmm....

Amsterdam pt 2

2011-07-03T11:05:00.001-07:00

Between fighting jet lag and dealing with extremely variable weather in Amsterdam, we did a lot of dodging into cafes. Here's one in the Spui area:

...and the view from one we visited shortly before hitting the Rembrandthuis (also extremely cool!). Pictured is the Rembrandthuis itself.

Haarlem

2011-07-03T11:05:00.000-07:00

Before our trip, we'd been watching a DVD lecture on Dutch art and were inspired to visit the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, which is about 30 minutes west of Amsterdam. Really glad we did. Haarlem was just charming, and Hals' work is just jaw dropping. Highly, highly recommended!

From our vantage points from a couple different cafes on the same square (Grote Markt):

An amusing anecdote: we were walking outside another church near this main square when we heard muffled but clearly tortured screams..Mind you, this was Sunday just after mass...turns out it was this video installation in a nearby museum. Extremely cool! Nothing like a little Sunday afternoon black metal!

We decided to make our way back to the train station to head back to A'dam when lo and behold, we spotted an honest to goodness turning windmill in the distance! Had to take a look. And of course, once there i had to do a quick sketch:

Really pretty inaccurate and bad, but i was falling asleep and not making good decisions. That's my excuse anyways.

Amsterdam pt 1

2011-07-03T11:04:00.000-07:00

Just returned from 3 weeks in Europe - about a week in and around Amsterdam and the remaining time around Munich with family. Unlike previous trips, I managed to get in a good deal of sketching this time somehow. My first sketch of my pristine new sketchbook:

It was more ambitious than I had planned, considering jetlag and all. Really doesn't look a whole lot like the Westerkerk what with all the stray marks (wasn't at my best). Plus a van pulled up in the middle of my scene, messing up the lighting i'd been trying to get. But overall the image turned out better than i expected.

From our second day at De Doffer:

Really rich food!

for the hell of it

2011-06-07T17:41:00.000-07:00

based off a workshop sketch some time back...not the heaviest paper unfortunately..

for the nephew

2011-06-07T17:36:00.000-07:00

meh, not the greatest thing in the world...looking at it again, couple of places i ought to fix. later!

Tübingen

2011-06-07T17:34:00.000-07:00

thinking of my cousin...

my friends

2011-05-14T15:45:00.000-07:00

eric and brian. great chaps both!

cute

2011-05-14T15:41:00.000-07:00

and what i did to counter its ill effects...

i remember seeing a painting by goya "saturn devours his children" when i was a child, and remember it being intense and pretty terrifying..in doing this i was remembering that painting.

book cover

2011-04-04T19:14:00.000-07:00

i recently did a the front and back book cover for an aspiring author. fun images to make; i am pretty happy with the result. haven't read the story, but it sounds like an entertaining fantasy read. check it out:

http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/verlorn/15218611?productTrackingContext=search_results/search_shelf/center/2

this is apparently available in paperback or as an e-book. best of luck to erik!

Theatinerkirche

2011-02-02T12:27:00.000-08:00

another recent painting that i am pretty pleased about. a couple of non-ideal bits, but dammit, buildings are hard! watercolor/gouache, a smidgeon of colored pencil.

some figure drawing

2011-01-29T15:41:00.000-08:00

from a couple of weeks back. excellent model, not bad drawing night! i used a 9B slab of graphite, which reminds me, i ought to spray-fix that soon...the painting i did at home based on one of the quick poses..i like how it came out, though i fussed over the face too much which was in shadow anyways. meh..live and learn...

a study

2011-01-29T15:06:00.000-08:00

i've been working wet into wet and transparent, using both watercolor and gouache lately...lots of failures, but i was happy with this one...

heads

2010-11-03T08:11:00.000-07:00

more cheerful subject matter..

halloweens past

2010-10-17T15:04:00.000-07:00

my work space

2010-10-04T20:27:00.000-07:00

amazing anything gets done in this mess...

a couple sketches

2010-09-14T20:03:00.000-07:00

from a recent trip to portland.

it rained the whole time..

from a while back...

2010-09-12T16:31:00.000-07:00

this started off as an abstract thumbnail..

some recent figure drawings

2010-09-12T15:02:00.000-07:00

long time no graphite!

lately i've been really enjoying using a big fat 6B water soluble graphite stick for my figure drawings, though i haven't much explored the water soluble aspect of things yet. the first sketch was a 5, whereas the remainder were 20 minutes i believe. great models!

for laffs

2010-07-02T16:07:00.000-07:00

a couple studies of things i'm working on for fun. both are ideas from drink and draws past.

midsummer night pt. 3

2010-06-20T17:14:00.000-07:00

i think i will probably paint a few of these
at some point!

midsummer night pt. 2

2010-06-20T17:11:00.000-07:00

a midsummer night's dream costume workshop

2010-06-20T17:05:00.000-07:00

had another fun night.
lots of faeries and such.

germany 2010

2010-05-10T21:10:00.001-07:00

just a couple of sketches from the german portion of our trip. the armor is from the bavarian national museum (i can never resist armor!) and the fence above it was contributed by my talented nephew lorenz. the bus and city scene are in augsburg; and the guy is just some talking head on a german news show.

italy 2010

2010-05-10T20:55:00.000-07:00

had a nice three week trip to italy and germany a couple months ago (www.flickr.com/photos/15991552@N00/sets/72157623632449465/). it was our first time in rome and venice, and i knew there would be sooooo much to see and limited time to sketch, so i made the conscious decision to do only small sketches so we could keep moving. i think most of these are in the 5-10 minute range. this turned out to be good for the additional reason that it was friggin' cold!

more sketchbook

2010-05-10T18:52:00.001-07:00

connecticut yankee, zombie parakeet, and an exploration of a fictitious cityscape.

..older stuff

2010-05-10T18:40:00.001-07:00

these are reworked and improved (i think) from previous illustrations.

...and more

2010-05-10T18:18:00.000-07:00

sketch done from outside the san francisco brewing company...the reason "tosca" cafe is backwards is because i drew it reflected in glass; a sketch of the barkeep; and a couple of no doubt beer induced sketches.

more stuff

2010-05-10T18:15:00.001-07:00

these are actually from our previous trip to germany/czech republic, some sketches of which i posted earlier.

bits and pieces from the sketchbook

2010-05-10T18:09:00.000-07:00

these are from a couple different trips to the california academy of sciences. always interesting stuff to draw there. the t-rex skeleton was reeeeally intimidating to sketch what with the distortion and vertebrae and such.

germany and prague

2009-10-09T15:42:00.000-07:00

some sketches from our recent trip to germany and the czech republic. as is always the problem for me when travelling to germany where my inlaws and sister live, the purpose of travel is to spend time with them, and though there is so much cool stuff to see and sketch, i rarely get the chance. it's only quick little scribbles that i manage to pull off when we're sitting in a cafe or something like that. i always say one day i will travel somewhere specifically to sketch, but i just don't know if that will ever come to pass. one can either experience things or sit there and record them in the sketchbook - i find it hard to do both or to find a good balance between the two. at any rate, i've been revisiting some of the scribbles that i hope to turn into at least color studies (partly from photos) more of which i will hopefully post in the future.

more studies

2009-08-25T18:54:00.000-07:00

these are in arcrylic which i've been trying to get a better feel for. i think these were about 30 minutes each.

watercolors again

2009-08-25T18:50:00.000-07:00

although it has many obvious problems, i kind liked this for some reason. from a photo we took in tainan earlier this year. as with those in the previous post, this was around 30 minutes.

watercolor

2009-08-19T17:38:00.001-07:00

is a harsh mistress.

back to workshop

2009-02-22T16:12:00.000-08:00

it's been a while, but i've had some more time so i'm back to hitting workshops as much as i can. this is the first in i don't remember how many months! all things considered, it went pretty well. tried using limited palette watercolors this time. i mean i guess technically these are still gouache, though they are much less opaque than the gouache i usually use.

my favorite local coffee shop - the greenhouse.

2008-11-24T16:48:00.000-08:00

they serve good coffee and the employees are all great.

..and yet more drink and draw stuff

2008-11-24T16:44:00.001-08:00

and assorted randomness...

another workshop from a couple months ago

2008-11-24T16:11:00.001-08:00

the theme here was "carnival freaks"...

some workshop studies

2008-08-31T18:36:00.000-07:00

ranging from 2 minutes to 20. some more recent, some less so.

some more successful, some less so...:(

yet more stuff!

2008-06-29T10:42:00.001-07:00

a flurry of posts this month...here are some gouache studies i did the other day at workshop. these are i think either 10 or 15 minute poses (i usually try not to think too much about that and just work as fast as possible!).

a few months back i started using holbein acryla gouache instead of windsor newton. with windsor newton i'd always worked opaque, laying lights over darks. i've had less success with this approach with the acrylas...so finally after a lot of complete failures at the workshop i broke down and tried to approach the as purely water color. still have some brush/color control issues to pay attention to, but it seems to have worked better. boy was it a struggle though!

Another workshop, and more silliness

2008-06-27T09:25:00.000-07:00

So here we are at the end of June?! What happened to those other 5 months? There was recently another clothed figure workshop in lovely old victorian; this time with an Egyptian theme. Per usual I was very psyched to go. Unfortunately I didn't have a very good time of it. Maybe it was more crowded this time with more people moving around causing distraction or something, but I was just not on. My drawings were mostly wishy washy. However, here are a few that I managed to fix up somewhat afterwards. Also something from the latest drink and draw...started off as random shapes and somehow turned into this crabby looking thing. Kind of fun I guess. Though looking at it again, I could probably stand to add some indication of his other legs.

drawing workshop

2008-01-29T21:40:00.000-08:00

the group from LA that puts on these really great costume workshops was back in town again last week. i hadn't done any figure drawing since last september (!), and i was really keen on going again...costumes were good, though not quite as good as the previous session. lots of big honkin' swords though! had a great time nonetheless. i was mostly pleased with my drawings. there were a couple that i REALLY fought with but i think i managed to rescue them from complete failure (i've posted one of them - you can probably figure out which one!). the dude with the sword raised overhead was really a character.

bordello of blood5

2007-09-23T14:47:00.001-07:00

bordello of blood4

2007-09-23T14:46:00.001-07:00

bordello of blood3

2007-09-23T14:45:00.001-07:00

bordello of blood2

2007-09-23T14:44:00.001-07:00

bordello of blood!!

2007-09-23T14:32:00.000-07:00

last night was another "hades in SF" costume drawing night, this time with the theme of "dracula and his women", once again taking place in an amazing victorian mansion. as last time, the models were great, the costumes were great, the music was great; overall had a fun time and a couple of decent drawings to boot. i had specially brought a red marker for the anticipated blood and was not disappointed! looking forward to the next one!

more studies

2007-09-20T13:58:00.000-07:00

didn't i say a while back i was going to paint more? shrug...drawing just requires less set up i guess. plus i was enjoying drawing these costumes too much. it was also good rendering practice for me. i'm sometimes accused of being too loose, which is true. probably comes down to laziness on my part. here are but a few of the latest studies...

goth

2007-09-02T13:01:00.001-07:00

occasionally i find interesting costumes in fashion's magazines and sketch them out..here are a couple i did last night. kinda freaky looking in a gene simmons sort of way i guess.

more from drink 'n' draw

2007-09-02T12:58:00.000-07:00

old (the outpost) and new (critters) from last week...we were all in a weird mood last time..as you can maybe see.

inspired by murnau's faust

2007-08-20T21:01:00.000-07:00

this is just a further exploration of a previous drink and draw sketch from a while back. i had been inspired by a scene from the silent film "faust" by f.w. murnau where the devil appears looming over a village, wings outstretched, vapor whipping by, but with otherwise no other action. very arresting indeed! so simple but so bleak and so chilling. anyhow, i think i might eventually paint this fer reals.

...and more robots...

2007-08-18T16:52:00.001-07:00

getting closer and the final design. it was also cool to see it rendered (pretty faithfully) and animated in 3D in the end. glad they decided to tone down the colors in the end

some robot designs

2007-08-18T16:47:00.001-07:00

i did these a while back for earthlink (which explains the screaming colors). this was a lot of fun. here are the earlier submissions...

more studies

2007-07-27T15:41:00.000-07:00

didn't have drink and draw this week, so i've continued with my studies.

these are based on photos we took during a really beautiful hike in the sunol wilderness, just east of fremont. in addition to being a nice hike, this hike is memorable also because we came across and were half-chased by an agressive cow. nearest we could figure, it didn't like D's orange jacket.

getting a better feel for my paints this time around though i haven't quite figured out what to do about the whites - they are much less opaque than what i'm used to. this means i have had to reserve the whites like in watercolors. i'm overall pretty satisfied with these two - it wasn't quite as big a struggle as the previous few. however, i hate the clouds on both of these - probably ought to use a different brush.

drunk and drawn sf pt 2

2007-07-18T14:06:00.000-07:00

so as i mentioned before, the dudes at the next table were really pretty annoying. after a while, it broke up and we were blessed with the normal low-level buzz of the bar. it didn't last long, as the loud mouth of the group popped up outta nowhere and decided to join us at our table. he was pretty drunk and obnoxious but seemed determined to be our best friend...i guess...he just didn't get our sometimes not-so-subtle hints that he was not welcome. him and his little friend (see drawing) who joined a little later. they claimed to be regulars at the bar, but we had never seen them before. now that i think of it, there was even a third weird guy who showed up asking to card us. huh? we're supposed to find that funny?

anyhow, despite our relative unfriendliness, the little one insisted he'd see us again. gulp! maybe we'll have to move our base of operations next week...

i suppose my little story is a bit mean, but "super douche" (did i even spell that right?) were his own words describing himself. honest!

drunk and drawn sf

2007-07-18T14:01:00.000-07:00

latest edition...started off a little annoying because the next table was loud and obnoxious. D was telling us about some library patron who left a note on the door which read (among other things): "invisible edgar eats people". the drawing isn't all that great - horrible composition...i just kind of jotted down my first thoughts. still, i found the idea kind of intriguing.

some studies

2007-07-18T13:51:00.000-07:00

been working on some gouache studies last few days. these are about 45 minutes each. they don't completely suck, but they are far from where i want to be. this new brand i'm using seems less opaque than what i used to use, and the color mixing also is a little different so i've been struggling a little with that.

the dude on the moped in the alley is from a really cool photo i found on the BBC once (this study does the photo no justice); the other two cityscapes are from regensburg germany; and the mountain is from castle craggs state park.

not strictly from drink and draw

2007-07-15T19:40:00.001-07:00

...but i suppose the kernel of the idea came from there. and developed into this sort of flying craft. thought it was an interesting shape. might put it in a scene at some point..

come sketches of a coffee shop over time

2007-07-15T19:35:00.000-07:00

there's a coffee shop i go to every now and then that i've drawn often. it's grungy and cramped but full of character. i've drawn it so many times. here's the latest as well as an earlier one from a similar angle.

from the previous drink and draw

2007-07-15T19:32:00.000-07:00

i wasn't feeling particularly imaginative that night, so i resorted to drawing the always interesting and challenging hanging motorcycles. bikes and motorcycles are such complicated shapes i find.

from friday

2007-07-08T11:32:00.000-07:00

i've decided (as i have before in the past) that in my time off i need to paint more using real paint. i'm trying a different brand of gouache (holbein acryla) than i usually do (windsor newton) and also trying to work more transparent, so definitely signs of struggle here above and beyond normal challenges of figure drawing. these are two, five, and ten minute poses i think. somehow never managed to get to the model's face...hmmm...

as with most life sketches i do

2007-07-08T11:18:00.000-07:00

there are some things i like about these two (from a few months back), but some things that i don't and in retrospect i wanna kick myself for not having seen it/thought things through. in this first one i like that i was able to get the model's face in a few strokes. on the other hand, that back leg...ugh...also she had this beautiful bright red orange hair (see second image) but worked too dark here. and above all, in both these paintings i don' t really make good use of the toned paper, and in not taking advantage of this they ended up being in many places overworked. these are both 20 minute sketches.

Boddington's Brewery Gnome

2007-07-03T09:07:00.000-07:00

in front of city hall

2007-06-30T17:52:00.001-07:00

a quick one i did last week while i waited for my wife to take a chinese test. sunny but really windy that day.

some older stuff

2007-06-30T17:38:00.000-07:00

some paintings from workshop. i don't do enough painting at workshop - usually it comes down to me being too lazy to pack up all my gear. this is bad, as my results are hit and miss. these however, are ones that i like. the poses were anywhere from 2 to 20 minutes. i tend to do better with the shorter poses. 20 minutes gives me too much time to make bad decisions!

the digital one is of me dad. i think it might have even been my first life drawing from my laptop.

more from drink and draw SF

2007-06-26T11:03:00.000-07:00

couple from last week and those from last night. some bizarre ones this time around fer sure!

the least worst of

2007-06-25T10:35:00.000-07:00

a drawing workshop i went to this weekend. it was really neat - it was in an amazing victorian mansion in the middle of town, complete with apparently period furniture; the models were great (great costumes and generally pretty darn good looking!) there was food, wine, period music as well.

unfortunately, i was somehow just not on my game that night drawing-wise. first, i haven't done any clothed figure in a long time; secondly, there was just too much cool stuff to look at. finally, it also didn't help that the poses were not strictly timed. they were generally 20-25 minutes, but basically models would just kind of come and go whenever and if you had just moved from one location to the next you wouldn't necessarily know how much time was left. excuses, excuses...

anyhow, i went in afterwards to try and make things a little prettier, but i'm not sure if i succeeded.

Pixie

2007-06-21T13:22:00.000-07:00

Not a very nice one to be sure.

macbeth

2007-06-21T13:17:00.001-07:00

Another from Drink and Draw...althoug i like the face and the idea, this turned out way more lame than i had envisioned. In fact i don't even know why i'm posting it. I'm sure it was because the beer clouded my judgement..

First Post

2007-06-21T13:02:00.000-07:00

SO I decided to start this so i can post some of my artwork for friends and others to see and comment on. Er...that's about it - no other deep messages or wisdom to impart! Here's a few things i've done over the last few weeks at our local Drink and Draw with Mr. Schenck, Mr. Edenfield, Mr. Joyner, and my better half, Mrs. Yew. This first one is actually me revisiting an unsuccessful painting i did a while back. I may go back and try again at some point