thought i had posted these...

...but i guess not.  from a couple of months ago...

Leuchtturm sketchbook

I had so much fun finishing this tiny 3"x5" sketchbook.  Ink brush and wash (water brush) with neon orange underdrawing.  Extremely portable, able to get a range of values, a good mix of drawing and painting....Interesting to see them en mass.  By and large I like how most of them turned out, but seeing them all together like this, I don't know that I necessarily achieved my goal of emphasizing value patterns over details...and I realized this as I was drawing too, but oh well.  I think it has something to do with how I construct my drawings, often using details as points of measurement.

 

TIme to make another trip to Flax, heh heh!

Benedict Cumberbatch

Great actor (especially in Sherlock!) with a really interesting face, which is why I decided to paint him just for fun and practice.  I used the cardboard back of a watercolor block, which is not ideal as a surface - it degrades quickly and absorbs water - but it was still usable.  Overall pretty happy with the result.  One of these days I'm going to have to think more carefully about rendering curly hair. hmmmm...

halloween post!

..gearing up anyways...this is based on a drawing i did some time ago at a costume workshop.

October challenge

Instigated by my wife, we have resolved to do a drawing or painting per day for the month of October, much like the popular "Inktober" drawing challenge one sees around the interwebs.  My other self-imposed condition will be that everything must be from life, and painting is preferrable over drawing.  And yes, yes, here we are, 6th day of the month, and here are only five (I started a day late):

Yupo!

I tried out Yupo paper the other day for the first time.  It is a super glossy paper that seems not to absorb water at all, adding even more unpredictability to watercolors (or gouache - gouache seems to hold a bit better), but with some interesting and unexpected results.  These aren't great, but I find them interesting:

2 minute gesture

20 minute pose

I was particularly surprised that my 20 minute poses were not a complete mess.  Because it takes so long to dry, you can keep pushing colors around.  Kind of intimidating, but interesting stuff.  Now that I have a pad of it, I may as well use it up!

building

Some more ink wash studies of construction equipment..

Stump Beach

A rare occasion where I managed to pause in our travels to actually paint on the spot!  As with sketches, the rule for me will be to work at much smaller size.  These were done after a beautiful hike in Salt Point State Park up in the Sonoma County coast.

The first turned out better than the second.  I think I'd lost my concentration by then, and also the sun was getting unbearably hot.

around town

SFAI

These are more sketches from my weekly excursions to the area area around the SF Art Institute  of late (North Beach essentially), done while waiting for my wife while she took a watercolor class.

The baked goods case of the Columbus Cafe:

Loading dock in the interior courtyard of the SFAI:

For these two below, I feel like I still ought to simplify and push the values further apart...hmmm...

Columbus Cafe again:

SFAI loading area stairs at night:

monument

...from a while back.  Market and Dolores.  It was sunny but really windy and, as I was sitting in the shadow of the swank new(ish) Whole Foods Market, my fingers went numb with cold.  Bad circulation I guess..

  

That which shall not be named...

..or Trump as Cthulhu...Inspired by a Facebook thread involving some clever friends of mine.  I had forgotten about it, but am glad I remembered in time for the first GOP debate.  Plus, can there ever be enough Cthulhu?  I think not!

Totems and such

I've been fascinated by all the high-rises going up around town.  This is some pile driving equipment on 8th and Brannon:

Actually, it's a little manipulated from the actual site - I've moved some elements around.  I like the image as an idea but not terribly pleased with how it came out.  Plus I screwed up on the sky..:(

More skeletons

...of pending high-rises, that is..

columbus cafe

My wife has been taking a watercolor class at SFAI wednesday nights.  Because the class starts at 6:30 and she only gets off work at 6, I pick her up from work, drive her across town while she wolfs down dinner in the car on the way.  Then while she is in class I hang out at this place, have a beer and read or draw...or in this case, paint. This was a complicated scene to take in, but turned out ok (the two dudes in the forground left before i started putting paint down).  Black and white gouache over a green and yellow pre-painted background.

Strangely, there were people intently watching the latest 'Sharknado' on TV here..

Hyundai and hazards of plein air

It had been so long since we'd had consistent sun (at least in my neighborhood) that I was totally unprepared for how warm it was on the other side of town.  I couldn't really put on my sunglasses as it altered the colors of the scene too much, so I was blinded by the the white of the page (which ironically made color mixing a little hard). And then I was unable to finish my second color sketch (not shown here) because I noticed how badly sunburned my arm was getting.  Ouch...

more black and white thumbnails

I've been really enjoying these, especially after getting better control over ink flow.  However, I know I musn't be too enamored with the end results - they are only exercises after all!

night sketches

This was hard: hands going numb from cold wind, couldn't see my own sketchbook.  Still, I plan to do more of these.

milk teeth

Yup, creeping myself out again.

This image kind of developed from an element of a commission I completed a couple months ago (will post it another time).  I thought it was the most interesting part of it and wanted to explore it a bit more.  At the same time, I have a vivid image of a child's skull with all its milk teeth present from an exhibition at the Academy of Sciences some years ago;  this nicely magnified my existing discomfort with and fear of dental procedures (I have one upcoming), and this is what has come out.

Sweet dreams!

more construction

This one really kicked my butt.  I'm fascinated by all the skeletal underpinnings of the new building, but it required a level of detail I found hard to get.  Looking at it now, I guess it still turned out ok after all.  All I can say is, thank goodness for gouache!

The bottom is a little curved only because the page in the sketchbook is...I have been too lazy to scan my sketches and have been just taking photos with my phone.

ink and water brush

Originally I had bought this tiny sketchbook with the intent of using it to jot down art notes to myself (you know, actual writing) but it is so portable that i couldn't resist turning it into a sort of book o' thumbnails.  I have been having much fun with it, using some chinese calligraphy ink and water brush with (as a happy accident) a neon orange stabilo for the underdrawing.

Here are a few:

I think, however i will need to fill another water brush with a more diluted mixture for my mid-tones..

SOMA construction plein air

San Francisco is undergoing a huge building surge all about the city, with new office towers and luxury apartments going up everywhere you look, which is what brought me out to this location at First and Mission.  I think this is going to be Salesforce Tower?

Turned out all right considering I didn't bring a pencil, which would have been nice for tightening details.  Instead, all I had was a day-glow orange Stabilo pen that I got for free last year.  It turns out to be a nice tool for the under-drawing.  Thankfully, with a bit of gray and white gouache I was able to get some harder edges.

As always, there are unexpected challenges painting on location.  In this case, the crane started moving about ten minutes after I started, before I had a chance to note exactly how the light was falling on it and before I could make out some of the detail around the claw and along the arm.  Oh well!

I also mostly resisted the urge to tweak things once I got home.  Mostly..

Squirrel!

Don't ask...

Still cold

The sun has started peeking in on us for the first time in a month (it has been uniformly gray) so I thought I'd go out and do some painting...The sun was certainly nice, but with the wind my fingers still went numb after a while.  Plus, after I roughed out the drawing, the tractor moved away so i had to kind of paint based on what i rememberd. That's what makes plein aire so exciting! Whee!!!

skull still life

Not actually a really skull - just one of them plastic models.  Complete with brain!  Although come to think of it, I'm not sure where the pieces of brain have gotten themselves to...hmmm...