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...