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.