Rachel reading

I sketched my good friend and co-worker Rachel while she read on our break today. This is in the moleskin. At first I just used a hi-tec C pen (sepia, which turns purple-ish when wet), but tonight I added some acrylic to it. I think I liked it better before the paint, but what are you going to do? That's why this is a sketchbook and not a final illo.

Rachel is an excellent graphic designer, a devout yogi, a generous carpooler, and one of the wisest people I have ever met. I'm very lucky to be 3 feet from her 9 hours a day.

Easles

I am taking an oil painting class at UCLA this fall. My college instructor was an excellent painter and taught me what a good painting is supposed to look like, but he failed to teach me the mechanics of oil painting. One summer he handed me some old brushes and oil paints and said "go." I would slap thick paint down on the canvas and never work on them after one session because I didn't really know what to do. After one quick "sylabus day" I learned about 8 things I have been doing wrong with oil paints so far.

I sketched this view of some easels with an HB pencil in my trusty moleskin.

White Castle mug

My faithful White Castle mug. This mug does several things for me in the morning. First and foremost, it provides me with caffeine that perks me up and makes the morning tolerable (I am a night owl - mornings are rough for me). Second, it allows me a chance to not waste a paper cup when I have said caffeine, thus making my day a bit greener. And finally, it reminds me of my old stomping grounds, Louisville, Ky, where the White Castle on the corner of Chenoweth Lane and Shelbyville Road held so many fond memories of tiny hamburgers and Big Red sodas. That White Castle is no longer with us.... *tear

This is done with a regular old "Pen-I-use-at-work" with the "Lick-Your-FInger-and-Smear-the-ink-around" technique. Patent pending.

Blue Moon

What's this? 2 posts in one night?

Here is the glorious Blue Moon, the 2nd in my series of beer paintings... yeah, I know, it took a while to take off. Patience, grasshoppers. I have a lot of delicious beers in my fridge that I need to paint before i can drink - how's that for incentive? I even started a new blog just for this project because I am so excited about it!

I'm back!

Finally, I got back to my sketchbook. It's easy to get out of the habit. Here is a sketch of David sitting at my computer loading up his Shuffle with some new rockin' music. I sure do love that .25 hi-tec C....

And that chic hanging out at the top is a woman waiting in line at Starbucks yesterday.

Dave Brubeck

I saw Dave Brubeck, jazz pianist extraordinaire, at the Hollywood Bowl last week. It was fantastic. He's this cute little old man who sits down at the piano with his cute little old men quartet friends and they ROCK OUT like they're 20. It was so fun to watch them play.

It's too F*ing hot in Los Angeles to be inside without air conditioning - my apartment is currently 85 degrees inside. Hence, no beer painting yet.

Fishing

This is from a photograph I snapped while in Silver Bay. When I was younger, my brother and I used to fish off this same dock. The dock holds the "Silver Spray," a boat that takes visitors on an intimate guided tour around Lake George.

I tried out these new artist pens I got recently - Faber-Castell PITT artist pen; the landscape set. Only 6 colors. Pretty fun to work with - towards the end I was getting a bit more confident with my mark making. My next attempt will hopefully be a bit better.

More in the beer series to come soon - Hope to do one tomorrow night.

lotion

I have been a slacker lately. The project I referred to below came to fruition in full force resulting in some very focused art-making and very little sleep. Once I was finished recovering from that, i went on a fabulous vacation to Silver Bay. While on vacation, I found myself moving about a lot and did not have much time for drawing. I took lots of photos that I plan to work from in the future, but I sadly did no drawing from life. Since my return, I have been playing catch-up on sleep, e-mails, laundry, and all the other joys of life. This is a quick sketch I did one afternoon of my favorite lotion from the Body Shop.

Speaking of the super secret project, I have been asked not to show the artwork until the end of September, so all of my faithful readers will have to be patient. It turned out pretty cool (despite the fact that I spilled neon green ink ALL OVER IT at midnight the night before it was due). I can't wait to share it with you all.

New postcards featuring the Fertility piece are going in the mail tomorrow. If you aren't already on my mailing list and would like to be, e-mail me with your snail mail address and I'll add you.

In Progress:

Here is a preliminary sketch/study for the project I'm working on. Is it obvious I had a Botticelli book open on my desk while I did this?

I'll be re-drawing and adding a lot to this drawing before it's finished and ready to transfer to board. Stay tuned.

Newcastle

* update 8.3.07 - replaced photo with scan *

A small, quick, oil painting of a delicious beer. I had an oil paint-filled summer in 2002, but I didn't have the patience for it, so I quickly gave up. Now, 5 years later, I am starting slowly (and small) and will figure things out as I go. It's great fun! Of course, it sort of sucks not being able to scan it right away - this is just a crappy snapshot.

This is the first in a series of beer paintings which will be for sale. This one is not, however - I am trading it for the delicious cupcakes painted by Ms. Sarah Fox. I just got a really cool assignment that will keep me busy up until early next week, so the beer series will continue after that. If you have any requests, let me know and I'll make it happen!