Off to Seattle

Later, mans. Catch you bayside next week.

Dr. Sketchy's: ONE

I can't believe it's been over a year since I attended a figure drawing session. My figure drawing skills right now are... well, you know how when you sit with your leg tucked under you for a really long time and then you get up and try to walk and your knee is killing you and your leg is all limp and disobedient and generally just completely lame? Exactly like that. It's painful and wierd and cringe-inducing but it feels great and it's good for me. I just need to keep it up.

These drawings are from two different sessions done at Dr. Sketchy's, a monthly burlesque-themed figure drawing event held at a gallery downtown. I need to find another local figure drawing session so I can start going weekly again. Spoiler alert: Proportional issues!


It's worth noting that I arrived late to the first session and had to sit way in the back where I couldn't see the model's legs below the knees. Rather than fake the rest of the drawings, I just didn't draw her whole legs. I only drew what I could observe. Just so's you know.

Above: My figure drawing sessions have men in drag playing live jazz versions of movie and video game themes. Don't everybody's?

Below: Yeah, that was cropped. You don't want to see the rest. But I like the portion I showed.

Remembering Alamo

Here are some of last week's sketchbook pages. The paint sketch below was done in 3 sittings over the past month. I painted a brown base and sketched over it with a pen in the first sitting but soggy weather forced me to come back a couple weeks later to fill in the darks with sumi ink and lay down some basic colors. I finally polished it off last week. I stopped myself from taking it further because it was supposed to be a paint sketch, not a painting.

Above: Evening in Alamo Square. Pilot Hi-Tec pen, Sumi ink, gouache, watercolor.

Below: Sunday at Arlequin in that gorgeous garden they have out back. Triplus Fineliner pen, Tombow markers.

Above: The paper in the sketchbook is really water resistant and doesn't favor washes at all. Occasionally I'm able to get some cool effects from it though. I almost didn't throw a wash over the motorcycle but it actually came out alright. Thanks, fountain pen! On the left page, you can see the bleed through from the car on the page below.

Below: I painted the highlights on the car with gouache and then scratched most of it off with my house key and left only the brightest highlights full white.

It seems like only last month that I abandoned my reliable old brown sketchbook and started this book and here it is, almost filled already! It's definitely been an exercise in patience. I've had to fight the paper this entire way and while it yielded interesting results, I'm going to have to opt for something more textured and water-friendly next time. Something that doesn't discriminate against mixed media. I'm thinking watercolor Moleskin.

O Valencia!

I underestimated how much work I've done the past couple weeks that I wanted to post.

I'd like to do more color sketches as long as the weather holds up. I should probably invest in an actual paintbrush (I've been using a gnarly old water brushpen) and a real gouache set (I'm using a $6 kids' set). I can't get a full range of values and the colors aren't as vivid as they should be although I'm extremely surprised I've been able to make the paints do what I've been doing with them. Six bucks well spent!

I took an unexpected detour this weekend through the Mission District on my way to the beach... not quite sure how that happened. Never made it to the beach either.

Above: A condemned house across the street from Cafe Cole, in Haight-Ashbury.