Alls I Got

In all honesty, I haven't drawn much lately worth liking let alone posting. I've actually drawn very little, period, but here's a painted sketch I think I might like. Maybe you'll like it too. To clarify, the drawing isn't of Bean Bag Coffee House, it was done from Bean Bag Coffee House looking across the street.

I've been putting together an art book all summer and starting this month, I'll be capping off art production for the book and making publishing arrangements. Many of the sketches posted here on the blog will be in the book.

Moleskin 2.0

So begins my second Moleskin (we're not counting those couple pages in the watercolor one that I abandoned). Autumn is descending faster than I was prepared for and I'm realizing how limited my time is to get in some good plein air painting before the weather won't allow it. Expect more color sketches in the next post.


Above: I happened to catch the Richmond on a rare sunny day... the district is notorious for relentless fog.

Below: These pages were done in my hometown of Fremont, CA. The drawing on the left would have been a painting if that car hadn't left. The thing sticking out of the back of that man's head is a bike handle... I started drawing a person with a bike on BART and they got off the train seconds after I started.



Above: I was still trying to milk those dead Tombow markers on this page. I kind of like how everything came out soft like vine charcoal. The left page has a wierd tangent between the woman's arm and someone else's hand making her look like she's got a stumpy arm. Those were all done on BART to Berkeley.

Below: Seattle airport drawings done with a fountain pen, which I don't use nearly enough.


Above: Totally killed a pen on that airport truck and it's really obvious.


Below: Here's a preview of a future painting. This is the ink undersketch:


I'm currently working on a book proposal. I'll talk more about that in the next post.

Epilogues, Encores

Ship it, this sketchbook is done. I finished this one in a record 3 months. Of course, it helped that the pages were only 1/4 the size of the old books I used to work in. But still! I think this merits a wrap party of some kind.

3 pens, 4 markers, and 1 waterpen died in the making of this book.

Above: This is from a failed attempt at starting a new sketchbook, last week. I'm not digging the watercolor Moleskin. But I gotta say, it loves the markers. I may hold on to this one and just do marker work in it. This page is the only one I liked out of five.

And see how the page is perforated? I'm morally opposed to that. A sketchbook is a record of your progress as an artist. You accept bad drawings because they allow you to do better drawings. The idea of tearing a page out of a sketchbook horrifies me. No spiral-bound or perforated sketchbooks for me, thanks.

Below: Cafe drawings. North Beach, Haight, Sunset. My Tombow markers were nearly dead at this point, resulting in crusty values.




Above: Spent most of a weekend sketching with my good friend, Jamaica Dyer, after attending SF Zine Fest. She's got a book coming out in a few weeks that you should check out and if you're attending this year's Alternative Press Expo, be sure to check out the panel because she's a guest speaker.

Below: That greenish splotch was going to be a gouache color sketch. I sat outside a cafe to draw the building across the street and got a few minutes into it before realizing that I had picked the table downwind from a slew of smokers. Not to mention, the wind was strong and cold. I doubt I'll return to the location to finish this because I'm rarely ever out in North Beach and would have no reason to have an old sketchbook on me if I did happen to find my way out there in the near future.

Below: Worried people are my favorite kind of people to draw. I love the way their faces wrinkle up and you can instantly empathize. Bottom guy was a great subject, although he may have been worried because I was staring at him so intensely.

For now, I'm using another Moleskin sketchbook but I consider this situation temporary. I'm still on the lookout for a sketchbook that feels like home. Something that accepts wet media... ink, in particular. Something good with washes but hardy enough for paint and multimedia work. I definitely like the smaller format I've been working with, though. And in hardback, please. I'll probably wind up just making my own sketchbook.

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.