Our drive home from the city takes us past the Palace of Fine Arts – which we’ve drawn many times during the day. I’ve alwasy wanted to come back after dark and draw the spotlights on the sculpture.  I found a good view from the ‘far’ side (opposite the Exploratorium entrance) where the lighting makes a great light-on-dark-on-light counter changed silhouettes. If you’re out here Friday nights you might meet a crazy group of skaters that descend on the place with a mobile sound system.  (Link: The Midnight Rollers).

Here’s a snapshot of my new night drawing setup. An LED bike light taped to an ultralight tripod, and a fisherman’s ‘ball cap light’ clipped to my hat brim…makes drawing in places without streetlight a lot easier! Added bonus – it makes raccoon eyes glow green! A little creepy at first!

Spent part of the halloween weekend sketching with some friends – it seemed appropriate to visit the cemetery :)  There were a few people out taking a gothic stroll – but really, it was such a nice day – was hard to feel very spooky…

10 am - Mount Vision

2pm – Chimney Rock Trail

5:30 pm – McClure Beach

Just back from two more days painting at Point Reyes. Same as last  session – 9×12 oil paint on panel, all knife work.

The  thing I like about the palette knife -  every stroke is clean color – no loaded brushes messing up your pigments. I can’t imagine cleaning my brushes between every stroke out in the field – but that’s what you get for free with the knives.  As well – the paint is always completely opaque. Every mark is clearly articulated.

These sessions were either incredibly windy, doused in surf spray, or plagued with flies – so anything that gives you the color you want with less fuss is full of win!

I guess the bottom line is – I like the strokes you get! I try not to get too ‘artistic’ on the blog – but I have to say, I’m mesmerized by the expressive marks!

I hesitated before posting these – I think Laurel”s photos are so much better than my paintings…but oh well – in the interest of art blog disclosure – here’s the paintings in progress :)

Something I’m doing for a group show with an erotic theme. 30×40, oil on canvas – the largest thing I’ve painted since art school – I wanted to approach it in the same way I might do any work – same kind of paint handling – just with bigger brushes :)

Here’s a couple plein air paintings from this afternoon. I’m trying something different here…painting oils on panel, 8×10, working entirely with pallette knives…the results are a little out of control, a little too abstract – it’s probably not for everyone, but I enjoy the really juicy surface! I’m going to have to keep at this – see if I can refine the edges, do better at ‘rendering’ the scene..

Sea Lion overlook, just next to Point Reyes lighthouse.

Up on Mount Tam, looking at SF. This one is became a bit too abstract – you’re looking down at Tiburon and SF from 2500 ft.

so…am at lunch time sketching, nothing much turning out…but then she did this pose. I had this weird feeling that it was essential to get this down right – even if nothing else from the session came out I wanted this one!

Photos: Laurel Holmes

I don’t know if this is something other people want to do…but I’m kind of a nerd, so I thought it was fun to plot the best of my San Francisco sketches in a Bing Maps collection. The interface can be a little wonky – there’s a small link on the upper left that says ‘map all’ – kind of gives you a pulled out view of the city :)

here’s a link to the Citizen Sketcher Map Collection

lunch time figure drawing at work…

Drawing all day, drawing all night. I think I like the drawing.
Here’s an entire day of sketching in honor of the 24th world wide sketchcrawl.

SF by Day:

SF by Night:

Couple of 1hr gouachercolors (more use of opaque than usual!) – from my last Tuesday night figure drawing for a while. Unfortunately time constraints have forced me to drop out for now. I’m still planning on being active – but have to stop moderating the group for the time being. It’s been fun getting to use some of our costumes – like this black silk kimono that we picked up at the cherry blossom festival last year….

Looking back, I wasn’t very warmed up this day – but here’s a few 5’s that turned out ok…

Bay Area Model’s Guild Drawing Marathon – Six hours of life drawing – always a great life event! Check their site HERE for future notices …

Just a quick street sketch of the Orpheum Theater on Market Street…light wasn’t great today, but I went at it anyway…once you’re out there with your stuff, you might as well get to work! I notice my perspective is getting very strange lately. I’m doing a bunch of retro video game graphics at work, it must be affecting my eyes…I’m seeing in isometric :)

Don’t read too much into that title – Vicki is an ideal model under any circumstances. It’s just that often with my sketches, the second one turns out more stylized, more ‘cartoony’….

So, also, I’m trying out a new palette – has a rubber seal that keeps the paint moist when its stored. Seems to work pretty good – I was enjoying the way the old puddles paint released a lot of color! Remind me to edit this in the morning, since someone’s going to ask the brand name – ok! – it’s by alvinco.com and it’s called Homee Palette…

Went down to the SF Asian to see the Art of Samurai show.  I’m a big fan of the museum – but their exhibit space is so small! I always come away from the special exhibits wanting more…but that’s just greed I guess – the shows are always quality over quantity.

Here’s some sketches of the armor on exhibit. I love drawing this stuff – in fact, Japanese armor was among the first subjects I drew.  It has that combination of gothic subject matter and intricate detail that gets my OCDrawing going…

Muwhahahah! – Mr. Cheetham has made a crucial error in judgment! Giving away all his muddy secrets!!!!! This little baby is in my future plans…Now to the internet – to order some oils!

Back after a two week drawing haiatus! – I see I’ve slipped back a few steps on the ever elusive problem of  likeness.  Regardless, it’s alwasy a pleasure to draw my friend Audra. This is turning into an Audra Tribute Blog. Anyway – someone needs to do a song about the girl with the ailizarin crimson hair…