Croc worm

This creature reared its ugly head in my sketchbook last week.

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Back to School

This past week I started class at Metropolitan State College of Denver for K-12 teaching licensure.  I'm taking two art studio classes, Sculpture I and Jewelry Design and Metalsmithing.  In Sculpture I our first project (as well as the other two for the semester) is primarily in wood, specifically 2x4's for project one.  Here is a page of studies for my idea, a large relief type sculpture about 2' tall by 3' wide. 

A minor

August has been rushing by with a cruel gusto!  Displayed are some items from my sketchbook, some I've been meaning to share for quite some time.  I've also been working on my beetle painting, which is almost finished so I hope to share that soon.  The day job at DIA is tiring and time consuming, but I'm still trying to enrich my bus rides and breaks with drawing and reading, as well as food and sleep when necessary. Time is just stretched thin and is about to get thinner as I start school for teaching certification next week.  These are trying but exciting times.  I'm ready for my favorite season of autumn, which will be upon us soon.

DIA III, II, I

More, more, more!     (remember you can click one to see it bigger)

I really liked how the portrait of the woman in the middle picture turned out.  I've also been experimenting working over ball point pen in Sharpie for some bold brush like strokes.  Soon:  Colors!

A Slew from DIA

Hello!  Here's a whole buncha sketchbook drawings of people I see between my labors at DIA:

Break Birds

Howdy y'all.  Over the span of a couple of breaks at work I rendered these two little friends from a picture in a magazine.  They're pretty charming if you ask me.

Little Man

I live not too far from Little Man Ice Cream, so I took a stroll down there to do some sketchbook studies of their famous building.  The patio was hopping with customers (it is the first day of summer, after all). 

From across the street...

...and from the lower patio.  Happy Summer!

24 faces

Once again, here are some faces from my everyday adventures.  Most of them are from around the airport, but some of them are done from Lucian Freud paintings.  Enjoy, friends, enjoy.

Birds from the Zoo

Hey y'all.  Last Friday I met my friends Kit Seaton, Ryan Secora, and Andy Musser at the Denver Zoo for some animal drawing.  We braved masses of school children in the bird house to record some of the less wild animals among us.  Here are my results:

Dude-uls

Wow!  Has it been a week already?  Here are some face doodles I did in my sketchbook recently.   I've been trying to work on creating characters from my head.

Creature Feature

I present to you fine folks two creatures from my sketchbook:

16 faces

Here are a couple of pages of head studies done from my travels to the airport and around the terminal:

Stay classy!

Working at DIA

I started a new job at the airport last week, and it's been a great opportunity to draw and study.  I've been going up to the terminals on my breaks to sit and draw the people waiting for their flights.  There's also all of great vehicles and views around DIA that are interesting to study, like the bag trucks and the architecture, the tunnels and nooks and crannies.  I'll definitely be making lots of posts of sketches from my time there!

Rat Creature

Here's a shifty looking rat creature I worked up in my sketch book:

Batman and Elephant

The other night, I watched American Beauty and drew a sketchbook still life of my The Dark Knight Returns Batman figure.  After that was complete and the movie was over, I still yearned to draw so I copied this elephant out of Newsweek until I fell asleep with Darjeeling Limited on.  Yep, that's how my night went. 

Gaz

I've been really into Lucian Freud's work lately, so while at the library the other day I checked out one of his books and did a copy of his portrait, Gaz.  

 It's definitely one of my favorites by him.  Gaz, a Soho club musician, looks like quite the character, and Freud describes him as such in an interview.  Freud says, "[he] was sort of ludicrous.  He was always making difficulties, but they were basically economic, so I didn't mind."   He also quipped, "...The thing is, he was boring and fascinating at the same time."

Left and Right

I went to the library after work yesterday and broke in a fresh sketchbook with some drawings from Newsweek photos.

These were a lot of fun and I think I'm now inspired to do some digital painting portraits to fill out my illustration portfolio.

Job Fair

Today I ventured out into the world on my bicycle to go to a job fair for some jobs at DIA.  To help protect my resume, and as general good practice, I brought along my sketchbook.  While waiting for a preliminary interview, I had a fair amount of time to draw some of my fellow job hunters.

During my interview, I brought up that I was a recent grad of Rmcad and my enthusiasm for drawing and painting.  I offered to show her my sketchbook and she was delighted to look through it.  It was a great ice breaker and confidence boost for the rest of the interview.
So, here's to hoping art helped me get a full time job that pays me more than the lowest amount legally allowed.  Cheers!

Gustav and Bernard

Lately I've been drawing many sketchbook studies of my pet rats, Gustav (white) and Bernard (White + Black).  The little guys, especially Bernard, move a lot (even in their sleep!) so many of the sketches are quick and gestural.  Here are some of the most recent ones I've done: