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!

Still Life: Bananas and Tulips

As I walked by the table under our kitchen window, I saw these sitting there and was instantly inspired to paint them.  The positioning was already there; I don't know if I subconsciously arranged them the day before to make a nice still life, but all I had to do was removed a few pieces of mail and a tupperware container and I had my composition.
I had got the tulips for Dori's birthday and had wanted to paint them before they withered away.  Though Tulips are her favorite flower, Dori is disgusted by bananas, so there's a nice wee bit of irony to the picture.

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:

Sketchbook Studies

These are just a couple of items from my sketchbook that I was pretty happy with:

I stopped and drew the REI from across the river...

... and did an ink study of Rembrandt's 1658 Self-Portrait. 

Sock and Shoe

Salutations! I've been doing a lot of ball point pen work in my sketchbook recently and these are two still life drawings I did over the past couple of nights. I'm thinking of doing some paintings of the subjects in the near future. I've painted the monkey before and a lot of people seem to like him. He certainly is a charming sitter!

Plein Air with Musser 2

Once again, Andy Musser and I set out to paint the scenery of the Lakewood Heritage Center. The sun was shining and a chilly wind was blowing as we set up our easels and paints. Though we had a few things knocked over and some cold fingers we both came out with some successful studies.
Here was my subject from the artist's view:


Andy contemplates his subject as the light fades:



Once again taped to the palette as it dries is a close-up of my study:

Life Drawings (Part Two)

As promised ages ago, these are the drawings I did of my friends at the life drawing session when the model didn't show. Enjoy!

Riley

Andy

Elisa

Kit

and for the dynamic finish, Ryan

Dori

I did a few drawings of Dori last night and I thought I'd share my favorite with you while the coffee is brewing:

Plein Air with Musser

I was holding out on posting until I heard from the Pernod contest in hopes that I would have good news to share, but it turned out to be in vain. Although I was a finalist, I didn't place in the contest (but congratulations to those who did). My Threadless design also didn't get a very high rating, so I doubt that it will be printed. So, back to the drawing board...or table.
On a more positive note, what better way to ward of those art rejection blues than to do some therapeutic plein air painting? The answer, of course, is that there is no better way. Yesterday, Andy Musser and I went painting at the Lakewood Heritage Center just west of Bel Mar. Below you can see our painting post, our subject, and Andy's fine acrylic painting. We didn't know what that little green shelter was supposed to be used for, but it made for a great impromptu studio.


And here is my study in oil, still taped to the sketchbox easel palette as it dries:

This week I have a few less hours at Sears Westland, so I hope to get some more painting and drawing done and post some more life drawings to get this blog caught up. I've been working on a couple of acrylic on canvas illustrations, so those will show up here soon.

The Ukulele Monster

This is a t-shirt design I submitted to Threadless. You can help me out by giving it a big 5 rating by clicking on the link below!



For all you loyal and appreciated followers of this very popular blog, here is the original acrylic sketch of the monster from which the shirt design is based:

Enjoy and thanks for voting! Grrr!

Life Drawings (Part One)

I've been going to free life drawing sessions at Rmcad the past few Thursdays with my fellow Illustrator Andy Musser. Here are a few choice cuts from last week's session:

I hadn't done too much life drawing with pencil since we always had to use vine charcoal in class, but I ended up really enjoying it. I was inspired to try it out by Andrew Wyeth's pencil preliminary studies for his portrait paintings after looking at his autobiography. I'll post some more life drawings soon from this week's session where we had to improvise after our model didn't show.

Pernard Absinthe Contest

This is a digital painting (along with the pencil drawing) of my submission to the Pernod Absinthe "Creator Of" art contest. The only requirement was the work use 1805, the year of Pernod's creation, somehow in the picture.


I settled on "The Spirit is Here" for the title. Happy Groundhog Day!