and so it goes.

This past Sunday night, Dori and I lost our dear little rat, Gustav.  Things are very sad around our place as we try to adjust to life without our handsome little friend.
Here is one of the last sketches I made of him, as he cuddled with his brother, Bernard.

And one of our favorite pictures of him on a play day at the park.

Goodbye, Gustav, and thanks for enriching our lives for the past two years.  We love you, little guy!

Beetle

Hello!  Here is a preliminary graphite study for a painting I started this morning:

42 posts!  Hooray!

Yellow Trolley

I went out this morning to enjoy some summer weather and to paint this trolley car down by the Platte River.  It actually still runs on a route by the Aquarium, the Children's Museum, and REI.    

Here's a cell phone shot of a smaller sketch with the car in the background:

The large one was actually done on watercolor paper taped to a board.  I just sat and worked until it pulled away to take folks up and down the river.

First Tries

 Howdy, howdy, howdy!

Above are my first attempts at watercolor painting on location. I recently acquired what I like to refer to as my "Musser Kit."  This consists of a few portable water brush pens (though I only bought one to begin with) and a small plastic water color palette with a few choice pigments, plastic bags for secure backpacking, a few well used paper towels, and of course, my current sketchbook.  I've also seen a lot of similar equipment used on the Urban Sketchers blog I've been visiting quite frequently lately, so I've been itching to have a go at it.
Proud of my in and out attack at Meininger's art supplies, I sprung for only the essentials to begin with.  The PreRaphealite palette of Indian Yellow, Alizirin Crimson and Ultramarine in small tubes of Grumbacher were the only pigments I allowed to start.  It presented some challenges in mixing a bright green so prominent in the summer grass and leaves, but otherwise I love the richness and warmth these three colors make in addition to being beautifully vibrant and transparent.  I might make things easier by adding a bit of green gouache for the desired color and a nice bit of opacity.  It'll just be nice to have more color on this blog and in my sketchbook, not to mention painting more often and on the go.  More soon, cheers!

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!

Blarque

 Blarque rremp jermph nraggle.

Addendum July 8th:

Colored him with some watercolors I got today for color sketching:

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!

Studio Shot

I have a busy day today, but I am committed to posting at least once a week.  Thus, here is studio shot featuring a painting I started yesterday.  On the wall you can see it's counterpart painting of my blue shoes.  I'll post a nice picture of that soon.  Thank you, come again.

Apples!

Hello!  Similar to the story of the bananas and tulips, I was affronted by the beauty of two apples sitting on the same plate on the table by the kitchen window:

Excuse the glares, please.  It's wet oil! 

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.