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. 

Plein Air with Musser 3

Friday afternoon Andy met me at my place and we walked down to the Platte River to do a quick plein air painting.  I was especially excited because I'd been yearning a long time to paint some of the awesome scenery around my apartment in the highlands just north of downtown Denver. We got a choice spot on a rock that juts out into the river, giving us an unobstructed view of the pedestrian bridge.  Here is a cell phone photo of our local:

 And my study of the bridge:

That's it for now, thanks for stopping by!

Faces from Leyendecker

Here's a sketchbook page filled with quick studies I did from my J.C. Leyendecker book:

Four dudes and four dames!  I am especially pleased with the guy in the top hat.  Any art or illustration fan should OWN THAT BOOK, by the way.  It's absolutely gorgeous.

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!

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: