Phone Sketch

 

Just goofing around on my phone.

Buzz

During a family vacation, my nephew thoroughly expressed his amazement at my watercolor moleskine and waterbrush technique. For Christmas, I thought I'd surprise him with his very own moleskine (only smaller to match his size) and a set of watercolor pencils and waterbrush. As an added surprise, I added this sketch of his favorite character to the first spread.

Lettering is one of my favorite things to do and I sometimes find myself sketching words in various styles. Illustration master Gregory Manchess provides an interesting post on the correlation between one's penmanship and drawing skills here.

Swan Song

No paper, no pencil and plenty of time to kill. Using only the Autodesk Sketchbook app on my phone I discover finger painting all over again.

Half of Twelve

I found myself encountering the Twelve Days of Christmas theme over and over during my time off from work at the end of December. There were versions of the carol heard on the radio, cards in the mail, ornaments and even dishes and wine glasses. I began to seriously think about that partridge in a pear tree and how one would present such a gift.

As a result these are the latest six pages in my sketchbook:

Plein Air

Plein air paintings, oil on board

I spent a few Saturdays in the summer and fall taking a step back in time in a nearby recreated mid-19th century American village. Plein air painting is a great challenge and even if you don't consider yourself a serious landscape painter there are several advantages that any artist could gain. Trying to capture a living scene in a limited amount of time with light conditions changing over the course of your session makes me work in a different manner than when I am involved with a piece in a studio setting. I work faster, trying to capture the overall feeling of the day and there is more careful observation of my subject matter constantly refining the painting as it evolves.

Dealing with people passing by is an entirely different issue. The two most often asked questions I get are:

1. Are you an artist?
2. What are you painting?

On my first ever attempt at plein air painting at the Olana estate I made two critical errors. Not packing my ipod (or just the headphones as a deterrent) and setting up right near the visitor's center where a coach bus with 50+ people would show up every 30 minutes. I now wear the headphones even if I forget the ipod!

My first plein air attempt. View from Olana, oil on board.

Benjamin House, oil on board

Manetto Hill Church, oil on board

Restoration Barn, oil on board

Gift Idea

A blank kraft covered photo album from the local bookstore, inspiration and acrylics.

Have you ever needed a particular gift but couldn't find it anywhere? My wife and I needed a New York themed photo album to gift to family visiting from over seas. The only problem was not finding something that suited us.

We happened upon simple kraft covered photo albums at a local bookstore. Why not paint a New York scene? So, to complement their winter visit to New York, I painted a winter view of Central Park. I masked the edges with masking tape to result in nice clean edges when it was all done. I went directly to paints working from photo reference to give it that plein air effect.

Apple study

Acrylic on matboard

Four Views

Hurricane Earl

'My Cape Cod Vacation', Digital

In early September of 2010, my friend and colleague, Marianne, was headed to Cape Cod for Labor Day with her boyfriend (now fiancé) and new dog.

As I was getting ready for work, I heard the morning news station announce that Hurricane Earl had skipped our local area and was also headed to Cape Cod.

Process

I like to carry my sketchbook wherever I go. In the past, I would always sketch in pencil but I found myself fixated on rendering and on creating a sketchbook devoid of mistakes or unfinished drawings. Many years ago, when I was in the retail art gallery business, I was fortunate to meet up with James C. Christensen and leaf through his sketchbook. I saw a book filled with many quick figure gestures that would go on to become elements of some of his major paintings. I also saw sketches abandoned or reworked. I saw scribbled text or even notes and reminders of things to get done. In the back of the book were lists of ideas as well as important phone numbers. What struck me the most was that everything was done in ink! When I asked him about this, Jim told me that he worked in ink intentionally so that his sketchbook would be just a collection of ideas and not refined works. If a sketch doesn't work, he moves on rather than erasing and correcting for the sake of the book. For years after that, I would only carry a fine point marker and occasionally a 20 or 30% cool gray brush pen to indicate some quick shading. I sometimes still do this depending on my mood. Lately though, I've started to sketch in color.

About a year ago, I was planning for a relaxing cruise to the Caribbean. I packed a moleskine watercolor book, a mechanical pencil, a Niji waterbrush and a set of Derwent watercolor pencils. I felt I needed to capture the color. Rather than carry around the set of pencils everywhere I created a portable palette. I cut a page out of the moleskine and taped it to the last page in the book creating a gatefold so when not in use it gets tucked neatly into the book and when working the palette is just to the right of the book. The palette is created by laying the pencil down in squares. Now whenever I stop to work, the Niji waterbrush activates the color and allows me to paint my sketches. At the end of the day or whenever it is needed, I can replenish the color on my palette by coloring in the color. So I carry the book, a pencil and the waterbrush only. The waterbrush is just a brush with a reservoir handle. It's under the 2 ounce air travel rule so you can carry onto the plane and use it in flight too.

Seven

A sketch in my moleskine watercolor book started on a plane ride home from Orlando. I guess I was inspired, although this sketch never began with this end result in mind. The first figures planned were those on opposite sides of the fold. Once those were complete, I realized I had enough room for a total of seven. The rest just fell into place with the first figure on the left (the last one drawn) being an homage to my inspiration.