The Lonely Robot

Now Showing

Yesterday I hung up a bunch of my Dogpatch paintings at our local coffee shop, Sundance Coffee.  I'm happy they are here in the 'hood.  People that live and work here will get a chance to see how I find beauty in this industrial landscape.  

Later in the evening, I went to Fort Mason for some Life Drawing.  The model was incredible - great poses, expressions, and a very interesting tattoo on her left shoulder.  I drew her in 2007, and once again, she inspired a good night:

10 Minute Study

20 Minute Study

20 Minute Study

I am drawing with black, white, indigo and red pencils on craft paper.  I like how the tone of the paper is similar to the skin tones of the models - I am surprised how these drawings come to life when I add the white highlites.

For those in the Bay Area, I am considering going to this Life Drawing Marathon on March 8th.  Drop me a line if you want to head over there with me.

Busy, Productive Days

I Work On Saturdays

I began these yesterday.  Will work on finishing one or perhaps both today.  Both are acrylic on canvas, 24" x 36". The image on the left is my of one of the many cranes along the shipyards here in Dogpatch.  The image on the right is a study of oak branches on a clear California sky.  Funny what I find beautiful.

And here is a shot from last Saturday, during my linocut class that I teach here at 3 Fish.  I had 4 people sign up (full house!), and we worked from 10:30 until 5 on creating what I think is an amazing body of work, especially considering they had not done this before:

Pretty great, huh?  I think so. I'm very proud of my students :)

Now next weekend is big, too.  Annie and I are going to rock it at the Noise Pop 'N Shop.

 

If you are in SF, why not drop by.  It's good, free fun.

Happy Birthday Annie

Yeah, she's my wife.  And I like it like that.

Please join me in wishing a beautiful, talented, funny, kind, smart and happy woman a wonderful birthday.

Good Morning San Francisco

Marin Headlands, 10:00 am

The Lipstick Effect

 

Read all about it in this month's 3 Fish Studios newsletter!

How We Ended Up in Palm Springs Last Weekend

Last year, our friend Suzanne asked me to do an illustration for her husband Larry's magazine, The Broughton Quarterly.  I was happy to oblige.  She sent me some links to popular attractions in Palm Springs, where the Broughton hospitality company had just opened up a new hotel.

I did the drawing above, and it was published later in the year.  In exchange for the drawing, we got a free night at one of the Broughton properties.  In that Annie had struck a similar deal for a different feature, we found ourselves with 2 nights accomodation.  Somewhere.  We thought sunshine and 80 degrees sounded rather wonderful in January, so last weekend we drove 8 hours down the Andreas Hotel in Palm Springs.

Here is what we found:

Incredible weather.

Flashbacks to unaplogetic mid-century design.

Plenty of opportunities to chill out.

And swimming pools on Super Bowl Sunday.

It was a great trip.  Thanks Suzanne and Larry for helping us get away.

20 Minutes

  

Life drawing is a challenge to describe.  You think you know what a body looks like, and then when you draw it, you have to throw all of those notions aside.  Try to draw a hand the way you see it - it is a pile of ovals and lines - and it makes no sense objectively. 

Same goes for arms, the face, the shoulders, the legs - they all have curves, movement, and grace that needs to be SEEN to be drawn, and it is a constant battle between what your mind THINKS it should see and what is actually in front of you. Good exercise. It hones how one observes and how one can have the confidence to draw with an intuition that it will all work out in the end.

Timed drawings are a particular challenge - and I love the last few minutes when I get to tie it all together, either with a wash for shadows or with some white conte crayon for highlights.

Judith was my model tonight.  You may remember her from a couple of years back.  There is something about her that brings out my best - I did the drawing above in 20 minutes.  Time well spent.

New Obsession

Think about how unlikely this animal is.