blind contour friday

After drawing this statue the "normal" way (see previous post) I decided to try again and see what it would look like as a "blind contour". I like it better this way.

And twice I had to peek at my paper to do a hand and foot count, 6 hands! 6 feet! I couldn't keep track! I didn't look when I placed my pen down to start drawing again but I did have a sense of where I was because of the peeking, sorry :-(

More blind contours to see at "Inkfinger", go look!

The Three Graces

A drawing of a statue in Maymont Park that I've always referred to as "The Three Graces".

No Plaid People

The last two times I've had a doctor's appointment, I've happened to sketch someone in the waiting room that wore something plaid. I was kinda hoping to see another "plaid" person when I went to the doctor today, but pooh, no luck, stripes were as close as I could get.

Serenity Tonight!

An attempt at caricature, "Mal" and "Zoe" from the movie "Serenity" which I get to see 4 days earlier then it's premiere on September 30th if I put this description

Joss Whedon, the Oscar® - and Emmy - nominated writer/director responsible for the worldwide television phenomena of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE, ANGEL and FIREFLY, now applies his trademark compassion and wit to a small band of galactic outcasts 500 years in the future in his feature film directorial debut, Serenity. The film centers around Captain Malcolm Reynolds, a hardened veteran (on the losing side) of a galactic civil war, who now ekes out a living pulling off small crimes and transport-for-hire aboard his ship, Serenity. He leads a small, eclectic crew who are the closest thing he has left to family –squabbling, insubordinate and undyingly loyal.

on my blog, which I'm okay with doing as I'm a fan of Joss Whedon's work and I've been counting down the days to see this movie since last November!

A Day of Knights

After I finished drawing the knight in the museum (see previous post), I left to go to lunch and just a block down the road came upon this guy!

week #32 - draw something metallic

Another drawing for the Everyday Matters Drawing Group. Part of the purpose of week 32's assignment may have been to have a go at getting something metallic to really look metallic, shiny surfaces with reflections and such. Um, guess I still need to work on that, got as far as spot colors of solid grey and gold to convey the metal parts in this. Except the base the horse is standing on isn't metal, neither are his hoofs or the fringe or the woman in the painting, they're just grey. And the feather too, it's not metallic, it's just colored gold.

I think I now see the advantage in being able to render shiny surfaces with reflections to indicate metallic.

Knight of the Blind Contour

Statue of Ye olde knight on armored horse at The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, for this week's ""Blind Contour Friday", see more at "Inkfinger"!

week #2 - lamp

Another drawing for the Everyday Matters Drawing Group. I seem to be going backwards, though the current assignment is numbered at 33, this is week #2's assignment, "draw a lamp".

More travel sketches

Sitting across the aisle from me, this gentlemman never once turned his head and noticed I was sketching him.

The red-eye flight back to Richmond, all the lights in the cabin dimmed.

And I'm so glad to have recently discovered the travel sketchbooks of Enrique Flores. Simply incredibly beautiful drawings and watercolors.

dragon bookplate

A bookplate I designed a few years ago that I think works well for this week's "Illustration Friday" word "escape".

Week #11 - Glasses

A Bic pen drawing for Everyday Matters Drawing Group week #11 assignment, "draw a pair of glasses".

Labor Day in San Francisco

It was only after the bus had dropped us off and pulled away that we saw the notice "Holiday Schedule, No Ferry Service Monday Sept. 5th, Labor Day". So while we waited for the next bus, I drew the dock and Ronda mapped out another way to get us off Alameda Island and into San Francisco.

Though not this day nor from this dock, eventually we did arrive by ferry into the city (see drawing in previous post).

ferry to San Francisco

It's time for blind contour friday

A Garfield alarm clock for this week's "Blind Contour Friday", go see more at "Inkfinger"!

Hamilton De Holanda

Musicians just won't hold still when performing!! So out of a half dozen attempts this is the only decent sketch I was able to get of Hamilton De Holanda who I saw in concert with Mike Marshall (described as two of the world's greatest mandolinists) at "The Freight & Salvage Coffee House" in Berkeley. The music that night was fantastic, while I'm familiar with Mike's work, Hamilton (he's from Brazil) is new to me and I'm totally in love! After the concert I asked him to sign my drawing, that's his signature on the left.

San Francisco Hotel Room Table

The table in the hotel room's kitchenette, piled high with this and that, feet propped on the chair rungs (that shape in the foreground are my knees!) looking out the balcony door and sketching.

First Hotel

Came across these two sites today, if you're interested in illustration for children or illustrated journals, expect to spend a lot of time at each, they are wonderful!

1. 2005 Bologna Illustrators Exhibit this site presents an "Overview of Children and Young Adults' Illustration in Spain" (which was the "guest country of honor" this year). This site is also beautifully designed.
2. diariografico In Portuguese, with no English translation. The second link in the menu bar at the top (viagem) will take you to the illustrated journals of Eduardo Salavisa (the site's creator), and the fourth link (outros autores) has a list of artists (such a R. Crumb, Eugene Delacroix, Henri Matisse) and shows a few examples from their (published?) journals. The next to last link (bibliografia) lists the titles of the published journals. A fantastic site Mr. Salavisa! (Also, I found this site via elsrgarcia because of his very kind link to me.)

Oh, and the sketch above is another in my trip to San Francisco series, a small view of my hotel room.

At the Gate

The exterior of the plane that carried Ronda and me to California

and the view from my seat of it's interior

We sat in the first row with the stewardess's Mary and Shelly (or was it Shirley?) sitting on the other side of the partition that separated us (They almost never sat down! I had to draw them quick towards the end of the flight as they did a bit of paperwork). Our side of the partition has T.V.'s inset into it, there are about 30 or so channels to choose from in addition to movies to rent. I almost made it through all of "Kingdom of Heaven", which I liked, but found hard to focus on with such a tiny screen so started drawing again just in time to sketch the hand of the person leaning on the partition as they waited for the restroom. The moments you capture and remember with drawing are certainly alot different then those you'd photograph under the same circumstances!

Last Saturday

Ta-da! Presenting the first in my series of sketches documenting my trip with Ronda to San Francisco! All this week I'll be showing lots of plane, van, hotel and ferry boat interiors so that (sorry!) you really won't get a sense of the beautiful city I saw. To begin, this is a rather wobbly line drawing of the drive to Dulles Airport, as we listen together to Nick Hornby's "About a Boy" on cassette. A fun beginning to our journey!

Blind Contour Friday

Hi everyone, I'm back from my trip to San Francisco! One of the things I did while there was see John Mayer in concert at The Fillmore and as the room was pitch black except for the stage and I could barely see my paper because of all the people standing in front of me blocking out the light, plus I have nothing else prepared and I'm pooped I thought that I would submit this only very slightly cheating, really I could barely see at all sketch I did of him for this week's "Blind Contour Friday".

My Submission for BC Friday, Not that Anyone Will Ever Know

Links for more blind contour drawings can be found at "Inkfinger", except if you want to come back here after going there you'll have to use the back button, the link to me doesn't work *(s)Niff*

Well fine, think I'll just pack my bags and go pout in San Francisco. Bye everyone who found their way here (in spite of broken links ;O) I'll be back in a week!

(and Niff, don't fix it now, otherwise I'll have to rewrite this whole post! and if it really does work but for some reason is giving just me an error message, then to all of the above except going to San Francisco, be back in a week part. . . . oops! and nevermind :)

Here's Johnnie

I had the nicest time sitting in the doctor's waiting room today! Three other people were waiting with me. I started to sketch some empty chairs when a gentleman got up to see what I was doing. I told him it was for an "Everyday Matters" drawing assignment (week #30 - chair). I had completed two chairs and asked if he'd mind my sketching him sitting in the third. He agreed and afterwards asked if he could have the drawing. I explained I needed to scan it into my computer first but would be happy to send it to him. So thanks to Mr. Johnnie Newcomb and his wife for their conversation and making a long wait very enjoyable, the drawing is now on it's way!