Art & Story Blog

Continue reading ‘Red Pimento Pondering’

I went out to the Angeles National Forest yesterday for a day-long landscape class with Karl Gnass. We moved very slowly along the Switzer Falls trail, with no intention of making it to the falls. Instead, we strolled along the trail that runs alongside and criss-crosses the creek, stopping about every quarter-mile or so.

I got a chance to break in my new Moleskine Watercolor Sketchbook, Japanese Water-Brush Pen, and Windsor & Newton Sketcher’s Pocket Box of Watercolors. It had been a while since I’d used any watercolors, and it was my first time using the Water-Brush Pen, so there was a little bit of a learning curve. Needless to say, there are a few that I won’t be posting on here. The above watercolor was my last of the day. I really took my time with it, and in fact, stayed after everyone had left, so I could finish it. I wanted at least one pretty picture out of this!

Below are some sketches from earlier in the day, before I broke out the paints. The sketch of the snake is the real deal. We were all sitting by the creek, when this snake slithered casually by the feet of one girl in the class. She was about 5 to 10 feet away from me when it happened. We thought maybe it was a rattlesnake without the rattle.

I’ve been holding back, but here now is more glorious ball-point pen on Post-Its. Some familiar schnozzes in profile. Three of them. And since they say three’s a crowd, then I suppose it can be a party, too. And since I did my drawing of Dave Letterman, I’ve periodically been trying my hand at Regis Philbin. He had been on the program that night, but I just couldn’t capture his likeness. You’d think he’d be easy, but I was surprised. Included above is my latest attempt. Still has a little ways to go to being recognizable. I think it looks more like a somewhat heavy-set Conan O’Brien doing his impression of Regis, but it’s a lot closer than my first attempts.

And then, well, sometimes these things just happen…

All of the above were drawn with one of these babies:

When I saw this in the back-to-school section of the drug store, it instantly took me back to about 4th grade or so. An impulse buy to gratify the inner child.

A couple of new header images have been put into rotation. The first is the obviously more summery of the two. In the second one, a bus accidentally passed through a shot I was trying to get, but with a happy result.

Produce Stand, Los Angeles:

Bus Passing at Night, Los Angeles:

Read about the last headers I posted here.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, folks. Here are some favorites from a day of life drawing that was full of character. I can’t recall the model’s name, but he was excellent at playing with character. Lots of evocative and humorous stuff. I couldn’t help but keep drawing his face, and found slightly different ways to caricaturize him each time. Lots of fun.

Note, they’re all from the same side of the room, thus the similar angles.

• Previous figure drawing post: April Figures: Dynamics, Part V of V!