last wednesday night painting

Whoops! I forgot about these guys! 

The first painting was an edit to a painting of the Canandaigua boathouses that I started a few weeks ago. I was unhappy with it and edited some of the shadows and pushed some colors. Much better! 

The second was a small plant in the corner and I decided to make an impromptu still-life. 30 minutes later--Voila!

[Oil paints on 8x10 gessoboard]

playing catch-up

Below are a random assortment of some one-off sketches from the past week. 

From top to bottom:
-A pile of creamers while I ate a lonely breakfast at the local diner's counter
-My favorite local haunt and their interesting customers. This one was difficult because the lights were soooooo low that I couldn't see what I was drawing. Sort of like a forced blind contour drawing! 
-same place, same night
-nobody is safe! especially at staff meetings! 
-one of my favorite USK artists did a cool sketch/collage at an antique shop and I wanted to give it a try! Of course his is a lot cooler, but I dig the idea. 

[copic .25 pen, white gel pen, PITT warm gray markers in a strathmore toned sketchbook]

[pilot falcon, w/noodler's black eel ink, watercolor in a S+B gamma series sketchbook]

professional development

While waiting for my professional development to start I sipped on my over-roasted coffee and sketched some teachers chatting. I made them as blind-contour drawings (thus the weird look on the woman on the left), but took more time with the beautiful birch trees that seemed to be peaking into every window. There is a very big difference between private school campuses and public! 

test taking

Get used to this sight: a student taking a test--and more tests, and more tests. I was asked to cover a class and they just so happened to be taking a test. There wasn't much to do except sketch these zombie-students clicking away. More wasted time to see if teachers are good at what they do or not. 

[#2 pencils in a strathmore toned sketchbook]

more office supplies

Just some more France inspired sketches. She has a ton of sketches of small, mundane things that end up looking cool. One that sticks out a lot is her drawing of a simple rubber band. 

[copic .25 black pen, in a strathmore toned sketchbook]

wed. night paintin'

[oil on gessobord<--yes that is spelled correctly]

sketchin' with the kids

these were some sketches i made while demo-ing to first grade today! what a fun day! 

[copic .25 black pen, PRANG student colored pencils in a strathmore toned sketchbook]

cajun jam session and sketching

pretty straight-forward, musicians played we sketched! 

[watercolors, falcon pen w/noodler's black eel ink, PITT cool gray markers, white gel pen in a strathmore toned sketchbook or a still man & birn gamma series sketchbook]

wed. night paintin'

wednesday nights mark my excitement for the week because that means i get a sloppy burger and i get to paint with oils. i haven't found my subject matter i am married to yet, bouncing between still-life's and painting from photos. i am not a fan of painting from a photo because it isn't "fun". i don't get the depth from seeing something in real life, if the lighting is off, i can't just turn on a light and adjust--you are stuck with what you are looking at in an photo. so while a few artists were eating lunch the other day there was this little butter container that a finger had pushed into creating a little wave of yellow aluminum and some neat shadows. it was a neat little object, a fun composition in a tiny little butter container. i immediately thought "cool! that's going to be my subject--a little butter container!!". of course i left it at home and forgot to bring it! there is always next week! 

instead i was stuck with painting from a photo--more boathouses! 

[oil on gessoed MDF panel, 8x10]

monsters part 2

art as gifts is really fun to make! it makes me smile when the person lights up when the receive them. she's in love with this guy. 

happy birthday! 

[acrylic paint, oil based markers on 8"x10" canvas]

sketch group meet up

it's amazing when a group of people get together that have zero things in common except one simple thread that holds them together. we all have different backgrounds, different ages, different ethnicities, yet drawing for 3 hours together brings strangers together. i would have not met some of these people, nor spent time with them if it wasn't for art-making. 

this past sunday a few of us from the sketching group got together and did a coffee shop sketchcrawl on park avenue.

[pilot falcon w/noodler's black eel ink, white gel pen, PITT warm gray markers, Tri-Tone colored pencils, Derwent inktese watercolor pencils all in a strathmore toned sketchbook]