Sketchbook #17 (catchup--including deer heads)

Okay, you caught me, I haven't been updating my blog as of late. For some reason the blogger site was blocked at school (even though we are a google campus) so my updates that usually took place at lunch were put on hold. Now I have to do the updates at home, and, well, there are other distractions here (namely Black Ops 3). 

Enough of that. Here is the art.

1-An open mic night with the sketching group at Boulber Coffee. I challenged myself to fit them all on one page, and draw smaller. It worked!!
[blue pumpkin nib on a wooden dip pen with DeArtementis Document ink, D+S watercolors in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape]

2-A sneak peak performance of "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe". For a high school play the sets and costumes were AMAZING! I wish I had popped in sooner to sketch some of the rehearsals! All I had with me was one pen and a VERY dark theater.
[Lamy Safary EF nib with Lexington Gray ink, a brush pen with water and J. Herbin Pearl Noire ink in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape] 

3-A fun sketch of my girlfriend's art box. Well, my art box, she just happens to be using it.
[namiki falcon with DeArtementis Document ink, a Pilot Brush pen, and a water pen with water and J. Herbin Pearl Noire ink in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape] 

4-What else do you need to pay attention at an Art teacher conference? 
[Lamy Safary EF nib with Lexington Gray ink, a brush pen with water and J. Herbin Pearl Noire ink in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape]

5-We had a nice lunch break at our conference and I sketched the bottles behind the bar as I inhaled a mac and cheese-burger. Yeah, you read that right. (No, I did not drink tequila at lunch). 
[namiki falcon with DeArtementis Document ink, a Pilot Brush pen, and a water pen with water and J. Herbin Pearl Noire ink in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape] 

6-This was my view at Longhorn steakhouse waiting for my guests to arrive. 
[namiki falcon with DeArtementis Document ink, a Pilot Brush pen, and a water pen with water and J. Herbin Pearl Noire ink in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape] 

7-So my family is a bunch of rednecks. I grew up around until hunting, deer hides, deer heads, venison in my chili and general dead deer stuff. So my uncle asked if I wanted to help process a deer and I could take home some of the meat--including home made jerky! I wanted to document the process a little better, but he is a machine and has his ways for doing everything. So I had to sneak in what I could. 
[Pilot Brush pen and D+S watercolors in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape]

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Last pages of sketchbook (lucky) #13

Here are the last few pages of sketchbook #13. I started this book on 8-16-15 and wrapped it up on 11-8-15. Not a bad run for a 64 page book! 

If you had seen the last post I sketched some dishes drying with some minimal tools--pentel brush pen, brush pen with some grayed out black ink. It was fun to think with minimal distractions, and I had to concentrate on translating the view I was looking at with only a few marks. That weekend I was in a coffee shop and they had a pile of dirty dishes and I used the same tools and got to work. The best part was that they kept on adding on to the pile and I kept on sketching! I could have been there for weeks if I wanted to! 

I got tired of doing the dishes, so I moved onto some folks sitting starring at their laptops or phones. I tried out some new "Graphtone" water-soluble colored pencils from Derwent.























My last page of sketchbook #13 was a very quick attempt at capturing a cool sunset on some buildings in town. Once I got the outline done the sun had set and I had to paint like Superman trying to reverse the earth's rotation. I cheated and added some details at home where there was light and warmth. 

Creepin' at Open mic night

Last night we had a sketch group meetup at Boulder Coffee's Open mic night. It's always a good time grabbing the good table in the back, setting up shop, getting the caffeine flowing and sketching musicians 2 songs at a time. Especially when Dimitri gets up and wails away in Ukranian. 

[blue pumpkin nib dip pen with DeArtementis document black ink, D+S watercolors in a fresh, brand new, Stillman & Birn Alpha landscape sketchbook]

Watching dishes dry.

While waiting for the chicken to cook in batches I sketched the drying dishes. Much better time waster than surfing Facebook.

Figure Drawing

For some reason when I transferred schools in my college career, a lot of my art credits magically took care of certain requirements and I never had the chance to take a figure drawing class. So a sketching friend recommended the Steve Carpenter Art Center. They have an open figure-drawing night every monday. You pay 4$ an hour and plop down and draw. 

I bought an insanely large Stillman & Birn sketchbook (11x14) so I could record my progress as I went about the winter. I've included a pencil in my photos so you can see just how mammoth this thing is! 

For my first time out I didn't know what tools to use so like any artist, I just brought them all. I stuck with:

-a Blackwing pencil

-Pentel brush pen with black ink

-waterbrush filled with J. Herbin pearle noire black ink and diluted with water

-INKTENSE watercolor pencils

(since my students bounce to my site here and there, I will be limiting the posts of my figure drawing class. I will attempt to "edit" as best as I can)

last pose of the night

one pose and then a 2nd one I had a bad view so I sketched the other artists. 

my first dip! (edited)

Apples and sketching!

Our local meetup group got together at the Apple Farm for a nice afternoon of sketching and eating apples and doughnuts. 

[namiki falcon with DeArtementis Document ink, D+S watercolors in a S+B Epsilon Series sketchbook]