Sonnenberg gardens

During the Fingerlakes Plein Air Festival there is one day where the Sonnenberg Gardens are open to the public and free. Being the cheap-o guy that I am I hurried up there for some sketching! [namiki falcon and a Lamy Safari with DeArtementis Document ink, D+S watercolors in a Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook-landscape] 

Barnes and Noble meetup (edit)

Here are a few sketches from our most recent (and long over due) sketch meet up. 

[sailor bent nib pen and D+S watercolors in a Stillman & Birn gamma sketchbook-landscape--and a cookie]

Speed sketch

I went sketching with my sketching buddy--Genine on what we thought was a nice afternoon. We found some cool old industrial buildings to sketch but when we got comfy the wind made us a little chilly so we opted for a speed sketch. We had 15 minutes for inking and color! Afterwards I went back in to add some value and details! 

[LAMY Safari M nib, with DeArtementis Document ink, D+S watercolors in a Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook-landscape]

Bernie! Bernie!

After a quick breakfast I noticed some Bernie supporters on main street. They were waving signs and chanting things the sunday before the primary. I though they would make a great sketch subject so off I went. 

I learned a lot sitting there:
-Trump supporters are rude
-Trump supporters drive HUGE trucks
-Bernie supporters drive Civics or a Prius
-You are NEVER going to change people's minds by yelling at them
-You are doing any political favors yelling at people who yell "Trump"
-People are very ill-informed
-Opinions created in a vacuum are dangerous--for either side. 

[various pens, d+s watercolors, stillman and birn gamma sketchbook]

Eastman House

Being a Rochestarian, one of our founding fathers of this city was George Eastman. He built Eastman Kodak company from the ground up. Had many patents created that we still use today and was a great philanthropist (his donations created U of R and MIT--donated as Mr. Smith). His home is now a museum and gallery. So my good sketching buddy Genine and I sketched the afternoon away at his home. 

The "guns" are actually cameras and the bottles are the old Technicolor dyes used to create "colored" movies! 

[LAMY Safari M nib, Namiki Falcon with DeArtementis Document ink, a brush pen with water and J. Herbin Pearl Noire ink, D+S watercolors in a Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook-landscape]

One man sketchcrawl

60 degrees and sunny in February! That calls for a sketch crawl! 

[namiki falcon with DeArtementis Document ink, D+S watercolors in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape]

[ball point pen, in a toned tan Strathmore sketchbook]

Playing ketchup

A running joke with my students is our MUSTARD DAYS. Not Catch up days, but Mustard. Get it?! So this post will be me play catch-up. Things get a little nutty around the holidays, so posting to an art blog isn't too high on the priority list. 

1. I have been following and reading about "vintage flexible nib pens" on instagram and the interwebs. I was determined to find a pen that was cheap, old, and had some super-flex to it. It just so happens that there is an antique mall about 2 miles from my house that houses, no joke, 1,000 different dealers! There are aisles and aisles of cases containing just about everything, including vintage pens! I picked up this guy, which is a 1930s (maybe) Gold Bond, 14K nib pen for $40!!! It's too cool! The flex is a amazing and I am dying to take it for a spin. 

2. We had a "last-day-before-break-holiday-sing-a-long-assembly" and of course I had my sketchbook. The kids were all wearing some sort of holiday hat which made for some fun sketches! I wish the songs were a little longer so I could have captured them better. 

[Uni-ball vision ball point pen, a brush pen with water and J. Herbin Pearl Noire ink, red Inktense watercolor pencil, in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape]

3. Same day as #2, but this was kindergarten playing with the blocks. The colors and movement were fun to see but hard to capture! 

[Uni-ball vision ball point pen, a Pilot Brush pen, a brush pen with water and J. Herbin Pearl Noire ink, Inktense watercolor pencils, in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape]

4. Since I have gotten into sketching one of the best things is waiting. Waiting in the doctor's office, waiting for a friend in a coffee shop, waiting in a mall, waiting in an airport (which is sketching gold) or just waiting. I can whip out my sketchbook and capture something. I was waiting for some friends at a new trendy, hipster restaurant, and sketched some of the glassware. They weren't necessarily in a neat line, but that is the beauty of sketching--do whatever you want! 

[Uni-ball vision ball point pen, namiki falcon with DeArtementis Document ink, a Pilot Brush pen, a brush pen with water and J. Herbin Pearl Noire ink, in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape]

5. Some more waiting! This time for a delicious burger from 5 Guys. After this sketch I realized that we are a VERY unshapely group of people.  

[Uni-ball vision ball point pen, a waterbrush with water and J. Herbin Pearl Noire ink, Inktense watercolor pencils, in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape]

6/7/8/9. Lamberton Conservatory! Rochester's best kept secret. I told myself that I wouldn't sketch the turtles because I do every time I am there. But I couldn't help myself--they make great models!  

[namiki falcon with DeArtementis Document ink, a Pilot Brush pen, a brush pen with water and J. Herbin Pearl Noire ink, D+S watercolors in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape]

10. A quick sketch of the dishes as dinner sautéed on the stove! My new favorite subject. 

[a Pilot Brush pen, a brush pen with water and J. Herbin Pearl Noire ink, in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape]

11. "You should mount a M60 on a tripod--no one would come on to your land then!"--um yeah. Exactly what is wrong with our country. A sketch of some hillbillies at a local diner. 

[Uni-ball vision ball point pen, a waterbrush with water and J. Herbin Pearl Noire ink, in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape]

12. "Santa! I know him!" Right next to my abode, there is Santa's house! Seriously, Santa. The real deal. It was a balmy 60 degree December day so I sat and sketched the people in line to see Santa! I was trampled on by a family of 5 kids, saw a woman almost pass out for no reason and watched at least 4 kids cry about 4 different things--mostly not wanting to leave the presence of his almighty Santa.

[namiki falcon with DeArtementis Document ink, D+S watercolors in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape]

13. More waiting! 

[Uni-ball vision ball point pen, a waterbrush with water and J. Herbin Pearl Noire ink, in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape]

14. And more waiting! This time for delicious, overly and un-necessarily salty Chinese food! 

[Uni-ball vision ball point pen, a waterbrush with water and J. Herbin Pearl Noire ink, in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape]

15. Another assembly at school and I got stuck in the storage room running the AV system so I sketched the crowd! 

[Uni-ball vision ball point pen, a waterbrush with water and J. Herbin Pearl Noire ink, in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape]

16. More waiting at the local diner. 

[Uni-ball vision ball point pen, in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape]

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

Fuel 16

My sketching buddy Genine and I wanted a new place to explore and sketch. At the same time an old (as in time past, not age!) advertising friend invited me to an event where copywriters would be sharing stories. It was a launch event for Cohber Press and their FUEL idea. It was a nice night of being an art-geek and catching up with some old friends! 

[namiki falcon with DeArtementis Document ink. Added at home: D+S watercolors, and a water pen with water and J. Herbin Pearl Noire ink in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape] 

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]

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

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]

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]

51 seniors in the MTL

What more could you ask for? 12 hours on a bus, 51 seniors, bad food, gorgeous sunshine, crisp fall air, stiff hotel beds, three 1st place finishes in Laser Tag, 7-3 victory in air hockey? 

I was asked to chaperone the senior trip to Montreal in Quebec, Canada this past weekend. We had some free time here and there so I attempted to get some sketches in when I could. Some were rushed due to time constraints, or schedules. Most were finished on site, maybe some details added here or there when I had a moment. 

[namiki falcon with DeArtementis Document ink, Lamy Safari M-nib with DeArtementis Document ink, Lamy Safari EF-nib with Noodler's Lexington Gray, with D+S watercolors in a S+B Epsilon Series sketchbook]

a small church in downtown MTL

a collection of animals from the BIODOME

a collection of sketches from our tour of MTL

a pirate dinner party! 

some folks from the amusement park: La Ronde