Toned tan round up

Some miscellaneous sketches from my toned tan sketchbook.

Toned tan gems

After taking a portrait drawing class I feel like my people are getting better and better. Here are a few gems from my Strathmore toned tan sketchbook. The first one was done at Barnes + Noble a few nights ago. The gentleman sat down with his Economist magazine and didn't budge for 30 minutes or so. The second was sitting in my dentist office and this guy was glued to his iPhone like a 14 year old girl. The third is also from B+N.

[zebra sarasa 07 gel pen, PITT warm gray markers, and a white gel pen in a toned tan Strathmore sketchbook]

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Student working

Sometimes my students need a role model on what a working artist looks like. They will often chat, and chat some more and chat some more and forget to do work. So I will sketch and work beside them to give a silent example. That means my other students who are working make great models. The past few days the sun has been shining and reflecting off of the snow making fantastic shadows. I didn't capture the shadow very well here, but trying is half the battle. 

[Pilot Brush pen and Copic CG1 marker in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape]

Zom-baby

So a friend at school was involved with a prank. The other day he ended up with a weird, cherub/baby with a sunflower on it's head garden decoration in his mailbox. He came to me and said "can we make this into a zombie?"--"Why yes, yes we can".

I proceeded to chop off one of it's feet with a hacksaw. Then I built a bone, leg wound, and brains out of sculpey. Then baked the whole thing in an oven and then painted! 

Introducing--Zom-BABY! 

Just after baking

finished product.

Portrait class

I decided to step out of my comfort zone and take a class I would fear from start to finish--Drawing portraits with charcoal. I stink at drawing people so a few years ago I vowed to try my hardest to get better at it. Here is one of the very first people sketches I did:

May 16th 2011

From that point on I started to enjoy drawing people: in restaurants, waiting rooms, coffee shops, airports, airplanes, school meetings, you name it. So this class was not so much "sketching" as it was "drawing". So I grabbed my tools and dove in! 

All were made with a combo of: Conte a Paris; conte pencils, and charcoal all on fancy Canson gray toned paper. 

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week 2

week 3

Sketch meet up (B+N)

Just a lazy saturday sketching folks at Barnes and Noble. 



[pilot V5 pen, Uniball ball point pen, PITT warm gray markers, and a white gel pen in a toned tan Strathmore sketchbook--oh, and a cookie, or two]

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]

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