Instagram Fridays: LAX to ORD

Sketched this during a 3 hour plane ride from Los Angeles to Chicago. I have always loved urban sketching, its when I am most in my element. All I used to sketch were people, so now I am trying my hand at complete scenes and to be mindful of the composition.

I bought The Art of Urban Sketching: Drawing On Location Around The World (which is an amazing book that shows you how other urban sketchers see the world as well as their tips and techniques) and took a really good tip from one of the artists: to sketch close to far, it worked very well for me. I really wanted to sit out in downtown Chicago and sketch the beautiful skyline and the quaint houses but I was with a group of four girls and were constantly running around.

I will now go and dream of this deep dish Chicago style pizza that ruined all pizzas for me. Damn you Pequods!!

Creep Sketching Saturday

My love for sketching strangers, aka creep sketching, has been my favorite past time for years now. It allows me to be super observant about everything, to notice the tiny details that makes a person an individual. However when the person notices you drawing them, the drawing is over, so I have to make it quick since I'm not the most inconspicuous person. 

The first three were done in one of my favorite coffee shops, its weird being here mid-aftertoon since I'm always just here in the mornings before work. When the shop was winding down, or when I have ran out of victims, I drove myself to Barnes and Nobles to look for fresh ones and was there for an hour or so. Markers are still a learning process for me but I need to start adding value to my sketches. Next will be watercolors! Eep. 

Gesture Drawings

I'm lucky to have started my figure drawing studies at the age of 16 and throughout college, its my favorite thing ever. Gesture drawings are quick 5-10 second sketches of the movement and dynamic of a pose. I used this sports photographer's awesome photos as reference. 

I have done all of these in pen (fountain and gel ball point) in about 5-10 seconds each. 

So Metal

Just did a study of a metal tea kettle. I found out that I really like painting metal.

Crack the Sky

New painting! I had this idea floating around in my head for a while. Originally it was in landscape but felt like it was more dynamic this orientation.  A lot of things changed from the sketch, to the first few drafts and the final. The entire color scheme and mood was changed and I would not have thought to do so unless I took this to final.

Photoshop CS4

Selfies

Today marks the end of week 4 of Noah Bradley's Art Camp. This week we concentrated on self portraits painted via mirror and/or having someone sit for you as you draw their portrait. I managed to get about three selfies in this week and made sure to improve as I did each one. To show the progression, I will swallow my pride and post them.

                               

Bubbles and Lemons

Some recents. One sketch from imagination and a still life study. The lighting changed like 1934032 times ahhaah. Had it set up left of me on my desk. I will do more of these because I started hating glass but now I just want to paint more glass.