CAC Portrait Paint-in

Last Sunday I attended the California Art Club SF chapter portrait paint-in hosted by Pam Powell. Here's my painting of the model with perhaps the most difficult eyes I have tried to paint. They were challenging to paint because her eyes were either looking around the room constantly or heavy eye lids ready to fall asleep.

Mount Diablo

Tuesdays plein air painting of Mount Diablo from Briones regional park.

Snowy Peaks of Mount Diablo

Snowy Peaks of Mount Diablo painted from the Lafayette Reservoir. It was a cold day but what a view while the sun was out.

Drawings of Signe

Monday morning drawings from Michael Markowitz figure drawing studio in San Francisco. Michael has one of the better figure drawing environments that I have been to, he even has a freshly baked cake and tea for a snack on the models long break. The model is Signe and the pose range from 7 - 20 minutes.

Petaluma Plein Air

8th North Bay Plein Air Painters paint-out in Petluma in some very challenging conditions. Starting out that day it was a cold and gray. Then the sun broke though the clouds and created some of the most beautiful lighting circumstances. Unfortunately the light was very fleeting and seemed to change every time I looked up from my palette. I'm not too pleased with how this turned out so when I got home I decided to paint another one with more of the darker feeling that I initially wanted to capture. Not sure if it's working yet but here it is.

We also met up with Alfredo Tofanelli who is an instructor with the Atelier aux Couleurs in Petaluma. Alfredo was kind enough to invite us to his studio and have some refreshments for us while we chatted about painting.

5th Annual Sketchcrawl

5th Annual SketchCrawl held around the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Glad to meet up with new faces and familiar ones. Thank you everyone for sharing your sketchbooks, good stuff.

Metamorphica, Nov 09

Metamorphica, November 2009. This was my second time attending the art performance event by Bad Unkl Sista and her Butoh dance group. Below are the gouache paintings from the night. Thanks again Nadia for setting this event up.

Tiny 2009

I'm one of the many artists in the annual Studio Gallery SF group show "Tiny 2009". Below is the information for the show and my four paintings that were selected. I'll probably attend the latter part of the reception tomorrow after the figure drawing marathon at Merritt college.

Drawings of Jessie

Monday's figure drawing with the SHM club at SJSU. Here are a few gestures, a 10 & 20 drawings. Our model for the night was the fabulous Jessie.

Happy Halloween

Today's lunch time sketch in Lafayette park. Keeping a Halloween theme I decided to do a creepy gouache painting from my ink sketch.

Drawings of Rachel

A few figure drawings from last night at the Riley Street art store in San Rafael. The model was Rachel. Here is a 5 & two 20 minute poses.

Monte Bello, Oil & Gouache

Sunday I met my illustration class at the Monte Bello Space Preserve to experience the effects of atmospheric perspective. Here are 2 of the 3 studies I worked on. The first one is painted in oils, the second is gouache.

Gestures & 5's

Monday night 9/28, Drawing with the SHM club at SJSU. Here are some quick gestures and 5 minute poses.

China Camp @ Sunset

China Camp around sunset. Both of these are in painted in gouache at the same time and on the same paper.

Issac our Savior

Issac was our model for a five hour pose on Saturday. The model that was booked for the five hour pose flaked out on us. Luckily for our painting group Issac was in town and available to sit for us. Thank you very much Issac.

Mo' Mendocino

These two oil paintings are also from my weekend in Mendocino. Several friends that I attended the workshop with also pulled together our money to rent a house right on the edge of a cliff that looks over the ocean. It was quite a spectacular view to say the least even with very, very foggy conditions.

Mendocino Workshop w/ Tiemens

I attended Erik Tiemens 2 day watercolor & gouache workshop with several friends held at the Mendocino Art Center over the weekend. This is my first formal introduction into using watercolors and I would highly recommend taking this workshop if you are interested in landscape painting using these mediums.

The paintings were all done from memory and imagination which Erik encourages through out the class. The very last painting is a composition composed from imagination and a few drawings from my sketchbook. Erik was also kind enough to give me a quick crit and a 3 minute demo over some areas of my painting. He gave it more contrast and pop by adding the blue and yellow to the sky. The stream of light cutting across the ocean to help silhouette the rocks in the mid ground. The pale yellow-orange highlights on the rocks in the background and finally making the foliage on the tree in the foreground larger. What a great enjoyable weekend of painting!

Back From Hawai'i

I was in Hawai'i for almost two weeks to attend my grandfather's 90th birthday party. Here are a few gouache studies done on the south side of Oahu where I grew up.

Last Night's Figure Drawing

Last night's figure drawing at Riley Street art store, the model is Randell. Here are a gestures of 1 & 2 minutes, 10 and 20 minute poses.

6 Hours of Painting

Yesterday's paintings, about six hours worth of mixing oil paint. The first is a 5 hour long pose with model Alexis in the basement of the Riley Street art store in San Rafael. The second painting is a plein air study painted from my friends balcony in Mill Valley.

5 Hour Long Pose

Saturday's long pose of 5 hours at the Riley Street art store with model David B.

China Camp Shoreline

Today's painting on the shore of China Camp in San Rafael. During the day there was a big turn out of plein air painters, the Benica plein air group and the North Bay plein air painters which I am a member. Click on the links to see the other paintings from the day.

Hello Marin Headlands

Hello Marin Headlands. My view from Tuesday's plein air outing on the San Francisco coast.

Red Pencil & White Chalk

Figure drawings from Monday night at Riley Street art store, both are 20 minutes. The model is Liz with a very cool tattoo of cherry blossoms on her back. Red polychromos pencil with white chalk on tone paper.