Thursday, August 25, 2011

Downtown San Jose

These are small color studies painted with gouache in downtown San Jose. It was a warm sunny day spent with some students from the SJSU Animation/Illustration program. The first painting is the Center for the Performing Arts. Below is SJ Museum of Art.




Tuesday, August 16, 2011

20 Minute Figure Studies

20 minute figure studies painted with gouache.




Sunday, August 7, 2011

Alum Rock Park, SJ

Wednesdays plein air outing at Alum Rock Park with a few SJSU A/I students. It was my first time visiting and painting in this beautiful park and I will definitely be back to explore the many other areas this park has to offer. We met in the very back parking lot and walked up the trail that follows the creek for about 15 minutes or so until we came to this bend. Since it is summer and dry, most of us set up down in the creek. I would love to go back to this spot during in the winter and see the creek flowing with water.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Lands End, NBPLA Painter's 2011

Two paintings from Sunday's outing with the North Bay Plein Air Painters group meet-up. It's a friendly group of painters that meet on the last Sunday of every month. This time it was at Lands End on the Sutro Baths side in San Francisco.

Unfortunately for me, I was too picky about finding a location to paint. I didn't find a composition that really inspired me partly due to the heavy fog and lack of sunshine. So that meant I spent a lot of time walking around looking for a spark of inspiration.

The first painting is a 30-minute color sketch to help me loosen up. I didn't really care if it turn out in my favor or not. It is mostly painted with a palette knife. The second painting took about 70 minutes. I would have liked to have spent more time it had I started earlier. I'd say this is more of a study than a painting. I am not happy about the composition, but I always feel compelled to paint the ocean when I am near the coastline.