Cole

Drawings in my sketchbook of my younger son Cole. These sketches were all done while he naps in the car.

30th SketchCrawl, SF

Today's 30th SketchCrawl held at Nihonmachi, also known as Japan Town in San Francisco. I could not have asked for a better day to sketch and catch up with friends.

Quick Color Study

A twenty minute color study (6" x 8") painted in oils at Pam Powell's portrait painting group last Sunday.

Ink & Gouache Sketch

Today's sketch started out with a blue ball point pen at the park. When I got home I decided to add some gouache over the sketch while still keeping it somewhat monochromatic.

Metamorphica 2/26

Another excellent evening of Metamorphica at the Bus Stop Gallery on Friday night. Thanks again to Bad Unkl Sista and her dance troupe, musicians and Nadia for putting this event together. Looking forward to the next one.

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.

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.

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.

Metamorphica Part 2

Metamorphica part 2.

I feel privileged to have taken part in this event with 25 other artist. The models were Butoh style dancers headed by Bad Unkl Sista dressed in unique designer costumes and white body paint. There was even a DJ spinning music as we drew and painted. To see photos and other artwork from participating artist check out the Bus Stop Gallery. Thank you for having this event I hope to make it to the next one.

Here are some of the other gouache studies I did that night. I re-worked on the third one a little more once I got home.

Metamorphica Part 1

Metamorphica at the Bus Stop Gallery. More images and text to follow.

SketchCrawl 22

SketchCrawl number 22 in San Francisco's Chinatown. It was a nice day to be out inhaling smokey air- I forgot how much old men love to smoke in Chinatown. Everywhere I sat down it seemed that I was covered in smoke. I was glad to see some familiar faces and meet some new one too.

Edgewood Road

It turns out I didn't have to rush back to the City after work on Wednesday. So, I decided to pull off the 280 at Edgewood road and do a quick gouache painting before the sun went down. About 30 minutes.

Mind Storm

Over the last several weeks here in the Bay Area there has been stormy skies clearing away to some truly amazing color and light. I've been wanting to actually get out there and try painting some storm clouds. However with the holidays here, there has been no time. So I decided to paint a few thumbnails and small studies from memory and imagination in gouache.

Gouache Studies

I took my class painting on Sunday to observe atmospheric perspective at the Monte Bello space preserve. I was not satisfied with the painting I produced in the afternoon so I stopped at the vista lookout on my way home off the 280 just before the 92 interchange. The view was amazing with the fog catching some warm sunlight as it was rolling over the hills.



Lately as I'm driving around the bay area there has been some stunning light and color in the early mornings or twilight. I wish I could just stop wherever I am and start painting, but obviously that would be dangerous in the middle of the freeway. So these two little color studies are from memory/invention. I haven't done many of these but they were fun to do.

Hanging Lilies

Hanging Lilies painted in gouache.

Moleskin Watercolor Sketchbook

Yeah! I finally got my new Moleskin watercolor sketchbook so I had to break it in. Gouache on the right , color pencil and watercolor wash on the left.

Martian Hands

Okay, they're not really martian hands but hand studies for my four arm martian below falling to his death.

Sketchbook Archive

Here are a few pages from my current sketchbook. You never know when you might loose or miss place your sketchbook. So I decided that I should periodically scan and archive some of the pages that I do like.



Tennessee Valley in Marin.



Back when Concept Art.org had there drop-in Saturday figure drawing workshop. On this day I forgot my charcoal pencils but good thing I had my trusty sketchbook and ball point pen. This model has a very cool fully covered back tattoo with wings. I tried to carry out the wing motif/design through out this composition of drawings.



This model took very, very boring poses, yawn. I had to use my imagination on these to make it interesting for myself.