Our drive home from the city takes us past the Palace of Fine Arts – which we’ve drawn many times during the day. I’ve alwasy wanted to come back after dark and draw the spotlights on the sculpture. I found a good view from the ‘far’ side (opposite the Exploratorium entrance) where the lighting makes a great light-on-dark-on-light counter changed silhouettes. If you’re out here Friday nights you might meet a crazy group of skaters that descend on the place with a mobile sound system. (Link: The Midnight Rollers).
Here’s a snapshot of my new night drawing setup. An LED bike light taped to an ultralight tripod, and a fisherman’s ‘ball cap light’ clipped to my hat brim…makes drawing in places without streetlight a lot easier! Added bonus – it makes raccoon eyes glow green! A little creepy at first!
Categories: street sketching
Spent part of the halloween weekend sketching with some friends – it seemed appropriate to visit the cemetery 
There were a few people out taking a gothic stroll – but really, it was such a nice day – was hard to feel very spooky…
Categories: Uncategorized
10 am - Mount Vision
2pm – Chimney Rock Trail
5:30 pm – McClure Beach
Just back from two more days painting at Point Reyes. Same as last session – 9×12 oil paint on panel, all knife work.
The thing I like about the palette knife - every stroke is clean color – no loaded brushes messing up your pigments. I can’t imagine cleaning my brushes between every stroke out in the field – but that’s what you get for free with the knives. As well – the paint is always completely opaque. Every mark is clearly articulated.
These sessions were either incredibly windy, doused in surf spray, or plagued with flies – so anything that gives you the color you want with less fuss is full of win!
I guess the bottom line is – I like the strokes you get! I try not to get too ‘artistic’ on the blog – but I have to say, I’m mesmerized by the expressive marks!
Categories: plein air
I hesitated before posting these – I think Laurel’s photos are so much better than my paintings…but oh well – in the interest of art blog disclosure – here’s the paintings in progress
Categories: plein air
Here’s a couple plein air painting from this afternoon. I’m trying something different here…painting oils on panel, 8×10, working entirely with pallette knives…the results are a little out of control, a little too abstract – it’s probably not for everyone, but I enjoy the really juicy surface! I’m going to have to keep at this – see if I can refine the edges, do better at ‘rendering’ the scene..
Sea Lion overlook, just next to Point Reyes lighthouse.
Up on Mount Tam, looking at SF. This one is became a bit too abstract – you’re looking down at Tiburon and SF from 2500 ft.
Categories: plein air
I don’t know if this is something other people want to do…but I’m kind of a nerd, so I thought it was fun to plot the best of my San Francisco sketches in a Bing Maps collection. The interface can be a little wonky – there’s a small link on the upper left that says ‘map all’ – kind of gives you a pulled out view of the city
here’s a link to the Citizen Sketcher Map Collection
Categories: ephemera
Spent the day sketching at the North Beach Italian Festival. Topped it off with incredible pasta at Pomodoro on Columbus
Categories: street sketching
September 8, 2009 · 1 Comment
Just a quick street sketch of the Orpheum Theater on Market Street…light wasn’t great today, but I went at it anyway…once you’re out there with your stuff, you might as well get to work! I notice my perspective is getting very strange lately. I’m doing a bunch of retro video game graphics at work, it must be affecting my eyes…I’m seeing in isometric
Categories: plein air · street sketching
Went down to the SF Asian to see the Art of Samurai show. I’m a big fan of the museum – but their exhibit space is so small! I always come away from the special exhibits wanting more…but that’s just greed I guess – the shows are always quality over quantity.
Here’s some sketches of the armor on exhibit. I love drawing this stuff – in fact, Japanese armor was among the first subjects I drew. It has that combination of gothic subject matter and intricate detail that gets my OCDrawing going…
Categories: museum drawing
Last weekend we took a stroll through the vast necropolis at Colma CA. In places you can turn and see rows and rows of monuments spreading out like a miniature European city.
Wikipeda says: “With much of Colma’s land dedicated to cemeteries (17 for the interment of humans and one for pets), the dead population outnumber the living by thousands to one. This has led to it being called, “the city of the silent,” and also has given rise to a humorous motto among some residents: “It’s great to be alive in Colma.
Categories: street sketching
