In the sketchbook...

I drew this guy on the Muni bus (71 haight) on my way to Golden Gate Park in San Francisco one morning. I was teaching a 1 day workshop at Sharon Art Studio that day. The bus was extremely packed and I was so pissed because there was lots of people smashed against me. I pulled out my little drawing book and a Japanese brush pen and went to work. I held on to the pole with one hand and the book at the same time (as the bus rocked from the drivers jerky stop and go tactics). I drew as best I could with my hand in a really cramped position. It was more a test to see if I could capture likeness through a direct line drawing from observation with pen given all of the distractions. A couple people watched as I carved the young lads image out of the manila page with bold, confident brush strokes. Fun Stuff For Sure

It's always been a comforting event to purchase a new sketchbook. Recently I bought a new sketchbook. I decided to get a Moleskine since I am painting a lot more. I needed a book that would be small enough to fit in my back pack but still provide heavy weight paper for acrylics and other mediums. They do cost more than the average book of it's size (5” x 8 ¼”) but when you look at it like carrying lots of little canvases on the go, it all make more sense. So far so good - this is my first painted sketch in the book and it handed the acrylics well. It's a painting of my wife on the laptop adding music to her iphone.

I will be purchasing more of these books in the future although it will take a good while before I finish this book. I will be painting over images that I am not pleased with. This is a technique I picked up from look at the online sketchbooks of "Kent Williams." It's very important that you look at other artists and learn from them, pick up good habits etc.

This is a tonal painting of a guy i drew on the AC Transit last night. I used a photograph I snapped of him as reference. I have been inspired by reading/studying Richard Schmid and Sargent.


I normally drawing folks on the BART during my daily commute. Today I decided to add color to one of my drawings. I drew the two ladies that were sitting in front of me (I'm not completely sure if they knew) with the intentions of painting the image when I got to the house. After I finished a loose drawing I photographed them with my phone. I would post the photo but I think that would be invading.
Acrylics:
I started out with an underpainting of Phthalo Blue (green shade). I used Liquitex Slow Dri Blending Medium... it helps when glazing and also gives you a bit longer drying time. I did this in a Moleskine 5” x 8 ¼” sketchbook. Took about an hour or so.