I'm a fan!

This is George Donaldson, 40 year old singer in the Irish group Celtic Thunder at the time he made the video I drew this from. He's the oldest of the group but still younger than me. They're all cute and wonderful musicians and singers as individuals. Maybe I'll get around to drawing all of them, eh?

Grahite, about 6x8 inches in my sketchbook, drawn from the YouTube video in about 40 minutes plus 40 wasted minutes tweaking. I'm having a tough time with ears lately, not just his.

I placed an interlibrary request for Celtic Thunder's first DVD. Damien was only 14 then and still hitting the high notes. I never saw that PBS special. I have never regretted donating my car a few years ago to the PBS channel KCET, I just wish they'd stop bugging me already.

Many firsts

Used Li's (lisilk) WDE reference to attempt many firsts:

First ATC/ACEO size.

First gouache.

First time to use the Pentalic w/c paper.

Attempted the pop art challenge, using Blue Dog as inspiration.

His name is Buddy, nicknamed Boo-Boo, a Queensland Heeler.

Urban sketch #2

8am on Joanne Ave in Ventura, CA. Mom was getting some labwork done. I've been wanting to do a street with parked cars and trees. I couldn't translate the color of the street but it was brightly reflecting sunshine. Yup, I think that does it. Ink & watercolor in the 6x8 inch watercolor pad.

Sketchcrawl 24

I'm only posting my favorite sketch from Sketchcrawl #24. I did five and shared them on the Urban Sketcher's group on Flickr and on Wetcanvas. I didn't find an all inclusive Sketchcrawl community on Flickr.

Urban sketch #2

This is my view from the treadmills and elliptical machines at my gym. After my workout today, I went out and sketched this. 30 min, ink & watercolor in a 6x8 inch watercolor pad.

Painting my Palettes

Been feeling a bit disconnected lately. I was sitting up in my room, staring at my big empty sketchbook. It's 12x15x1 inches, and very heavy so it's got luggage handles attached. Apparently I had started some color charts in the back so I added inktense and graphtints charts. It hit me that this paper isn't sized but at least it didn't pill or bleed through. So I started painting my palettes. These are on different areas of back to back pages, so I p'shopped them into one picture: the Koi pan set of 18 (my favorite because of the blues & greens), the W&N Cotman pans, and my palette with the Marie's Chinese Watercolor tube paint which I leave to dry in a plastic palette.

I was surprised how well they turned out. I've been quite convinced how bad I am at watercolor but now I've just done three watercolor sketches in a row that I'm happy with. IRL, the sketches aren't that wonky perspectivewise...blame the photographer for not getting a straight shot.

Urban sketch #1

Struggled to create something this weekend...until I drove a little old lady to church. This is Santa Clara Chapel. There's a bell out front signifying it's historically significant to California. Maybe someday I'll find out why. Gel pen in my 4x6 inch handmade leatherbound journal. This is Urban #1 because I'm going to start counting them in this blog.

My WDE sucked, but I posted it to AMAE "in the spirit."

I don't do salad.

His name is Andy. There's a resemblance but I don't know if he still looks as close to three years old as the reference, I think he looks a tad older. (Oldrockchick) Lin's son didn't want to eat his veggies many years ago. I hope I got the facial expression, even if his eyes aren't quite right (O_o) Graphite in my big sketch book. Original sketch is 6x8 inches.

English Rose

Another acrylic 4x4 from the WDE hosted by Lin (oldrockchick). I think it looks better from a distance so I'm putting it high up on my wall. I don't think I've ever successfully painted a rose before. I sketched a nice ink pen quickie once, while waiting for my turn at a mammogram. TMI?

Crowned Crane

This is acrylic paint on 4x4 inch canvas from this week's WDE hosted by the forum team, I think.
Before I moved my sketch blog, at the beginning of the year, I had a goal to do one small finished painting a week, with allowances for more time to do bigger finished work. If I couldn't do that, I was going to take an art class at the college because that always seems to get my paint flowing. Well, I haven't been painting since my plein air frustration in Maui and I can't, under my current circumstances, commit to a class for the whole semester but I've got permission to drop into the Life Painting class (figure painting). It's already getting me thinking about painting alot.

Also on my 2009 art goals: Finish my 100 OP sketch challenge by the end of the year and continue on my 100 acrylic sketches. Hopefully I'm back on track with the one small painting a week and I've got 6 more OP's to go.

Visual journal #2

I had a dream last night.
I was traveling in Scandinavia.
Airport was a nightmare -- nothing new.
The tram got lost getting to the plane.
Somehow the tram turned into a city
tour of Stockholm.
The driver spoke no English.
I kept trying to tell her we were late.

Anyone interpret dreams?

OP #94 of 100

This is Simon from the WDE hosted by mbeckett on Wetcanvas. 30 min in the large watercolor Moleskine, oil pastel over acrylic. This finishes off my 10th sketchbook.