life drawing

fish head

What was left of the rainbow trout at Saul's

artists warehouse sale

I collaborated with Claire B. Cotts on a few pieces for the annual SF MOMA Artists Gallery warehouse sale. I drew the birds, she pretty much did the rest. The sale goes on May 7- 11, and the art goes for 50% off. Get the bargains while they last.


(detail)


SF MOMA Warehouse sale

sketchcrawl 18: hyde street pier, sf

Saturday, March 29th, was worldwide sketchcrawl 18. I met with the local contingent at Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco. Click the images to see them larger.


I headed down the hill to the Hyde Street pier to see the historic ships. It was cold and windy where I caught this view of the stern of the Balclutha, a square-rigger from Glasgow. In the distance you can see both the Transamerica Tower and Ghirardelli Square.


Anyone who didn't pay the $5 to board the ships was missing out. I wish I could have drawn everything but I was having too much fun exploring around. Here are some spot observations from the Balclutha and a view of the Hercules, a steam tug.



Here is a view of the steam engine at the heart of Eureka, a ferry boat, and a father and daughter, below me, listening to the docent explaining how it all worked. I think the old guy was dozing off behind his sunglasses. The lower deck is something of an antique car museum. Here is a 1930 Graham Paige sedan and a sliver of a ford truck.

For more drawings from San francisco and around the world, check out the forums at

sketchcrawl.com

bluesman

about 15 minutes or so, while he played.

the new yorker's eustace tilley competition

Two of my pieces won:


The New Yorker recently ran a contest inviting the public to submit their own interpretations of the magazine's iconic mascot, Eustace Tilley. The original was drawn by Rea Irvin and graced the magazine's first cover in 1925, and the monocled dandy has appeared in some form or another on most every anniversary issue cover since.

20 winners were chosen from a pool of almost 300 entries. You can see all 20, including both of my submissions on the New Yorker's web site here.

Check out the contest page on Flickr to see all of the entries. There were many very clever ones and I don't envy the judges.

You can listen to an interview with the magazine's art director, Francoise Mouly, in which she discusses the contest, the history of the character, and mentions my "blowing bubbles" piece here.

You can also see my entry "The Springfieldian," - a collaboration with Claire B. Cotts who came up with the basic premise - in The New Yorker magazine itself along with a few of the other winners in the current anniversary issue (Feb. 11th & 18th). So check it out!

All apologies to Matt Groening and the good people at Gracie Films.

sketchcrawl 17: chinatown

January 19th was sketchcrawl day. I met with the Bay Area sketchcrawlers in Chinatown, SF. It was cold, and I had handwarmers in my pockets, but they don't help much when your hands are out and sketching. Here are some highlights.

Lanterns hanging over the street at Grant and Clay

One of the distinctive double dragon lampposts that line the street.

For more, check out the forums at sketchcrawl.com

life drawing

sketch crawl 16: oaxaca

I was in Oaxaca Mexico on sketchcrawl day. This is the church of Nuestra Senora de la Soledad.

A couple of boys who came to see what I was doing as I was drawing the church.

Ancient artifacts from the cultural museum

Waiting at the airport for our (delayed) flight home.

oaxaca

I took a trip to Oaxaca Mexico recently to witness the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebrations. I was on the go most of the time, but I did manage to record a few sights in my sketchbook.

These sketches (above) are mostly from Oaxaca City. The Zapotec woman at the bottom was selling pan de muerto which is good for eating or leaving on an ofrenda or altar for the dead and which looks like a regular round loaf with a little angel head sticking out to one side. She carried them in a basket on her head covered with an embroidered cloth. At the top right is a street view looking toward the church of Santo Domingo, along the middle are some chickens and cilantro from a comida counter in the public market, and at the bottom is the inside of the bus heading up to Monte Alban.

A few very quick views around the ancient ruins of Monte Alban and some items on display at the visitor center including a drinking vessel decorated with images crossed bones and a severed hand, and human skulls showing signs of trepanation - holes drilled into the cranium to relieve pressure on the brain. The little girl at the bottom was with a family selling peanits in a market in the town of Ocatlan.

The woman here is Rocio, part of a community of mostly American expats in the town of St. Augustin Etla. I drew her in the dark. On Nov. 1st, Etla holds a comparse or masquerade in which the residents wear costumes made of mirrors and bells that they've spent all year putting together and which can weigh up to 60 lbs. They dance all night with a marching band accompanying them as they go from house to house through the town. Dressed as demons on this night, they are free to speak their minds about anything including the government. They put on little dramas. You can see quick impressions of some of the costumes at the bottom, drawn as we made our way through the crowd looking for a late ride back to Oaxaca. Also here are drawings of statues from an antique shop in the city.

sketchcrawl 15: golden gate park, sf

I met with the sketchcrawlers outside the De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, S.F. There was a jugband festival at the bandstand. I recognized some Mississippi John Hurt numbers as I drew this.

Three views from the observation tower of the museum, overlooking the park and the city.

Some of the other sketchers outside the Tea Garden at mid day.

At the fountain, just before we met to pass sketchbooks around. That's the museum tower in the distance.

For more, check out the forums at sketchcrawl.com

life drawing

comics

A couple of old comics pages of mine are in a group gallery show in Redwood City.
From the Books of Magic Annual no. 3 (Vertigo/DC). Script by Peter Gross

Click to view large.

stereo view

I recently acquired a turn of the century stereoscope and have been collecting stereoview cards. This little image, however is something I put together myself. About a year ago I was digging through old photos in an antique store and found a snapshot taken of an auto race from sometime in the late twenties or early thirties (If anyone has a closer idea of when, let me know). Earlier this month I was in the same shop and I found an almost identical photo. It seems that the photographer was interested in the white car and taking pictures of it as it passed. These two shots are from different laps (notice the dark car does not appear in one of them), and they are also taken from slightly different angles - angles just different enough to create an almost perfect - if quite accidental- 3D view of the race!

I've composited the pictures into a standard stereoview format. Click on the above image to view it larger, and then gently cross your eyes until the two images align over each other. You should see the rail, blurry in the foreground, the two trees and the sapling beyond that, the race in the midground ,and the the spectators and trees in the distance. The cars will seem to flicker since their positions do not match.

sebastopol

From the bridge over the creek behind the willow tree. The woman is dangling a beestung and mud-caked foot over the edge of the bridge. That's a flower on her belly. As it happens, the cat is also dangling an injured paw over the other side of the bridge.

figure drawing

From the past couple of weeks

airports

Denver

Dallas Fort Worth

sketchcrawl 14: chinatown, sf

Last saturday was worldwide sketchcrawl 14. I met with the San Francisco contingent at the Ferry building in SF. We made our way from there to the Filbert Steps and on up to coit tower, and then down through Little Italy to Chinatown.

The best part of the day for me was in Chinatown. My buddy and I sketched scenes through the shop windows and attracted some attention from the passers by and the shopkeepers who kept taking turns to come out and watch us, smiling and expressing approval. These fish were actually kind of late in the day - makes me wonder what took me so long to pull out the watercolors. Next time: more color

View from along the Filbert Steps of this beautiful garden with roses growing around this tree. Talk about not seeing the forest for the trees, there were some spectacular views of the city to be seen from the Steps, which I didn't draw and so you don't get to see. Next time: better reportage

Coit tower, and then off to lunch in Little Italy. Then back around to China Town where I drew some hanging smoked chickens and the shopkeeper as he studied my partner drawing the same scene.

Embarcadero Bart station on the way back.

More to be found in the forums at sketchcrawl.com

And here is Justin Chin's sketch of the same fish and of me painting them.

figure drawing

the past couple of weeks

bjork

These are some face studies of the singer Bjork along with some doodles out of my head meant to evoke nonspecific but vaguely European folk art motifs. Imeem was sponsoring a Bjork poster design contest for tickets to an upcoming show, and I got as far as this preliminary study which gave me some ideas for an actual poster design, but, alas, time was too short and it fell by the wayside. You can check out the design that won and some of the other entries at imeem