Got to make it out to Enrico’s and Ronnie’s Sketchcrawl this past Saturday. I hadn’t attended a Sketchcrawl since number 2! Wow, long overdue for me, but it was great to be out there.

This crawl took place in Portsmouth Square in Chinatown of San Francisco, and it was a fantastic spot for characters and architecture. Check out the Sketchcrawl forums to see more work from artists all over the world who were all out sketching on the same day! It’s incredibly inspiring to see other people’s work, and knowing you’re part of a world-wide community of artists! Thanks to Enrico and Ronnie for organizing such a great phenomenon. Join us next time, wherever you are! They take place about every two months or so.

Some kids waiting with us before a screening of Cloverfield. A PG-13 rating guaranteed having the early-teen set saturate the theater. I have never felt so old…

Good film. Definitely gave me the heebie-jeebies, which I love. Nice effects and full of tension and surprises. My one wish would be that “less is more,” which was lost a bit. But it’s still fun. Check it out.

This lady crossed my path while I was on my morning run a couple days ago. Her pale face caked with makeup and white-blond hair set against her backdrop of dark clothes was rather striking. And it was a grey, cold and foggy morning.

About something.

I’m still figuring her out. She’s lithe and limber, an acrobat, and can balance on the ball quite well. She wears the traditional harlequin’s costume of the Commedia Dell’Arte. In this incarnation anyway!

No one plans on starting the new year off with getting sick and battling a nasty cough and cold. And yet here I am… Ah well. Until I get myself feeling 100%, here are some bears. And a girl. With some marker seeping through.

Inside the theater, before Marjane’s interview at the Persepolis screening.
Watercolor done at home…

I tried to draw Marjane from memory today, but I find it pretty difficult to capture a person from memory. So here’s the only sketch so far that I was sort of feeling ok about.

I managed to get out to the SF Zoo last Saturday. I woke up to have sun streaming through my window and decided on a whim to get myself and my sketchbook out there. It was a rather chilly first day of December, despite the sun. Here are some of my drawings, arranged on a couples pages.

Enrico Casarosa is the architect behind this very cool premise. On Sunday, March 6th, artists from all over the world will meet, wherever they are, and spend the day wandering through their city, documenting their day through drawings. People post their drawings to the site when the day is done to share with everyone. Now, artists generally take their books out to draw on their own, but this is an actual organized event that will happen simultaneously in several different countries. How Enrico got this to be an international event I have no idea, but it’s probably the coolest thing ever. And a great way to make artist-friends in your area!

Solveig is a wonderful model who we work with occassionaly at Expression College for Digital Arts. I’ve been spending time at the college instructing drawing labs. Feels good teaching the importance of a solid foundation of drawing skills to the students. Plus a chance for me to keep up the figure drawing and try to get better. There is always room for improvement. How those skills secretly slip away if you don’t keep up on a regular basis. Like doing scales for a musical instrument, drawing from life is imperative to keep your mind and eye sharp as to understading form, weight, light and composition.