The Hidden Giant, the Golden Gate Bridge!

I got the chance to fly out to San Francisco last week and visit Riley Street Art Supply store for their anniversary sale! I went and spoke to a lot of really cool and inspiring people, I got to take in a few sights and also, do a little bit of sketching.

Shortly after arriving we crossed over the Golden Gate Bridge and it was just covered in fog. It was such an awesome sight to cross the bridge that we ended up pulling over for a second so I could do a sketch of it from Vista Point. I began with the inks, hoping that by the time I finished all the structure that the fog and mist would have lifted, but it just endlessly poured over the top of that hill. I only saw glimpses of beams and wires, and that made it even more interesting. After finishing the inks, we left for the hotel where I added the watercolor to the inks.

The next morning, unhappy with how the drawing just looked incomplete, I prepared some gouache with French Ultramarine Blue and started painting in the mist. I think this was a gamble that paid off as once the drawing was done, I felt like I managed to capture the feeling of this awesome architecture refusing to reveal itself by hiding in the mist. It's flowery and magical, but I write comics so that's just my imagination.

This drawing is also the thesis of why I love Stillman and Birn sketchbooks so much. This was done in my softcover Alpha, one of the new products, and well, I don't think there's a paper out there that can be this versatile and this much fun to draw in. I couldn't have done this drawing in any other sketchbook and have gotten this level of quality.

Materials: Pentel Hybrid Technica 04 and Zebra Large Brush pen, Sennelier and Da Vinci Watercolors and Holbein Gouache.
Paper: Stillman and Birn alpha softcover sketchbook, 150 gsm

6/30 Urban Sketching: Landscape

Here are the 2 stages of the landscape I drew yesterday. I was outside a Barnes and Noble in Marietta, and it wasn’t the ideal spot/layout/drawing/etc. I’m happy I finished it, just cuz my initial response was “oh wow this is messed up, just stop and do something else.” Which is a voice in my head I need to work on silencing.Overall, twas a fun experiment. I just inked everything in with no pencil underdrawing then added in watercolor for fun.

Kuretake brush pens for the majority, which were great cuz they’re waterproof like champs. I used a Pentel Hybrid Technica in spots, and it was great too, but it wasn’t as waterproof and shifted a little. I’m happy though, its an interesting texture. All of this was done on 11x17 Stillman and Birn Beta paper.

Life Drawings - eyedrum session

Here are a few of the good drawings from today's 2 hour session at the eyedrum in Atlanta. It's a really fun and interesting space to draw in, and everyone there is 11 varieties of inspiring. Seriously, I saw some awesome acrylic and oil painted works in the 2 hours which make me feel like I need to push myself even more. I think the most important aspect of any artist is that sense of pushing yourself and your art past your current limits. The moment you think you've learned all you need or that you settle on just one media or tool, how can you continue to grow? With that in mind, I hope you enjoy my attempts at getting better at drawing the human form and using watercolors and a sanguine colored pencil.

Tools: Watercolor and Caran d'Ache sanguine colored pencil
Paper: Stillman and Birn Delta and Gamma sketchbooks respectively