My first Sketch book

     I have been working on this book now for almost a year and a half.  I had it laying around for years collecting dust,  but when I was introduced to Urban Sketchers I picked it up, dusted it off and started drawing.  It, alone, has made tremendous difference in my abilities as an artist.  Granted, there were other factors, but near constant drawing has moved along in ability and recognition. 
     The book looked great when I started.  A black, leather like cover started peeling quickly and the binding fell apart.  At one point I added a cloth cover to it and that saved it from falling apart.  It also pushed me to learning how to bind my own books.  I have started working in one of those that I made and am going through it quickly since it is made of thick water color paper.  Still I have a few pages left in my first one. 
     It took me most of the day to scan in most of the rest of these pages and when I have that book finished I will be posting it as a digital flip book. but for the time being for go to the link on the left to see all of the new pages of the sketchbook.

An evening at Village Gate

     Every Tuesday a group of artist and architects meet to do some drawing.  Most of the time it is a chance for meet and spend time, out of the house with someone that speaks my language, art.  For the architects it is a chance to get out and actually put pen to paper.  With todays tech. less and less of them work on paper.  So they now have this group to just go out and draw.  Granted it is also a great opportunity to network or just hang out.  For me, now that I work from home, it is a great chance to get out and do some walking and drawing. 
     This week they decided to meet at Village Gate, on Goodman.  It is a small collection of business's, stores and restaurants centered on 2 old industrial buildings from the turn of the last century.  The view I drew was from the courtyard between the 2 buildings looking back to Goodman.  The banner you see is for the TexMex restaurant "Selenas".  It is the best TEXMEX in Rochester, NY.
     The following weeks we'll start looking for indoor spaces to draw from since the fall has set in here and it is starting to get colder.

Senenca Waterways Council National Jamboree patches

So this Thursday at the weekly Boy Scout meeting I was handed 2 copies of the patch's that I designed for the local council to take to the national jamboree.  It was a great stretch for me to design these.  I had never before officially designed any.  I was somewhat aware of the politics involved because of the crests that I'd done for the Texas State Guard.  The artwork for those 7 crests took me all of 2 months to design but 2 yrs. of red tape with the pentagon.  The results were great and you can find them on their official website, but it gave me an idea of what I would have to deal with.  Still, These patch's were a lot of fun.

  

     When I joined this council I was asked pretty quickly to come up with a working design for the  council to sell for the upcoming National Jamboree in a few months.  The local council director insisted I stick to the rules setup by the National council. So I did.  They made 2 sets, as you can see above.  1 was red border, for the boys to purchase and the other silver, for anyone wanting to spend more money to raise funds for those going to the Jamboree.  Everyone loved the design, but when the boys returned with some examples of other council patches we realized that no one was following the rules and still doing what was popular for the national jamboree.

     Well, I and the others here decided that the next jamboree we will design along those lines.  Of course I have 3 yrs, to come up with the design so no rush.  The idea of doing the theme of great lakes lighthouses or sunken ships of the same are high on that list.

Drawing of home

     Okay, so I have not put in a post in a few months.  Had a computer melt down (2 of them) and it took a while to get new ones and get back up and running.  I did not stop drawing so I will be playing catch up with this blog on some of those.  But,  for today I am post these images of a commission that has taken me a few months to complete.  Not because it was a hard, but because I was working from the call center and was taking 4 extra hours a day in travel time by buss.  Needless to say I was always exhausted. 
     This week I was finally allowed to go home to work. In no time at all I got the piece done.  So I will be handing it over tonight to the owners of the home.  it is too big for me to scan in so these photos will have to do.


    First a copy of the photo I took for the lay out of the piece.  I went to their home and did some sketch's to familiarize myself with the home.

      I made a small black and white print of this and projected it on the paper I was using for the piece and blocked it in.  Next I penciled in the details.  The little black and white print I taped to the desk above the piece to give me my values.

 

I started at the top, left to right coloring in the sky and the background trees.  I had the photo on the screen of my laptop at all times.

Next, I started with the roof line

 

Then the chimney.  Before I moved on I went back over the roof and chimney to add the details

I started in on the house, again left to right.  The hardest part was all the individual rocks.

Then, of course I worked through the foreground vegetation and grass. I also kept jumping around adding detail were it needed it.

All I had left this morning was the sidewalk and the road.  It was a fun piece to do.

39th International Sketchcrawl

This past Saturday wa the 39th Sketchcrawl for those of us who are Urban Sketchers.  Artist all over the world met together to spend the day drawing.  Here in Rochester N.Y. it was still a bit cold to be outside so we all decided to meet at the Lamberton Conservatory in Highland Park.  It was nice and warm.  But for me the day started, as usual on the bus.  I noticed this guy in front of me with a hat that looked too small for him.

After taking a little time to walk around and admiring the plants we all settled down to draw.  I picked a spot with a chair and drew this view above.  It was a riot of detail and colors and I took a couple of hours to get this down.  In this room was a group of quail.  At first they kept peer up at us from under the foliage but after about 20 minutes they decided that we were harmless and walked in and around us. Where I sat they also would run in and under my feet it was cute to watch. Of course as soon as children came running in they all would scatter.

After that last drawing I wanted to concentrate on something small and by itself.  This flower stood out and I quickly drew it out.  Close up I was amazed by the detail God put into the smallest parts.

Moving to the cactus room I was intriqued by the shutter gears.  They were every where.

                        Of course, when in the cactus room you have to draw the cactus.

Also,of course was the mandatory sketch of other artist at work - busy at work in the cactus room









    The ride home always gives me subjects to draw

Finally, the next day at church I sketched Pastor Ann giving her sermon on the same passage of scripture that we heard on Easter sunday

Reviewing the patch prototypes for the Boy Scouts

Last night was our Troops' weekly meeting.  As you know from a previous post I designed a set of patches for the local council for this years National Jamboree.  When I got there the gentleman I had been working with at the council was there with the prototypes of the patches. Both sets. I did a lodge flap for the local lodge and I did a puzzle set for all those going.  We layed them out to go over them with a fine tooth comb.

After looking them over we decided to change the small lettering to black(too much red), Use a lighter tone for the skin and change all the fluer de li's to yellow. But other then that we were very pleased with the results.

No matter how many times I have tried to turn this image it would not - so cock you head or flip the screen.  On this one we are trying to see if we can enlarge it to the size of the patch below it.  We are going to move the "www" and fluer de li off the tomb stone and make the moon a bit bigger.

I was impressed by the detail visible on the patchs and with the changes they will look great

M60 Tank

So, This past Saturday I decided that since it was sunny out it was warm enough for me to go out a sketch outside. I did wear my leather jacket a baseball cap and my drawing gloves.  After dropping Juli off at work I walked over to Post 468 of the American Legion near us.  It has a tank parked outside of it that I have seen every day on my way home from work.  The walk was about 2 1/2 miles so a bit of walk.  But I got there and introduced myself the people there then went out to the tank. There was a tree right in front of it so I sat down against it.  It did not take me long to realize that walking there was OK but sitting there was something else.  A major road was at my back and the breeze was making it hard to draw.  Between fighting the fliping page and the freezing cold breeze I fought my way through drawing the tank.  The tought to stop at the basic lines flashed in my head and I agreed with out hezitation.  When I decided that I had gotten enough down I also realized that my left leg was completely asleep.  So there I was slapping my leg and my bladder decided right then that it needed to be emptied.  I felt like a wounded soldier trying desperatly to get up and run. 

 

Well I hobbled into the Legions bar and quickly took care of my business.  For the next hour I sat at the bar finishing the drawing above from memory.  As you know a bar has limited lighting so I had to squint through this work.  As other members came and went they looked over my shoulder and made encouraging comments.  As I finished, the promise to come back and redo the tank when it was warmer was made I headed home.

 

The whole time I worked on this drawing I was reminded of my original intent to join the US Army to become a member of the Army Art Corp.  That never happened.  Also, while drawing this M60 Patton Tank the memories of serviceing these when I was in active duty flooded into my head.  They were phased out soon after I arrived at my first permanant duty station(24th Infantry).  As we decommisioned them we had to make them work like new.  At first we were dumb founded by this.  But then, we were told that they were being sold to Saudi Arabia.  So, as we always did in the Army, do what your told and don't bother asking why.