Friday China Camp

Made it out with a buddy before the sun went down for a Friday landscape. It was a good challenge to paint really fast before the light completely changed- very different from painting at lunch time...although- even after sunset, the colors of Marin were amazing- add to that the warm sweet country air, some wildlife venturing out into the cooling evening, and it was a great start to the weekend. I need to find a way so that my paintings stop falling off my easle onto the ground while hiking back to the car- it always happens to me...bits of grass and dirt in that thick oil...grrr...anyways...always a next time...
4x7 oil, dirt, grass and a bug on oak panel

Tablet Details

I jumped on this Tablet PC bandwagon. You should too- it's a sketchbook sized laptop-but its just a screen- they licensed the technology from Wacom so its pressure sensitive- you can draw, paint, and write directly to the screen. Its got the usual wireless internet/bluetooth, a couple usb's, runs on windows xp, 2 gigs of RAM- so you can do whatever else people use computers for... Its about an inch thick and the battery I have lasts about 9 hours. Im using the Alias Sketchbook Pro2 software which works well on the tablets...not enough room for Photochop...and I havent tried Painter yet. Be sure to shell out the extra hundred+ bucks for the screen protection plan- who really knows with those things- but youre supposed to be able to get it replaced twice within one year. A fun little machine...The future is here...

Tablet PC First Sketches

Just started workin with the Tablet- here are a couple prop sketches I made to test out the software... I really like working on it..cool to be able to use a light marker over a dark underdrawing and still have it be opaque or semi opaque- lots of control- very simple interface. I hope alias comes out with a similiar paint program-because the brush editor leaves a lot to be desired. Still really great for sketching.

Lunch Hour Plein Air

It's been a long time, but I started up the lunch hour plein air painting habit again. Not necessarily thrilled with the results yet- but you gotta post the bad stuff even more often than the good- hopefully that will add to keeping me motivated to get out there as much as possible.
5x7 Oil on oak panel

Stupidest tag ever

Someone tagged my house in 2 places. Normally, I can appreciate a decent tag. In fact- see that little black square on the top picture? That used to be a tag- and it was alright- Good letters, nice tip control. I left it until Snaggletooth Ray, the creepy critter that lives in a shack down the alley got to it. Ray, is on a crusade you see- a crusade against taggers- he fills petitions, goes to cityhall meetings and probably heads the taskforce against tagging in SF. Guy doesnt even have a bathroom in his shack, but he's out in cityhall battling vandalism. Anyways- Raymond got to that tag- thats why its covered in black paint. He says once a tag goes up- the only way to stop further tagging is to cover it over immediately. I wasnt bothering with covering it up, so he took the liberty to do it himself.
This psychedelic duck or whatever the hell it is, is poorly executed BKF. Piss-poor. Stop tagging. Go home to where you belong. Play that Marc Ecko game. Buy a sketchbook and practice. Stop sniffin glue.

Out of Picture

Went to NYC a few weeks ago to catch my good friend Dice's book release party at The New York Society of Illustrators.
He and a handful of talented artists at Blue Sky wanted to stretch out of the confines of their feature animation work and produce something more personal in story and style. The book party was choice- Great group of people- and nothing better than than turning your head mid conversation to realize youre standing next to a Dean Cornwell. Nice old dark wood paneled interior and bar, with random artifacts and notes from the times of the Great Illustrators.
Thanks for the very memorable evening fellas.
I think maybe Budplant is carrying the book- and those lads will be at the Stuart Ng table during the san diego show- so check em out- and pick up a book!

Two of my favorite images from the OOP.

NYC Sketches

No better time spent than sketching the streets of New York.