Stephen's Sketch Blog

digital painting from life

2009-03-03T09:12:00.000-08:00

alian landscape (or something)

2008-09-08T09:23:00.001-07:00

Same routine: anim8or, bryce, picassa
What is it? You tell me.

sleeping siblings

2008-09-04T09:20:00.001-07:00

This is Michael and Abby falling asleep while Susanna reads them a story.

impressionism

2008-09-04T09:17:00.000-07:00

I like this because it reminds me of an impressionist painting.

birds

2008-09-04T09:15:00.000-07:00

These are some birds I modeled for a previous project, I did some messing around in picassa.

the infernal lines

2008-09-04T09:09:00.000-07:00

the treehouse tree #2

2008-09-01T16:00:00.000-07:00

I gave this to my sister Bethanie for her birthday. There is another drawing of it here.
These are some thoughts I wrote after drawing it:

Once again I realize that I must draw as a person and not as a machine, that choosing a point of view from which to draw the tree is important, and that I can draw this tree much better then other trees because I know it, and I know it because I love it. (I grew up in, under and around it). Or perhaps I love it because I know it. Can you know truly with out also loving?

a landscape

2008-08-02T10:26:00.000-07:00

photoshop on a friends computer.

variations

2008-07-26T13:54:00.000-07:00

I kind of like the dessert look.

new work in progress

2008-07-23T15:58:00.000-07:00

I had some fun last night making this. I originally was modeling an umbrella in anim8or and it turned in to this structure. This is a WIP, but I like it. Next I want to nail the composition and leave nothing to chance as I usually do. This was also the longest render-time I've had in Bryce in about 7 years at 11 hours:

I rendered it out big (5000 by 2500) and did minor color correction in OpenCanvas. Here are some actual-size details:

Also, before I imported the model into bryce, I did some playing around with a printscreen of the wire frame producing this, which looks a lot like my old green glass aesthetic of Vynclif.

the windy lines

2008-07-14T10:04:00.000-07:00

misc bryce projects

2008-07-14T08:49:00.000-07:00

anim8or, bryce and picassa

organic modeling wierdness

2008-06-30T12:07:00.001-07:00

Fun in bryce and anim8or.

another mushroom world

2008-05-26T20:47:00.000-07:00

anim8or, bryce, opencanvas

Then my computer crashed. Oh well, I need to model more then one mushroom anyway, all these are duplicates.

moleskinnings

2008-04-08T18:08:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Arkady Roytham's beautiful sketchbooks and Mark Kennedy's inciteful sketching exhortations (parts 1,2,3 and 4 they are well worth a read!) I've started sketching all the more. I picked up a small moleskine at B&N but it was already full 5 days later, but it's great because they fit in my jeans pocket. I also started keeping a sketchbook on my dashboard to sketch at lights and in traffic. That way when I'm in houston at 5:30pm it's a win-win situation. Drawing cars also seems to be a way to learn design. You get inside the designer's head, why this line? See how this mirrors that. I suppose it's the same with nature too.

zombies

2008-04-08T17:21:00.000-07:00

These are some Zombie illustrations I did recently for an online novel. Not having the drawing skills to draw a zombie outright, I mined my sketchbooks for ~~people~~ family members and friends I could modify into zombies. I then imported these as planes into bryce and made dystopian environments. I also used trees and cars form my sketchbook and pulled the telephone poles from a previous project. I was pretty happy with the above, as it was all made from scratch. I have also found Picassa great for certain kinds of post work. The bottom two use photos I took + the zombies.

Corpus after the hurricane of 2047

2008-04-07T09:41:00.000-07:00

man at walmart mcdonalds

2008-03-06T19:39:00.001-08:00

Drawn while my car got it's oil changed.

Camera Man

2008-02-27T17:23:00.000-08:00

This is an image I'm working on for the photojojo T-shirt contest. I was originally going to do typography made out of cameras, but when I lined up an oTo, it looked like eyes.

(modeled in anim8or, composed and rendered in bryce)

Outside my window #2

2008-02-26T15:10:00.000-08:00

Ok, so at night it was kind of easy, but in the daytime, it's alot harder, I think I should prepare a limited color pallet before beginning.

I should also start with a larger, more accurate line drawing.

Outside my window #1

2008-02-25T18:43:00.001-08:00

So, inspired by James Gurney's post on Serial Painting (his blog is a truly awesome resource for illustrators btw.), I'm going to do quick paintings of the view from my window at different times of day and in different conditions of weather.

This is the first.

Check out Nathan Fox's amazing series out his office window here.

Left handers

2008-02-25T17:20:00.000-08:00

I did these a few weeks ago using only my left hand. It was a great exercise, I was impressed w/ the results. Basically it forced me to observe all the more vilagently and not fall back on muscle memory and bad habits. These were of friends, and they were so intense that I don't think I could do this sort of drawing in coffee shops w/ strangers, but I'll have to try.

I also did some quick underpainting w/ openCanvas w/ my right hand:

my desk

2008-02-24T11:29:00.001-08:00

Painted in OpenCanvas, which I think I'm about to purchase, as it would make a good poor (or honest) man's photoshop/painter. Somewhat inspired by the illustrator Istvan Banyai.

the treehouse tree

2008-01-05T15:41:00.001-08:00

fantastic beasts, where to find them, and an inordinate fondness for beetles

2007-11-08T20:41:00.000-08:00

(Modeled in Anim8or, rendered in Bryce, adjusted in photoshop)

I think before I try to create fantastic beasts I should spend a good deal of time modeling created fantastic beasts, like beetles ( and camels, snails, and turtles) In doing so perhaps I can glean some of the Trinity's boundless entomological aesthetic. God seems to have made more beetles then any other living creature. The annie dillard in me tells me I should ponder this next time I worship at church. What kind of God makes 5,000,000 different species of beetles? Isn't that a bit inordinate? Most girls certainly seem to think so.

While I was modeling this, at one point it was going to be a beetle, so I did some internet searching and found what looks to be an great book:

Also check out this awesome website full of photo reference.

misc sketches

2007-10-09T21:49:00.000-07:00

digital paint sketching

2007-09-29T08:50:00.000-07:00

This was fun. Possibly the same city as the middle painting here.

I've been wanting to get back into digital painting, but about a year ago I lost my old Painter Classic cd. This was made in an expired trial of openCanvas, printscreened into MS Paint to save. I think I might buy it sometime.

still having fun with my phonebooth models

2007-09-27T11:27:00.001-07:00

Did this while eating at Pita Pit. It's nice to finally have a laptop. Yes, I'm way-over using the depth of field, but it's fun.

misc class sketches

2007-09-25T10:31:00.001-07:00

Motion typography #2

2007-09-12T22:06:00.001-07:00

This is part of the remains of the Phonebooth project I was working on at the end of the spring.

motion typography tests from this summer

2007-09-12T22:05:00.001-07:00

This was fun, I made it up while animating.

These, as weird as it sounds, were made in Bryce.

more brycean photography

2007-09-07T07:07:00.000-07:00

Testing out Bryce on my new Vista laptop, it works, which is great, but that will be about 1 out of 6 old programs I use that work on vista. Caleb, if your out there make them fix it. ;)

yesterdays library sketches

2007-08-21T09:18:00.000-07:00

accidental stalking

2007-08-18T17:44:00.000-07:00

More library sketches.

These people seem to be here every time I sketch.

Panda Bug

2007-08-09T16:08:00.000-07:00

After eating Panda Express, with the help of a few more forks.

misc summer sketches

2007-07-11T13:28:00.001-07:00

Usually outdoors with my sister Abby, or at the Corpus Library, which is a great place to draw people standing up.

Paint sketch

2007-06-15T13:51:00.001-07:00

(OpenCanvas trial)

Susanna and some oak trees

2007-06-06T12:37:00.001-07:00

more radial designs

2007-06-03T21:47:00.000-07:00

I used to do these alot several years ago. I did some of these while playing URU.

doodling

2007-05-24T11:50:00.001-07:00

Somewhat URU inspired.

more bryce photography

2007-05-15T14:17:00.000-07:00

the makings of a storm

2007-05-10T17:40:00.000-07:00

Clouds before and after Spiderman

2007-05-07T20:46:00.000-07:00

After reading mark kennedy's excellent 4-part exhortation to carry a sketchbook I brought my sketchbook to the theater to see Spiderman 3 (which was good). While I didn't draw inside, the clouds today were unbeatable, so I drew them in the parking lot before and after the show.

South Sky at 5pm

South-East Sky at dusk:

North Sky at dusk:

Clouds are my new favorite thing to draw!

Sunday clouds at dusk

2007-04-29T18:32:00.000-07:00

From about 7:45pm to 8:20pm this evening. Very enjoyable and lucid session of sketching. Didn't feel like more then 10 min, though it was at least 35min.

trees

2007-04-29T15:28:00.000-07:00

These were done Friday morning around 2am, by streetlights.

"The patterns of the scribbled multitude of twigs and the matching gaps of designated light in sequence to the movement of the limbs were as much a song as mine. This was the earth, its trees in their multitude of beauty, twigs to branches to trunks, brimming with voices about to break into speech. I was in a grip greater than my mother's hand, and tears of laughter leaped out like the presences I expected to see.

One presence was here, I knew, as I turned with my face raised, in the trees and sky, and in the earth that held me as I turned. The presence had put all this in place to instruct me about myself and the complications of the love I felt for Him."

-Larry Woiwode as quoted in Ariel's blog post.

phone booth

2007-04-29T01:14:00.000-07:00

I'm working on an animated motion graphics short based on the poem Phone Booth by Andrei Voznesensky (which I found in a book of Richard Wilbur poems, he translated it form Russian). Here are a few stills.

The modeling was done, as usual in anim8or, and the rendering in Bryce, both of which incidentally are free.

photography in bryce

2007-04-24T16:02:00.000-07:00

Bryce 5 is now available free at download.com. I used to use Bryce 4 a lot. These are from playing around with bryce 5's depth of field.

more sweet eugene's

2007-04-15T23:50:00.000-07:00

All this in 20 minutes. Much better then usual. And all the same orientation on the page!

Also, the current issue of American Artist Drawing magazine looks well worth the 9 bucks, you can get it at barnes and noble

Sweet Eugene's Sketches

2007-04-14T08:27:00.000-07:00

Fairly successful sketches at Sweet Eugene's last night:

These two guys were ideal to sketch, interesting faces, engaged in their own conversation, and at 90 degrees to me. They didn't seem to notice me, but eventually they moved so I guess they did.

These are in my new moleskine sketchbook I got for Christmas.

april tree

2007-04-10T16:42:00.000-07:00

Just to think, all this came from a lone acorn.

And some photoshop.

waking life and watching movies

2007-04-01T18:59:00.000-07:00

These are sketches of the beautifully filmed and then animated characters of Waking Life, one of my favorite movies. I've seen it many times, but I watched it on Fridays night with my friend Chris. Great movie to sketch too. (put together in photoshop, I still never draw everything the same orientation on the page) I also sketched the room:

This is Johns McCully, Mcwhorter, and Deng (on thurs night) trying to get a laptop to play video on the Ranch (ruf house) TV:

photoshoppery

2007-03-26T03:59:00.000-07:00

Crazy album art perhaps?

(click to enlarge)

Some fun in photoshop with a few of my tree sketches and flickr photos. What I'd really like to do is something like this in motion graphics.

the tree john deng helped me climb

2007-03-20T23:14:00.000-07:00

I drew this at night, (it has a light right under it.)

I remember standing at the base of this tree after unsuccessfully trying to climb up the trunk. Just then my friend John Deng walked by and gave me a boost. It was a Saturday morning a year and a half ago.

I think Moby is my second favorite music to draw trees to, just under Philip Glass and above Beethoven.

Here's some quick mouse photoshoppery.

2007-03-08T18:11:00.000-08:00

the last tree

2007-03-06T18:45:00.000-08:00

Dystopian novel cover, anyone?

Painted in photoshop, drawn w/ ball-point pen:

I still find it difficult to draw the left side of trees. I remember Oliver Sacks writing about people with brain damage who couldn't eat the left side of a plate of food, but I think my problem is just that my hand is over the trunk when I draw the left side.

old da vinci drawing

2007-02-20T01:18:00.000-08:00

I found this scan of a drawing I did about 3-1/2 years ago. It's decent. Back then I mostly drew da vinci and other master's drawings, which is good, but I never drew from life. Now it's the other way around. I guess I should do both.

rockstars

2007-02-16T18:45:00.000-08:00

My suit-mate Matthew, one of his friends, and my friend Chris were playing guitars last night in the hall of my dorm.

archives: Vynclif

2007-02-15T01:07:00.000-08:00

Vynclif was a Myst/Riven inspired world I made and worked on from sometime in 2000 until perhaps sometime in 2002 made primarily in Bryce 4 and truespace 1, several myst fans did this sort of thing on old discussion boards like rivenguild. It was really my first experience in art and is still the sort of thing I could see spending my life doing. The above render was probably the first thing I was really satisfied with and I rendered hi-rez and made a Zazzle poster out of it (you can go to the zazzle poster store by clicking on the above image).

These were part of a second 'age' (or world) in vynclif that I worked on partly because my computer crashed and I lost the main world. I've learned a lot about design and art basics since then but they were a lot of fun to make. Because they were worlds, all of my art projects and thoughts could be channeled into this one project and I was always thinking about some feature or detail or place in vynclif, and i would keep adding on, etc.

You can see a 360° quicktime panorama of the above here.

Some of the later stuff was modeled in Amapi, which is an excellent and now free modeling program.

You can see more of my ye olde 3d stuff here.

hands

2007-02-10T12:15:00.000-08:00

2007-02-01T15:39:00.000-08:00

It got dark as I drew the left side and started to rain as I finished, so the left side looks a little hurried.

"The wonder is that we can see these trees and not wonder more."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

ranch fridge

2007-01-29T15:48:00.000-08:00

This is the fridge at my cousin's ranch.

first tree of the new semester

2007-01-25T14:32:00.000-08:00

Drawing trees is like figure drawing, you have to remember that the tree is alive and that this is indeed a dynamic pose where limbs are thrust out and trunks twisting with the stress. Some limbs must be tired, some flexed. In the life of a tree there is a lot of motion. They are fountains after all.

Unfortunately, I've never taken a figure drawing class. The trunk seems wrong on this one. I think I need to do gestural drawings of the tree first.

Jonathan Hardesty: A Young Master

2007-01-24T19:18:00.000-08:00

(drawings by Jonathan Hardesty in 2002)
Though I had forgotten, the story of Jonathan Hardesty was definitely one of the main things that has kept me (and undoubtedly many people online) drawing over the past few years.

In 2002 Jonathan Hardy started this thread at conceptart.org saying "I am starting from rock bottom and I am going to paint at least one painting and do at least one sketch every day...probably two on the weekends. The order you see them in is the order that I am painting and/or sketching them...every day starting on 9/15/02. I am bearing my soul to everyone. I will post everything I do...whether it is awful or not. Most of the paintings and sketches, in the beginning, are going to look like crap but hopefully over the days/weeks/months/years they will start to get better."

And indeed he did:

(drawings by Jonathan Hardesty in 2004)
These just after a few years. (and yes the one on the left is a drawing)
You can see how, through persistence and diligent courage, he got there in his thread
(which he still updates:)
Journey of an Absolute Rookie: Paintings and Sketches

He now teaches in Richardson, Tx

Old man sleeping at Starbucks

2007-01-23T10:42:00.000-08:00

This guy's head was about 20 degrees higher when I was ordering my express0 brownie, so I knew I didn't have much time.

I stopped when he woke up.

Trip to D.C. part one

2007-01-19T16:50:00.000-08:00

Library of Congress

I wanted to follow this old man around the library of congress to draw him, and for a little while, I did.

Les Mis

2007-01-18T11:52:00.000-08:00

I did these for a Project in a Theater Design class.

egypt?

2007-01-04T21:24:00.000-08:00

A paint sketch in OpenCanvas, which is a great, nearly free painting program that combines the best of painter and photoshop.

2007-01-04T12:36:00.000-08:00

...Kristin watching Sabrina (in the same chair) a few days after the wedding...
...painted in my new favorite OpenCanvas...

2007-01-04T12:22:00.000-08:00

...Dandan, my grandfather, waiting for lunch on the wedding day...

2007-01-01T22:26:00.000-08:00

Susanna and Michael on the way home from church....
...bowl of grapefuit and palm trees while getting gas...

... Dad about to pray...

...window of David's Bridal waiting for my sisters to pick up bride's maid dresses...

a tree and drawing instruction online

2006-12-19T21:43:00.000-08:00

This is one of the beautiful live oak trees I grew up with, in, under and around. (for scale, it's probably about 35ft tall)
Check out Rebecca Kimmel's paintovers and tutorials. Also check out her Artistic Anatomy and Figurative Art forum at Cgtalk.com

The Structure of Man

Hours of video instruction on drawing the human form from memory. Over 100 short lessons on youtube.

an experiment in matte painting

2006-12-12T14:55:00.000-08:00

I've been watching some matte painting videos from the Gnomon workshop. Today, I decided to find a cityscape from my flickr favorites and science-fictionalize it:

Painted by hand, picking colors from the original photo,(by mbiddulph) and painting on top of the photo.

Here is the beginnings of another cityscape from scratch(from a couple weeks ago) but abandoned.

two trees

2006-12-09T15:34:00.000-08:00

I'm not happy with the composition, but it was fun.

yet more starbucks sketches

2006-12-09T14:46:00.000-08:00

These are accross the street from starbucks (inbetween the post office and northgate parking garage) Sketched to paint.

The woman in middle eastern dress was listening to an ipod.
Drawing faces is hard. I think I'm going to copy an entire loomis or bridgman book over break.

successful starbucks sketch

2006-12-05T19:44:00.000-08:00

a less succesful tree drawing

2006-12-05T19:27:00.000-08:00

I drew this saturday, but failed to capture the grace and balence of the pose. I started painting it, but photoshop froze up, I managed to get a screenshot though, you can see a blurry photo I snapped with my cell-phone for color reference.

Still fun though.

(I later started writing around the tree in my sketchbook, and rescanned it after as I lost the first scan)

last week's tree painted

2006-11-30T15:59:00.000-08:00

(click for hi-rez)
Painted in photoshop with a wacom graphire tablet.
And this time I did leaves too. Painting trees is fun.

day before thanksgiving

2006-11-26T19:02:00.000-08:00

Tree 108

2006-11-19T14:26:00.000-08:00

Got a new sketchbook last night, this is the first sketch, it's spans two pages, which I normally don't do. I photo-shopped out the seem to paint it, but I got frustrated w/ the painting and stopped. I might pick it up later:

Also, every tree at A&M has a little dog-tag w/ a number, but the last couple I've looked at have been scratched off, I think this is 108.

a fast full page bernies sketch

2006-11-16T21:21:00.000-08:00

It seems somewhat odd that the reason I am out drawing people is the fact that I am not good at drawing people. But I guess that's learning for you.

Assorted Saints and Pagans

2006-11-13T17:45:00.000-08:00

Every year Tom Short comes to campus and talks/evangelizes to a gathering group of students in academic plaza.

Inevitibly, most of the vocal audience are are seem to be committed atheists or pagans and committed christians.

It was great for people sketching. As I was sitting on the ground in the middle of a bunch of people, it was definitely the most visibly I've sketched in public.

Bernies Sketches

2006-11-11T18:07:00.000-08:00

A Tree

2006-11-08T16:07:00.000-08:00

Sketching people has been frustrating lately. But today I passed this tree standing perfectly still, with a sunset lit building behind it.

After scanning it I painted the building and sky behind it in photoshop (with a bloody mouse, as I didn't have my tablet with me)

Drawn and painted while listening to Medieval Songs of Love and Death by John Fleagle, you can listen to them for free at that link.

Also, an interesting observation on trees I heard yesterday in this interview with Darren Aronofsky:

He points out that trees are fountains moving very slowly, as they pull water and other things up from the ground and shoot them out in the form of branches and beautiful leaves that then fall down and decay at the base of the tree.

Rebound

2006-11-06T02:12:00.000-08:00

Update, here are some better renderings:

Whenever I browse Evans Library (which is fairly frequently), I'm always struck by how many beautiful old books there are. So today I pulled one off the shelf for the sole purpose of modeling it. I haven't really sat down and modeled something in years, but it was fairly successful, sort of a fast sketchy model in about 1/2 an hour. Modeled in Anim8or. (No textures) Rendered in 3ds Max 4. Anim8or doesn't render, so this was the first time I've ever lit and rendered something in max. I used to(6 years ago) always use bryce for rendering, but my computer is long since crashed.

The book, incidentally, is a 1880's oxford edition of the Ormulum, which wikipedia tells me is a "12th-century work of Biblical exegesis".

I modeled some new (and worn) pages, but unfortunatly I'm having problems importing:

Jeffrey Katzenberg Sketches

2006-10-30T20:14:00.000-08:00

This evening Jeffrey Katzenberg, the K in Dreamworks SKG, came to A&M to give a talk/presentation on the 'future of computer animation'. 95% of these are of him.

He also showed us 5 min of Shrek 3, which was pretty cool.

He said at Dreamworks "We make movies for adults and for the adult in every child." (Disney said he made movies for children and the child in every adult)

I'm not exactly sure what that means. He also said Shrek was about how if you don't love yourself no one will love you. (this seems a very strange concept of love to me)

He was slightly embarrassed that Dreamworks first film, The Prince of Egypt, was a bible story. (but said it was good despite being a bible drama)

Procrastination

2006-10-26T05:47:00.000-07:00

While not studying for my test today.
(from a photo, not from life)

2006-10-23T15:06:00.000-07:00

"The important thing to bear in mind while drawing
the figure is that the model is a human being, that it is alive, that it
is there on the stand. Look on the model with respect, appreciate
his or her humanity. Be very humble before that human being. Be
filled with wonder at its reality and life. There is a human creature
that lives and breathes and feels, a thing with a mind and character
of its own--not a patchwork of light and shadow, color shapes."

-John Sloan

Commune kitchen, then and now

2006-10-22T13:50:00.000-07:00

The one on the left is Dec '05, the right was drawn in Sept '06.

I am messy.

Breakfast today and discussion group last night

2006-10-21T15:18:00.000-07:00

Starbucks sketches

2006-10-19T21:09:00.000-07:00

Top page is starbucks today, bottom is random hands/arms from yesterday.

Incidentally, I spent 666 cents at starbucks. I'm not sure which should disturb me more, the mark of the beast at an evil corporation or the fact that I (a poor college student) spent over 6$ on food that wasn't a meal.

On the bright side, my ability to draw glasses has gone up by 20%.

Subway and class sketches

2006-10-19T21:02:00.000-07:00

Subway on the left. Class on the right.

Subway like sandwiches, not subway like trains, unfortunately. I would love to draw on subways as so many great sketcher do, but there are no subways around.

Successful Sbisa Sketches

2006-10-18T08:12:00.000-07:00

Breakfast this morning. I'm slowly improving. These hands and arms were much better then usual, also I drew every one the same orientation on the page.

It was alot of fun drawing that guy's messy hair, mine was probably worse.

I need to break out of profiles though.

solo mini sketchcrawl

2006-10-15T20:30:00.000-07:00

After listening about Sketchcrawling on friday I really wanted to do one, so, yesterday I wake up at about noon, and I'm not really in the mood for a sketch marathon, but I had some mov ies to return to blockbuster and having a broken bike and no car, I thought I might as well go by sketchbook and feet.

So..

random aggies: and another one of my fav. trees:
if beautiful women were trees this would be one:

First I went to the SCC to scan the last's post's drawings,
while I was there I sketched, and debated about where
to eat lunch:

I decided on Taco Cabana, which is sort of on the way to blockbuster...

(click on the maps to go there on google maps)

So I walk through this field and decide to sketch plants,
but my "financial aid" pens that I picked up the day before
really do suck as the lady told me, so, I goto office max and buy
some blue 12/1$ pens (on sale), then I go to Barnes and Noble and
sketch people there:

After B&N I eat at Taco C. while reading a good book on aesthetics

Then move on... sketch myself in a store window...

Return my movies....

Head towards the neighboring parking lot

And sketch a telephone pole and street light in the parking lot,
wander south, sketching trees and plants

About now I pick up this strange looking thing I'll call a brain-fruit, which I sketch, and take a pic of with my cell phone(along with an interesting flower):

Let me know if you know what they are called.

So, I end up here...

....and draw the backs of these stores, which was fun,
and perhaps the best sketch of the day:

during all this I'm listening to Ennio Morricone, Moulin Rouge, and (to complete a natural list) some Douglas Wilson sermons.

So I head over to Sweet Eugene's Coffee shop to sketch people,
and on the way I sketch a car and a tree, and see the Sunset:

While sketching people, I get 'noticed' and pointed at by a group of people, who proceed to randomly stare at me at take my picture with a flash. Keep in mind, this is College Station, Tx, where any art has shock value.

As I grow tired of sketching, I run into "a geek with reasonably good social skills" and have some good philosophy/theology conversation.

The End.

Oct 12 and 13

2006-10-14T11:46:00.000-07:00

Oct 12 (that's one of my fav. trees)

Yesterday in class, I borrowed a pen from some one, but it was a much nicer pen then I am used too, so it was hard to get used too. I prefer cheap ball-points.

and then at the Aerospace engineering picnic which I happened to walk by:

It was fun, even though they didn't turn out great. I didn't have a pen though, so I ran into the nearest building and search the floors for a pen until I found one.

I sketched the picnic while listening to this Iconic interview with Enrico Casarosa, founder of SketchCrawl.com (a sketchcrawl is a drawing marathon, something I am looking forward to doing soon)

Edit: I forgot this:

Afternoon

2006-10-11T13:56:00.000-07:00

I've been sketching alot in this one class, and it's interesting sketching the same people over and over again, I've drawn all but the top right guy perhaps 4 to 7 times each.

Edit: I've had a habit of writing NO over faces that I drew unbearably uglily.

Morning sketches

2006-10-11T09:33:00.000-07:00

This one was during breakfast at Sbisa, there was a beautiful fog this morning, but ball-point pens are not the best for rendering fog. Also, strangely enough the people sitting around me all seemed to be badly proportioned, but I drew them as they were.

This one was after breakfast in the MSC, where people were studying and sleeping in turn.

Today's sketches and one from yesterday.

2006-10-10T20:31:00.000-07:00

This was yesterday at lunch (large person eating)
and yesterday evening (everything else.)

Lunch today.

Northgate Post office after lunch.

A walk home this evening

Perhaps my broken bike will give me more opportunity to sketch.
I did part of this while listening to Iconic Podcast's interveiw with Tim O'Brian.

Yesterday's sketches

2006-10-10T20:04:00.000-07:00

"Think of the act of drawing as a doorway that leads you into a far richer world of experience and discovery. It provides an excuse to leave home for an afternoon in order to meet new people, or poke around on the far side of town. It gives you an opportunity to sit on a stream back for two hours looking at nothing but a six-inch high plant. It gets you out there in the wonderful carnival of the human race, as you go people watching with a pencil."

-The Artist's Guide to Sketching

I had some fun in photoshop with this one, in 'just a few clicks' I turned it in to a 'gritty piece of modern art':

Class Sketches

2006-10-10T20:03:00.002-07:00

(It helps me not fall asleep);)

Suspicious sketching

2006-10-10T20:03:00.001-07:00

On Monday as I was driving by the plants and refineries in Corpus, I pulled of the side of the road and sketched this one, as I was turning around, the plant security guy pulled up behind me and got my ID, Then the Corpus Christi port police came and talked to be about security and why this would be a terrorist target etc. Then asked me if he could have the sketch. I asked him if I could snap a picture of it with my camera-phone. (that's the officer's leg on the left) And then I ripped it out of my sketch book and handed it to him. I don't usually rip pages out of my sketch books, but then again no one with a gun on their belt ever wanted one before.

So I've been talked to by the police twice for taking pictures, once for moving dirt, once for climbing a tree, and now once for sketching.