Vampire Portait 9/29/12 - Chasity Black

So last week Saturday was Vampire Masquerade and again I played my Toreador and did portraits of the local players. I did two portraits that night and the first I am posting is the Honolulu Brujah Primogen Chasity Black.

The player's hair is not blue in real life. The player dug the blue so much that she honestly debated dyeing her hair.

This is a good portrait with a great likeness. I'm actually very happy with it.

HMoA Drawing Class 10/01/12 - Adele

Another Monday drawing class at the Honolulu Art Museum.

I felt I rocked the gesture drawings this week. I decided to only use a wedge sharpie and am really happy with how these are coming out. It figures, after countless experiments with art felt pens that range 3-5 dollars a piece; I chose the 85 cent sharpie.

That night I was running low on oil pastels. Both of the boxes I bought were lacking important colors Specifically the dark browns and the middle peach. So that is why you see the blue and the red start appearing in the drawings.

I think the top pose is my most successful of the night.

This life drawing class is on Monday at 7PM. It is located at the The Honolulu Museum of Art School, formerly the Academy Art Center at Linekona. There is a 10 dollar class fee.  

"Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort."

 ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Woman at a Work Meeting

 I was at a work meeting. It was a training that was open to people who were not from the company. This woman was a mother of a special needs student who came to the meeting.

I really like this drawing. I used a G2 pens (10 and .38) for it. I like the texture changes and my cross hatching. I like the way I rendered the shadows of her blouse. I also like the simple outline of her extended foot.

Italy Sketchbook 2: Perseus

I really like the statue of  Perseus with the Head of Medusa by Cellini in Florence, Italy's Piazza Della Signora. After I did this sketch, I wanted to do a larger version of it.

I remember having a little difficulty rendering the dark bronze as opposed to the white marble. As I look at this sketch, I think it is because the piece is rather dynamic. I think this has a lot to do with the dark tones as well as the composition. I also enjoy the fact the subject is larger than the page, so is gives the sketch a cropped photograph feel. 

Timeless strength and majesty.
I was so happy with this sketch and this statue, I decided to do a larger more finished version. The larger drawing has already been posted. I have included it again below.

Montypes - Jason Dancing

So awhile back, I was working on a group of monotypes. I prepped the plate and watched a man outside doing something similar to Tai Chi, but actually seemed more like a crazy person dancing in the park. There was a frantic chaos to his movements. It was a lot of fun trying to follow him.

I thought these prints came out rather neat looking. Some of the figures look like calligraphy. I do like a lot of the line quality and the crispness of the prints.

I enjoy the fun of creativity.

Dennis

This is a great picture of Dennis. He my friend the wine connoisseur, erudite Cthulhu game master. Once a week, I split a bottle of wine with him as my friends gather to play his Call of Cthulhu game.

My favorite way to describe Dennis's Call of Cthulhu game involves another friend Ashlyn. Ashlyn didn't enjoy playing in the game, but insisted on coming not to play but to sleep. She wanted to sleep in the room because in her words the game, "Gave me weird dreams."   

Dennis is a great guy and interesting to talk too.  

Bonus: I did this drawing of him and was pretty happy with the likeness.

Matt

I cannot believe I forgot this one of the monotype portraits I did last year. It is actually one of the better ones of this series of Monotypes.

This is of my good friend Matt. It actually has a great likeness of him.

This print came out really crisp. I obviously had fun with the paint scrapper working on Matt's always-present overshirt. I like how I played with the two tools in this print: The hard paint scraper and the soft rubber pen.  The scrapper's crisp streaky shapes juxtaposes nicely in this piece with the soft scraper and the finer lines it creates.

Italy Sketchbook 1 : Piazza Della Signora

I have been looking though my previous posts, labeling them, tying to figure out what is up on this blog and what I have left to input.  I realized I didn't share with you some of my favorite sketches from my study abroad trip to Italy.

It was a fabulous trip, a joy to remember. I am so happy to share.

I prepped a book full of toned paper before my trip with the goal to try and draw as many marble statues as I could. I had already done cast painting in the Atelier with Snowden Hodges and had been quite successful. 

There is no place like Florence, Italy!

The Piazza Della Signora is an an L-shaped square in front of the historic city hall of Florence as well as the Uffizi Gallery. There are many marble statues in the Piazza including a replica of Michelangelo's David. The David was originally in the piazza until concerns of the weather, riots, and falling roof shingles caused the people of Florence to find a safer home for the beloved David.

So all these statues are located in the Loggia Dei Lanzi which has an outdoor sculpture gallery. I spent several afternoons drawing in my sketchbook.

So its been 7 year since my trip to Italy and looking back at these drawings gives me a good idea of how far I have come artistically. I am struck as I look at these how heavy my hand is.

My favorite sketch from the Loggia Dei Lanzi will be in the next post of my Italian Sketchbook. 

"Gratitude is the memory of the heart."

~ Italian Proverb

HMoA Drawing Class 09/24/12

Drawing Class at the Honolulu Art Academy on Monday the 24th. Here are my Drawings from that night. Overall, I had a pretty good night.

Above is two gestures and a 20 minute pose on top of it. I think it is the best of the night. I am really loving that blue ink wash background. It really makes the Burnt Sienna pop forward.

Here are four 2-minute gesture drawings with the two 5-minute poses and the 10-minute pose on top. I like how the figures look. Not bad, considering the model interlocked her fingers during the 10-minute pose; that is so rough to draw.

I need to dye the rest of this book.  I meant to dye the pages a Sepia brown or a Olive Green. I didn't have a chance this weekend, so maybe this upcoming weekend.

I tried to compensate for it by doing extra figures in black on this page and heavily-shading the gestures so there is something besides the white of the page to work off.

I actually was pleasantly surprised how good this pose came out. I was sitting on the ground, because I came late that day to class. I changed position because I didn't want to do another profile. 

When I got situated in a place I liked,  I was afraid the model looked really short because of the foreshortening of the body. The drawing however looks right. I'm  also really happy with how the face came out.

This was the last pose of the night, the dreaded reclining pose. I think I made the arm a little to long in the sketch, but it doesn't look that off. I really like this kind of pose, with the model laying down with their head toward the front.

The HAA classroom has an odd shape to it and because of that the models tend to sit with their feet coming forward toward the class.  So just because of that simple fact, I kind of dig this drawing.

This life drawing class is on Monday at 7PM. It is located at the The Honolulu Museum of Art School, formerly the Academy Art Center at Linekona. There is a 10 dollar class fee. 

Little Mountain Book 25-28

So this is the last of this sketch book.

We took a trip to Koko Head this weekend and I did the above drawing of the Koolau Mountains from the top.  It came out rather nice, I like how some of the watercolors pooled near the center of the page.

Like rain... and inspiration.

This is the entrance of Hanauma Bay, a popular snorkling spot that is located along the southeast coast of Oahu about a half-hour drive from Waikiki. My watercolor is the view as seen from the top of Koko Head.

I am not really happy with this above drawing. I had a difficult time capturing the water along the edge of the shore. This is the first time I did a shoreline watercolor and the water crests are a little tricky.

On the other hand, here are two from my hike up Ka'au Crater. The one above is overlooking Kailua. Is there anything more beautiful than Windward Oahu, my hometown?

This last one was from the climb down Ka'au Crater looking at the back of Palolo Valley. My grandparents grew up in Kaimuki, near Palolo Valley.