three letter word for art

Moleskine Update

2011-12-12T23:55:00.000-06:00

Crockett St Bridge. A standing sketch. Immediately to the right, out of frame, was a Coca-Cola delivery truck, engine idling. I'd been sketching for a while before I realized two delivery guys were watching me from the cab. When I noticed them staring I thought they'd ask to see the sketch, but instead they turned away somewhat self-consciously and rather abruptly drove away.

I kind of screwed up Linda's sketch, but I'm fond of the self-portrait. It's one of the few where I'm clean-shaven.

Sheep skull. I find it difficult to elaborate on that description.

La Tuna is an indoor/outdoor gathering spot/watering hole in San Antonio. The kitchen/indoor dining area burned down days after this sketch. That's I think four places I've sketched that were later destroyed, though I've heard it's already rebuilt. The beer is not mine, BTW. I'm not some kind of zealot or anything, just boring. I prefer Dr Pepper to Shiner Bock.

Obligatory dinosaur post

2011-12-08T15:17:00.000-06:00

I worry about this becoming a dinosaur art blog. While I have been working the last few months, much of the artwork I've made has been dinosaur-related, and not the urban-sketching stuff I usually offer up. Hence the apprehension about posts like these. Oh well, if you don't like dinos, get over it.

Here are some recent dinos I done. Some are digital, some pencil, some ink, some done in pencil or ink and colored digitally, etc.

Digital Gallimimus, painted in photoshop. Originally gave it pennaceous arm feathers until it was pointed out to me Gallimimus was unlikely to have had them.

I've never gotten any feedback on this Camarasaurus from anyone. Not sure if it's good or crappy.

I changed this Styracosaurus's head a bit from the drawing to the color version. Guess I didn't like the angle. Ain't computers awesome?

Allosaurus fragilis. There's something I like about these foreshortened poses. Will color these eventually.

I worry this Edmontosaurus is just a tad cartoonish, but I still like it.

Parasaurolophus-- kind of an R. Crumb meets Wayne Barlow thing happening here, albeit unintentionally.

Utahraptor leaping, or maybe in a courtship dance.

Back to the grind

2011-08-12T23:45:00.000-05:00

With as many lapses as there have been in this blog I'd never missed an entire month before, until July. Factors contributing to my delinquency:

Too hot to draw, so no work to post.
Worked two jobs for a while, seven days a week. This situation has been remedied.
Was out of town for 11 days, with limited interwebs access.
Lazy

We all know which of those factors should be weighed most heavily, don't we.

Consider this post the turning over of a new leaf. Not only do I intend to post more (famous last words and a dangerous utterance in any blog), but I want to post more about what I'm thinking, as well as what I'm doing.

In the meantime, what am I doing?

I did these drawings whilst in Elgin, North Dakota:

More soon!

A belated DFW sketch-chronicling

2011-06-17T01:27:00.000-05:00

So on a weekend back in April (?!) I accompanied my sweetie to the Dallas Fiber Arts Festival, where she taught some classes and had a book signing, etc. Because I knew she'd be busy I was able to find some time to drive into both Dallas and Fort Worth (we stayed in Grapevine, about midway betwixt the two) for some sketcherating.

I still wish I'd done more, but we were also museuming it up, taking in the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, the Modern, and the Kimbell twice.

Without further ado, here are the results of a couple days' sketching.

The Adolphus Hotel in downtown Dallas. I was inspired to tackle this one after seeing a fantastic Richard Haas litho of this building. Of course, Richard had access to a higher point of view (and he works from photos).

In progress:

The gorgeous Tarrant County Courthouse in Fort Worth, right up there with Bexar and Victoria County courthouses. A police officer approached me while I was taking pictures, before I began my sketch. At first I was afraid I'd be in trouble for taking pics of a govt building (I've heard many horror stories of urban photographers being harrassed) but he just wanted to talk to me a little about the history of the building, and he was very friendly and knowledgeable. Yet another reason Fort Worth is my favorite city in TX (besides SA of course.)

The rest of my sketching locations are conveniently identified within each sketch to provide the requisite geographical context:

Dinosaurs of the recent past

2011-05-30T01:45:00.001-05:00

I suppose some of you who have been following this blog for some time and who aren't interested in dinosaurs probably find these posts excruciating. Sorry, guys; there will be plenty more urban sketching posts, including some very soon.

Meanwhile, I've been spending the last three months or so re-learning how to draw dinosaurs, and rediscovering the world of dinosaurs-- the research, the art, and the fans, thanks to the dinosaur blogosphere.

Why do I say "rediscovering?" Because, about 17 years ago, I was nuts about dinosaurs. Just completely bonkers. This post is about how that all started and ended, and started again.

As a pre-teen, I was certainly a fan of dinosaurs, but I was never the kind of serious devotee that many of my friends were at that age. It was my final year in middle school when I stayed up all night reading Jurassic Park for the the first time on my bottom bunk that I became truly hooked. Mind you, this was a few months before the movie came out. My dad was a hardcore Crichton fan at the time, and my brother and I would read anything that he read. By the 7th grade I was reading Ursula K. Le Guin and Robert L. Forward, so Crichton didn't seem too tricky. I read Sphere first, I think, then moved on to JP, which I still think has one of the most compelling covers for any book I've ever seen. I knew the movie was imminent, so I wasn't reading the book in some hype-free vacuum, but I nevertheless had few expectations.

I should say right now that I have always been a person who fixates exclusively on one interest for a while until I feel I have gained some measure of expertise, at which point I move on to the next thing. Prior to my dinosaur interest I was a scholar of all things whale-related, having watched Voyage of the Mimi in 6th grade science. I promptly dropped that for comic books, after my Uncle Mark and Aunt Mary gave me a copy of How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way by Stan Lee and John Buscema. I had been on that kick a few years (and didn't drop it entirely, at least at first) when dinosaurs came along.

After I read the last page of Jurassic Park I quickly pulled my few dinosaur books from my bookshelf and began to re-read, with far more enthusiasm than ever before. I had a copy of David Norman's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs that my grandmother had given me for Christmas when I was younger. I had a picture book called Dinosaurs by Anthony Rao filled with beautiful colored pencil illustrations. I had another gift from my aunt and uncle, a very cool and very ahead-of-its-time book on Pterosaurs by Helen Roney Sattler and illustrated by Christopher Santoro. It featured hairy(!) pterosaurs of all things and talked about the idea that they were warm-blooded, and made abundantly clear the fact that pterosaurs were not dinosaurs. Of course, when I got it for Christmas as a 6-year-old I had no preconceived notions about pterosaurs at all, so nothing about it seemed all that controversial to me.

I absorbed as much as I could from the books, including Norman's already-outdated Encyclopedia, and began to psyche myself up for the movie that was still some six months away. I remember getting a copy of Newsweek with the movie's T. rex on the cover and a big spread of the brachiosaur inside. I remember the whole family going to the theater on opening night (something we had only done before for Indiana Jones and Batman). (I saw it at least 8 total times in the theater, including twice at the IMAX. That fact embarasses me now.) The final step in the process was forcing my parents to buy me a copy of The Making of Jurassic Park and looking at all the dino concept-art by Crash McCreery. I think I made my mind up right there in the bookstore that I would be a dinosaur artist.

Only my dinosaur world was about to change again in only a few months. That summer I also got a copy of The Dinosaur Heresies by Robert Bakker on the basis of Crichton's acknowledgments list in the back of JP, and my memories of the guy from Christopher Reeve's "Dinosaur!" from the '80s. There was a feathered Deinonychus in there! Weird.

Then I discovered in my school library (I was now a high school freshman) a copy of Predatory Dinosaurs of the World by Gregory S. Paul (another guy acknowledged by Crichton). It was shocking at first to see all the feathered dinosaurs in there. I showed others, who also thought it bizarre, and a little bit crackpot-ish. But I checked it out and read it from cover to cover (no joke) over the weekend, and was convinced: Gregory Paul and Bob Bakker were right, and everyone else was wrong, including JP.

I spent the next two years of my life ripping off Bakker and then Paul in countless dinosaur drawings. They got steadily better over the years, at least technically, even if they were all essentially plagiarism.

Wow-- this must have been after just seeing Paul's raptors for the first time. I had no real sense yet for Paul's style or proportions, just the profile running pose. The clenched foot is interesting. I must have still been borrowing from Crash McCreery. Check out the ape-like arms.

This T. rex is a copy of Greg Paul's T. rex, but with the pen and ink stipple style of Bakker. The date on this looks like fall of '93. Small head and feet on this guy.

This Triceratops is now using Paul's pencil style with Bakker's running trike skeletal pose. Again, bad proportions.

At some point I think I became so confident in my ability to draw T. rex that I wouldn't use a reference and instead just went for it. Somehow he got leaner and more tilted. His head is all funny-looking, too. The pattern is another Paul rip-off.

For some reason, Homalocephale:

Well, at least I really did get better as an artist at some point, to the extent that my plagiarism would be truly lawsuit-worthy now. This Velociraptor muscle study is just copying out of Greg Paul's book. This is on 18" x 24" posterboard by the way. The others are a similar scale. I did my share of drawings on 8.5" x 11" dot-matrix printer paper, but I wasn't too intimidated by scale like some kids my age were (and some much older folks still are). I liked working big.

So then I stopped. What happened? Well, in my high school art classes I got a lot more serious about trying to make "real" art, whatever that means. But the truth is, I got into the Beatles, and then guitar. Remember what I said about switching interests? I did a handful of dinosaur drawings my junior and senior years, and one or two things in college, as a fun exercise, but nothing too serious. I think my dinos really got weird after I'd been away from them so long. The Greg Paul running pose got even more Mannerist and slaptsicky, as evidenced by these two pieces from college (they're still each about ten years old):

Then, for a decade, I didn't draw one dinosaur or even really read up on any dinosaur news. You can imagine how surprised I was to learn about the Liaoning fossils and that we now know small theropod dinos were indisputably feathered! Thanks to my job as a paleo-expert at Dinosaur-Quest, at long last I've returned to making dinosaur art again. Old habits die hard, and it's been tough to break the old Greg Paul stranglehold on my work. I still like his stuff, and happen to actually agree with a lot of his recent comments on paleoart, but I've had enough training in art now that I feel I can make the dinosaurs I want to make, and I'm having a lot of fun doing it.

This recent T. rex is my first ever all-digital painting.

Moleskine Update

2011-05-24T10:05:00.000-05:00

At long last, another moleskine update, to show that I have not been completely idle these past few weeks and months. Just idle in a blog-writing capacity. Which is odd, since I don't really write much of anything; I just post images.

And here are some now. Look at the dates for the proper order-- I don't think there's any rhyme or reason to the order in which I'm posting these.

These last three are from the collection of Dinosaur-Quest. We have quite a few cool modern mammal skulls in addition to our fossil collection, so when it's slow I'll sketch them. It's great because I can come back to them whenever I have time and keep myself occupied and drawing.

I guess this is what I do now...

2011-05-08T22:26:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the seeming redundancy, but these dinosaurs are in color, unlike the last ones. I suppose that makes them even better.

Thanks to Bill's Wacom tablet and a lot of practice, I've almost gotten comfortable adding digital color to my scanned pencil drawings. Almost.

Hey, that reminds me! If you want me to draw something for you (I think it's called illustration or something), contact me and I will gladly for draw it for the appropriate amount of compensation. Dinosaurs or otherwise!

The best dinosaur ever

2011-05-06T00:46:00.000-05:00

Not much to say here. This is Tyrannosaurus rex.

The Pearl Brewery

2011-04-24T00:46:00.001-05:00

The once-shuttered Pearl Brewery is now home to a bunch of cool restaurants, offices and shops, as well as a campus of the Culinary Institute of America and apartments and condos. But the best part of the area is still the part-gothic, part-industrial brewery building itself, and until now I hadn't given it the proper attention in a drawing. There are plans to turn it into a hotel, and while I'm sure they'll retain all the 19th-century architecture, I doubt they'll keep all the cool pipes and fixtures sticking out of the sides. So in the interest of documenting that side of the building I finally sat down the other day (in the shade) and tackled it.

Dinosaurs!

2011-04-06T22:13:00.000-05:00

For almost two months now I've been employed as a dinosaur expert at Dinosaur Quest here in San Antonio, which has renewed my interest in paleontology, especially drawing dinosaurs. A long time ago (about fifteen years ago actually) I was a huge dinosaur nut. I drew dinosaurs constantly, imitating my favorite "paleo-artists" Gregory Paul, Bob Bakker, Doug Henderson, and Mark Hallett. But as time went on I got interested in other things and stopped drawings dinosaurs. Then this job happened, and I was looking at dinosaur skeletons all day long. So for the past month and a half I've been drawing dinos whenever I've had a chance. Here are some of the better ones. (And if you're waiting for more urban art, don't worry-- I've done some that I haven't had a chance to scan yet, and I'm also going to Dallas tomorrow with Linda to support her new book that came out yesterday, and I hope to do some urban sketching there, so stay tuned.)

Yangchuanosaurus shangyouensis. This sketch of one of our dinos at Dinosaur-Quest is actually inspired by our mount of another theropod, Torvosaurus.

Allosaurus (Saurophaganax) maximus. Whether or not Allosaurus is congeneric (the same genus) with Saurophaganax is still a matter of debate by paleontologists, which I am not.

(detail)

Giganotosaurus carolinii. I restored the skull looking both at our cast and with consideration of Greg Paul's contention that the skull has been restored too long, especially the lateral temporal fenestra (the hole behind the eye.

Paracaratherium (ok, this guy ain't a dinosaur-- he's a prehistoric rhino-- but we have a skull so I did an illustration.
Velociraptor mongoliensis

Giraffatitan brancai (formerly known as Brachiosaurus brancai)

Allosaurus fragilis subadult (drawn directly from one of our skulls)

Protoceratops andrewsi

Chasmosaurus (also drawn from our mount)

I also have been dabbling with some free hand-drawing animation software I found on the web called Plastic Animation Paper and a Wacom tablet my brother lent me. I did my first-ever animation the other day, of a small theropod dinosaur run cycle! Pretty weak, but I'm learning a lot as I go.

San Fernando Cathedral

2011-03-18T04:42:00.001-05:00

I finally did a serious drawing of San Fernando Cathedral. I'm still working up my nerve to do a drawing of the interior. In Europe I don't think that would be a problem, what with the abundance of religious edifices there, but in San Antonio people treat this building with a great deal of reverence. I'm afraid I'd get yelled at.

Bexar County Courthouse

2011-02-28T22:03:00.001-06:00

This building has always been a beauty. Completed in 1897, almost 115 years ago, it remains the largest and oldest continuously operating courthouse in Texas. The architect was James Riely Gordon, who designed a number of Texas' beautiful courthouses. The style is Richardsonian Romanesque revival, in pink granite and red sandstone. S.A. has a few other buildings in this style, noteworthy for the heavy proportions (like big fat arches and columns) of the masonry. A cool building all around. My grandmother used to work here.

Umpteenth Self-Portrait

2011-02-28T21:56:00.000-06:00

I've done a few, so I'm no longer keeping track. I feel like my face looks a bit squashed in this one.

Moleskine Update

2011-02-28T21:50:00.001-06:00

Quite a bit to post, yet again. When last we left my moleskine, it wasn't full. Now it is, and a new one has been started. These will be in order not from oldest to newest, or newest to oldest, but a strategy I call "no particular." Hopefully they're still interesting.

Turner Halle

2011-02-23T19:02:00.000-06:00

Built in 1892, Turner Halle (known as the Bonham Exchange these days) is a beautiful old building in downtown San Antonio. There's something very appealing about this old brick mansion with palm trees in front, and I've wanted to sketch it for some time, but there are few vantage points out of the sun or out of the way of tourists streaming down the sidewalks on their way to the Alamo. Last week I bit the bullet and sat in the sun on the curb (I wore a hat) and got this one done. on to the next...

Downtown from Starbucks

2011-02-11T23:38:00.001-06:00

The downtown San Antonio Starbucks (one of several, actually) has a second floor with an outdoor patio, but the railings and parapet make it difficult to sketch much of the view while sitting down, so I don't sketch there often. A few days ago I finally bit the bullet and did a sketch standing up to get a better view. This is that sketch. Also, it's a watercolor.

A little color...

2011-02-10T12:02:00.000-06:00

I'm forcing myself to get out and work in color, if only to get a little more comfortable with water media. The color itself isn't the problem-- I've painted in oils so long that I'm fairly confident in terms of what I see color-wise. It's just that watercolors are the exact opposite of oil paint. Oil is forgiving. You can add or subtract easily to cover up your mistakes, and you can mix right there on the canvas. Watercolor requires a lot more discipline, and I just haven't gotten there yet. We'll see...

Two Years!

2011-02-04T23:38:00.000-06:00

We made it! Help yourself!

Completed-- my USk folding Moleskine!

2011-01-28T13:45:00.000-06:00

It took long enough (3 months) but I finally filled my Urban Sketchers folding Moleskine with San Antonio. This will be a long post, since I'm gonna put every spread in here. It's actually four separate panos, all of which I drew on site in downtown San Antonio. The first is a 180 degree sketch of Houston Street just north of Alamo Plaza. The second pano is of Navarro Street and the Nix Hospital. The third is on Commerce Street and features the Aztec Theater. The fourth pano is only 90 degrees (I ran out of room) and was done in front of the old San Antonio Courthouse. They are all stitched together by means of a transitional device I borrowed from Urban Sketcher Pete Scully-- a light pole or street sign is used as a divider between panoramas, and fortunately I was able to use what was already there.

First, the assembled panorama:

Then split into 3 equal parts for easier digestion:

And each spread in order:

All in all, the whole thing is 10 feet 8 inches long. Here's a little video.

Strathmore Updates

2011-01-27T01:08:00.000-06:00

Here's a few more I've done recently and hadn't posted yet. I'm working my way up to some larger drawings. I just acquired a really big drawing board and a big Bristol pad, so I may have to venture out with some big gear in the next few weeks.

LONG overdue moleskine update part 3

2011-01-25T15:21:00.001-06:00

Apologies for the long absence. I've been sickly and I was out of town, etc. but no excuses-- I flaked.
So here are some pictures. To keep things from being overhwelming and to keep the most recent stuff nearer to the top of the page I'm breaking this update up into 3 parts. Here's part 3:

There you have it. Now we're up to speed. Only a few more things to post and I'll be totally caught up.

LONG overdue moleskine update part 2

2011-01-25T15:15:00.000-06:00

LONG overdue moleskine update part 1

2011-01-25T15:10:00.000-06:00

Last post of 2010

2010-12-31T21:38:00.001-06:00

Apologies for the long absence. Don't have a good reason, but I can make one up if requested.

I have a few ideas that I'd like to try out in the next few weeks. I recently did a trial run of an idea in my small Strathmore pad-- a square-ish panorama that I think might be really cool on a large scale. There are a few iterations I'm working on in this direction, and I've also essentially finished my folding pano as well, but none of those images have been scanned yet. Wait 'til next year folks. Meanwhile, I have this:

See y'all next year.

A few more from the Strathmore sketch pad

2010-11-22T14:19:00.000-06:00

I filled my old 8" x 10" Strathmore drawing pad, so I got another one. I like the scale because it fits perfectly in my small mapcase bag.

First, the Commerce Building from my last Strathmore. No idea why I didn't post this already, seeing as how I posted it on Urban Sketchers 3 weeks ago.

This is a detail of the facade of the south side of the AT&T Building. The east side has by far the most detail, but little in the way of shade to sketch from. It's also a little bit intimidating. The south side seemed more manageable.

Linda and I drove out to Fredericksburg for a day last week and I got this sketch done of the weird but cool
Admiral Nimitz Museum on main street.

There are a whole bunch of other cool buildings there I'd like to sketch at some point, but its difficult because the streets have diagonal pull-in parking, so there are no big gaps between cars to sketch the other side of the street. Many of the benches there also have this new "face away from the street" urban-planning disease that I've noticed in many urban districts lately. I suppose since they have no mass transit, there's no need for benches to face out away from the businesses. Oh, well.

More of the panorama

2010-11-16T01:11:00.000-06:00

Stage three (Commerce Street) of the pano project is progressing much more more slowly than the first two, partly because my "shady" spot is really a blustery wind-tunnel of a site that makes for unpleasant sketching. That and it's the most pedestrian-heavy area I've yet drawn, which means a lot of questions and curiosity from passers by, which, while well-meaning, make it hard to focus. I have finished the Navarro Street pano, though, so here it is:

details:

Sketching in progress

2010-11-08T13:50:00.000-06:00

I've been asked a few times to post photos showing my sketching process, but it's always been hard to do because I'm usually alone. This past weekend Linda came downtown with me and took some pictures. Now you can finally see me spilling out of my tiny chair!

Sketching on Broadway:

the finished sketch:

Sketching on the Riverwalk:

and the sketch:

Brand new Moleskine

2010-11-01T11:40:00.000-05:00

Since I've been doing the longer-term sketches in a Strathmore pad, I'm trying to do much looser, quicker sketches in my moleskine now, less than an hour. Knowing me this could all come to an end at any time, but for now I'm having fun.

a 15 minute sketch of the Koehler House on the campus of San Antonio College:

This view is from the window of the Subway restaurant on Broadway. Special appearance by my truck, on the right:

This one was getting close to the hour limit, but still within the timeframe. The Gunter Hotel (which deserves it's own larger, more detailed study):

San Antonio Museum of Art sketches

2010-11-01T11:34:00.000-05:00

Just a few from a recent Tuesday evening. It was too dark to draw outside, but the museum is open late on Tuesdays. Lots of people there in the evening, including a sketching group. Need to do this more often.

Triple Self-Portrait in the big moleskine

2010-11-01T11:27:00.000-05:00

Done late one evening after too much internet time. These perspectives always make the living room seem much larger than it really is.

The Panorama Project

2010-10-28T22:07:00.000-05:00

I finally started working in my limited edition USk folding Moleskine. It took me a while to think of how I wanted to use it, but I decided I would do a series of street panoramas here in San Antonio, Texas. The first of these, on Houston Street north of Alamo Plaza, is (almost) done, but I should have room for two more in the sketchbook. I did part of it during the sketchcrawl, but I wasn't able to round up any other local crawlers this time around. The next street will be Navarro Street in front of the Nix Hospital, which I've already begun.

The Federal Courthouse and Post Office

More Courthouse

The Express-News building is in the background left, Emily Morgan Hotel foreground right

The Emily Morgan Hotel

Starting the Navarro Street pano

The whole shebang

Settling on a theme

2010-10-11T15:17:00.000-05:00

I'm still trying to figure out a large-scale project I'd like to do here in San Antonio-- something like my Bozeman Main Street series where the drawings work together as a group. Lately Houston Street has just been popping up in my Strathmore pad. I suppose it's because it's easy to sketch there: lots of buildings, lots of shade, easy to get to. I might still want to do something else with the street; not sure yet.

Texas Theater facade

Hotel Valencia and Sip Coffee Bar

South Texas Building

RIP Moleskine 7-20-10 to 10-7-10

2010-10-08T19:15:00.000-05:00

Well, another three months, another moleskine down. There were ups, there were downs, there were laughs and tears, and now we begin all over again.

This sketch was done from the car. Santa Rosa hospital is a large hospital complex downtown. Some of the buildings are old and some are new. Judging by the odd angle that it connects with the larger building, I think the tower is an older structure and the building behind it more modern. But who knows?*

This sketch of Mission San Jose only took about twenty minutes, but I think it came out pretty good. The light was just right and I wanted to close out the book with a simple, economical sketch.

*Many people do, obviously.

san antonio from the tower of the americas parts 2 and 3

2010-09-30T14:02:00.001-05:00

I did another few sketches from the TOA the other day, one in a Moleskine, the other in my Strathmore pad, and realized that both were at almost the same scale as my first drawing from the tower back in February, and there was minimal overlap. I plugged them into Photoshop and merged them into a little panorama of the city skyline. There are still a few skyscrapers to the east I couldn't fit, including San Antonio's two tallest hotel, so perhaps another visit is in order.

Here's the final panorama (click for a larger view):

More Strathmore sketches

2010-09-30T13:50:00.000-05:00

The Emily Morgan Hotel, done sitting on the brick wall of the flowerbed in Alamo Plaza on a beautiful day.

Bexar County Courthouse-- unfortunately there are few views available (except for in the middle of the street) that afford one an opportunity to really draw the whole building. The towers here were the only thing visible above a massive live oak that obscure the rest of the facade.

Moleskine update

2010-09-25T00:47:00.000-05:00

More moleskining from the past week or so...

Sketching up in Austin

2010-09-22T16:42:00.003-05:00

I went to pick up Linda last week in Austin, and got some sketching in along South Congress. Linda also bought me a raspa.

The Express-News Building

2010-09-16T19:46:00.003-05:00

The Express-News is San Antonio's only major newspaper. This is their headquarters, and an attractive building to boot. Linda and I have a good friend who writes for the paper, Vianna. Maybe I can convince her to buy this sketch.

Two moleskine sketches

2010-09-16T19:40:00.004-05:00

Linda and I went to our friend Heather's birthday get-together the other night and a sketch resulted:

This one is from a coffee shop in downtown SA on Houston Street, looking toward the Gunter Hotel (where the famous blues performer Robert Johnson recorded all of his songs):

san antonio museum of art

2010-09-13T23:44:00.002-05:00

san antonio museum of art, originally uploaded by paul heaston.

You know, if I'd just break out the watercolors more often, I might actually get a little better. I need to work larger and darker, I think. I'll try to come back to SAMA for some more watercolor attempts. This was actually done from a vacant lot just outside the SAMA parking lot, and I'm pretty sure now that I was trespassing. But what's done is done (though I may go back again).

Moleskine update

2010-09-10T19:39:00.002-05:00

September has been a slow month, sketch-wise. I had hoped to be sketching somewhere in the American Southwest right about now, but that was not to be, thanks to my employer. Here are some sketches that I managed to get done in the past few weeks.

houston street at navarro street

2010-09-10T19:38:00.002-05:00

houston street at navarro street, originally uploaded by paul heaston.

After two aborted attempt to draw something today, I finally achieved something resembling a sketch at the corner of Houston and Navarro. It was a bit rushed because my meter was running out.

Box Truck

2010-08-29T21:13:00.000-05:00

View northeast from Travis Street

2010-08-25T00:49:00.003-05:00

I finally used my new camping chair to do this sketch. I reconnoitered around the Riverwalk area for a while before finally coming up a flight of stairs and finding almost this exact view. I unfolded my chair, put in my headphones and went to work for about 2 1/2 hours. Only one person stopped to ask me a few questions, and she was quite nice-- I think her name was Cathy. Once I had established the location of everything and started most of the hatching, I left to go to work. I continued the hatching over my lunch break and finished everything after I got home.

From a Downtown Starbucks

2010-08-19T21:31:00.003-05:00

I drove downtown today on my day off to snoop around for a place to draw. I had my new sketchin' chair in tow, as well as my big hat and map-case sketch bag, and I was fully prepared to set up on a sidewalk somewhere for some outdoor sketching. Only the heat got the better of me, and I found myself inside a Starbucks, ordering a lemonade and looking for a place to sit and cool off. As it happens, there was a table available right next to some floor-to-ceiling windows right on Crockett Street, so I decided to set up shop and draw the parking lot across the street.

Moleskine and SAMA membership

2010-08-19T01:01:00.002-05:00

I love the San Antonio Museum of Art, though I confess that since I returned from Montana I hadn't been back until last week. Yesterday I bit the bullet and purchased my first museum membership ever. Now I can visit anytime for free, so you can expect to see a lot of boring sketches of museum sculptures for at least a little while.

Also, here's some sketchin' for your amusement.

New sketch bag

2010-08-19T00:48:00.004-05:00

I actually went and bought two new sketch bags as a solution to a sort of problem I'm having with my old messenger-style bag, which I sketched back in March of last year.

It's big, so I stuff it full of stuff, just in case. Only I never use 99% percent of that stuff. Mostly I just use my pocket moleskine and my Staedtler Pigment Liners, and occasionally my Sakura gel pen or Bogus pad. So I decided to streamline.

This one is the perfect size for my pocket moleskine, my regular moleskine, some pens, my iPod and nothing else. It's a lot easier on my shoulders, less conspicuous, and just plain easier to keep with me. I'll draw my other, slightly larger map-case-style bag sooner or later.

Big moleskine update

2010-08-14T01:14:00.002-05:00

Lotsa sketches.

From the inside of a Ford Ranger

2010-08-13T00:02:00.003-05:00

Can't say why, but I though the 4th floor of the North Star Mall parking garage might give me an interesting vantage point of the buildings along Loop 410, as well as allow me to draw inside my vehicle in the shade (my truck is dark so the cab heats up fast even with the air on). Went nuts on the hatching.

The Smith-Young Tower

2010-08-12T23:08:00.004-05:00

I'm baffled. I'm baffled that millions of tourists visit San Antonio each year, many of them to look at and take thousands of pictures of a small, architecturally modest building in Alamo Plaza whose historical significance they don't entirely understand or even care about. I'm baffled that of those tourists, only a handful will ever spend any time looking at another building-- the Tower Life Building née the Smith-Young Tower. Even fewer will devote a portion of their memory cards to documenting the neo-gothic facets of its flattened hexagon shape, its elaborate program of gargoyles, the sun glinting off its emerald roof. Fewer still will bother to learn the name of the building or its place in the history of skyscrapers. There are no restaurants or shops on the stretch of the Riverwalk below this building, and, unless you work there, no reasons to enter the lobby. It sits alone quietly at the far end of downtown away from the convention center and the mega-hotels and malls and wax museums and Segway tour operators, waiting for someone to draw it.

the Enclave Apartments

2010-08-09T00:08:00.003-05:00

You'd think, given my proclivity for San Antonio boosterism, that I would fudge the number of floors in our highrises toward the high end, but I somehow shaved 7 floors from the Enclave apartment tower off Jackson-Keller road. One or two stories omitted here and there doesn't bother me, but for some reason I feel like I've done some sort of injustice to one of SA's tallest residential buildings, and it just looks squat here.

Hondo, Texas

2010-08-09T00:04:00.002-05:00

Went west down Hwy 90 recently to Hondo and sketched this here building. Hondo's downtown is strung out along the railroad tracks, so the streetwall faces a whole lot of empty space . Hondo has chosen to put a parking lot in that space adjacent to the tracks. It was hot that day.

Office Supplies

2010-08-06T11:38:00.002-05:00

Sketching during my lunch break at work means sketching whatever odds and ends I can find in the back room...

New Moleskine (again again)

2010-07-26T20:08:00.003-05:00

This new moleskine had a cool start, as I spent a portion of last week in the guesthouse at the Stonewall Valley Ranch in the Texas Hill Country near Stonewall, naturally. Linda's sister Ann put us up, and her other sister Amy came along. We got to visit with Linda's cute and high-octane nephew Tegue (Ann's son), who finally wiped me out by the third day. But we had a lot of fun, and I even did a few sketches, too.

The table at Auslander, a German restaurant in nearby Fredericksburg.

Part of the front of the guest house:

Linda's and my room at the guest house:

Assorted

2010-07-26T20:02:00.003-05:00

For a minute there I thought I might try a watercolor notebook as my new everyday sketch journal. I use them all the time for "special" sketches, but I thought it would be interesting to always have one with me. Mistake. Because I always keep it in my back pocket, and because it's hot here in Texas (and because that heat causes me to sweat), the notebook kept getting damp--not really damp, but the paper would get humid enough to affect the way my pens work. That and I never keep watercolors on me, so the whole idea of having special paper that I wasn't watercoloring in seemed superfluous.

The optometrist waiting room while Linda got her eyes checked out:

A car:

The Aurora Apartments

2010-07-26T20:01:00.001-05:00

aurora apts san antonio, originally uploaded by paul heaston.

Th Aurora Apartments are a ~80-year-old apartment building on San Antonio's near north side, close to San Antonio College. It would be cool to live there.

chris turbuck on bogus paper

2010-07-26T19:59:00.001-05:00

chris on bogus paper, originally uploaded by paul heaston.

Yup, that's him. Not quite as strong as the self-portrait, but Chris is 2000 miles away, so what do you expect?

Last Page Again

2010-07-24T23:08:00.003-05:00

This last moleskine was a bear to get through, and took a lot longer to fill than it should have. But, hey, it's done; no looking back. On to the next one.

The last page:

story mansion

2010-06-26T18:21:00.001-05:00

story mansion, originally uploaded by paul heaston.

I did this sketch last year in Bozeman with the idea that it might someday be used in some form for the benefit of the Friends of the Story Mansion, and now that it has been, I feel free to share it. This took two afternoons of hard work sitting underneath a shady tree and listening to my iPod. I'm actually quite happy with the sketch.

flashlight

2010-06-26T18:18:00.001-05:00

flashlight, originally uploaded by paul heaston.

Easily the most exciting drawing I've ever done. So much raw energy in this drawing... I hope you weren't overwhelmed by the power of the sketch.

block plane

2010-06-26T18:16:00.001-05:00

block plane, originally uploaded by paul heaston.

As the post title suggests, this is a block plane, used to smooth and flatten irregular wood surfaces. I have one. I drew it. There you have it.

ihop on de zavala road

2010-06-26T18:14:00.001-05:00

ihop on de zavala road, originally uploaded by paul heaston.

Brief sketch done while enjoying a late-night breakfast at IHOP.

self portrait on brown paper

2010-06-24T01:34:00.001-05:00

self portrait on brown paper, originally uploaded by paul heaston.

staedtler pigment liner, sakura gel pen on bogus rough sketch pad

Fun with Isometric Graph Paper

2010-06-24T01:14:00.003-05:00

I recently got a pad of isometric graph paper, which I have put to good use by making some absolutely superfluous and completely meaningless drawings. Enjoy.

eddie at hill's cafe

2010-05-23T22:10:00.001-05:00

eddie at hill's cafe, originally uploaded by paul heaston.

This is my buddy Ed, an assistant DA for Hays county, and someone who knows Austin a lot better than I do. He took me to Hill's Cafe on South Congress, where I had a gargantuan CFS (Chicken-Fried Steak for you non-Texans) and fried corn nuggets. All washed down with a jar of iced tea.

Austin, TX skyline

2010-05-23T22:08:00.001-05:00

austin skyline from the palmer events center, originally uploaded by paul heaston.

From Butler Park, near the Palmer Events Center. There's a little reflecting pool there that I obviously had trouble with.

near 10th and lamar

2010-05-23T22:07:00.003-05:00

near 10th and lamar, originally uploaded by paul heaston.

Austin, Texas.

at the driver's license office

2010-05-23T22:07:00.001-05:00

at the driver's license office, originally uploaded by paul heaston.

The Texas DPS (Dept. of Public Safety), which is otherwise known as the DMV in most states. The wait here was disappointingly short, so I didn't get a chance to draw the wall-mounted TV with the Home Shopping Network on.

utility knife

2010-05-23T22:05:00.001-05:00

utility knife, originally uploaded by paul heaston.

ho-hum

at sam's burger joint, san antonio

2010-05-23T22:04:00.001-05:00

at sam's burger joint, originally uploaded by paul heaston.

Small moleskine tableau... I did indeed have a burger, whilst Linda had a chicken sandwich.

backroom view finished

2010-05-05T01:14:00.001-05:00

backroom view finished, originally uploaded by paul heaston.

This is the back room at my place of work. This is about as clean as it gets, except for the piles of books on the table, which aren't typical. This drawing was done in three or four sessions starting April 27th and ending May 4th, during which the room changed quite a bit. The boxes piled on the left got piled even higher, the table was cleared, and certain items (the clipper ship, mop bucket, chairs) moved around a lot. Also, the fridge in the back was replaced, which is pretty unusual. The drawing shows the original fridge. The new, as far as I can tell, looks identical, but apparently it isn't.

DeWalt 16 gauge finish nailer

2010-05-01T14:28:00.001-05:00

DeWalt 16 gauge finish nailer, originally uploaded by paul heaston.

One of my new toys. Hope to use it soon.

Three Sketches of Mission San Jose

2010-04-29T17:00:00.004-05:00

Yesterday I had the chance to do three quick sketches (each ~30 minutes) of the "Queen of the Missions" here in San Antonio, Mission San Jose. There are a lot of great angles to sketch San Jose from, but few with significant shade, so I may have to bring a hat for my next trip. In the order they were done:

backroom view in progress

2010-04-29T17:00:00.001-05:00

backroom view in progress, originally uploaded by paul heaston.

I'll repost this when more had been done. I keep adding to it during my lunch breaks at work.

san pedro avenue live oak

2010-04-29T16:59:00.001-05:00

san pedro avenue live oak, originally uploaded by paul heaston.

Decided it'd be better without any of the other streetscape around it. 15 min lunchtime sketch.

Moleskine update

2010-04-22T21:48:00.001-05:00

Late as usual. But some of 'em are cool this time.

Well, maybe not this one.

The Pyramid, the Zoo, and a fire truck

2010-04-09T10:45:00.002-05:00

Well, the Bank of America Pyramid:

Some brief zoo sketches:

Fire truck on a used car lot, San Pedro Ave:

another lunchtime sketch

2010-03-28T20:56:00.002-05:00

Another of my 15-20 minute lunchtime sketches, this one looking out the window of a fast-food restaurant at a parking lot and small office building. I think they're getting a little stronger.

Moleskine assorted

2010-03-25T00:10:00.001-05:00

Some good, some not so good. In the middle here somewhere I went to Houston on a day trip for no reason. I only got a couple of drawings accomplished, but I'd love to go back soon.

The Pearl Stable is not finished

2010-03-25T00:05:00.003-05:00

Well, the building is, but the drawing ain't. Too small, too many details, too centered of a composition. Wasn't working. It's a shame, too, because it's a beautiful building, as is the Pearl Brewery right next to it. Maybe I'll get back to it later. The Pearl neighborhood is a pretty neat place.

Cox Radio Tower

2010-03-13T20:49:00.002-06:00

I'll admit it-- I'm obsessed with San Antonio's mid-rise office buildings. They are scattered throughout town and most are adjacent to free parking, meaning free sketching. I've drawn more than one like this-- the Cox Radio building-- with a strip-mall in the foreground. More to come.

Moleskine...

2010-03-13T20:47:00.002-06:00

These are some more lunch break sketches. I've yet to complete one in my allotted 15-25 minutes that I thought really worked compositionally, but they are still fun to try.

Three new sketches

2010-03-09T13:29:00.004-06:00

I finally went and picked up some new Moleskines the other day. Here's the first few days' worth:

buildings along alamo plaza

my (relatively) new shoes

Linda's swift- a tool she uses to wind yarn from a skein into a ball.

san antonio from the tower of the americas

2010-02-25T22:07:00.004-06:00

san antonio from the tower of the americas, originally uploaded by paul heaston.

Well, I knew I had to do it. I went to the top of the Tower of the Americas (the tallest building in San Antonio) and drew from the top. At $12 for an adult, it isn't cheap. There are two levels on the observation deck, a lower outdoor ring and a slightly higher indoor ring with tables and chairs and a snack bar. I walked out to the lower observation deck, which offers the least obstructed views of downtown, and quickly realized that, even here in south Texas, it was just too cold. There's a lot of wind at 60 stories up, and no direct sunlight to warm you, so I retreated indoors and drew with my Bristol pad leaning against the glass. This view of downtown happens to be what you see immediately as you exit the elevator, so I was a bit self-conscious with all the tourists streaming past, but no one spoke to me and I found the whole undertaking to be a lot less daunting once I got started. I'd like to go back up and zero in on some smaller areas at some point. There's also quite a bit of the skyline I couldn't include, so perhaps a panorama is in order. Maybe they offer coupons or a season pass...

I'm still here!

2010-02-22T09:45:00.003-06:00

...and I'm still doing plenty of drawing. I've been working on a separate commercial illustration project I can't share just yet. I haven't had a whole lot of time to draw just for me, but I've done a couple of things.

The Vidorra Apartments are another new high-rise residential building near downtown San Antonio, near St. Paul Square and Sunset Station.

A few weeks ago I took some time to drive out to Seguin (where I'd never actually been before) and draw the historic downtown.

This is a small midrise office building on San Pedro Ave near where I work. I did this one over 15 minutes sitting in my car during my lunch break.

Oh yeah, one more thing. As of February 4th, I've been doing this blog for 1 year! Hard to believe!

the broadway

2010-01-26T17:59:00.002-06:00

the broadway, originally uploaded by paul heaston.

The Broadway is a residential tower built, appropriately enough, on the corner of Broadway and Hildebrand. It sits on the former site of Earl Abel's Restaurant. The restaurant, under new ownership, really only moved down the road a ways, but that hasn't stopped many locals from complaining that the Broadway has displaced a beloved San Antonio landmark. The Broadway is one of a half-dozen or so highrise residential towers built in San Antonio in the last five years or so. I think it's an indicator that some San Antonians are finally moving back into town from the suburban wastelands of the surrounding hill country.

100th post!!!! Woohoo!

2010-01-24T00:13:00.002-06:00

Well, there would be more if I weren't so lazy, or if I were clever/patient enough to post only one sketch at a time. But really, that's 100 posts more than I'd written at this time last year, so there.

On to the sketches. I completed side 1 of my Japanese Album Moleskine. Not bad for since Christmas I s'pose. Also did an aborted sketch in my "hand book" watercolor journal, sans watercolor.

I had previously thought the above building was called the Alliance Bernstein building, since they're the chief tenant (and the name is displayed on a huge sign on the side of the building), but whaddya know, the building/complex is called The Forum. Real original. I did this sketch in the drizzle in this strange park-like area across the street that, due to a small rise in the earth, is invisible from the street. So it's essentially a park that no one knows about or uses. Then I met my dad and bro for lunch at Earl of Sandwich. I had an Italian.

This Sears is all that remains from the now non-existant Central Park Mall. The rest was demolished several years ago and a multi-level shopping center called Park North built in its place. But the Sears remained, undaunted by the changes and seemingly unaware that nobody really shops there anymore. I did this the same day as the Forum sketch, on my lunch hour from work. My lunch was scheduled to begin an hour and fifteen minutes after I got to work, and since I had already eaten an hour before that, I took the whole hour to sit in my car in a parking lot and draw. I'm an odd bird, I know.

The final spread from the first side of my Japanese Album. I haven't decided if I will do the second side, so this might be it. This sketch is a bit underwhelming, I admit, and the panhandlers were out in full force to bug me while I drew, despite headphones and the fact that I, much like they, have no money. To their credit, panhandlers in San Antonio are quite polite, and almost expect you to turn them down. I think they'd do better if they were a bit more confident.

This one just didn't get done, for whatever reason. I was sitting on an uncomfortably high windowsill of a Walgreens, and the light was bothering me. There was even a false start before this one, and a lot of hemming and hawing over which sketchbook to use, having completed the previous one. Eh, could've been worse.

New stuff

2010-01-20T23:53:00.003-06:00

Linda across the table at EZ's. She had a quesadilla and I had a burger. Yum.

The vacuum cleaner we use at the bookstore where I work. The other view is a parking lot from a fast food establishment near De Zavala Road.

Another parking lot view:

View of downtown San Antonio:

riverview towers panorama from main plaza

2010-01-11T23:52:00.001-06:00

riverview towers panorama from main plaza, originally uploaded by paul heaston.

One of the coolest things about the new Japanese Album Moleskine Linda gave me is that I can do long panoramic drawings. That's assuming I'll have the time or patience.

más bosquejos

2010-01-05T14:10:00.001-06:00

New Year's Update

2010-01-02T10:45:00.004-06:00

Time to post some new sketches.

self-portrait

the shoppes at la cantera

some table condiments

cars

For Christmas Linda gave me a very cool Japanese-style folding Moleskine. I'm trying to fill it now and hope to do three-or more-page spreads at some point. I also resolve, this New Year, to do a sketch every single day this year. That may or may not happen, but I though I'd have more incentive if I put it in writing.

the cetaceanist

2009-12-30T01:55:00.002-06:00

the cetaceanist, originally uploaded by paul heaston.

Since I haven't posted much this month (though I do have new sketches on the way, I promise) I thought I'd go way back and show some very early sketchbook work. This drawing was done 17 years ago today. I'm sure I copied the pose from a comic book somewhere, but the character is an original creation by yours truly. "The Cetaceanist" was a marine biologist and crime-fighter with various whale-derived superpowers. One of these days I'll get around to finishing the comic book I started about him. Also of note here: I no longer put little loops in my 2s.

More from my Italy Sketchbook

2009-12-17T00:09:00.002-06:00

Since I've haven't done a lot of new drawings lately, I thought I'd dip some more into some older sketchbooks. My Italy semester was a great experience in terms of developing a sketching ethic and a kind of discipline that I've more or less stuck to since. Here's where it all started.

What making art looks like

2009-12-16T01:43:00.002-06:00

...according to my sketchbook. In Italy in 2007, when I really began sketching in earnest, I drew whatever was available to me. A good deal of what was available to me were the Montana State students who accompanied me during my semester abroad. In between teaching and critiquing I ended up drawing each and every one of them at least once, and many several times. They were all also making art at the time, so my sketchbook became a record of their process and mine.

l to r (I think): Grant, Katie, Regina, Megan, Sara, Brent, Chelsea, Hana, Mel (on the fence), Elisa (nearly invisible), Tiffany (ponytail), Dan, Sarah, Rikka (standing), and Jeff

Morgan

Brent

Elisa

Mel

Chelsea

Jeff

Elisa again

Dan

self-portrait

Brought to you by 3M

2009-11-30T20:03:00.002-06:00

This is by no means my first sketch on a Post-It note. But it is the first one I've ever blogged about.

And here's a sketch of my Leatherman:

The Medical Center, and a chair

2009-11-29T08:22:00.003-06:00

There are too many good angles of the South Texas Medical Center to choose from, and too many security guards in parking lots for me to feel comfortable sketching there.

This is a chair at the Yarn Shop shop where Linda works.

Forgotten sketches

2009-11-24T23:43:00.002-06:00

I almost forgot to post these. Actually, I did forget to post these. Now I am. That should solve the problem.

This is the house across the street from ours. Damned if I didn't make the foreground SUV a little bit too big.

I drew this from my truck while it rained.

In Boerne, Texas

Linda gave her young nephew Tegue this cool wooden pull toy. I want one.

While watching a Spurs game.

New bits and pieces

2009-11-23T16:10:00.002-06:00

Since I was out of town for a while and started a new job immediately after coming back, I've only done a few sketches. And these are them:

The Story Mansion show

2009-11-19T21:14:00.002-06:00

The show "Drawing On Main" went great. Dede Taylor and Erin Anderson were fantastic in helping to organize the show and get people involved! We had some terrific sponsors as well-- MacKenzie River Pizza supplied lodgepoles, Ferraro's supplied the wine and Old Main Gallery took care of the framing. We also had help from the Downtown Bozeman Partnership and a lot of help from friends and community members! I want to thank Vaughan Judge, director of the MSU School of Art, and Harvey Hamburgh, art historian, for speaking at the openings, and thanks also to everyone who attended both the receptions and the sketchcrawl workshop, despite a killer storm that left many folks stuck with tires spinning.

Without further ado, some pics and art:

The snowstorm aftermath:

Story Mansion

Some drawings from the Sketchcrawl:

At long last

2009-11-19T21:11:00.003-06:00

Some long overdue sketches, with little commentary. Ok, so I've slacked off a bit on the blog. But bear with me-- I'm working, I just went on a trip, and I'm lazy. Those are three dandy excuses. So you'll just have to live with it, whoever you all are...

There, all better.