Thursday, February 26, 2009

meca in days of yore

I had fully intended to bring these out when I met up with the other alums in Portland, but never got around to it. So here I go publicly embarrasing myself and perhaps a few others... First up, my old birkenstocks and white-clad rear take center stage in a polaroid that was rightfully thrown away by some meca publicity photographers. As it's the only image remaining of this huge drawing collage that I did (220 pieces) I do treasure it. Plus it looks so punk. This was junior year at meca.
The highlight of that year was our Washington, D.C. trip with Ed Douglas. I was using a disposable camera and didn't develop the images for months afterwards, so everything has a bluish tinge. Left to right, as I remember are:
Will B, Renee B, me, Chris K, Constance O, Julie...., ....(eeek I forget) and Jack S. I presume Ed took the picture. So far it's the only time I've been to the capitol, but I'd go back if I had the chance (the National Gallery! Smithsonian! Phillips Collection! GAH!)

This is from 1999, fourth & final year. My studio had this window as one of three walls, and there were work crews on scaffolding outside almost the whole year as renovations progressed. Arkonbey took this pic, and it's still one of my favorites from the whole time there.


Also taken by Arkonbey, (same space as above but at night) showing me in my lovely studio togs. Bleh, I probably was fresh from my dishwashing job or something.
That's all for now. Perhaps some other time I'll post the few others I have stashed away somewhere. I do rather wish I'd had a digital camera back then.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Miss Finch, with help from Miriam

Hello again. Today's posting is inspired by Miriam's comments on a previous post. Here is a rough sketch from my Quattro journal:

And here's an 8x8" pen & ink of the same basic composition. There will be some light watercoloring in addition to it's present state. The next version of it will have to be on larger paper, I ran into the edges here, and would like to include a bit more airspace around the characters.

Before heading out this afternoon, I got a bit crafty. I can still smell the glue-gun glue here in the studio. If what I made isn't totally ridiculous, then maybe it will make an appearance here. Sequins were involved, so I'm not sure.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Frogs for PW!

Here are a few of the frog 'studies' I've been trying to re-create for P.W. My goal was to recapture the feel of the original that sold at Art Hop, but without copying exactly. Well, there are a fair number of attempts, but still I'm not quite sure I've got it. Patient P.W. has been waiting for ages to see something (anything!) so here they are for her perusal.


Out for a jaunt with his mushroom umbrella and acorn. 4x6 inch.



Walnut ink wash, colored pencil and black ink. 4x6 inch (I like his eyes.)


Quite a departure from the 'original' I wanted to give him more landscape. (For 4"x6" I was able to squeeze in a good amount.)


Breaking away from the original 4x6 size, I went to 8x8 and then cropped to about a 5x7 size here. A few nice moments in this, but also a few technical issues. This led Rick to recommend me doing more figure studies for Frog.



These sketchbook images are from this evening, I'm trying to emphasize his "dancing" posture.