On Display at the Tate Modern

Can't resist some good crowd sketching, even (especially) when I'm supposed to be doing something else.

Radio(ish) Audience

These beautiful people all turned out to see (see) a test-run of a new radio show. It probably helped that it was written and, in part, performed by John Finnemore.

About Town

 

I've moved to the UK, and have not taken nearly enough opportunities to sketch the beautiful and varied places in which I've found myself.  Didn't miss out on this one, though.

DIY Life Drawing

A very keen young animator in London, frustrated with the lack of drop-in animation-friendly life drawing on offer, has set up a life drawing club – the price for 3+ hours good solid gesture drawing is taking your turn to go up and pose (clothed).

Black Stilt

Black stilt, Monterey Bay Aquarium

Seagull vs Starfish

It’s not a complete BC Ferries experience until you’ve seen a seagull trying to eat a starfish.

Blackadder Goes Forth

My Blackadder Goes Forth marathon has coincided with the reintroduction of the doodle pad to my desk as a necessary sanity saver. As I plan to do some acting studies off it when I have time to breathe again, and don’t want to be struggling with design when I should be concentrating on poses and expressions, I need a shorthand for the characters, so whenever I glance over I jot down an observation, and am inching toward understanding.

Mockingbird

A thrush that sings varied melodious songs on warm summer nights … in Europe, the nightingale; in North America, the mockingbird.  One gets romantic odes, fairy tales, nostalgic songs, and instrumental duets broadcast on the radio; the other gets cursed for making a racket at two in the morning.  What gives? Is it the name? Beautiful birdsong in the middle of the night is a gift, and you only get it a few months of the year. Try to think of your mockingbird as a nightingale and see what a difference it makes.

Londoners

Camden Lock 2

Camden Lock 1

Hourly Comics, 2013

Bohemians

Café Vesuvio, San Francisco – if you're looking for a nice bar where you can actually hear each other talk after 9pm, this is the place for you!  My sister took me here after seeing Midnight in Paris, which was ... appropriate.

Land's End

... in San Francisco, not Cornwall.  I got a sunburn while sketching this, but it was worth it.

Swashbuckling Etudes

I had to get back in the swing of drawing dynamic poses from scratch again, so in lieu of some insane figure drawing class I decided  to do some quick sketches off Pirates of the Caribbean. 

                             

I could stand to do a lot more of this ...

What I find particularly fascinating is that, dynamic as these sketches may appear, I could never get as much energy in the drawing as I saw in the frame of film. Draw from life, folks! (Or filmed life, at least ...)