Man in Brown

More Street Art

Portland Street Art

Walking around the Old Port this morning I discovered some amazing art on the side of this building. I thought I'd share it...

Virgin de El Panecillo

Another sketch from my trip to Ecuador. The statue on the left side of the page is the Virgin of the Panecillo in Quito, Ecuador. I wondered what Panecillo meant and came to learn it means small bread roll. It is also the name of the hill that the Virgin stands on top of which I suppose looks like a small bread roll from a distance. Anyway, we visited the statue on the third day we were in Quito. I also took a few photos of the construction of the statue which, in case you were wondering, is 148 feet high and is Number 42 of the Tallest Statues in the World.

The sketch on the right is near the Plaza de Independencia in Quito.

Something's Fishy

Here are 2 different drawings of the same fish. I did the bottom one a few weeks ago in my sketchbook. It took me about 20 or 30 minutes. I used a univision pen and doc martin's watercolors. It was a fun little sketch and at the time I was happy with it.

The top drawing was done on my tablet using Autodesk's Sketchbook Pro 2010 software. I have used this program occasionally in my architectural practice but am often frustrated at not being able to get a quick sketch out of it. I started out this drawing with the intention comparing how long it would take me to get a drawing I was happy with. Well, it took about 3 hours for me to "get happy". Why is that?

Ecuadorian Ceramic

This sketch is from a few months ago when I was in Ecuador. A ceramic statue in the Cultural Museum. I sketched it in about 7 minutes as they were closing the museum. The guard came up to me and watched me sketch and seemed very sorry to interrupt the drawing. Cameras weren't allowed so it's kind of cool to get sketches of stuff that most people can only remember

Concentration!

I bought a book a few weeks ago at Borders in Portland called "Facial Expressions - A Visual Reference for Artists". Its filled with men and women's facial expressions. Models from 18 - 90 are asked to expess all sorts of emotions like furious, or sly, or evil, or surprised, well, you get the idea. I think this guy was concentrating in an exagerrated way. It's a great reference book for drawing the face in a different way than I usually do.

At Boynton McKay

I walked into Boynton McKay with the intention to get a chicken fajita wrap to go but as I made my way to the counter I saw a man sketching. I so wanted to stop and see his drawing and other sketches but I suppose I was embarrassed or didn't want to disturb him. Anyway, it inspired me to start sketching right then and there so I ordered my wrap and sat in one of the booths and sketched the booth opposite from me. Normally Boynton's is packed but since it's late in the season and it was the middle of a beautiful crisp fall afternoon, it was the perfect little sketch spot for me. It was a fast sketch relatively speaking and not at all accurate but I loved doing it.

Portrait of Maimonides

This is a reworking of a drawing I found by Ben Shahn in an old book I found on figure drawing. His original drawing was done around 1954 and the book was published in 1960. After I completed my drawing I did a little research on Ben Shahn and learned that 5 years later, in 1965, he reworked the drawings again. Here are his versions:

Plaza Independencia

Wow it's been awhile since I've posted anything. I sketched this in my Handbook Journal. I sat by a column next to a shoeshine stand and sketched this on a sunny and busy day in Independence Plaza. It was hot and it was the only shady spot I could find to sit down. Several people stopped to watch me draw and I spent about 15 minutes talking to a man in broken spanish and english. It is one of the nice things about sketching that people feel they can stop and watch and sometimes strike up a conversation.