Figure drawing frenzy 2

Finally had the chance to go to figure drawing tonight, feels good to draw for yourself...that and nudity rocks!

Sketch when you can..

School just started, and things are lookin' to get busy, but I try to doodle when I can. As you can see, this means fewer posts, but I'll try my best.

Sketchin' in Stockton

Went to Stockton this weekend for me ma's birthday..got my sketch on when I could..
(memory sketch)





(memory sketch)

Hand studies

Went to the mall with friends the other day to draw and realized I need to practice drawings hands more, and my do people have interesting hands:

Heath Ledger (1979-2008)

I got a phone call from my friend, Dre, today. The news punched me in the heart. My friends and I were all in disbelief. We went straight to the internet and there the words were, bold and tragic: "Heath Ledger found dead at 28." It's weird because none of us were BIG fans of his; but we were all excited about his upcoming role as the Joker. That and he was pretty young. My friends and I are still excited to see "The Dark Knight", and are sure Ledger's performance will be amazing as he always was. But it will sure be weird and sad enjoying him on screen, knowing it will be one of the last times we see him. Rest in peace.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

A bunch of us took a trip to to Monterey yesterday for fishy fun. When I got there I sat down and did this watercolor study of a shark in the kelp forest exhibit. A cute little Asian girl, no more than four years old, kept inspecting me rather closely, and would poke my watercolor set from time to time, then would get reprimanded by her mom. The mom apologized to me, but I told her I was just glad I had a fan. She said "You definitely do." As I finished my sketch, I thought to myself "Not a bad start! This is going to be a great productive drawing day!" Afterwards I met up with my pals Chris and Nelson and from then on, no new drawings were produced. Instead, we briefly left the aquarium to go to a bar down the street for some beers. When we returned, our second attempt to draw was foiled by an astounding variety of jellyfish and our decision to point and laugh, like schoolyard bullies, at the unfortunate, physical appearance of the giant, super ugly Sun fish. Seeing all the beautiful fish made us hungry, so we went and had sushi for dinner (no joke, and my God was it delicious). So without further ado, the only drawing accomplished during a six hour visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium:

Sketch Crawl 1/19/08

Had a blast at Sketch Crawl today with fellow X-Men Chris Palmer, Dre Rhodes and Miss Lee. We met a lot of talented and friendly fellow artists. Here are some sketches I lured out today:

Semi-blind sketches

Laura suggested we draw at Borders last night. I wasn't feeling too hot last night, I felt like I was getting sick. However, I was inspired to "man up" and go anyway, knowing that my buddy Saul went to draw despite his being sick. I'm doing slightly better but I still kinda feel like Superman wearing that chain of kryptonite.

A Barron Story

A couple of semesters ago, I had the honor and pleasure of having the legendary Barron Storey as my teacher for conceptual illustration. This guy is, for lack of a better word, a genius, and an amazing human being, so genuine and so compassionate. One time, he did a live demo in his sketch book, that was actually more of a performance. As he sunk his hands into a puddle of obsidian-shaded india ink, he began expressing his current thoughts, pains, pleasures, opinions, and visions of his existence in relation to the world. It was general and specific and deep and on the surface at the same time. He continued his heartfelt rant as he illustrated in his sketchbook with nothing but his leaky black hands. We could do nothing but listen to him pour his heart out. With his words strong, and the aura tense, I felt compelled to draw him as he was at that very moment and take whatever notes I could attempt to scribble at the pace of his passionate speech.

Cafe sketches

Here is a spread of sketches done at a cafe in Santana Row yesterday...

"My Neighbor Totoro"

I'm slowly making my way through Miyazaki's immaculate collection of films. One of the best things of vacation is getting to see films you have always wanted to dip into but never had the time for during the school year. So I finally saw "My Neighbor Totoro." Miyazaki always tickles the nads with beautiful, subtle animation. It was bittersweet in that I really really wish Totoro was real and was my neighbor. I would take a nap on top of him. Gay.



I am also a huge Simpson fan and found this online:

A Page of Notes

I haven't sketched that much the last few days on account of my trimphant return to the gym. But enjoy this page from my notebook while I tend to my sore and aching soon-to-be-not-so-flabby body.

sketches

Laura and I went sketchin' the other day despite the morose weather. It felt good to get out versus the previous day we spent reading manga indoors. Here's a page done at Borders:

Photo of SF trip: THE REMIX

Yesterday, my friends and I went to visit the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco to see a Mary Blair exhibit as well as many other featured awesome artists. My buddy Saul took a cool picture that unfortunately had me obscured by my pal The Thrilla, Paul Abadilla. But thanks to advancing technology, Saul figured out a way to fold time back on itself so that it was me who ended up strutting in front of Paul. The original photo can be seen on Saul Ruiz's blog "Escape Artist," which you can see on this page, is only a click away. ENJOY!

Self-Portrait: An Homage to Sargent

Our final project for figure painting class was to do a self-portrait and choose a master artist as a basis for the painting (technique, color palette, style, etc.). I chose the ever popular and prolific John Singer Sargent. I chose to do a direct reference to one of his most famous portraits, "Vernon Lee" (featured below my portrait). This was my first self-portrait done with oil paints in 23 years. According to my friend Wik E. Pedia, Sargent averaged about 14 commissioned painted portraits a year. If you do the math, in that time Sargent would have 322 portraits to my one.


Sadly, my current set of painting skills could not capture the beauty that is my ugly face...


"Vernon Lee" by John Singer Sargent


I am way more handsome that this...or am i!?


This was the original lay-in for my self-portrait, nice and loose.

Oakland poo, I mean zoo...

I ventured to the Oakland zoo today with friends. Here are some of my favorite sketches that came out like Lance Bass:

The following I believe are called "saimangs", members of the ape family...





And here are some camels (it's actually the same camel that I just drew differently each time)...





stay tuned for more beastReality...

WonderWear

My partner-in-crime Dr. Harkins and I were having fun combining our love for super heroes and underwear fashion...

"A Charlie Brown Christmas"

I LOVE Peanuts, and being that t'was the holidays, I went and recently bought "A Charlie Brown Christmas." I believe I have seen it when I was very young, but I don't remember much, so it was like seeing it for the first time. It is beyond amazing. Having been first aired in 1965, it still holds up as an example of masterful story telling and character development. Hats off to our man Schulz, animator/director/former Disney artist Bill Melendez and the melodious jazzy genius of Vince Guaraldi.



"I know nobody likes me. Why do we have to have a holiday season to emphasize it?" -Charlie Brown







Charlie Brown flips out upon realizing his own baby sister has succumbed to the commercialization of Christmas.

Lack of posts due to lack of internet In good ol' Stockton

Well, I have been here in Stockton for the past week, spending time with family for the holidays. It's been good times and free food. The only thing is that our internet connection in only dial-up, so access is slow and not worth it once you get online. I've been online seldomly, only when I make the occasionaly cafe trip. Rest assure, there will be more posts when I return to San Jeezy. But for now, here is a little something illustrated by me and written by friend and fellow artist, Chris McKane.



I randomly drew this, slid it across the table to Mckane and said "make him say something funny."

Gone sketchin'

Here's a spread I did in my sketchbook today at Barnes and Noble. ENJOY!

Brought back due to popular demand!

This is dedicated to my pal, Saul "The General" Ruiz.

Andrew in the Midst of Predatorial Chaos

This started out as a caricture of my lover, er, I mean friend, Andrew; but I would open my sketchbook from time to time and add to it...

To make up for lost blogging..

My friends have given me death threats regarding my lack of activity and flamingo dominance on my blog; so here is a modest barrage of sketch book pages done not too long ago...more to come, stay tuned...

Batjan Returns

Winter break is finally here, which means it is time to blog like I have never blogged before! "I want you to tell all your friends about me..."
p.s. updated flamingos coming soon!