Gears of Wars 3 - Sneak Peak

Gears of War 3

(9" x 12" entry for the DeviantArt Gears of War 3 Artist United)

Limantour Beach - Point Reyes, Ca

(9" x 12" gouache on watercolor board and pastels)

Pastels - Point Reyes, CA

Limantour Beach @ Point Reyes, Ca.

It rained in the morning but let up... just enough to paint. This was quite a tricky view since the heavy fog kept rolling in/out of the hills. But still a fun experiment with watercolors and pastels. Both of which... would get destroyed if it ever rained, LOL.

Plein Air - Yountville, CA

(9" x 12" watercolors & gouache on watercolor board)

Long Horns @ Yountville, Ca?

I thought I'd never see Long Horns unless I visited Texas??? Last weekend I visited the town of Yountville, CA. Another great tourist spot for wine tasting and yummy bakeries... not to mention the world famous restaurant, French Laundry and owner Thomas Keller.

You might have remembered seeing Keller on the DVD Special Features of Ratatouille.... where he served as a consultant during Pixar's culinary research for the 2007 animated film :)

So back to those Long Horns.....

I didn't feel like setting up around the restaurant where there's way too much foot traffic so I continued driving and turning onto Yount Street. It began to look like a lonesome road that would most likely take me to a private winery. And just before I drove any further a huge Long Horn was hanging out by a large tree!!!


I was just in awe.... seeing these Long Horns up close but remembered to keep a SAFE distance. That was not much of a sturdy fence! So I parked my car off to the slanted shoulder and set up my easel. Above is a progress shot.... with blown out lighting due to the direct sun light right above me. One of the disadvantages of doing plein air in the late afternoon. I'll be sure to scan in the final painting and share, Thanks!

Super Toy and Comic Show 2011

What a blast during the Super Toy & Comic Show (San Jose, Ca). The fine folks at Time Tunnel put together another great event on Saturday. Thanks again to all the peeps that stopped by my table just to chat while I worked on some sketch cards :)
See a closer look @ the Biker Scout Trooper and Good Ole' Captain America sketch cards [HERE]

The Milwaukie Art and Artisan Market -Saturday July 23rd, 10am - 2pm

Take home a piece of art!!! I've been working with the fine folks at Keylime Design Studios in Oregon and they whipped up these nifty magnets that will be made available during the "The Milwaukie Art &Artisan Market" this Saturday JULY 23rd (10am - 2pm).

Milwaukie Masonic Lodge
10636 SE Main St.
Milwaukie, OR 97222

Head Sketches

Another happy customer!

Here's a few more head
sketches from that same day.

Richardson Bay, Mill Valley Ca.

(5" x 9" Gouche on Watercolor board)

Spent the afternoon driving passed Mill Valley and taking the same exit towards Stinson Beach. Met up with fellow plein air painters to paint along the Richardson Bay. Decided to include some passerby's.... on kayaks!!!

Frost Giant Sneak Peak

Trying to finish up a Frost Giant sketch card...

See the finished sketch card here: [link]

Behind the Scene: Creating a sketchcard for offical 2011 "War of the Worlds" set

A few of you have contacted me and requested I create a tutorial or "behind the scenes" demo of how I create a sketchcard for a licensed set? Here's an example to how I chose a simple scene... and why I set the composition this particular way. Enjoy!

The Milwaukie Art and Artisan Market - June 12th, 10am - 2pm

Take home a piece of art!!! I've been working with the fine folks at Keylime Design Studios in Oregon and they whipped up these nifty magnets that will be made available during the "The Milwaukie Art &Artisan Market" on JUNE 12th and JULY 23rd (10am - 2pm).

Milwaukie Masonic Lodge
10636 SE Main St.
Milwaukie, OR 97222

More info and Additional event dates: TBA

Sugarloaf Ridge State Park - Kenwood, CA

Found a great spot off one of the trails and decided to set up in front of this Sonoma Creek Waterfall. The bad part about this paintout was the MOSQUITOES!

(9" x 12" Gouache on Watercolor board)

Sugarloaf Ridge Creek is on the list of 70 parks in California scheduled to close down this July.... that means no more pubic access for hikers and... plein air painters!!! For now there is an Assembly Bill No.42 that would grant access for non-profits to enter operating agreements with State Parks without having to go through the legislative process. Here's a link to more info on the park closures: [link]

Have a Thor-tastic Weekend!

To see the final sketch card visit [HERE]

Sneak Peak of a Jawa and his Droid on Tatooine

It's officially summer time!

To see the final sketch card visit [HERE]

Town of Glen Ellen, CA

(5"x7" gouache on watercolor board)

Took a drive out to Glen Ellen, CA......Where's that?! The town is located along Hwy 12, just between Sonoma and Santa Rosa. Made a stop at the Jack London Village shops and set up my easel. Turned out to be a nice, warm and sunny afternoon so I thought I'd try to capture folks enjoying lunch in the outdoor patio. Happy Easter weekend!

Castello di Amorosa, Calistoga CA

(5" x 7" gouche on watercolor board)

Latest paintout from the Castello di Amorosa Winery in Calistoga, CA. First time getting rained out and almost called it QUITS, but decided to try and use the trunk of my SUV as shelter. Now that my set up held up well.... no more excuses of being Rained Out!

Cheers!

War of the Worlds

This is the Biggest puzzle set I've ever worked on..... almost finished with this huge 8 card puzzle.

Cheers!

St. Vincent's School / Church, San Rafael

Of all the rainy days.... I got lucky it was a bright sunny day!

San Francisco Music Concourse

(5" x 7" gouache and watercolors in sketchbook)

Spent the afternoon in the Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. Painted in front of the SF Music Concourse. Most of the leaves have already fallen onto the ground and park benches, but there's just a small amount of bright yellow leaves left.... hanging onto those tree branches!

New sketch card preview

Just a quick peak at my latest Jango Fett sketch card...

new sketch card

It's been very tricky getting out there for plein air painting around the winter...especially when fighting a cold. I've heard and read that some artists have been brave enough to try painting under some shelter during the rainy weekends. In the meantime, I've been tied up working on some new star wars sketch cards. Here's a sneak peak.

C-3PO (See Threepio)
(2.5" x 3" watercolors, gouache and micron pens)

Urban Painter Spotted

Wandered the streets of San Francisco (near Union Square) and saw a gentleman sitting down with his easel. From across the street I thought he was painting the urban landscape.... ....but he was actually touching up 6 pre-painted canvases at the same time. That cable car scene in the middle has got to be my favorite...but I like the one in his hands too......talk about inspiration!!!

China Camp shores

Still having that high 70 degree weather in Marin.....took advantage and did some plein air painting along the shores of China Camp in San Rafael, Ca. Wow, I have to admit I'm a bit rusty painting on location but it felt really good to be outdoors again.....in November?
Here's a closer look at another painter painting along the edge of the upper parking lot.

Coffee Break

Here's an oldie sketch that I recently found in one of my (many) sketch books....very similar my food court sketch and my Chinatown sketch. I remember roaming around Filmore St. @ San Francisco, looking for a paper store and needing to take a coffee break on the way.....oh, and to bust out a quick sketch while waiting. Speaking of coffee....time for a coffee break :)

Halloween Paintout in Bodega, CA - Calvary Cemetary

Nice break from the miniature sketch card paintings in the studio..... Took a road trip to the town of Bodega, CA for a Halloween themed paintout. I chose to set up at the entrance to the Calvary Cemetery.

Out of respect we were not allowed to paint exact names from headstones. But this particular grave belonged to a World War II veteran. One would think of this paintout to be creepy, but it was actually quite the opposite.

As with all on location paintings, lighting can play tricks on your eyes. I struggled with this one a bit, but kept reworking it throughout the afternoon.

Thanks!

Anthology 451

If you missed Ape-Con this year, the AWESOME "Anthology 451" is now available online! Featuring uber talented artist John Hoffman and Craig Berry+ more!

For more info: Click HERE

Here's some sneak peaks at the pages....

new sketch card

My blog has gotten a slight face lift with a more recent template by the folks of Blogger. I'll continue to keep this mostly as a blog with my recent adventures in plein air painting, still life and any current illustrative/commercial projects..... with the permission of my art director of course :)

Updates - As for now, I'm gearing up for a new gig as a sketch card artist on a number of projects. If all things go well, this may carry over into next year. But for now, here's a little teaser on a new star wars sketch card I'm working on.

Bounty Hunter: Boba Fett
(2.5" x 3" watercolors, gouache and brush pens)

Spaceman Spiff

(2.5" x 3.5"sketch card)

Here's Calvin(aka: Spaceman Spiff) stranded on an unknown planet (as usual) planning to rescue his best-bud Hobbes from some moldy potato shaped aliens.

Calvin and Hobbes

Superpunch has done it again with another themed art contest, "Calvin and Hobbes". Besides the classic Peanuts comic strip, Calvin and Hobbes is one of my all-time fav's!

There's already tons of great entries posted and majority of them have been made digitally. Hopefully I can bring something different to table, just like my Scribblenauts entry in the past.

Here's a couple progress shots so far.....

Peju Winery, Napa Ca.

Hanging out at any Napa winery on a warm Sunday afternoon is just great! But to hang out and paint at Peju Winery was a real treat. I met up with a handful of North Bay painters and we explored different views of Peju. Probably the most popular structure was this salmon colored tasting room. A handful of us set up with our backs against a wall of bushes and painted the building from all sorts of angles.

I probably could have spent another hour or two on my painting. Although I enjoyed working on the roof and ripples from the water fountain, I really wanted to continue tightening up the walls and grassy area....But being out in the sun for 2-3 hours is really draining. There's always next time!

Riley Street - 20 minute portrait

(5" x 7" prisma colored pencils on canson paper)

This was done during the last 20 minute session for the evening. Not a lot of strong lighting contrast from the angle I was sitting... but I really enjoyed drawing his profile. Sketching on this canson paper felt great! I was trying to track down a sketch book filled with this paper but seems to be Sold Out or discontinued.... do let me know if you know a place! So for now I look forward to trying out some other earth-toned paper.

Big thanks to fellow artists Lenny Lee and Cameron Chun for the heads up on this life drawing session. It's conveniently close to home and a really great group of artists.

Riley Street - 20 minute poses

(4" x 6" prisma pencils on canson paper)

The nice thing about having a life drawing class at an art store.... you can purchase supplies on the spot! I was inspired by artist Cameron Chun and tried my hand at some dark gray canson paper with black prisma colored pencils and white for highlights. We had a great model that evening with cut muscle definition!

Riley Street 5-10 minute poses

It has truly been ages since I've attended any life drawing sessions. The previous week was.... rusty.... that's a good way to describe it. Here's from my second week warm ups.

5 minute pose

10 minute pose

Quixote Winery

(5" x 7" gouache on watercolor board)

Quixote Winery - Napa, Ca

This way.... to Quixote Winery (pronounced kee-hoh-tee)

It's a private winery, but the kind folks at Quixote granted access to paint their wonderful landscape and building. The weather has been great all week but on the day I decide to paint, it hits 100 degrees!! Although I found a cozy spot under a tree I think it was only 10 degrees cooler.

Struggled with this one a bit - pushing and pulling the plants was tricky. Obviously I wanted the garlic shaped dome to be the main focus because it really catches your eye... especially with that intense glare from the sun. I could have easily gotten carried away with the whispy bushes but I didn't want the foreground to take away from the golden dome :)

Wow, that turned into a self critique? Hahaha. I'll be sure to scan in the finished painting and add to the next post, Thanks!

No Sketching Allowed

Had a blast of inspiration while visiting the deYoung Museum Exhibit "Birth of Impressionism". Started off with free pastries and coffee hosted by La Boulange Bakery. Now time for some sketching ....wait......there's a sign that says....."no sketching allowed" !!!

I've encountered this rule at last year's King Tut Exhibit. A security guard stopped me as I just started. It was at the end of the exhibit that I find out I should have been allowed to sketch. Has anyone heard of this rule at other museums?

Well, it's still worth the visit to see these paintings up close. Masterful lighting and brush techniques.

Inverness, Ca

(4" x 5" gouache on watercolor board)

Driving down Sir Francis Drake Blvd, one can really miss this view. It's located just behind the General Store! Be sure to make a pit-stop and order a dozen BBQ'd oysters.....really good!

Half Moon Bay

(4" x 6" gouache on watercolor board)

This painting is flying across the Pacific Ocean and to its' new home
in Hawaii. Many thanks to Agatha and Corey for the commish!