"P" is for...

IF - "Tea"

Here's a throwback from a local dim-sum restaurant. So far I've been recommended to check out one restaurant in Alemeda, San Francisco, and Toronto (thanks Terry). Any additional recommendations are welcomed.

Sketchcrawl 8 (part 2 of 2)

It was 20 degrees this morning and still snowing....which meant fresh powder for snowboarders, but not sure how this would affect my sketchcrawl? No choice but to wait until our arrival at the slopes.

We were graced with the sun for a moment, but the snow began to fall again. After the lesson, I headed over to a bench to lay down some colors...the snow actually added a cool effect on my thumbnail sketch (similar to adding salt).

After 4 hours on the slope, we were beat and ready to call it a day. Everyone took a 30 minute break for a dose of Motrin and to re-hydrate before we headed back home.

Since the Okuda's couldn't make the trip with us, they were so kind to have dinner ready for us when we returned. Agatha and her mom were way too kind in preparing all those delicious dishes. Thank you!

I wish we could have hung out a bit longer, but we were all exhausted...so one more game of Donkey Kong Congo then I definitely need to get back home.

I was hoping to end the night watching "Lady Vengence", but decided to take care of my pile of laundry.

Good night, and hope everyone had a nice, long President's Day weekend!

Sketchcrawl 8 (part 1 of 2)

February 19th was Sketchcrawl 8. However, plans were already made to snowboard with some friends. But I ended up doing a sketchcrawl anyways, on our way up to snowy South Lake Tahoe, NV.

Pitt Stop: While my friends bought some snacks, I walked across the gas station to doodle this restaurant. I couldn't resist the 30 foot sign and older yellow car parked in front.

Traffic is at a hault again because of all the people pulling over to add chains to thier tires. Just enough time to doodle this hotel.

We've always passed by this local Mexican Restaurant and decided to finally try it last night. They definitely had fast service and were not shy about piling on the guacamole & salsa, but the atmosphere was a bit dismal. I ordered small nachos and a burrito, thinking the nachos were just a basket of chips and cheese...but for $3.00, it was so huge, I ended up taking my burrito "to-go". However, I did enjoy the lime soda.

IF - Just a "Simple" morning

Discovered a coffee house near by, called Marin Coffee Roaster's. Such a great atmosphere to sketch...I'll have to start a napkin sketch pile from this place. I've only visited on the weekends, but they have great latte's, pastries, breakfast burritos, croissant sandwiches and oatmeal....I highly recommend the "Irish Oatmeal", I can't go back to Quaker Oats - it's that good! (live music on Satuday & Sunday mornings).

A fun-filled Saturday with tons of food, games, and....face painting. (Justin & Joni's daughter just turned 2 yrs. old). The face painting clown showed up around 4:00pm & happened to set up next to our table. The kids were soooo excited, they jumped out of the huge inflatable super-slide and lined up immediately. So while the kids were requesting butterflies, lady-bugs, and flowers...I decided to make a quick thumbnail on a napkin (below) so that I could sketch it again when I get home.

The blue pencil sketch was tough to capture on the camera...

...Ah, that's better (I ended up changing the hand completely due to the scale issue).
Here's the final watercolored version with a digital gradient background. Went back and forth with the background colors, but settled with the purple/lavendar.

Illustration Friday - "Chair"

It was Super Bowl Sunday, but we decided to work on a couple projects in the apartment instead. Our project list included: assembling 2 book shelves, 1 bathroom shelf, and painting our entertainment center...not in that order of course. It was more like...add the first coat of paint, start building the first book shelf, grab some coffee, add the second coat, build the second book shelf, etc. We did encounter a few paint problems, so that set us back in drying time. Thank goodness the sun was out in Marin County, a steady mid-70's all afternoon. We finished up around 9:00pm...we were sooo "pooped". The night ended by relaxing on our comfy couch and watching some TV..."Elf" to be more specific. That Will Farrel kills me.

Because I missed Sketchcrawl #7 on Saturday, I just had to sketch something before going to bed...I had to open up 3 heavily taped boxes just to find my watercolor brush but I managed sqeeze this quick little sketch before going to sleep.

Illustration Friday - "Chair 2"

Had dinner last night with our close graphic design friend, Ari. He was in the Bay Area for a spec artist meeting, so we met up for some dinner afterwards. Here's a kid who was way into his coloring instead of eating.

Illustration Friday - "Chair 3"

A couple of co-workers wrapping it up towards the end of the day.

Illustration Friday - "E is for..."

...empty.

(Prisma markers and colored pencils)

Illustration Friday - "E is for..."

...elevation.

(created using Photoshop)

Illustration Friday - "E is for..."

...elephant. I've been working with acrylics lately, painting a couple of vinyl figures. Since the paint tubes were out, I took a stab at putting something down on canvas for this week's IF. Planning to redo this and hopefully to a larger scale, but I've just been playing with colors and searching for a pallette that works. There was a pattern with hills intended for the background, but peach over orange did not turn out too well...I lost the whole thing.

Illustration Friday - "Sea" part4

You guessed it, another napkin sketch, lunch time at Rubio's. Thought I'd sqeeze in one more post for Illustration Friday.

Another thing I missed about Seattle was the aquarium...just blocks from the Art Institute. I ended up visiting so much, it only made sense to purchase a membership. I recall sitting in the atrium one day and and sketching for hours....not realizing it was already 6:00pm? The workers were making thier last round before locking up and just barely saw me sitting there. I still recall the worker saying, "Sir, we've been closed for the past hour..." All I could reply was, "Oops...see ya tomorrow".

Illustration Friday - "Sea" part3

Here's a napkin sketch that was wedged in the pages of an older sketch book. How I miss walking 2-3 blocks from AIS and heading over to Anthony's Seafood Restaurant for some for some lunch and some sketching.

Illustration Friday - "Sea" part2

Just grabbed some tacos at Rubio's this afternoon. Not too busy considering it's "$ 1.00 Taco Tuesday", but managed to find a small table next to thier fish tank of tropical fish. Threw down a quick napkin sketch while waiting for my order. Attempted some colors in Photoshop.

Illustration Friday - "Sea"

Tiburon, Ca. - great place for small shops, boutiques, restaurants and Independent Films...not to mention the view of San Francisco off into the distance.

The sun is out, the parking lot is dry and there's a nice cool breeze outside of our building at work. Grabbed the first drawing supplies in front of me and took a 15 minute break to sketch a guard shack. Cardboard, Sharpie and good old fashion white out.

Sitting in the car while the rain continues to poor and flood Marin county. Messing with the good ol' Tombo brush pen. Hoping to throw some color on this digitally (not any time soon).

Came across these while rumaging through some old sketch books. The top left and bottom right were done back in March 05' while watching the news. The top right and bottom left were from a memory sketch of a waiter at IHOP in downtown San Rafael, Ca.

Illustration Friday - "Holiday"

Click here to play. (may take a minute to download) Just a Holiday Greeting Card I sent out over the weekend. It's an 18 second animated short completed in Image Ready. Had a bit of a compression issues but my good friend Justin was kind enough to allow me to temporarily upload this onto his website. "What a pal".

"Bean-town" - part 4 (final)

(top) This was the most festive door we saw walking through Beacon Hill. (middle) Trying to figure out if the next trolly would take us to the Museum of Fine Arts, but trying to stay warm at the same time. (bottom) Entrance to the "Temple Walk", built in 1977. Can't believe those gas lamps stay on 24/7.

Well, that conludes my Boston, MA. trip during Thanksgiving. Until next time...when it's more than 30 degrees.

"Bean-town" - part 3

Only two sketches this time, been working on several other holiday projects for work. (top) This was in Quincy Market just before all the stores opened up. (bottom) By the Ferry building and "Nantucket" boat.

Illustration Friday - "blue"

Found a few older sketch books while cleaning up the apartment. Came across these doodles that were done in Lourdes, France. I met so many people from so many countries (Ireland, Spain, & Italy). The language barrier was such a problem. To compensate, a lot of hand gestures were used...from giving directions to just casual converstation. Majority of the time I just said, "Mi familia Americano" and "Merci". (top) This was done after lunch in the St. Michael's cafeteria. (left, bottom) These were done after dinner in the courtyard in front of the church.

This dog was sketched after breakfast. Rain started pouring like crazy, so no time to finish up the body.

Snoqualmie Falls in Washington.

Mos Def

Taking a brief break from the architecture and environments, I pretty much drew a mess of heads/faces all weekend. Here's one sketch I continued to persue late Saturday night.


My close friend Ari, has been working on celebrity caricatures on the side for the last month or so. Working with other Sacramento artist, the aim is to get these printed and sold with all the proceeds to be donated to the Red Cross Hurricane Relief. One celebrity name that caught my attention was Mos Def. He's better known for his music and as the host of the Def Jam Poetry on HBO, but you've probably seen him on the big screen, on titles like "The Italian Job", "Monster's Ball" and "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". I sketched this based on Mos Def's previous albumn.

Illustration Friday - "small"

It's was a reach for this weeks IF deadline, but just sketched this last night while waiting for some "take-out". Such a small tank for such large goldfishes. "Poor fishy's"

I've told myself numerous times that I would love to sketch the St. Rafael church. It has such a great location with the hills decending into the background, just before you see Mt. Tamilpais.

Woke up Saturday morning and walked into downtown San Rafael, pulled out my travel stool, and warmed up with an ink sketch of just the tower. The pigeons really cooperated and didn't move so much....well, just until the church bell rang. They would fly away, circle the tower and go back to thier exact positions....wierd?

Finished off with a watercolor sketch just before lunch time.

Turkey Day in "Bean-town" - part 1

Here's a few sketches for now, just have to drop in color for my other set of sketches. Will post real soon. Thanks. (1st) Here's one during the direct flight from Cali to Boston. (2nd) Warm up sketch...literally...from inside a toasty Starbuck's joint. (3rd) After thawing for half an hour...Onward, down the alley (see the same clock in the back?) (4th) Somewhere passed a Dunk'in Donuts, or was it a Fanagel Bagel shop? (5th) We thought this was the Trolly we were supposed to get on, yup...we were wrong. It was so cold, any Trolly would have done. Brrrrrrrrrrr.