Five for Friday: 5 Gesture Drawings

Experimenting on the pages of my sketchbook and on the studio wall ...

from the studio: 04.01.16

a 'lil something from the sketchbook:

Quick Sketches

We used to make videos like this of Zach sketching:

But then he started sketching more and more, and I stopped filming. I think it's time to start doing more videos again! :)

sketchbook project 2014: cozy kitty

My Sketchbook Project for 2014 is very similar to my project for 2013. It's about our cat again. I cut, collaged, glued, printed, and colored. Here are some of my creations:

And maybe it's because I was working on my book during the Polar Vortex, I got inspired to include the cold,

and dress some of the kitties up in sweaters!

So this is my book for 2014. I'm not sure I'll be doing another one for 2015. There are already two similar books, i don't think I need to do a third! ;)

sketchbook project 2014: oblivious

sketchbook projects are due in the mail today!  i finished my animation last night.  as usual, mindy and i both waited until the last minute to finish up.  but all's well that ends well i guess.  all of my previous entries have been animations, so i continued on that theme with my latest.

i decided i wanted to animate a character walking through the book.  so i drew a different scene on each page and then did a stop action video of my hands flipping through the book.  after editing it and getting the timing down a bit, i took the character from off the cover and animated him.  now he can be part of my collection of animated characters, but for now he is specific to this sketchbook.  here it is:

new england sketchbook: rockland and acadia national park

the breakwater pier outside of rockland.  this pier was about 1k of granite blocks reaching out into the bay.    

there were 3 windmills spinning on the distant shore.  i of course had to include them.  this pier was surrounded by lobster traps too, and people out fishing for mackerel.

a sailboat off the end of the pier in rockland.  makes me miss sailing with my favorite college prof and mentor, dan engelke.  it's been a while since i last saw him, but we nearly always took his flying scot out for a spin around green bay when we visiting northern door county wisconsin.

my favorite spot on the trip.  the peak of acadia mountain.  i came to the park alone to climb this trail.  it was a tough climb and a tougher climb down.  then i decided to climb st. saveour mountain too.  i was exhausted after this hike.  there was no one up there when i got there, and i climbed out on the edge of the granite rock cliff and sketched this image of the cove leading out into the atlantic ocean.  it was inspiringly beautiful to just hear the quiet, save for the tiny boat entering the cove.

new england sketchbook: providence and portland

city hall in providence, rhode island.  this was across the street from our hotel.

rhode island state capitol building.  sits on a hill on the west side of town.  there is a treelined walkway leading to the front steps, and the grounds were open and airy.

downtown providence, drawn looking up from the canal.  walk ways and foot bridges follow the path of the canal.  i walked down a little ways and sat on a rock watching the ducks and drawing the skyline.

also from the canal.  looking north.

after providence we drove to portland, maine.  this is commercial st. in old port, along the pier.  i sat and sketched the street line while mindy and her parents shopped in the place with the yellow awnings.

the break lights lighthouse at cape elizabeth, maine.  our second day in portland took us took us on a short drive to cape elizabeth and this park perched on the cliffs.  we ate an awesome food cart lobster roll and a fresh cucumber and blueberry salad and i wandered around out on the rocks and around the cliffside trails.  

sketchbook project 2013: smoke trails

today has been a bit slow for mindy and i.  we both have no gumption.  no get up.  no go.  no nothin'. neither of us seem to be too motivated to do much today.  but that aside, we do have our final sketchbook project to share.

mindy's cousin, bernice, is a singapore-based fashion designer, and we thought it would be fun for her to create something other than clothing for a change.  her book is simple and lovely, and i liked it enough to want to make it move.  so i animated it from the stills of the pages.  check it out:

sketchbook project 2013: the cat

mindy's sketchbook is naturally all about our cat. she likes to collage, so many of the pages were done that way. check it out:

sketchbook project 2013: poems

mindy has the flu.  which means it's more than likely in my future.  in the meantime, as she prays to the porcelain god, we've been working on more sketchbook projects.  i collaborated with my youngest brother for this next book.  he wrote the poetry and i illustrated and designed the book.  here's a selection of what we created: (click to enlarge)

'what are words'

this double panel poem is called 'life is a dream'

'from my window'

'hoarders'

sketchbook project 2013: chemical corn

last year mindy introduced me to the brooklyn art library's sketchbook project.  i hemmed and hawed and finally made something.  then i made a little video with the drawings i'd done.  this year i wanted to take it a step further and use my sketchbook to make an animation.

mindy and i have been doing a lot of research on what we eat lately.  we've learned from experience to learn where our food comes from.  so with that in mind and the new year and resolutions and all, i decided to make an animation about where corn comes from.

we live in the midwest amidst the corn fields and research facilities and processing plants that create the putrid products we find in our grocery stores.  food created from chemicals, grown in chemicals, and then processed back into chemicals for us to consume, filling our bellies, but not nourishing our bodies.

it makes me sad to think that the abundantly fertile valley we call the Heartland of the United States, is being poisoned by our food production industry for the benefit of few to the detriment of many, masked in false advertising propaganda.

some more things to laugh about

a continuation and conclusion of yesterday's funny post ...

captain underpants 

a monkey and a tank attacking captain underpants

zach drinking from the toilet

hammerhead and sawshark building a house

a parrot, a bee, and a baby

something to laugh about

We found one of Zach's old sketchbooks when we were back in Portland over the weekend. It was a project he had done with the students in his after school arts class. He wanted to teach the kids to be comfortable with drawing, so he did a little demonstration for them where they sat around a table and told him what to draw ...

the results were hilarious!

the sun shining

a caveman clubs himself

frog got flushed

dinosaur eats a sleeping girl

a fish with a sunburn

Darth Vader and a koala

man eats hands

Henri Bergson, the normally serious French philosopher says, "Laughter is the corrective force which prevents us from being cranks." Hope you have a good chuckle and a great start to the week! Stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow!