Israel Schraer

While in San Diego over the holidays I came upon this photo of my great grandfather, Israel Schraer,. In a way it was like seeing him for the first time. This man was my namesake, though I have no memory of him. My parents wanted to name me after him, but as he was still living, and in the Jewish tradition you don't name anyone after a living relative, they chose to use his first initial when choosing my name.

I have no memory of him, he died when I was very young and even then lived across the country, but I also have no image of him. If I think of him no picture comes to mind, though I must have seen a picture of him at some point. This photograph is the only memory I have.

Stevie on Braille

The basement in my old house was magical. So many people had come and gone before I lived there, that the basement had turned into a wondrous land of mystery. Sometimes it seemed that all you had to do was think of something you needed and go down to the basement; you would surely find it there. Of course the greatest treasures found down there were the things that you never knew you needed. Like a giant book of braille paper, for example. I've had this thing sitting in my closet for almost a year, waiting for the perfect opportunity to use it. So this weekend I pulled it out and did the only logical thing with it. Painted a picture of Stevie Wonder. I hope you enjoy.

Nude Scribble Shade

I attended another figure drawing session last night at PNCA and tried to go in a few different directions. Focusing on specific details and shading instead of drawing with no agenda. This is my first attempt at doing a scribble shade from life. It was only a five minute pose, so I didn't have the time to get in all the detail I would have liked, but I like the texture it brings out. I have a few more drawings from this session that I'll be posting in the next few days.

In other news a good friend is in town visiting from San Diego which is always a good excuse to go out on the town and hopefully do some karaokeing. I hope everyone is having a good time in SXSW this weekend. Wish I was there.

Scribble Shade + Watercolor

This was the drawing I referred to on Friday being part one of a three part series (part two being the self portrait). I decided to try and salvage it and I'm relatively happy with the way it came out. Been a while since I've worked with watercolor, but I really like it as a medium and I'm especially excited about all the ways in which one can use it with pen and ink. Portraits are so tricky, you mess one thing up and the whole thing looks off. I guess this is why I prefer drawing animals. They're just happy to be drawn at all.

Self Portrait Scribble Shade

Self Portrait! This was actually supposed to be the second drawing of a three part series. The other two drawings do not include me. Unfortunately I wasn't really happy with the first drawing in the series so it may just turn into a two part series. Part two coming eventually

I'm not entirely sure what's going on in this picture, but I may be removing my sweater. Pretty erotic, no? If you like it the way it looks, wait till you see it in super saturated mode.

(to view in super saturated mode please scroll down)













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And if you're in Portland tonight you should come to the Doug Fir to see Mighty Tiger, Grand Hallway, and Cabinessence. Perhaps you've seen my flier for it around town. If you haven't, here's a black and white version of it!

Mountain Goat Scribble Shade

This one came out a little sloppier than the other two. I'm really enjoying working on this old faded scrapbook paper. It's less intimidating than plain artist paper.