Squirrelin' around.

One of my friends has a band in Santa Cruz, CA, and as their mascot they've chosen a squirrel with antlers (for obvious reasons I think; squirrels=awesome). So of my own accord I've been sketching around that idea. I'm a huge fan of animals in clothing so I decided to put the squirrel in a suit. Whenever I draw animals in clothing I tend to gravitate towards turn of the century garb and that of the 1920s. This probably has something to do with the illustrations in Alice in Wonderland and The Wind and the Willows including influence by Edward Gorey. Once viewing this fancy squirrel it seemed only natural that he should be framed. I found two different frames on the internet to insert our mascot in and couldn't decide which one I liked better so here are both for your viewing pleasure.

The simpler one is more classic, but the wreath is more woodsy. Maybe next time I'll put him in a top hat and monocle and add a mustache...

Lila warm-up

I actually started with a different source photographic for the Mother's Day painting that I did of my cousin Lila. Here is a warm up sketch for that one. You'll notice a tinier outline of her head within the larger one as I struggled to get the proportions right. Before starting any final piece I've found that it's a good idea to draw the subject in a sketch book a few times to familiarize yourself with subjects proportions and train your hand to draw it correctly. It's amazing how much the slightest alteration in shading or position will change the entire drawing. It could mean the difference between an artful portrait, or a skewed caricature. I really like the way the sleeves are rendered in this drawing. It reminds me of the penwork I did on those E.T. sketches a while back. I'll have to figure out how to recreate that effect more often.

So far I've gotten two submissions for my photo blog challenge which I plan on getting to soon, but I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get more. Once again send in your photos to be sketched at dailysketch17@gmail.com. I dare you.

A Meek Post

The other day I went over to my brother's house for dinner and as at it was being prepared his roommate and I indulged in a little Sealab: 2021. As you can see he was quite enjoying himself.

We all have our off days ...

I've just chosen to make mine public. Here's what my friend Asher might look like if he were the mascot for a sausage company. I'm not quite sure why he has a gnome sidekick.

"Is that Jesus?"

... asked a little boy in a pack of elementary school kids that walked by me as I was doing this drawing. "Yeah kid. It's Jesus."

Don't worry, he soon realized his mistake. It's not Jesus. It's a tree. For months I've been passing by interesting and charismatic trees in Portland thinking, "that would be a great tree to draw, I wish I had the time." Well this time I cut the bullshit excuses and sat down on the sidewalk to draw one of them. This was part of a particularly good morning walk the other day that included stops at local coffee shop, Albina Press, a produce stand for some apricots and salsa fix-ins, and sitting in the grass by the library while finishing up an awesome Batman comic. Yes I'm simultaneously an old man and a five year old. I would actually be pretty happy to have a walk like this once a week for the rest of my life. At least it won't seem so weird once I get old.

Louvre Me Alone!

A man tries to catch some peace and quiet from the masses of tourists and art appreciators at the Louvre, Paris.

I'm currently finishing up my next piece for music blog "Chickens Don't Clap."

Cool Swoops

The first part of my journey to San Diego involved a train trip from Portland to Seattle to catch the plane the next day. "Hotel for Dogs," was playing on the train and a "super stoked" teenager was sitting across the aisle from us frantically air drumming and air soloing to death metal on his laptop. We tried to ignore both of them and failed on both accounts. Here's a sketch of Too Cool Swoops on the train. Hope everyone's Memorial Day was BBQ-rific!

Mothers and Emails

I've been on a bit of a blog hiatus recently due to a brief but much enjoyed trip to San Diego. I can barely call it a vacation though since I was busy pretty much 97% of the time I was there. Here's a riddle for you: What can you have simultaneously too much and not enough of?
Answer : delicious San Diego Mexican food.

Before I left I completed another paid assignment (awesome). This time it was to produce a painting that would be a mother's day present for my cousin Mona. Okay, the job came from within the family, but it's still something. I decided to use a combination of watercolor and colored pencil on this one and discovered that canvas is definitely not the best recipient for watercolor (something I already suspected), but the end result came out well so I'll just chalk it all up to a successful learning experience.

I also documented different stages of the painting process and created my first ever animated gif. Hopefully it's not too disorienting. If you miss the transformation, be patient, it will replay every ten seconds. The other semi-exciting news is I've set up an official email address for the blog.

dailysketch17@gmail.com

Pretty easy to remember right? This also leads me to my first email drawing challenge: If you send me a photograph, I will draw it and post it on the blog. Exceptions for inappropriate pictures, but I have faith in my reading public. Who has the moxy to accept my challenge? Eh??

Growl Marx?

Doodle of Owl as Groucho Marx. The mustache had to be below the beak for it to look right. May God forgive me.

The Blogs the Thing!

Everyone's got a blog these days but some are more important than others. Namely the ones by my friends, and one of them got even more important yesterday with the beginning of an exciting new blog crossover in the blogosphere! Anyhow I don't want bog you down with a log of soggy blog details, but if you can check out Chickens Don't Clap! and read up on the latest from Brooklyn-based band The Dirty Projectors, and their collaboration with longtime experimental music vet David Byrne. Chicken's Don't Clap! is an mp3 blog run by longtime friend and San Diego native Derek Emery, and features news and in depth reviews of interesting and often under-the-radar bands.

On a personal note, the new Dirty Projector's album is reallllly good and worth checking out. As is the HIV benefit compilation cd that came out earlier this year "Dark was the Night." Below is the piece included in his review, which I call "The Dirty Byrne."