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Sketching in the Winter

During the past couple of months I have been taking my sketch bag whenever I leave the house, so I have materials at hand when I stop to sketch something on the way back home, however as of late… with the time change by the time I get a chance to sketch something (typically after work on weekdays) It is already too dark.

Solution? I decided to place the following in my car’s glove compartment:

Stratmore small sketch notebook 3.5″ x 5″ and a Pigma Micron Pen (Sepia), small set to carry around and also keep in the car, for any opportunity.

The sketch below was done while sitting in a waiting room.

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de Young Museum

Back in October of this year, my wife and I visited the de Young Museum in San Francisco during one of my vacation days, it was our first time since the remodeling took place. We truly enjoyed the day and appreciated the visit, although we didn’t stay there for long due to other obligations. I took my sketch bag but didn’t sketch anything, I was simply amazed at the amount of art on display and spend my time just looking.

We must definitely go back and view the exhibits at a more slower pace, specially the New Guinea Art section. We took some photos of some amazing pieces of that section as well as of the Art of Americas section, below is one of them.

When I was a kid I had the opportunity to also visit Museo Nacional de Antropologia located in Mexico City, I never got the chance to fully view everything, I am sure after so many years their collection has grown.

We also want to visit in the near future the Asian Art Museum as well as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art both located in San Francisco, CA.

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Asifa SF and APE 2008 Events

This past Sunday was a busy day for me, I got the opportunity to attend two events both in San Francisco, California.

The  first event was held at the Balboa Theater in San Francisco, it was a benefit for ASIFA SF, the Bay Area’s Animation Association. I attended the noon presentation of Richard Williams, author of The Animator’s Survival Kit and animation director of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

He showed various clips from his new DVD set The Animator’s Survival Kit – Animated and answered a couple of questions. It was an informative and entertaining presentation. There were some animation techniques that had not occurred to me that made sense, specially after watching the clip.

The second event was the Alternative Press Expo, an event that I have always wanted to attend, simply because I keep hearing about it and it is always after the event. I figured since I was already in San Francisco, why not, so off I went.

It was pretty interesting, a lot of comics and books of all different types, a bit overwhelming… I am not familiar with most of the artists that were present that day (except a few), simply because this is all new to me. It was entertaining to say the least, but i didn’t spend a lot of time, just walked around the whole place checking stuff out here and there. I also saw Enrico Casarosa, Dice Tsutsumi, Ronnie del Carmen and Scott Morse.

Enrico was kind enough to give me a copy of his new book The Venice Chronicles, very nice book, I like it very much. I had read the story online however it is always better to have the book at hand. Even now when I read it I laugh at one thing or another.

Below is a picture of the promotional DVD copy they gave away at that Richard Williams presentation, he was also kind enough to sign his book, the promo DVD leaflet or sketchbooks to those that asked.. yeah I too got a signature, the picture also includes Enrico’s book (psst… buy it!), and the APE pass.

All in all it was a very positive and different day, it was very empowering to be exposed to the work of various different artists. My respect goes to all of you for taking the time to express yourselves.

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International Animation

Yesterday I had the opportunity to view some amazing international 3d and 2d animation.

The event was held in the Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) theater at the Presidio in San Francisco, California, it was very entertaining, well worth the one-hour commute to the location.

This even was made possible thanks to the International Animation Association, San Francisco chapter ASIFA SF and Animation World Network, the short animations were selected and presented by Ron Diamond.

Please click here to find out how to become a member of ASIFA SF, some of the events like the one mentioned above are only open to current members, one of the many benefits of joining.

I absolutely loved La Maison en Petits Cubes which was directed by Kunio Kato, it was an unique and refreshing way to share with the viewer life memories and the passage of time.

The other two that caught my attention were Skhizein directed by Jérémy Clapin, very clever way of explaining the problems and dangers a 150 ton meteorite can cause when one is struck by it, and Kudan directed by Taku Kimura (Trailer).

We also had the opportunity to see Glago’s Guest directed by Chris Williams and produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios (I saw John Lasseter name in the credits) as well as Presto by Doug Sweetland / Pixar.

I liked the other animations as well, but the ones mentioned above were my favorites.

If you have a chance see if you can get the opportunity to view them, they were all great in their own right.

Keith Reynolds Can’t Make it Tonight by Felix Massie
La Maison en Petits Cubes by Kunio Kato
Kudan by Taku Kimura
A Mouse’s Tale by Benjamin Renner
I Slept with Cookie Monster– Kara Nasdor-Jones
Franz Kafka’s: A Country Doctor by Koji Yamamura (Present at the event)
Glago’s Guest by Chris Williams
Hot Seat by Janet Perlman
Presto by Doug Sweetland
Skhizein by Jérémy Clapin
KJFG #5– Alexei Alexeev (Present at the event)

Thank you Ron Diamond, ASIFA SF and ILM for this event.

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SketchCrawl #20

Saturday October 25th was SketchCrawl #20, I decided to stay local a few days prior to the big event.

Since I was staying local I figured it would be a great time for my little dog to spend extra time outside, and perhaps sketch a few things that have caught my attention when I take him for a walk.

I used a micron pen for the first sketch, it is always a little ‘scary’ using a pen because you cannot erase if you make a mistake. I figure by using a pen I would force myself to just sketch and not pay attention to perfection.

After the sketch was completed, i figured I should also add color, I was also curious to see how this sketchbook would handle water. Below is the result.

 

Where shall we go next?

 

The second sketch I did was that of an oak tree, but I didnt finish because my little dog was just too impatient, hehe his idea of going out was not one of staying in only one place.

Below are links of some of the materials i used, my portable watercolor (student grade) is a different model.

I buy most of my materials at Blick.

micron pen

Winsor & Newton Cotman Watercolors

Niji waterpen (love these)

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Thanks to Life – Gracias a la Vida

Thanks to life for giving us so much… opportunities, challenges, experiences both good and bad…

Sometimes we are too busy with everyday worries, we miss the beauty around us, the joy of being alive, to enjoy life at its most simple form, to simply be aware of the miracle of our existence.

Today I thank life, for what I have and for that which I don’t, for the happy moments and the sad ones too, for the past opportunities as well as those yet to come.

May we all find joy and happiness in our life today and every other day.

I hope you enjoy this song, it seems the person who uploaded the song, also translated the lyrics in English/Portuguese (at the actual youtube page).

source link: Mercedes Sosa – Gracias a La Vida

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Pacific Coast Air Museum

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to drive by the Pacific Coast Air Museum located by the Santa Rosa Airport, I have been meaning to go there for a while to sketch some of the planes. I figure I would take a couple of pictures so you can see a few of the planes they have there.

I also just found out that this weekend October 18th and October 19th is their Top Gun Weekend, they are going to allow visitors to sit in the cockpit of these planes F-14A Tomcat, F-16N Viper and F-5E Tiger II, now how cool is that.

I hope I can make it to this weekend’s event, most likely I wont time to sketch.. perhaps one of these days we can do a mini SketchCrawl there, so if you live in Sonoma County, Marin County or surrounding areas and want to set a date/time for some Saturday please let me know.

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