Cover of Sketchbook No. 62, various pen on canvas sketchbook, 2012, about 9″x12″
Another sketchbook finished – No. 62 – pretty much in record time, not that that’s the goal. Usually it takes me 7-10 months per book… this one just under two months. I’ve been doing more art in the book, and less outside of it. I am pleased with a lot of the drawings.
I’ve already posted quite a few of the drawings at this blog; see these previous posts on San Francisco, Metro and other train riders, open mic night with the Ovarian Psycos, streetscapes on Sunset and Myra, this church statue, Boyle Heights, Broadway, L.A. Eco-Village, this church, and these bus riders. I’m posting just a few more that I didn’t post here yet
Above is the front cover. It’s a canvas cover sketchbook (brand “Cachet by Daler-Rowney.”) I used to use these a while back then I couldn’t find them and switched to other black-cover books, then I came across them in an art store recently and picked up a couple. Yesterday and today, I inked in the cover, mostly thinking that it would look too plain (like earlier book covers I’ve posted here.) Now I think is really overdone… like a middle school student’s notebook… oh well. (I did write “FRONT” on the front cover early on – so it was easier to open the book the right way.)
Below is the first page:
page one of Sketchbook No. 62, watercolor and ink on paper
Below is another image from my brief trip to San Francisco in June. I did a couple dozen sketches on the day-long trips up and down the coast. More recent SF sketches here (and I still like these SF drawings from 2011.)
Man on Amtrak Coast Starlight, ink on paper, 25 June 2012
I drew the guy sleeping first (because at some point, he’ll move), then gradually filled in the rest of the piece. It took about 2-3 hours overall for that sketch.
I drew some quick brush-pen sketches of the Real Rydaz great low-rider bicycles:
Tasmanian Devil low rider bike by GeeMan, 1 July 2012
I helped out a bit with Real Rydaz’ Peace Love and Family Ride on July 1st – their customized bikes are incredible!
I’ve been doing a lot of just drawing whatever is around wherever I am:
Game Night Still Life at Federico and Yuki’s, 6 July 2012
It’s a quick still life on the table during my good friends’ (and now-next-door-neighbors) Yuki and Federico’s game night.
Lots of streetscapes in the book… here’s one of the few I didn’t post already:
Richard Serra Sculpture at Segerstrom Concert Hall – Costa Mesa, CA, 13 July 2012
I was down in Orange County hearing Stephen Sondheim speak at Segerstrom Hall – thanks to my (and my mom’s) friend Michael Oppenheim. Sondheim was/is incredibly wonderful – I’ve written a bit about his genius at The Periodic Fable. I got there a little early and sketched the courtyard sculpture by Richard Serra. I have some older sketches of some of his (more horizontal) sculptures at MOCA a few years ago.
I heard this great comedy duo called Garfunkel and Oates – performing live on a recent Dan Savage podcast (they’re on episode 296 – June 19th, 2012.) They were/are awesome, clever, funny, baudy… so I was listening to their entire oevre (at least what’s free online at youtube!) and I tooled around lettering their names:
Garfunkel and Oates lettering, July 2012
The top one was sort of intentionally wrong – emphasizing AND instead of de-emphasizing it… I thought it would be clever, but it’s just kinda wrong. The second if more-or-less Ben Shahn lettering (which is sort of intentionally wrong, too, but in a clever wonderful way – see example here.)
Here’s my favorite drawing in the whole book (which I posted earlier – here):
Broadway between 6th and 7th, ink on paper in Sketchbook No. 62, 26-27 July 2012, about 11″x17″
It’s Broadway in downtown Los Angeles – and I wrote more about the drawing here.
and here’s the streetscape that I closed out the book with.
Sketch of Valley at Atlantic in the city of Alhambra, 5 August 2012
It’s the view from a bus stop in Alhambra. I waited there after playing Ultimate Frisbee, then kept drawing, skipping a few buses. I tend to like to draw a sort of vernacular streetscape – more than one that’s way important, architecturally or otherwise. This area (the San Gabriel Valley) isn’t L.A.’s historic Chinatown, but is where most Chinese residents and businesses are. You can spot Chinese lettering in the store signage.
If you’ve actually read this far down, you may want to check out more sketchbook excerpts posted here earlier: No. 61, No. 60, No. 59, No. 58, No. 57, No. 56 and slide shows of a selected page from Nos. 1-30 and Nos. 31-60.
