City Park, New Orleans

I went out to City Park a couple of times this weekend and found myself wondering why I don't go there more often. This is one of the many gorgeous oak trees, drawn on newsprint with charcoal pencil.

Calhoun Street, New Orleans

I spent a good chunk of last Saturday morning wandering around uptown looking for something interesting to draw. I really liked the way these trees on Calhoun street formed a sort of arch in front of the houses. This is one of those drawings where I'm really not sure if it's finished or not. I ran out of time while I was working on the cars and thought I might put in more detail on them when I got home, but looking at it now I think they might be better if I just leave them the way they are.

Soup's On

My wife made soup last night and, while I wasn't much help in the preparation, I did my best to capture her delicious efforts in my sketchbook.

Figure Drawing at Fair Grinds Cafe

Fair Grinds in mid-city has a figure drawing session on Thursday nights. I went down last week and had a great time drawing from a model for the first time in many moons, although I had to leave before the long pose. Still, I think I got a few good ones in from the 5-10 minutes poses. Note for anyone who might be viewing this page at work: these are drawings of a model posing without the burden of clothing.

Sketching in the French Quarter

Steeple of Saint Louis Cathedral.




A doorway in the courtyard at the Royal Grounds Cafe, which is by far my favorite place to get coffee in the Quarter.


This stern looking gentleman of the law was not actually present today, at least not in the flesh. This is the statue of Justice Edward Douglas White on the steps of the courthouse on Royal Street.

Watercolor still life

Here are a couple of attempts at a watercolor still life with some apples and my wife's extremely stylish green dress. On the second attempt I decided to try to work in a little ink to draw out some of the lines. I should note that I did this in a couple of sittings and that I had to do the last few shadows from memory after the apples started to smell a little funny and I was forced to throw them away in the interest of olfactory happiness throughout my household.

Watercolor

I've been taking a watercolor workshop over the past few weeks with Joan DaGradi (see her blog), a wonderful local painter who has also turned out to be a really excellent teacher. I'm still getting a handle on the materials and trying to find ways to keep my paintings from degenerating into untamed maelstroms of dripping chaos, but I've really been enjoying it. Included below are a couple of my early efforts. The self portrait was done in front of the mirror while the hippo, sadly, was not drawn from life. Someday I will head down to the zoo and try that for real.

Another Mardi Gras Photo

I drew this from a photo I took during the Thoth parade on Saint Charles ave. Being a New Orleans police officer during Mardi Gras seems like it could be really aggravating and stressful, but this guy had a giant smile on his face the whole time he was out there.

I worked on this over a couple of sittings with a charcoal pencil and, while I am mostly happy with it, I think I kind of blew it on the left arm and a couple of proportion issues throughout the figure. There was a good stretch when I was living in San Francisco when my wife and I got pretty into figure drawing through some sessions with City College, but I haven't been able to find anything comparable in New Orleans. Working on this drawing has left me with an itch to get back into it, so hopefully I can find a place to draw from a model. I'd appreciate any suggestions if someone reading this knows of a place around town that isn't too expensive.

Z'otz Cafe Window

Z'otz cafe on Oak street is quickly becoming one of my favorite spots in New Orleans. My wife and I spent a good chunk of our morning sitting in their courtyard, enjoying some coffee and some amazing weather. I also took the opportunity to sketch their window and a few of their many plants.

Mardi Gras

I really wanted to get out and do some sketching during Mardi Gras, but I'm afraid I ended up getting a little distracted by the parades and the parties and I never got around to it. I did take a lot of pictures though, and this ink drawing is from one that I took during Thoth last Saturday.

You'd look sad too if you had to defend George Bush's economic policies

I've been doing a lot of portraits lately and I've found the New York Times to be a great source of material. There's been an especially rich crop of grim-looking business and government leaders in recent months, none more grim than Henry Paulson, our former treasury secretary. Here he is on newsprint (cheap paper for tough times) in compressed charcoal.

Last one out shut off the lights

Another from the ongoing series entitled "drawn on my lunch break" (which seems better than "trying not to smear my peanut butter sandwich on my sketchbook"). This is the Linens 'N Things store across the street from my office that closed down after Christmas. I can't say I'm all that sorry to see the end of another big chain store in another faceless strip mall, but I do feel bad for all the people who lost their jobs.

Hands

I've drawn a lot of hands over the years, mainly because they provide endless varieties of interesting shapes and because I always have one around. Here are a couple of recent pencil sketches of my left hand.

In the Back Yard

This is a flower growing on a bush in our back yard, although what kind of flower it is I have no idea. The red kind. I drew this in charcoal pencil while sitting on the ground and listening to Robyn Hitchcock.

This Machine Kills Eggs

Every time I work on a drawing of an inanimate object, I am struck by how much I have left to learn about perspective. In an effort to come up with something a little more dramatic while also forcing myself to actually look at the shapes rather than just drawing my own mental image of what the thing looks like, I laid the mixer down on a chair in front of me at an odd angle so I could draw it "upside down."