At the Seattle Public Library with the Urban Sketchers

The Seattle Urban Sketchers group - led by the amazing Gabi Campanario - got together for a Sketch Crawl at the library this morning followed by a really inspiring talk from Gabi about his book, "The Art of Urban Sketching," which everyone should buy immediately. It was all kinds of fun and I'm looking forward to going to many more sketch crawls with this fine group of local artists.

Note: for those who can't make heads or tails of these images (which probably includes everyone on Earth who didn't happen to be at the library this morning), the one on top is the fourth floor elevator and the one on the bottom is the little scanner thingy that they use to check out your books.

Bauhuas Coffee: Breaking The Animal Drawing Streak

Those looking at my recent posts on this blog might think I draw nothing but animals, be they extinct or living in all their glory within the pages of my friend's calendar. Allow me to put an end to all of this wild speculation by posting a quick drawing I did from the balcony at Bauhaus Coffee last weekend. I think this drawing may have gone faster than usual because it was accompanied by a cup of incredibly strong coffee and a house-made Ding Dong.

Rhino vs Brush Pen

Here's another one drawn from the same calendar the produced the Infamous Blue Footed Booby Drawing. Have I mentioned how much I love my brush pen? I'm currently in the process of composing an epic poem about it, although I need to learn Greek first. I'll post that up here as soon as it's finished.

Cryolophosaurus

Nope, I had never heard of a Cryolophosaurus either until I found a picture of one in a dinosaur book. Note the bony ridge on top of the head that looks a little bit like a mohawk, resulting in a mind-bending confluence of two of the major influences of my youth - dinosaurs and punk rock. How could I not draw this?

I should note that, with a little encouragement from my wife, this was drawn in ink without an initial pencil sketch. This is kind of a terrifying way to work and it does tend to result in slightly less accurate drawings, but I think it also forces me to concentrate in different ways. It also makes things go faster, which means I can actually get to a finished piece in one sitting rather than adding to my ever-expanding pile of drawings that are 75% done but that I just don't feel like going back to.