Lunch at the Burke with a Sabre Toothed Tiger

One of the best things about working for the University of Washington is that I can wander into the Burke Museum of Natural History any time I want to free of charge. I took advantage of this during my lunch break this afternoon to spend a little quality time with a sabre toothed tiger.

Apartments in Shanghai

Has it really been three months since I've done anything with this blog? Yes, I suppose it has. I wish I could make solemn promises to post more regularly, but in truth I think it will always come in fits and starts. Let's call this a "start." Wait... it might be a "fit."

This is a pencil drawing of some very new and very old apartment buildings in Shanghai, drawn from a photo in the New York Times.

Sketching at the New Orleans Museum of Art

I spent a good chunk of my morning sketching at the New Orleans Museum of Art. They have tons of good stuff to draw and it's an excellent option for an indoor drawing destination during the summer months in New Orleans. I actually started out drawing outdoors on the front steps, but it was clearly time to move inside when the sweat dripping from my face began to spoil my drawing. Was it really necessary for me to reveal that in a blog post? Probably not, but what is the internet good for if not over-sharing.

As for the drawings, the top one is a statue from Papa New Guinea and the one on the bottom is a 16th century credenza that is sitting in the Baroque painting room.

Not to Be Messed With

Under most circumstances I prefer to draw from life rather than a photo, but in this case I think I'm happy to sit in the comfort of my living room with a magazine. This was drawn from an image in an old issue of National Geographic, the same issue from which I drew this frog. Thanks again to my stepmother for leaving it on our coffee table.

Yeah, I'll Bet You Didn't Know What a Cuora Galbinifrons Was Either

I will grudgingly admit that I'm not sure exactly what "Cuora galbinifrons" means, but I suspect it translates roughly into "turtle." I drew this from a photo in a wonderful set of images posted by a herpetologist from the Tennessee Aquarium, which is available here and is well worth a look.

Sketch Crawl in City Park

Today was the 25th Worldwide Sketch Crawl, put on by sketchcrawl.com. The original plan was to meet up with some other aspiring New Orleans artists at the New Orleans Museum of Art and spend the day running around City Park with our sketch books. Sadly, a storm rolled in and it was raining all day, which meant that I was the only one there to draw (although a very nice guy named Bill did come by to say hello and set up some other drawing sessions). Here's what I came up with:


This is a lamp post in front of the New Orleans Museum of Art.


This is not actually a real alligator - it's a sculpture by Elizabeth Shannon called "Camille II" that I drew looking out the window of the museum coffee shop.


This last one was done in about ten minutes during a break in the storm. I would have liked to have worked on it longer, but it started raining again and I had to run off. Note the trash bags lined up under the bridge and the hoses poking out of the water - I think they had it set up that way to prevent flooding if the storm that kept all the other sketch crawlers away turns out to be bigger than expected. Here's hoping we can get a few more people next time around.

CC's Coffee House, Jefferson Ave, New Orleans

This is the CCs Coffee House at the corner of Jefferson and Magazine in uptown New Orleans. Those with a keen eye for detail and a knowledge of the coffee houses of New Orleans may have already guessed that this is the very place where I sat and drew this. Actually, now that I think about it, there's really no way anyone reading this could have made that connection unless I told them myself. So, if you did guess, you are probably either my wife or you are stalking me, in which case I'm either about to make popcorn and watch "Westworld" with you or I'm calling the cops. Anyway, it's a nice place to get coffee and a very cool old building.

Sally Timms

Here's another in my ongoing series entitled "Portraits of Middle Aged Musicians With Cult Followings Who Would Be More Famous Than U2 If There Was Any Justice In This World" (see also, Howe Gelb). This is Sally Timms from the Mekons, one of my favorite bands ever. Anyone who likes rock music, has a pair of functioning ears, and has never heard Fear and Whiskey or Honky Tonkin' should do themselves a favor and purchase both of these albums as soon as possible.