Sketching in City Park

Today was a really gorgeous spring day in New Orleans, so I went to City Park with a friend and spent a few hours drawing and enjoying the perfect weather. The one on top is a charcoal drawing of a some moss-covered trees in the middle of a pond, the other is a pencil drawing of a piece from the sculpture garden by Michael Sandle called "The Drummer."

Galapagos Tortoise, Tennessee Grass

Here's another drawing inspired by an entry in the amazing Flickr set run by the herpetologist from the Tennessee Aquarium. This is a Galapagos tortoise chowing down on some grass, presumably Tennessee grass. I wonder if Tennessee grass tastes different from grass in other states. I'll bet it does. I mean, Elvis is buried there for crying out loud, surely that must do something to the flavor of the grass in the good old Volunteer State. Me, I wouldn't know. When I went to Tennessee I subsisted almost entirely on dry-rub barbecue, like all sensible people do when they're in Tennessee.

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.

Darth Vader Attacks Whiteboard

The three recent Star Wars movies were horrendous, but there will always be a place in my heart for the classics. I saw "Empire Strikes Back" seven times in the theater during its initial run.

Yeah, It's That Same Truck Lot Again

Some of you may be thinking "Come on, you're not really going to do another drawing of that same truck lot, are you?" I'm afraid so. Trust me, this really is the most interesting thing to draw that I can get to easily on my lunch break. Harahan, Louisiana has plenty of strip malls and fried chicken restaurants, but they're a little short on architectural or natural beauty. This is one of the many reasons why I'm always happy to come back to New Orleans after a day at the office.

A Little Rice

This watercolor painting of my rice cooker is dedicated to the good people at Beijing on Irving, one of my favorite Chinese restaurants in San Francisco. New Orleans is a city full of wonderful food but, at least in comparison to my former stomping grounds out west, we're kind of hurting when it comes to Chinese cuisine. This has led me to start cooking more at home, a culinary strategy that has pressed the rice cooker into frequent service. I've gotten pretty handy with a wok, but nothing from my own kitchen has ever come close to the Singapore noodles at Beijing on Irving. Don't feel too bad for me though - any time my longing for a plate of noodles threatens to send me into a state of total despair, I can walk up the street and drown my sorrows in a the immortal glory of the shrimp po' boy at Domilese's.

Portrait of the Artist With Portrait of Toilet

Do blogs have birthdays? Sure, why not. Today marks the first anniversary of this blog. I've had a lot of fun with this over the past year and I really appreciate everyone who visits and leaves comments. Especially the comments. Those really make my day.

I've decided to mark the occasion by showing off a still-life I did of our toilet topped by a pair of my wife's shoes. She doesn't normally keep her shoes on top of the toilet, but there was some housecleaning going on and, amidst the chaos, the top of the toilet seemed as good a place as any.

Happy birthday, blog. Enjoy your cake and don't tell anyone what you wished for.

Dauphine Street, New Orleans

I headed down to French Quarter on a chilly Sunday morning to do a little ink drawing. I did this one from across the street while lots of tourists in Middle Tennessee football gear walked by and tried to pretend they weren't watching me draw. I think I might have to make myself a T shirt that says "It's OK to talk to me, I am not a famous artists producing an immortal masterpiece. Also, I can hear you whispering to your friend while you watch me draw and it's actually making me more uncomfortable than if you just walked up and said hello." The T-shirt is still kind of a work in progress, as I may have a bit more text than I can fit in a legible font size.

Village Elders in Afghanistan

These were drawn from a series of portraits of tribal elders from the area around Khan Neshin, Afghanistan that appeared in the New York Times "Week in Review" section a couple of weeks ago. These were all done in ink with a few splashes of color in watercolor pencil where it seemed to fit.

I've decided that an alternate title for this post is "People Who Really Do Not Care Who Tiger Woods Slept With." Actually, I'd like to add myself to that list, although I'm not sure that I'd have much else to talk about if I were stuck in an elevator with these guys.

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.

I Think We're Ready if General Sherman Comes Back

I was recently driving around Harahan, Louisiana - just minding my own business, thinking about dinosaurs and socialism and whether or not the new Mountain Goats album is better than the new Slayer album (the jury is still out) - and I came upon a giant cannon sitting on a concrete slab in front of the VFW hall. Of course I had to come back as soon as possible to try to capture this intimidating piece of military hardware collecting dust amidst the suburban sprawl. Drawn on my lunch break with a charcoal pencil.

My Neighbor's Truck

This is my neighbor's truck parked across the street from my house. Drawn in charcoal pencil while looking out my living room window.

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.

Flickr-ing

This post was spawned from an exercise that I've mostly been using for warming up or for when I feel like doing some drawing on my lunch break but don't feel like leaving the warm, fluorescent confines of my cubicle. I go to http://flickr.com/photos, click on the first image that comes up, and start drawing. The trick here is not to cheat - whatever comes up, just draw. What I have discovered is that 90% of the images on flickr are of people and, of those, the majority are either photos of children or photos taken at work/family gatherings. There also seems to be a strong correlation between whether or not a person is holding an alcoholic beverage and the likelihood that a person's image will end up on flickr. These odds increase if the person's facial expression suggests that they are about to yell "woo!". Anyway, here are a few of the results of my flickr perusal, most of which were done pretty quickly. This has turned out to be a really interesting and challenging exercise that has resulted in a lot of really terrible drawings (no, I won't post those) and has pushed me to look at subjects that I might have otherwise shied away from.