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Falling Leaf Animation

Animation test of a falling leaf created on my iPad using the Animation Creator HD app.

baby layla

Our Little Layla

calendar sketch

pen - pilot p-500

A quick little doodle while waiting for our meeting to start.

alien mech sketch - first encounter

digital pencil - autodesk sketchbook pro

His first encounter with the alien mech.

landscape sketch - digital pencils

digital pencils
Based on last weeks thumbnail sketches, this is my first landscape sketch using 2b and 6b pencils in corel painter.

landscape thumbnails

pen on textured paper

Landscape thumbnail studies. Next step... digital painting. (Totally inspired by Marco Bucci's iTouch paintings!)

suit sketch

digital - autodesk sketchbook pro

A new year, a new "restart" for more sketches! While I eagerly await the Apple Tablet, I'm warming up my sketching muscles with some digital drawings.

pen sketches - afghan farmer and jack black

Afghan Farmer sketch 1
pen - pilot p-500


Afghan Farmer sketch 2
pen - pilot p-500


Jack Black sketch (unintentionally channeling Stanley Kubrick)
pen - pilot p-500

I've been trying to do more sketching these days.I tend to over crosshatch. Tonight I wanted to focus on my lines and flow. I really want to work on being conservative with line. It's a continuous struggle. I found the farmer in a local newspaper article and Jack Black in Rolling Stone magazine.

japanese crane sketches

pen - Uchida's Le Pen - .3mm


pen - Uchida's Le Pen - .3mm

I finally found my Le Pen!

These sketches were done on office note pads while on the phone discussing web edits with the 4th floor engineers. I guess you can say I have had cranes on my mind lately.

Found In San Francisco with a Camera Phone

Nash Metropolitan Teeny Tiny Convertible


Found in the Financial District, close to the Ferry Building Plaza.


Metal Dragonfly Sculpture


Found in a Richmond District park off Geary St.

doors to religiosity

Views from a camera phone, Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, 1:30 a.m.

sunken red door

slightly overexposed light with a strange diagonal spread

doors of paradise

ironically, though security bars...

doors of paradise

... bars with added spikes.

Read more about the San Francisco Grace Cathedral's Bible in Bronze.

San Francisco with a camera phone

Transamerica Pyramid

Taken at the base on the corner of Clay and Montgomery

Empire Park

Taken at the entrance to Empire Park on Commercial Street

A lonely, imprisoned iMac

Taken in an office basement cage in the Financial District

San Bruno Mountain Fire

View from my apartment, South San Francisco, CA. (8:50 pm)

(click on photos for larger image)

mini thor

pencil - derwent graphic 4b

cyber cowboy

pencils - Derwent Graphic 2b,4b 6b and Faber-Castell Aquarelle
Westworld's Revenge

alternative fuel vehicle

pen: pilot P-500 extra fine and markers: prismacolors cool greys
An alternative fuel vehicle for the San Francisco gas consumers suffering $3.50+ a gallon.

captain starkist

pencils - Derwent Graphic 2b,4b 6b and Faber-Castell Aquarelle
illustrationfriday.com

feeling bearish

graphite pencil - derwent graphic - 6b, 4b, 2b
Feeling Bearish
Following Wall Street today can be as stressful as following the news coming out of Washington DC. With the talk of a "housing bubble" bursting at the seams, the thought of a correction to an inflated market sounds enticing. To a hesitant bear living in the Bay Area California, I have witnessed the exponential rise of fake equity the last five years. I feel a bit of resolve having been sitting on the sidelines watching this slow moving train wreck just now starting to unfold.

I also feel sorry for those families who got duped and swindled into signing those creative loans. I hope they find some kind of resolve. As for the speculators and flippers, shame on them for trying to make a quick buck. The greedy are going to get their comeuppance, just you wait and see.

bear bull study sketch


initial bear study sketch

figure studies

charcoal

pencils - sanguine and white on seashell flecked paper

charcoal

saving the suit

digital - corel painter and adobe photoshop
Topic: Suit - illustrationfriday.com

Running late for his job interview, Mr. Slowski took the expressway through underground utility pipes. While saving his suit from water, a fellow commuter decided to hitch a ride.

gaining a higher perspective

pen: pilot P-500 and markers: prismacolors cool greys

Epic Battle concept - original post: March 2006

Almost two months of crazy work deadlines and recouping by traveling to the East Coast to visit family and friends, is to me, time well spent.

After attending my college roommate's wedding in Jersey, chowing down on cheese steaks in South Philly with a grade school buddy, and tending to some family health issues in Virginia, my sketchbook is now tapping me on the shoulder.

My pencils haven't seen much action lately, although the wheels in my head have been constantly spinning with ideas. Now to bring them to fruition.

polar freeze

digital - adobe illustrator

virginia tech mourns

vector illustration - adobe illustrator

As a Virginia Tech alumnus (1997), I offer my condolences to those that are most affected by this tragedy; current students, family and friends of the injured and deceased. As the flurry of media swarms on this story (I have been contacted personally by local Bay Area California media) I truly hope there will be a resolve towards peace and understanding in this world. This violence needs to stop.

this ole man loves trane

traditional - gouache on canvas - 8" x 8" - value study

There is nothing like a little John Coltrane to celebrate 34 years on this earth.

The jazz recordings of the mid 50's to early 60's are my favorite. It's funny how a simple ballad can transport me to another world, hypnotizing me to a state of utter bliss.

While most of my peers love the modern music coming from their satellite transmitters and cell phones, I feel like a relic who would rather dust off a classic LP and absorb the crackling of the needle into vinyl grooves.

My birthday playlist:

• In A Sentimental Mood / Duke Ellington & John Coltrane


• My Little Brown Book / Duke Ellington & John Coltrane


• The Feeling Of Jazz / Duke Ellington & John Coltrane


• Blues To Bechet / Coltrane Plays The Blues


• Nancy (With The Laughing Face) / The Gentle Side Of John Coltrane


• Mr. Syms / Coltrane Plays The Blues


• My Favorite Things / My Favorite Things


• Everytime We Say Goodbye / My Favorite Things


• Blue in Green / Kind of Blue


• My One And Only Love / The Gentle Side Of John Coltrane


• When I Fall In Love / Steamin' With The Miles Davis Quintet


• Blue Train / Blue Train


• I'm Old Fashioned / Blue Train


• Soul Eyes / The Gentle Side Of John Coltrane


• Lush Life / he Gentle Side Of John Coltrane


• Dear Lord / The Gentle Side Of John Coltrane


• Take Five / Cool: Dave Brubeck


• Flamenco Sketches / Kind of Blue

I encourage you to come along with me and dive into these recordings. You will not regret it.

tribal

pencil - derwent graphic 4b; digital color - photoshop

alien - sprout finale

graphite - Faber-Castell Grip 2001 2b / Aquarelle
finale

alien - sprout part 3

graphite - Faber-Castell Grip 2001 2b / Aquarelle
part 3 - the surprise turns to disbelief...

alien - sprout part 2

graphite - Faber-Castell Grip 2001 2b / Aquarelle
part 2 - the distraction turns to surprise...

alien - sprout

graphite - Derwent Graphic 4b
The alien is a bit distracted by the sprouting flower.

a smurfy red demon

digital painting - Corel Painter

This is one of the coolest Smurf figures I found at a local toy shop, the
Sausalito Ferry Company Gift Store.

Not to be outdone, the other week I found a Frankenstein Smurf at Kar'ikter in San Francisco.

I'm a real sucker for interesting toy figures.

Joust - 80s

graphite - Faber Castell Grip 2001 1=2b / Derwent Graphic 6b

Joust was one of my favorite arcade games when I was a kid in the 1980s. Before the Atari 2600, Intellivision, Coleco Vision, and Nintendo, I loved going to this arcade in Springfield Mall called Time Out.

I did the above sketch on the plane while flying back to California from my hometown in Virginia. I think it was the memory of home that inspired this.

I did the one below on my way home from work today. Sketched with the same pencil set, but colored digitally in PS CS2.

mask - an epee dream

pen in sketchbook - pilot p-500 extra fine

This week's topic for Illustration Friday is Mask.

The other night, I had this dream of a masked man with an epee. Today, I continued the dream during my morning break at work...then sketched him while taking the train home.


pen in sketchbook - pilot p-500 extra fine

Dreams are a wonderful thing.

mighty present

digital painting - corel painter

This weeks' Illustration Friday topic is "MIGHT".

Here are some additional rambling sketches for the topic, done with a Berol Verithin Sky Blue 740.5 blue pencil I found deep in my pencil case: