Last two SIFF 2010 sketches

Well, this wraps up my SIFF sketching odyssey for 2010. Or does it…? They are showing The Best of SIFF 2010 at SIFF Cinema this weekend. We missed “Hipsters” and we may go see that. So there may be one more page. We’ll see. :-)

In the meantime, here are my pages for “The Two Horses for Genghis Khan” and “Born to Suffer.” 

"The Two Horses of Genghis Khan"

"Born to Suffer"

I’m very pleased with my watercolor sketch of Flora, the main character of “Born to Suffer.” It shows me that all the hours I’ve been putting in my watercolor studies are paying off. Hurray!

More SIFF…

In the interest of keeping up with my desire to record a sketch from each SIFF movie this year (or at least of a grouping of movies), I have a new sketch page to show you. This one to mark two movies we saw over the past two nights at Seattle’s historic Neptune Theater. Anyone who knows the Neptune will remember that the old theater has a sea-based theme. Inside it has port-hole windows (as does the Admiral by the way) and wonderful decorations of shells, and tridents, and, I just realized last night, huge Sea King heads with glowing eyes way up high on the tops of pillars around the inside of the theater. Really cool! But alas, too late to draw this time…darn!  But I did want to record one of the cheesy, but iconic, stained glass windows also inside the theater. There are four and they all depict Neptune in one scene or another. If the drawing looks child-like that’s because it’s accurate. *big smile* I used Pitt pens and Derwent Intense pencils to get the stained glass effect.

Last night we was saw a real winner of a movie called “The Wild Hunt.” Although it was low budget and the first film of co-creators Alexandre Franchi and Mark Antony Krupa, it was quite good. To honor it I wanted to mark it specially on my journal page - see the antlered-skull on the bottom of the page. This little pen & ink drawing was really fun to do. I guess I kind of miss my Scientific Illustration days. *lol*

You never know with SIFF films. The ones you’re really looking forward to based on their “buzz” many times fail to satisfy, while the obscure ones like this year’s “Wild Hunt’ and 2008’s “Eagle and Shark” will surprise and delight you. Actually, in the case of “The Wild Hunt,” delight is not the right word. Terrify or disturb would be more accurate. But also impress as in the depth of the writers’ interest in L.A.R.P.s (Live Action Role Playing) and their understanding of traditional Icelandic sagas and myths in general. Kudos to the boys from Quebec on their first film!

Other projects under way

I am currently letting the Great Dane puppy (mentioned previously) sit unobserved for a while before putting the finishing touches on it. It’s always critical to do this I think. The break gives your eyes a much better chance of catching errors and other details that need to be adjusted before completing the piece. While the puppy rests I am working on a few other things including my SIFF sketches. Fortunately, we’re taking several days off from SIFF movies and this allows me time to work on another fine art piece with the working title of “Man and Horse.”

I absolutely loved this statue when I photographed it on my last walk-about trip in Washington, DC. It’s called, “Man Controlling Trade” and it stands outside the Federal Trade Commission. It’s an allegorical piece where the horse stands as a symbol for trade. I do not like the allusion of the allegory in this statue at all. But, having said that, I also believe that it's a wonderful piece of WPA art. I am a HUGE fan of many WPA art pieces, especially the big blocky figures commonly seen in WPA statues and murals. Perhaps, one day, I’ll do a series of paintings illustrating them. *happy grin* But for now, this wonderful statue was a great excuse to experiment with some other water-soluble pencils that I’ve recently bought – Derwent’s Graphitints.

"Man and Horse" with reference photo

These are soft graphite pencils tinted with color. The colors are muted when dry but brighten up when wet. In that way they are similar to the water-soluble colored pencils I've been using for the puppy portrait but in much more subtle shades. For this piece I’m using a limited palette of the following colors: 04 Dark Indigo, 03 Aubergine, 18 Storm, 23 Cool Grey, 20 Midnight Black, 16 Cocoa, 13 Chestnut. As you can see the color palette I’ve chosen seems perfectly matched to the statue and I think that’s really cool. For the support I’ve chosen a Lanaquarelle Hot Press Watercolor block. I’m really enjoying using hot press paper with water-soluble pencils. Never a huge fan of hot press paper before, I find it takes the pencil marks well and since I’m not using a huge amount of water (and I’m using small brushes), it’s a great choice. I have only recently started using the Lana paper and I really like it.

"Man and Horse"

I have been working in layers wetting small sections at a time. While that area dries I can wet another area or add more dry color. It’s a relaxing process.

I’m looking forward to seeing how this piece turns out. If it works out well then maybe I will do a series of other WPA statues. I certainly have been collecting photographs of them for many years. Stay tuned...

Being brave with watercolors!

It was a busy weekend at SIFF. We saw four movies in 4 days and I got terribly behind in my daily sketching. Before giving myself over entirely to defeat, I hit upon an idea. Lump the movies onto one sketch page! But how to do it? Here’s the result. I caught Matt while he was buying tickets at the Neptune on Saturday and then added notes about the films we saw! Hurray! Disaster averted!

 

This sketch was a little scary for me. It demanded I ADMIT I was painting again. No more hiding from myself. That was something I’ve been working up to slowly. Sounds funny doesn’t it? Still, that’s the way it goes. Sometimes the best leaps are the ones that take you up just one simple, but critical, step. *lol*

RoboGeisha

It was a great movie! Well, not a great movie but certainly a very adequate midnight movie. Plus, it made a great sketch today! Cheers!

 

Done in my Moleskin sketchbook with Pitt pens and Derwent Inktense pencils.

Experimenting with watercolor sticks and a new style – for me.

One thing that I LOVE about art is that it is so easy to be inspired by others’ works and then creating your own versions of what they have done. Recently, I have found my sketching style consistent, but not as inspiring as I’d like it to be. While on Flicker, I found two of Cathy Johnson’s recent sketches that were particularly inspiring to me. Both were essentially black & white bold brush & pen work, with watercolor tinting the background. I loved this approach wanted to try it for my next SIFF sketch.

Here is the sketch, using the Harvard Exit’s iconic ancient projector which stands in the lobby, as the focal point of the page. I can’t wait to try others in this style actually. I think it was really successful and am looking forward to further experimentation in this area. Very fun!

I think I also hit it right with the combination of tools I used to create this page. I used a watercolor Moleskin sketchbook, my favorite mechanical pencil, 2 black Pitt pens (one small and one brush nib), Daniel Smith watercolor sticks grated with a sharpener into my new palette with the HUGE wells for really juicy puddles. Here is a picture of my set up:

This artistic journey is just so cool! I can’t wait to see what inspires me at tomorrow night’s midnight showing of “RoboGeisha” at the Egyptian. *lol*

SIFF is upon us!

Matt and I are avid fans of the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) and yesterday we began our yearly pilgrimage to watch movies “’till we drop” for the next month. I decided to try and keep up a sketch journal from this year’s festival to record memories and other fun things.

By its nature SIFF tends to be a “slow down to hurry up” kind of affair. That is to say, there’s lots of waiting and then sudden frenzies of activity before, after, and between shows (we tend to see double and sometimes triple features!)

Here’s my first sketch of the year. It's of the Admiral Theater which is shaped like a boat inside. Very cute! The sketch was done in pen & ink and watercolor.