Just another bitchin' sunset

Not actually travel photos since they’re taken from my living room, but worth sharing.

The O-Files

I rounded up the photos that (I think) haven’t made it up yet. That little guy gets around…

Soaps at the Westin. Every day they would give me a bunch of soaps and shampoos. I ended up with quite the collection.

The parade on the way to the reception at SIGGRAPH:

SIGGRAPH moments:

The Bean in Chicago. That's me in the lower right holding the camera and O-Berry and that's O-Berry in the upper left - so which is real and which is the reflection?

Hiding in the sculptures at the Met

Hanging out at the Met

In front of the M&M store in NY

Times Square

The Guggenheim

Sketches from New Orleans

On the flight from Chicago I got bumped up to first class so a family could sit together. This gave me a lovely view of the bulkhead and lavatory, but I also got a banana:

And on the second leg I got to sketch a lonely luggage thing:

And for those of you with food allergies, please take note that the peanuts contain peanuts:

The conference itself wasn’t much for sketching (hard to sketch in the dark) but there were some good quotes:
“The most expensive haircut in recorded history”
“Oh dear God that sucks”
“The glasses were a giant pain in the ass”
“In some sense we are drug dealers”
“When it starts doing unpredictable and scary things, you know you are successful”
“Maybe I’m just having a weird flashback”
“We throw a dead body in for good luck”
“That will hold a special place in my heart”
“If you drink enough that can happen”
“A lot of people didn’t have that problem – there may be some sort of course you can take”
“Give it more Zork”
“Totally pointless”

And perhaps the best was an introduction to Kitten War: http://kittenwar.com/

But there was some sketching to be had about town and especially at the catfish-laden aquarium.

The bar which I frequented - mostly because it had known food and not deep-fried southern catfish:

The French Quarter from the hotel lounge. I should really add some color since it is in fact quite colorful:

A freighter going up the river from the same vantage point. Yes the river is that color:

The rays in the big tunnel:

I did some experiments in sketching with pen instead of pencil - it forces you to be looser and bolder.

Damselfish. Innocent looking but apparently aggressive:

Catfish:

The pizza ray (not my best drawing):

Angelfish. I took some liberties with the colors, but since it's my painting, I can do that! ;-)

Lionfish:

Side view of a hammerhead shark:

White alligator. This is the one where a gal told me that I was "a good draw-er":

Chicago Sketches

Here's some sketches from Chicago. They were drawn on-site but usually painted later (with watercolor). In a few cases I also did the painting on-site.

North Beach, looking out across the water and then looking back at the city:

Scultpure at the Lincoln Park Zoo. Anna and I had found a nice table in the shade and spent a good hour or so there sketching and painting:

Concert at Milennium Park. This is in the big outdoor concert shell made from spare parts from a spaceship (at least, that's what it looks like):

Sox Park from the upper deck. *very* steep stairs!

A few views of the coral reef exhibit at the Shedd Aquarium. For years they had to bring salt water in by train! Then someone invented "instant ocean" and now they can make their own using the fresh water of Lake Michigan. They are growing their own coral here, which really makes a difference (the fake coral in New Orleans was really fake):

Buckingham fountain. Far more impressive than I've made it - I should have added some people for scale!

Chinese acrobats at Navy Pier. David and I thought about trying some of those moves, but decided against...

More New York Sketches

View of the city from the lagoon at Central Park:

View out the Window of the Whitney. It's all about the shapes and colors of buildings going off into the distance:

Times Square:

And looking the other way you see Morgan Stanley next to Hershey's and across the street from the M&M store:

The sculpture garden at MOMA. They had these 3 sculptures that you were allowed to climb all over and were big enough for an adult to stand up inside of:

A few random pages from my sketchbook - you can see how many notes I took on the art!

The death of chocolate chips

If you’ve ever wondered what happens to chocolate chips when it hits 105, I can tell you it ain’t pretty. Apparently while I was enjoying Chicago the temperature in Seattle hit 105. Keeping in mind that there’s really no air conditioning out here and I’m on the top floor with a lovely view west, I can only imagine how hot my place really got. I’m glad I missed it. However, I do shop at Costco and had a giant bag of chocolate chips in the cabinet, which seems to not only have become a single chip, but also become a single gross chip. Poor guys, they seem to have changed form. Time to make another shopping trip…

New York sketches

Here's just a few sketches from my New York trip:

The bar at the sushi place I went a few times:

The lamp at the Bryant Park Grill:

The Guggenheim - light and dark:

Rooftops from Bryant Park:

Soft Ketchup by Claes Oldenburg: