The Illusionist

Went to see The Illusionist.  Kind of a downer - which you don't expect from a cartoon.  But it's beautiful to look at, and the Hahvad Exit is a cool theater.  We started with a trip to Vivace, where I sketched the cafe and made Ruth look a little sickly (I think there was some unseen green on my palette) and then headed over to the theater where I butchered her again.

And yes, that is an alien in the green shirt behind her - what do you expect on Capitol Hill?

There and back again

554 to Issaquah

I get off at 136th and ride down the hill.  Some quick pen sketches of my fellow riders from this morning.

Evil on a Sunday afternoon

Well you know how it is, you can't let a good pastry go to waste.  The Evil Bakery has its half-price sale every Sunday afternoon so I did my civic duty and had a strawberry tart and a cup of peppermint tea.  I also got a baguette that I will have with my soup tonight.

217 coming home

Bumpy and crowded!

66 Express

A few folks on the bus on the way in last week.

Oil sketches from Florida

A few quick oil sketches from my Florida trip.  These were done at home from photos - both are on the same 8-1/2 x 11 sheet of canvas paper using a limited palette of yellow ochre, ultramarine blue, and white.  It's hard to paint long-leaf pines with sap green but I think limited palette is good for you! 

Lone Star Steakhouse...

... and other tales from Florida.  So the trip to Florida was for an aeronautics conference, and the flight was daytime so I got to enjoy the scenery. 

Our first stop after landing was the Lone Star Steakhouse.  We're talking Dive here - a stuffed Bison head on the wall, Country Music, and Bud Light on tap.  Oh yeah. 

I got some good customer feedback on my prototypes, had some peach cobbler at the reception, and then headed over to a different hotel up the road to hear my aunt speak at a different conference.

We then spent the weekend sketching and painting at the local nature preserves.

Saturday was Frank Sinatra night at the restaurant near their place, but his CD kept skipping.

And then walked around Disney's Boardwalk and had dinner at the BlueZoo - very awesome seafood and a great weekend!

Then it was a night flight back to Seattle - not a whole lot between Florida and Seattle, actually.  During the day it's great landscape, but at night it's just dark.

Florida trip

Stay tuned for more... (and yes, this time I spent more time at my destination than in the airport).

What color is tuna fish?

First sketches of the New Year.  Of course I started out at the Evil Bakery and sketched the folks across from me and my lunch.  As these gals were leaving they asked to see my sketch.  I said "I'm not a portrait artist, so sorry about your face," which she thought was hilarious.

I had the tuna and egg salad, which was fabulous -but what color do you paint tuna salad?  It's a whole mesh of colors, none of which are really nice if you look at it, so you'll just need to take my word that there is tuna in here.

And just now the guy across the street was scraping the ice from the bottom of his driveway - there condo uphill form him has a sprinkler system, which at 25 degrees creates a 2"-thick block of ice at the end of his driveway as it flows down the hill.



Happy New Year!