Downtowne Chitowne

Over Thanksgiving, Jess and I made a trip to Chicago to visit family. On one day, we went Downtown for some pizza, walking around and some city life. Here are a few shots from our travels that day....

Reliance Building by Burnham and Root, one of my favorites and a staple in Chicago architecture:


Marshall Field's Signage - Now a historical plaque on the corner of the now Macy's store:

Cloud Gate at Millenium Park... fondly referred to as "The Bean":

Belated Dr Sketchy Post

A couple weeks back, Jess and I went to this event called Dr. Sketchy's, which was a travelling sketch studio which was part Live Model drawing class, part burlesque show. Having never taken a live model drawing art class in school or out, I was pretty excited just to be trying out the format (it was also my fist time drawing nudes as well). Started out by doing some one minute exercises then slowly worked up to 20 minute poses.

I have always struggled with drawing people in terms of form and expression, so it was good to break out some pens and really work on that. Truthfully, some of them came out awful, but I was pleased by the end of the night and walked away feeling like I had a good experience.

Here are a couple of my sketches from that night:

Back Again

Well, after another bit of a hiatus, I am back once again at the blog. There is much to post from the last few months of non-posting. The following isn't one of the greatest things, but it is a tease of a bigger project that I did a couple months back. It was a slap-dash idea/sketch/diagram for a competition that I did through work. I had a shape of a site and I just started going at it. It doesn't have a whole lot of meaning behind it, and it doesn't really resemble the project in any way... but I still kind of like it and I needed something to get the ol' blog ball rolling again. Thus, here it resides.

Following Through

Following through on one of my quick collage ideas from a few days ago...

Another Round of...

Been a busy and distracting sort of week. Here's some stuff from a few days ago that I did on the train.

Occasionally someone will stand over me, watching me sketch. A guy this particular day gave me the usual ,"What the heck are you drawing?"

"Some layouts of abstract shapes and..."

He interrupts, "So you just draw whatever you feel like. OK." and put his headphones on.

Sketch for Layered Painting?

Another sketched out idea for a painting... or perhaps a collage...

Sketched Screen Idea

Quick sketch done to develop an idea for an architectural screen or surface. Made of wood slats and cable.

Freeform Composite Collage

This collage was made on 6x6 matte board and was a trial run of a collage style I have been wanting to attempt. In addition to composition and balance, the illusion of form and space was also an intended goal.

Retro Week 2009 - Day 7

From a book that was made for a Studio Class in the Spring of 2003. By this point in school, I was getting really tired of making books, but the teachers just loved to work them in to the curriculum. This particular image out of the aforementioned book was a representation of a range of colors that I thought reflected me. The glare is intentional to show the varied textures and finishes of the pages.

...and so Retroactive Week Aught Nine comes to a close. Looking forward to looking through my dusty old work again next Labor Day. Tune in tomorrow when new content will return in full force.

Retro Week 2009 - Day 6

A random page taken from a 2003 notebook. Clearly my mind was wandering from something very exciting.

Retro Week 2009 - Day 5

This drawing was done in 1999 back when I was attending my first design courses at College of DuPage, or as we called it, "COD State". It was a composite drawing of multiple other drawings which was then color coded and acted as a map to derive extrusions of many little shapes and pieces which were then assembled into a model, or "construct". All in all I went through about 8 Prismacolor pencils to render this drawing.

Retro Week 2009 - Day 4

This was a model for a project I worked on during my intern years at Perkins + Will. It was made during the schematic design phase for the W Hotel in Hollywood. In the end we were not awarded the project and the client decided to go with "someone else".


Normally, I wouldn't post my professional work on here, for various reasons, one of which being the potential of creative plagiarism, but as that already happened with this design I don't see the harm. Below, be sure to check out a rendering of what will actually be built (and is currently under construction) for this project. You be the judge:

Retro Week 2009 - Day 3

Quite possibly the first pastel piece that I ever did. This most likely was made back in the early 90's when I was in middle school, maybe even high school. I like that I couldn't quite figure out what to put in the background , so I just smeared around some of the other colors. Ah, to be young.

Retro Week 2009 - Day 2

Another piece from the old SCI-Arc Years. This model study was made in Spring of Aught-Two. It was made out of plaster and was about 14" long, 9" wide and over 3" deep, if memory serves. This shape was derived from an extrusion of a disassembled-reassembled Franz Klein painting, and was a study in gesture.

Retro Week 2009 - Day 1

Well, it's that week of the year again, where I go through my old work and pull a bunch stuff out of the 'Archives' to share. I have been on a roll lately making some new stuff so I don't REALLY need to do this, but it is kind of enjoyable (yet painful) to go through old drawings, sketches and work and put it out there for the world to see.

This particular sketch was whipped up back in the fall of 2000, in my first studio at SCI-Arc. I remember sitting in a Starbucks with some friends, drinking a caramel apple cider (because I didn't drink coffee at that point), and an idea for the centerpiece of my main project came to me. I scratched it out on a napkin, as architects are wont to do. Though I really liked it, the element wasn't relevant to my design and never actually made it into my final project.

Luck of the Draw

I had Jury Duty on Friday, and this collage was a bit of a nod to the day as a whole for me. And for the record, I was reading Ian Fleming's Casino Royale whilst waiting endlessly for my name to be called, which thankfully it never was.

This one is 6"x6" on matte board.

Recent Ideas, Doodles, Scribbles and Gestures

A few collage ideas, idea for extruded collage, some scribbles and general doodles from the last couple days.

Orientation

Jess and I have been watching some old LOST episodes lately. We are back on Season 2, and I felt compelled to sketch up some loose scenes from the episode "Orientation", when we first hear of the now ubiquitous Dharma Initiative. This is of a study in composition, light and technique more than an accurate depiction of characters or figure, though it's good to get practice in those areas as well.

The Station Fire

This collage came together today in a little collage workshop that a friend hosted. We had an informative and enjoyable session for a few hours, learning some good techniques.

The piece didn't start out as but somehow evolved into a response to the out-of-control fires that are currently plaguing Southern California and in particular the LA area. The largest of the fires in the state is fairly close to us just north of Glendale. It was dubbed the "Station Fire" though I am not sure why it was given that name. This fire seems to keep spreading and causing more and more damage by the day. We can only hope they take care of it before it rips apart too much more of the area.

Shankill Sketches

I've been on another Decemberists kick lately and whenever I listen to their music the artistic wheels get a spinnin'. So I am starting to make good on my longtime desire to do some artwork based on their songs. [sidebar: if you haven't heard any of their music or have no idea who I am talking about, you should check out their site via the link above. Great stuff that's part folk, part sea shanty, and part rock opera. Their songs and albums are all very story driven with rich lyrics and visuals]

I started out a few days ago doing some panels for a larger "Hazards of Love" spread (I'll get to posting those when they are more complete), and this week started working on content and composition of older songs. Today I was particularly fixated on the song "Shankill Butchers", which is all about a father telling his young daughter to be good and treat her mother well or the titular butchers would come to take her away and chop her up with cleavers and knives. Rather chilling song, actually. Tried a couple different depictions of that scene from a couple different perspectives. Leaning towards the first one if I were to choose one to develop further.

Studies Again?

It has been a while since I have posted any collage studies. It was only after I drew an entire page of them that I remembered I wasn't going to do any more studies of collages, but just go straight into the actual collages themselves. Oh well, when it has been so long you forget these things...

Shards of the Subconcious

This collage was compiled last night out of a stack of doodles that I recently salvaged from old notebooks of mine that were getting thrown away. Sometimes the lines and scribbles that work their way out onto the margins of lined note paper can lead to grander ideas, but oft times they just get forgotten and filed away with whatever pertinent information was jotted down.

These shards of the subconscious have been assembled almost haphazardly into a field, but even still, patterns and connections emerge and unfold as a map or a window into a string of lost moments unified by a slight sense of boredom and busy fingers.

The Lunch Doodle Rant

I doodled this up at an in-house lunch presentation at work the other day. It was one of the longest winded steamiest piles of drivel I have ever heard, and I have heard many. It took most of the session before I understood what service and/or product they were trying to sell... and it was office furniture, or more specifically human-technological integration in the work environment. My opinion is this: Not only is the entire ergonomic furniture industry a complete waste of money, energy and attention, but you have entire companies dedicated to peddling jargon that feeds into this notion as a valid branch of Design.

Now, I will admit that most people who experienced this particular presentation expressed afterwards how insulted their intelligences were or how duped they felt, but there were some who lapped it up and many who merely tolerated it for the sake of the free food. While I do concede that the sandwich that day was damn good, I still hold strong to the fact that nothing in life is free and that most times, the lure of free cold cuts is just not worth it... unless there's pretzel bread involved.

LACMA Visit - Sketches

As promised, here is a small sample of the sketches that I drew up at my most recent visit to LACMA. Was trying out a fine point and thick pen on some Giacometti sculptures, with vastly different results.

LACMA Visit - Photos

Went to the LACMA a few weeks ago (Yes, I am just now getting to posting it!) for a day of sketching and checking out art. Even though the intent of the visit was to draw, sometimes I just can't resist taking a few photos of the spaces and architecture. The sketches that also came out of this day will be forthcoming.

Top of the Oviatt

I took this shot at the Oviatt Penthouse this past Saturday, when we were there for Daisy & Damon's wedding reception. The building, and the penthouse itself were fine examples of the forgotten Art Deco of downtown Los Angeles. At one point in the evening, we made our way out to a small balcony, overlooking Olive Street, and had quite the view from there. It never ceases to amaze me that once you get off the ground it almost seems like we have a legitimate "Downtown".

The lighting of the buildings and sky at this particular moment struck me as theatrical, as if the facades scattered in front of me were all made of plaster and plywood. Hell, knowing this town, they probably were...

Long Beach Jellyfish

At the end of June, we wend to the wedding of a couple friends, whom got married in Long Beach on the sand. After the ceremony the reception was held at the nearby Long Beach Aquarium, which was fun overall, but uniquely so because we had nearly free reign of the entire place for the evening. After finding my way around some ropes, I found myself upstairs, faced with several tanks filled with the slow undulations and luminous tendrils of a throng of jellyfish, glowing eerily in the darkness.

One can lose oneself in a place such as this, and I will admit that I did for a little while. Luckily I was fortunate to have a camera with me to attempt to capture the beauty of these amazing creatures...

Pitch People

Went tonight to the 'Story Board Pitch Night' that Jess runs monthly and I occupied myself by attempting to sketch people this time. By the end of the night the sketches were starting to look like people!

Maui Condo and Lanai

Here are a couple sketches that I did at our condo in Maui a few days before the wedding. The place was a little dated, but the view was amazing. That rattan cabinet held a stereo and a box of old CD's, and I must note how delighted I was to discover a copy Weezer's Blue album nestled in the stash. The second sketch is the view from our lanai with lots of palm trees and a clear shot of the ocean.

Back Inaction

When I think about how fast the last nearly 5 months have been, I wonder what I could have been doing in that time to warrant a drought such as this. The list forms in my mind...

There was a couple months of studying for a few exams with a false start thrown in for good measure; There was my wedding on Maui with Honeymoon on Kauai and all the preparations that entailed before the trip. Upon our return we had a couple of weeks of additional prep work for the in-town reception here in Los Angeles with family and stresses on top of that. There was my final architecture exam a couple weeks after that and then I went on deadline for my project at work. Which brings me to last week, when we went to San Diego for the legendary Comic Con, and all the insanity that came with that.

And then realize... I don't have to explain my absence to a BLOG! I was gone and now I'm back.

In the last few months I have accumulated a lot of scraps, sketches, photos and ideas which I have been eager to post. Since posts were not actually made in that time, there are a few items which will be disseminated in the days to come.

I'll start with this photo of the vast array of party favors that Jess and I put together for the guests of our reception. The story that led to this image is long and I won't write it here, but this image captures the final product of our labors.

More to come!

Green Collage - Final Product

I should have scanned this before I varnished it... too shiny now to scan I think... Perhaps I will try again tomorrow. In the meantime here is the long awaited Green collage (which I fully intended on submitting to a gallery for a "Green" themed show, but I don't think that's going to happen, but I am going to submit it to another show, the "Winter Gallery" at work).


I made this collage on a wood block and I think that actually worked out really well for the idea that I was trying to get across with this one. The wood block also makes it suitible for hanging as it is, without additional framing.

Orange Peel #7

Another in the series... One of these days, we will stop buying tangerines!

Suds

Got some inspiration while I was washing my hands....

Stair:Book Case

This here sketch is the first inkling of an idea for a staircase that also doubles as a bookcase. Stair becomes bookcase becomes wall. Time to start playing with it a little more....

More Studies in Green

Here are a few more studies that I did a couple days ago for a collage that I am currently working on. I'm really hoping the sentiment translates into the collage medium. Even the most literal of translations can look completely different.

Wall and Silhouette

Silhouette of a sharp plant in front of a white washed wall. Took this at the end of a long day after a couple parties. This is actually a color photograph.

Cleaning Desk

Its amazing how much crap you can find in and around your desk (work or otherwise) when you haven't cleaned it in a while. Here are some little snippets and sketches that have been kicking around at work for what I'm sure has been a while.

Dual Pattern

Just a quick sketch of an idea I had today, based on some paneling that we have in our project at work. Looks nothing like this in my project, but isn't that what ideas are? Manipulations and developments of existing notions and patterns.

Studies in Green

Several sketches and studies for a collage or collages to submit to a gallery next week. Green be the topic.

Headache Monday

My head was pounding all day today. A piercing throb over the right half my face. All. Day. Long. I sketched the top thing on the train ride home from work, and the lower towards the end of the same train ride, but with a slightly lesser pain in my brain.

Cup O Doodle

Couple of quick post-it doodles from the weekend from various phone calls and note takings.