Man, I can't believe someone else out there was using the same blog name... all seven seconds of word-mashing cleverness rendered useless! So bummed.... so tired is the term that some geeky sort even attempted to define the term "bloggadocio" with a note of actual seriousness, though I myself intended only a nod to the great MC Frontalot. That said, I'm trying out a new title: Prepare for "Ludicrous Speed"!
... aaaaand here are some drawings. Think I need to just throw away the details of what I'm seeing, keeping only the pose and drawing whatever character I comes to mind in these sessions. It throws me off to fumble for a different theme per pose, but maybe if I decide the model looks kinda like a waitress, gangster, spartan, etc....
Before getting caught up with St. Patrick's Day or the NCAA Tournament, I took a couple of hours yesterday afternoon to sketch in San Francisco between the Embarcadero and Union Square. Always such an entertaining variety of characters in this city when you stop to look, half-drunk on this particular day... Here are some examples to share, along with an older sketch from December which I thought was a successful caricature. All are done with ballpoint pen, which I'm getting the hang of but may be moving away from on my next outing since it tends to keep me slow and careful.
In just five days (March 21st), Al Gore will be testify before Congress for immediate action on the growing Global Warming crisis. To show that Americans feel this needs to become a legistlative priority now, before it's too late, Gore is organizing a web-based postcard-writing campaign to accompany his testimony.
This is the world's warmest winter on record. The ten warmest years on record have all occurred since 1995. We are at a point where permafrost is melting. This isn't some tree-hugging bullshit over which you vote with a political party; this is real science that has horrible implications for future generations, and it's a moral imperative that we act. Please take just a few seconds of your day to tell your congressional representatives that we need to take action now towards a more sustainable way of life.
Tuesday wasn't a particularly strong day of Gesture Drawing. I had trouble focusing and feeling the poses as my mind was distracted by work, pondering the self-desctructive nature of the human race, and other such nonsense. Still, I'd like to think that my uninspired days now are worlds better than they used to be!
With vacation time through and healed pinkie on hand, I finally made a return to Gesture Drawing today. It felt great to be back! San Francisco weather is looking unseasonably warm this weekend (goodbye, snow), so if I get the chance I'll dust off the old sketchbook and do some people watching...
Bonus notes for today: Pixar's been in the news a bit lately. If you missed it, here's a Brad Bird / Ratatouille interview on ABC, and a New York Times article on John Lasseter / Disney.
Conditions were looking great on the road up to Tahoe last Wednesday afternoon, and I had a marathon snowboarding session at Northstar on Thursday before crashing back to Earth with a cold that broke up my riding through the weekend. Being inside isn't so bad when you can count on James to forward along gems of the internets!
Had a chance to read I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe (of Bonfire of the Vanities fame) during my time off. While not an uplifting story, the book did offer a sharp, critical perspective on the cultural climate of university undergraduates today. Wolfe seemed a little obsessed with the habitual overuse of the word "fuck" in contemporary student vernacular, but there is truth to his suggestion that the country's most prestigious universities have developed a darker side as consequence-free playgrounds for rich kids (the Greek party lifestyle) and athletes (protected by "the program") who take little to no interest in their schools' academic ideals. The realization that this co-existence is a very recent development makes you wonder where that momentum will end...
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Expect more drawing-heavy posts in the next few weeks; After taking time off to reset, I'm hoping to build up some momentum for a productive Sketchcrawl on the 17th.
Had a chance to read I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe (of Bonfire of the Vanities fame) during my time off. While not an uplifting story, the book did offer a sharp, critical perspective on the cultural climate of university undergraduates today. Wolfe seemed a little obsessed with the habitual overuse of the word "fuck" in contemporary student vernacular, but there is truth to his suggestion that the country's most prestigious universities have developed a darker side as consequence-free playgrounds for rich kids (the Greek party lifestyle) and athletes (protected by "the program") who take little to no interest in their schools' academic ideals. The realization that this co-existence is a very recent development makes you wonder where that momentum will end...
