Seagrams 7

I was downtown with the inclination to paint some landscape, but wasn't really feeling excited about anything. I came home at 2pm and decided to paint another old Playboy ad. Maybe the colors and the marina in San Diego made me excited to paint another sailboat scene. Splash into summer with Seagram's 7! oil on canvas, 24 by 24

San Diego

I was with family in San Diego for Christmas and, of course, brought my painting supplies! The weather forecasters were predicting rain rain rain but fortunately they were wrong. I went out with my mom Tuesday and Friday and the light was PERFECT!! Cool and clear. The first painting is of La Jolla (oil on canvas, 28 by 22). Off Prospect St we went to the balcony of a restaurant that was closed and got this amazing vantage point from high up! The restaurant workers were coming back and forth, but they didn't seem to mind me working there, I think it was entertainment for their smoke-breaks. Then on Sunday I wanted to go into downtown San Diego and find something to paint. We ended up on Coronado Island. I wanted to find a nice shot of the Hotel del Coronado, but they've built so many unsightly outlying structures which block the main building that there's not a good view from the street anymore! Too bad... But this outlying building on the marina, built one year before the Hotel, had the same flavor of the main structure but to me was much more picturesque (oil on canvas, 30 by 24). Also here's a composite shot of the work in progress (starting upper left going clockwise): as you can see from the early pictures there is a failure underneath the current painting, un urban landscape of Tune-Up Masters in the Valley... it's good practice from time to time to paint over failed paintings because it's easier to dominate them! They suck! and so you are easily able to paint all over them as quickly as possible and thus GET TO THE POINT! ^_^

the Hive at the Mountain Bar

On Saturday the 13th, the Hive artists were invited to do their thing at the Mountain Bar in Chinatown downtown Los Angeles; I did a few drawings and this was my favorite. I have a lot of fun sketching in bars! There's always such a pulse and flux of humanity. When you draw from life you have to go with the flow... it's such fun to try and capture a simple slice of life!

update Sunday the 21st: I figure why not just change the image as the painting progresses rather than waste blog space with new posts? I put more color on the painting today with a little more concern for the composition, but still very rough and working from memory. The person in the front right has changed hair and position and now I definitely want someone in the left foreground... Here's another superimposed image.

update Saturday the 20th: I've started a 30 by 40 painting based on the scene. So far it's just color splashed here and there. The image here is the underpainting and original drawing superimposed in photoshop. The original drawing is a little narrower than the canvas I have, but I think it'll actually help the composition! It's a fun way to start a painting and a good way to move forward on it.

painting at the art walk

I was out with Mr. Let's Paint TV for some nighttime street painting at the Art Walk! Here's some video of John in full effect... and here's the painting I did on the corner of 5th and Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles. oil on canvas, 36 by 18

marlboro lights

Here's an especially sloppy painting of a Marlboro ad from 1983. I was particularly into the predominantly cool colors and tried to keep it really messy... it needs a few fixes here and there but it's close to feeling 'done'! oil on canvas, 24 by 36.

Light my Lucky

Here's a Lucky Strike ad from 1985. oil on canvas, 36 by 24

Black Velvet

Here's an ad from 1985. Touchin' Velvet! oh yeah. oil on canvas, 36 by 24