More fishcake!
Worked on a few more little paintings. There's also something strange happening with another set of these boards. I'm not happy with how that set is turning out, so no photos yet. More to come soon.
Labels: art, dogdogdog, dogs, doodle, drawings, fishcake, illustrations, one-a-day, painting

:: ewee 11:06:00 AM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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:: Friday, September 25, 2009 ::

painting: in progress

Labels: drawings, illustrations, oil painting, one-a-day, painting

:: ewee 4:31:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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:: Thursday, March 19, 2009 ::

painting chaos
the corner of this painting is the only bit i really like so far. the lines on the chocolatey brown makes me feel somehow cosy and warm.

the first layer of painting was an abstract i did in my city college painting class. i'm not much good with abstraction, so it didn't go anywhere. from time to time i put paint (and other bits) on this canvas. it's becoming quite the jumble. but when i draw that way, sometimes it works out. we'll see if it works out here. i'm also forcing myself to work much larger (total canvas size: 4ft-square).

the sketch is from my late-night ride home on bart last night. everyone looked so tired. or mebbe it was just me at the end of a very long day...
Labels: art, dogs, doodle, oil painting, one-a-day, painting, sketches

:: ewee 12:47:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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:: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 ::

sketchy: kehoe (day 14, bit late)
been fending off a touch of a cold/flu and doing my best to get work done through it. so i've a bit outta commission the last three days.

haven't been keeping up on my drawings either, so here's a painting from a city college class ages ago. interesting how i've been painting for most of my life, but there's still so much for me to learn. this bit was when color changed for me completely--before then, i thought of naples yellow as wimpy, and had no idea that prussian blue could be anything other than domineering and overpowering.

lately, i've been churning and not very happy with my paintings. i'd like to get them to a point where i can post them here, but i'm a bit stuck. mebbe the sketches will loosen something up. the more i think about it, the more i think it might be time that i go back to that tedious exercise and make a grid of all the combinations available to me in my palette.

also, i'm itching to get some sketches of the buildings around us from the empty offices in our suite. ('course i think of this right before they're gonna fill them with people...ain't that the way it goes?) hopefully i'll have some to post soon, and will catch up as well.

[just noticed! this is my 900th post...might be inaccurate due to the saved drafts i have lingering, but still! woohoo!]
Labels: art, doodle, oil painting, one-a-day, painting, sketches

:: ewee 12:35:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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:: Wednesday, March 04, 2009 ::

sketchy: love and wishes (day 10)
finished this bit of tape fun late last night. it was pretty challenging to draw something interesting (and legible!) in the narrow bits. not sure it's the most successful experiment, but it was a good exercise.

deets within:

love these wishbones (yes, they're from various dinners...nom nom nom, and yes, i collect odd bits--bones, bugs, and other detritus).

another love--odd little rocks with weathered pockets. i've gotta few that i've started to use as inkwells. next time i'm at the beach, i'll have to pocket a few more...

wild iris seed pods from our front yard. i've mentioned how much i love my home/yard, right?

yep, more oaktown love--oakland harbor and alameda--mainly based on sketches from the oakland/alameda/sf ferry.

random faces and such (was a bit tired and free-doodling).

narrow little slice/view of from my studio of our yard and beyond: neighbor's weathervane (reimagined), lemon tree, flowers in bloom, and toki.

funny how home and such have made such an impact on me. it's been over a year, and i still have a touch of awe when i take it all in. it's hard to imagine loving a place more. and yet, it's just a thing, a collection of objects, a fleeting bit of dirt. but i do love it--something inside me exhales a bit, as this place gets deeper and deeper under my skin.
Labels: art, doodle, one-a-day, painting, sketches

:: ewee 11:34:00 AM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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:: Tuesday, March 03, 2009 ::

day 9: 03/03/09! (happy square root day!)
fishcake: oaklandish, indeed--fishcake board painting in progress. i've got a buncha these in the works, but this is the only one i'm happy with right now...

liking the effects of white ink, and i can't seem to get over the cranes. they're huge robotic horses. or something. but i love them.
Labels: art, doodle, one-a-day, painting, sketches

:: ewee 1:25:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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:: Monday, March 02, 2009 ::

sketches: ink in progress (day 8)
the top photo is a more recent shot of the layout i started ages ago. thinking about home and past (the boxes are meant to be snapshots and are based on real photos of me and my fam).

the second photo is of its beginnings. i spent the better part of the 24hour comics day on this and the fishcake painting (also pictured).

have i mentioned how slowly everything seems to come together these days? but i am loving all the tinkering and putzing that i can put into even the smallest of details. it's likely that at least part of it is a result of living with glaucoma. the slightest bleariness can send me in a panic (hello, i'm generally under-rested!).

the two closeups below are of the very grand, very fabulous grand lake theater and the oakland harbor (i <3 !!! those cranes...)

Labels: art, doodle, one-a-day, painting, sketches

:: ewee 3:39:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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sketches: ink in progress (day 7, a bit late...)
bit of sketching from this weekend. didn't get in as much time for drawing this weekend (gladly cuz there was too much fun to be had...). but i did get started on this bit, and am hoping to finish it tonight. i'm playing with the removable white tape to make a sketch in between the lines, so to speak.

it's a little frustrating to me how slow everything feels--paintings and drawings take me so much longer than i imagine they will. and i'm suddenly a bit wrapped up in tiny tiny drawings. to prove that my eyes are still able to work that small? dunno.
Labels: art, doodle, one-a-day, painting, sketches

:: ewee 2:45:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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:: Saturday, February 28, 2009 ::

sketchy, day 6: that sinking feeling
most of my sketches seem to be either from real life or completely from inside my head. there's an emotional component no matter what it is, but this sketch was an attempt to capture a feeling, while also drawing from the landscape around me. i guess i'm working on tightening up and improving the way in which i draw, while also thinking about what it is i'd like to say with my drawings. so much of it still feels unconscious. reminds me of that ani song:
Art is why I get up in the morning; my definition ends there.
You know it doesn't seem fair,
That I'm living for something I can't even define.
- From Out of Habit, Ani DiFranco
more and more, i'd like my sketches and observations to become the basis for paintings. but my paintings are so slow, i wonder if i'll ever get anywhere with them.

the sketch below is of kehoe waiting for christmas (she loves presents).

Labels: art, doodle, one-a-day, painting, sketches

:: ewee 2:40:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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:: Friday, February 27, 2009 ::

sketches: gassy dog
going back to some older sketches to finish the workweek...this started as a kehoe sketch (i think), and became a kehoe-toki morph. it was prolly inspired by our amazingly gassy dogs (you'd think they'd show discomfort with the noxious fumes they emit). for awhile, i had a series of superheroes that were powered by (natural) gas. they're hilarious enough to me that it's likely they'll reappear in my doodles. the left page was filled with sketches of ppl i saw from the rnc (on tv), including the very few poc's we spotted. the same part of my brain that likes the bangoo jokes, also enjoys the thought of our dogs releasing their gases toward the rnc...

in the two below, i used removable white tape to block out parts of the drawing, and then went back in between the lines (as it were), and under the torn half of the page.

Labels: art, dogs, doodle, one-a-day, painting, sketches

:: ewee 9:27:00 AM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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:: Thursday, February 26, 2009 ::

Scribblings: day 4
tiny bit of scribblings. white tape makes for nice clean lines in between scribblings. other bits are inspired by a bit of stumbling around flickr--love the idea of the describbles flickr group.
Labels: art, doodle, one-a-day, painting, sketches

:: ewee 9:00:00 AM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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:: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 ::

Doodle dogly
Well, not the most spectacular or unique of doodles--sketching the dogs as I sit brainlessly on the couch after a long day is a fairly common occurrence. (I do wonder, sometimes, how many dog doodles I have...)

It's been interesting to see how my training is intersecting with the rest of my life. There's something about art (and martial arts, paddling, etc.) that keeps me focussed on the here and now.

Some of that focus occurs when I'm truly able to see--usually when I'm drawing or painting from real life. But some of it happens when I'm mindlessly doodling, or working on shape/form/color in painting. In some ways they're very different processes. But in both cases, when I look at what I've made, I can remember vividly all the feelings, sights, and sounds associated with the moments spent creating.

Not sure why it is that certain types of focus allow me to take in everything. But it's definitely the main reason for my constant doodling. There's something in it that brings me ease. The more I can access that, the less my work tends to suck, and the calmer I can be. And making shtick that doesn't suck (be it a painting, a website, or a crazy office supply doodle) is the whole point, ain't it? (The calmness is an added bonus.)

This one-a-day exercise has been fun so far (only three days) and has generated some ideas of what I'd like to do next. I'm going to load up with some photos of ongoing paintings and my tons of old sketches to keep the momentum going. I'm curious to see where it goes...
Labels: art, dogs, doodle, one-a-day, painting, sketches

:: ewee 8:08:00 AM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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:: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 ::

Sketchy
Doodlings on butterflied envelope.

This'll likely get swallowed up/pasted onto some other drawing or painting, but here it is in its current incarnation. My color palette is a bit limited at work (color pencils, ballpoint pens, highlighters, stamps), but I'm kinda liking the randomness of it all.

The clown face is likely a holdover from the tshirt I've been working on that's been stalled by the economy. The rest of it is a product of the grinding down of a deadly dull job, plus the honing to a fine point by the anxiety of impending economic disaster. But I know, I'm one of the lucky ones. So I'm not complaining. Just frantically doodling my anxieties onto paper.
Labels: art, doodle, one-a-day, painting, sketches

:: ewee 4:30:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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:: Monday, February 23, 2009 ::

sketches
Seems like a reasonable thing to do, a sketch a day... but knowing me, I'll need to have a few extra to cover a few days here and there. So, here's two to start.

The first one is a frantic bit of work doodles (the post-its are from the interminable bits of time I spend waiting for my computer to finish chewing on something, or the times I'm stuck on the phone with some insincere lout) and a little bit of inspiration from some sketchbooks and the like on flickr.

The second is a few wild iris seed pods from last year. This year, I figured it out in time to collect the seeds, and I'm hoping to plant some in the backyard. Native, drought-resistant, but will it be Toki resistant? Only time will tell...
Labels: art, doodle, one-a-day, painting, sketches

:: ewee 11:28:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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:: Sunday, December 28, 2008 ::

day 3: grendel's den, boston, cambridge
days 4, 5: superfine, brunch, museum...

[been remiss in posting...going back and getting caught up before 2009 (!!!) catches up to me.]

turkey-day seems so long ago now. but it was a good whirlwind trip with good family/friends time. cwee's life seems lovely, if busy. and her home was so dang cute--cobblestones, new england, all that. nyc was cold (made me appreciate sunny california...), but filled with good new york adventures and good times with kelllllly o, sy's sis, and even a quick visit with miz ss. it was the first vacation for miz shiny-eye and myself in a while, so it was good to get away. even the long flights were great--i hadn't had that much time to myself in ages (sad, i know).
Labels: art, boston, doodle, nyc, painting, travel, turkey 2008

:: ewee 10:08:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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:: Thursday, November 27, 2008 ::

Day two: Walkies and turkey
Lazy day. missing the dogs, but enjoying the brisk new england weather (even the smell is different), and HUGE spread all done by cwee.
Labels: boston, doodle, painting, travel, turkey 2008

:: ewee 8:49:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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:: Wednesday, November 26, 2008 ::

Day one: travel
long, but oddly calm (well, considering that it's me), day of travel. missing the pups, but nice to get away and see the weetheim historic cobblestoney home (it's seriously like 200 years old!).

got to watch wall-e on the plane (need to add to the collection--next to lilo and stitch and wallace and grommit), got a little work done, drew a little and even slept (for like 30 min!).

tomorrow: turkey. woohoo!
Labels: boston, doodle, painting, travel, turkey 2008

:: ewee 11:14:00 PM [+] :: 0 comments ::
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