Old California

Today I saw an oil tanker leaving the bay, riding up high and showing the rust red of the hull. The journey back to exotic lands. I'm interested in pushing the range of green grays, like in the clouds while introducing hints of the ship colors too.

This is a gouache sketch of mountian tops above Lake Como I made earlier this year. It started to rain a bit so I had to work fast before the raindrops did their damage.

A study of the seashore with the last touch of sunlight on the clouds and sailing ships.

I recently saw a Claude Lorrain (b.1600) drawing and painting exhibit at the San Francisco Legion of Honor museum. Beautiful, glowing ink washes of tree groves are my favorites. He also did a series of invented seaports. Some of the tonal wash drawings displayed churned up seas under the wrath of a stormy sky. Lorrain was a big influence on Turner. The digital sketch here, in progress is exploring high contrast, sunset lighting against a moody mid-ground. I hope to have a bit more free time to refine this concept more.

http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/claude_lorrain.html (links to Lorrain images) Check out the British Museum link. They loaned their work out of drawings to the SF show.

Last weekend I sketched a scene in watercolor and gouache on coldpress watercolor paper. The view looking out over the Richardson Bay, part of the San Francisco Bay is always interesting from this elevation. It was amazing as the Blue Angels were flying by for Fleet Week while I was painting. My mind was contemplating the slow moving watercolor washes while the hum of loop to loops danced above me. I of course dropped everything to climb up a park slide ladder to get a better view of the jets. Sort of distracting for painting, but darn entertaining. The hills of Sonoma dissolving in the far distance had a pink grey quality to it, which I used to unify the piece. The size was just under 12x18 inches. About two hours was the time line in creating the image - then things were getting a bit dark as the sun was sinking behind the hills.

P.S. Thanks to everyone for their thoughtful feedback on previous posts for this blog. I will try and keep it going with more sketches now and then.

- Erik

I just got back from attending a panel discussion about art direction in Ottawa, Canada. My flight back home got cancelled and I rebooked a ticket stop over to Vancouver BC rather than Chicago. I had some time to burn, so I did a couple of laptop sketches from life. It was interesting, in that I have never sketched in public on a laptop from life. Nobody bothered me as they were all rushing here and there. I had so much fun I almost missed my plane! There are so many lighitng temperatures to deal with, skylights, large windows, glowing signs, awful sodium lights, etc.... this makes for some interesting color shifts.

Figure study in browns

Italian or Spanish head from imagination. I am thinking about Sorolla or Sargent in some dark living room painting in the 1880's. Let there be some kind of time travel!

Brick Pink Windmill

Friesian Storm

Study in Greens and Yellows

Summer Interlude

I love the paintings from the Barbizon school, just south of Paris from the mid 1800's. The romantic period would really push contrasts with the skies and patches of land.

The Lone Windmill - A tribute to my dutch grandmother (Beppe) who just passed away at 92.

I want to share loose sketch ideas that focus on atmosphere and color. I have a background in concept art and traditional painting. I helped art direct the last two Star Wars movies and have work featured in a couple of "The Art of" books. I work with a Wacom intus tablet and use Painter 9 software. In my spare time I love sketching and painting out doors.

- Thanks for checking out the sketches, I will try to post one a week if possible or more. - Erik

The Oaks