Saturday, September 23, 2006



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.

20 comments:

robh said...

dang! those are sweet!

Anonymous said...

wow great work man! I really enojy your traditional art and it's amazing to me to see how you transition to digital is flawless. Thanks for taking time to show these.
- artguff

Mark Behm said...

These are such great studies! I'm surpriesed the ambient light didn't kill your screen.

Anonymous said...

Hey Erik...I really like the blog. Some great work here. I was glad to meet and have lunch with you in Ottawa. Take care, I'll keep checking out your posts for sure!

D. EVANS said...

Just stunning...I'm nearly speechless.

Craig Mackay said...

Georgeous paintings, Erik!

colin said...

Amazing. The way the confident brushwork captures the light reminds me of Craig Mullins' best stuff (or perhaps he reminds me of you!).

ELLA ELVIANA said...

ohmygod, you're such a great artist. i thought those was photos.. amazing. i added your link, hope u don't mind. ^^

DAGGITT said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DAGGITT said...

Hey Erik, I gotta chance to hear a bit of the discussion that was goin on in ottawa couple weeks ago..and i must say it was pretty insightful! im a designer from Ottawa, And it was nice to see someone of your status swing by and chat for a while. VERY COOL!
GORGEOUS WORK by the way

Jim Yang said...

Nice paintings. Never thought the spot near that Burger King could look so nice. *smile*

Sunil Pant said...

so true! Nothing is more fun than drawing from life-be it a figure or a landscape.
The images are awsome considering the fact its all done as a quick sketch.
hope you get to do more of these and hope you dont miss a flight in the process...
best
s

Ulla said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Ulla said...

How are these done on a laptop?

Unknown said...

friggin grrreat!

wirelez said...

wow!! very nice!

Dibumac said...

I simply love the way you take advantage of Painter software. These illustrations are all great !

Anonymous said...

Hey, great work. Working on a laptop outside of the studio is great fun. I often take mine to life drawing classes. Painter9 and the Intous make it easy. Using Scripts, Painter can record the session for later play back, and Iterative Save helps keep the flow going. I find that the canvas becomes very rich by the 3rd or 4th painting since each one is still on the screen as the next begins.

SILVER KNIGHT said...

amazingly beautiful!

Matt Jones said...

Oh man ,incredible sketches. Using a laptop as a sketchbook blows my mind!