Lights, Cameras, and Sketchbooks. At Staples.

I had about 30 minutes yesterday to sketch something. So I parked behind Staples, it was the first place I saw. The sun was going down. I knew from last time I was around here at the same time that the lighting changes completely within minutes. So I took these two pictures to share on here (I didn't use any of these for the sketch though). 

I took this right before I started sketching. I noticed everything but the sky (and that tiny light) was like a giant dark mass.

I took this one right before I left. Everything had shifted.
Now the sky, ground and buildings had all gone dark together. While that light in the foreground kept appearing lighter and lighter. 

So basically the whole thing had shifted from light in the background, to light in the foreground within 30 minutes.

 In my sketch I tried to meet right in the middle. That weird moment with the last of the sunlight fading, and the power of artificial lights taking over. In the 30 minutes I had, I think I spent about 25 on the pencil drawing. By the time I was finished with that I could hardly see anything. Both inside my car and outside. And I had to go. Next time I'll try to get the drawing done early so I can focus on everything else while it happens.

Clutter and Christmas Sketch

Yesterday I sat down for a while with a ballpoint pen and sketched a corner of my house. I thought about straightening up the area to make a cleaner picture, but decided against it.

I like doing these kinds of sketches of random scenes from everyday life. In a few years when I look at it again, it will seem strange that it was ever real. This sketch will prove that it was and I'll remember it much better than if I had just taken a photo. And all the seemingly insignificant memories of what was going on at the time will return a whole lot more significant.

White Whale Process Video

I always like seeing how other people go about painting and what their process is. No matter what level they're at, it's still interesting. Paying attention to and documenting the process behind a painting helps me remember what to do or what I should never do again. 

Instead of posting a bunch of pictures and talking about them, I just made this little slideshow of some earlier sketches and process shots. There's some music I wrote in the background too.

White Whale Oil Painting

I was commissioned to paint this in oil after I painted almost the same thing digitally a few months ago. I just finished this one a few days ago.

The Oil Painting 16 x 20 in.

The oil painting took about 75 hours, and the digital one took about 5. It really is more rewarding in traditional paints though, at least to me. I'll try to do a post on the process of it soon if I can.