Drawing Club Egon Schiele Part 1

Last week for the drawing club, the theme was Egon Schiele. So, the model was dressed and looked much like a woman out of an Egon Schiele painting. I happen to love Schiele's work, so this was a real treat. I pushed myself to try and pull away from too much conscious thought while drawing, by doing about 3 sketches for each pose instead of one. This feels a bit more like where I want to go. You can see what some of the other artists at the session did here.

Painted Alice

I went to see my friend Rashmi in her theatre group's production of Painted Alice by William Donnelly. It was a lot of fun, particularly once the story took us to wonderland and all the crazy inhabitants therein. Here are some sketches.
You can still check it out through Oct. 13th (Friday, Saturday at 8pm, Sundays at 2pm) at Elephant Stageworks, 6322 Santa Monica Blvd, Hollywood, CA 90038.

Puddles of Fun

I went to the Walk for Hope in Long Beach, put together by many very hard working volunteers for Be the Cause over the weekend. Mostly I read quotes that had been beautifully illustrated and setup all along the route, walked and talked, but

once I reached the end, I managed a few photos. It's great to take some time and spend it meeting new people who are all making an effort toward positive change in the world. Thanks to Kristeen for telling me about it! Also thanks to Mark Culuris for telling me about the amazing work that he and others are doing to support AIDS orphans in South Africa through Seeds of Light.

Drawing Club Arabian Nights



The theme for the drawing club this week was Arabian Nights. Three hours of focused drawings with an amazing model. What more could I ask for? He's so good at playing rogues. I've drawn him as a gangster several times. I used pencils on a number of these as well as ink and watercolor. I'm trying to loosen up the proportions and expressions, hoping to capture that much more. As always, criticisms and suggestions are more than welcome and appreciated! See some of my fellow artists' work from this session here.

Culver City Photo Walk




Took a walk to force myself to stop working on my short for a bit. Walked down the street, took some photos, fell over on the sidewalk by the bridge somehow and watched my wide angle jump into the street. Well, it's a wide street..it is Culver City after all, so I took it and these, and these.

Drawing Club Princess



Went over to Bob Kato's Drawing Club. Now that I'm done with my work project, I'm taking time to focus on my own. I really have to keep up with the drawing, so I went to the Drawing Club class. I always loved Bob's class at Disney, and now that I have time I can make it to these sessions. So here's a batch from my first 3 hr session at the club. Some experimentation in terms of size and style. That first one is the last one I drew and the largest of the session. It took about half an hour at a relaxed pace, and was painted straight watercolors, with no pencils (which is how I paint most of my stuff). I used green, gold and black ink on a few and pencils first on two sketches. I think the green one is the most successful of the more exaggerated ones. This was a really fun session. Check out some of the other artist's work here.

Downtown LA Wide Angle and Night Time Photos



While in downtown, I took some more photos before and after the Kiran Ahluwalia concert (sketches to follow). This time I played around with a little wide angle lens, which really helped me get more interesting compositions of the buildings around me. The night time photos are still pretty dark, and I'm not too into the way the lights flare. I'm amazed at the large number of photos taken to glean even this small number I've uploaded. As always, there's more here.

Downtown LA Night Time Photos




After picking up a small, flexible tripod, I went downtown with my brother, Waqas and did some night time photography. Finally, I was able to take some clear photos at night. I do find it a bit limiting to use a tripod in terms of creating a composition, but I suppose I'll learn. So far I'm staying away from post work, but I might have to start combining multiple exposures to get more detail in dark areas. I may have to choose manual ISO settings to see if I can get a less grainy image. All in all though, the tripod definitely makes photography much more possible at night.

Blu Soul at the Good Hurt

I went to see my friend Shalini perform with her amazing band called Blu Soul at a little club just down the street from me called Club Good Hurt. I really wanted to do a better job of sketching them than last time. When people ask why I always do this, just look at those sketches from a year ago, then look at these. So, I'm glad to see that I have gotten better, but there's still so far to go.
I even managed a few sketches of a great band which I think is called Throw Away Gun who played after them. I look forward to the day when I can spend more time on paintings and not just quick sketches!

What? That's not a sketch...






...yeah I know. I want to work on my photography skills too. I bought a video camera as well as a new still camera, so I really want to get the hang of them. So, to that end, here are some attempts. Thanks to my talented pal Chris for some tips, and hangin' out at the Arboretum with me a couple weeks ago, and my friend Ammar for introducing me to his funky claw tripod months ago. After struggling to get that last shot without using a flash (my hands just aren't still enough for long exposures, so I finally rested it against a pole), I picked up that a funky claw tripod (not the actual name) up today for future use. As usual, feedback, tips appreciated and feel free to join on the next adventure! There's more on my flickr page.