People of Starbucks

Continuing on what will likely be a short lived drawing tour of DC (due to the absurd heat. I am NOT leaving this house...) I hung out with Daphne at a Starbucks and did some drawing. People at Starbucks look so bored. Why so sad coffee person?

Who knew there were such interesting architectual elements to a Starbucks...

The following are paintings from Tuesday. These are based off photographs by Lan Nguyen (used with her permission.) Just some quick watercolors, testing some ideas.

And here are the originals! The tea kettle and cups stood out in particular to me. Plus there is just some fun framing going on with the edges.

I'm a sucker for the macro shots where one thing is in focus and everything else is blurry. This visual obviously played out much better as a photo than a watercolor. Thanks again to Lan for letting me use some of her photos, I may do so again in the future. 

Tears

For a photography class when I was in China, I did a series of photos of a friend who turned out to be an awesome model. Among other things she randomly threw herself down onto the bed in the room and burst into fake tears. Drama queen? Yeah probably, but it was easily the best photo. I'm thinking about recreating it as a painting, but here's a preliminary sketch as well as a few other things.

Volcanos and Tornadoes

The worst kept secret of all artists (painters, illustrators, writers, etc) is that misery is your greatest muse. I am always sad to see the destruction caused by nature. Today's muse was the tornadoes in Joplin, MO and the Puyehue Volcano currently erupting in Chile.

Watercolor and conte

 

First part to an experiment with paper cutting and layering. This is the bottom layer:

Charcoal, conte crayon and chalk pastels

This is the top piece:

And here it is all together

And now for the Piyehue Volcano. If you think I'm exaggerating this madness, check out these photos:
Chile's Puyehue Volcano Erupts

 Charcoal, Conte Crayon, Chalk Pastel

Back to the drawing board

Hooray! Returning to making art today and clearly trying to make up for the last few days of missed creativity.
I also have my new drafting table set up! Bought it off of a friend who is moving and needed to get rid of stuff. Best. Purchase. Ever.

Today's inspiration was my trip to Costa Rica back in March. Some of the amazing things I saw.

One small detail.

I have another drawing I completed but it is a sketch for a more detailed drawing I want to do as a gift for someone. So not gonna show it for now.

Chihulyisms

Today's sketch brought to you by the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, which currently has a beautiful Chihuly exhibit which I'm probably going to walk through a 2nd time.

 

The little flower was pressed from the arboretum I visited the next day.

 

And just for fun here's a few more from the exhibit