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SketchCrawl #20

Saturday October 25th was SketchCrawl #20, I decided to stay local a few days prior to the big event.

Since I was staying local I figured it would be a great time for my little dog to spend extra time outside, and perhaps sketch a few things that have caught my attention when I take him for a walk.

I used a micron pen for the first sketch, it is always a little ‘scary’ using a pen because you cannot erase if you make a mistake. I figure by using a pen I would force myself to just sketch and not pay attention to perfection.

After the sketch was completed, i figured I should also add color, I was also curious to see how this sketchbook would handle water. Below is the result.

 

Where shall we go next?

 

The second sketch I did was that of an oak tree, but I didnt finish because my little dog was just too impatient, hehe his idea of going out was not one of staying in only one place.

Below are links of some of the materials i used, my portable watercolor (student grade) is a different model.

I buy most of my materials at Blick.

micron pen

Winsor & Newton Cotman Watercolors

Niji waterpen (love these)

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Thanks to Life – Gracias a la Vida

Thanks to life for giving us so much… opportunities, challenges, experiences both good and bad…

Sometimes we are too busy with everyday worries, we miss the beauty around us, the joy of being alive, to enjoy life at its most simple form, to simply be aware of the miracle of our existence.

Today I thank life, for what I have and for that which I don’t, for the happy moments and the sad ones too, for the past opportunities as well as those yet to come.

May we all find joy and happiness in our life today and every other day.

I hope you enjoy this song, it seems the person who uploaded the song, also translated the lyrics in English/Portuguese (at the actual youtube page).

source link: Mercedes Sosa – Gracias a La Vida

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Pacific Coast Air Museum

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to drive by the Pacific Coast Air Museum located by the Santa Rosa Airport, I have been meaning to go there for a while to sketch some of the planes. I figure I would take a couple of pictures so you can see a few of the planes they have there.

I also just found out that this weekend October 18th and October 19th is their Top Gun Weekend, they are going to allow visitors to sit in the cockpit of these planes F-14A Tomcat, F-16N Viper and F-5E Tiger II, now how cool is that.

I hope I can make it to this weekend’s event, most likely I wont time to sketch.. perhaps one of these days we can do a mini SketchCrawl there, so if you live in Sonoma County, Marin County or surrounding areas and want to set a date/time for some Saturday please let me know.

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Getting ready for Sketchcrawl

For the past month or so, I have spent my evening/night time dealing with website duties,  so I have hardly dedicated any time to sketching.

A couple of weeks ago I found myself in front of some trees with no materials and an urge to sketch them. I had read a couple of days prior to that day of a technique for drawing/sketching trees, so I decided to give it a try.

I don’t remember the name of the book but it was mentioning that one should first use dots or little lines to define the outline and work our way into the tree, by drawing more and more lines. Not having had the time to take any art courses (last class I took was back in High School days), I was eager to give this a try.

The image below is the result… I also sketched the trunk of a pine tree, at the beginning it appeared to be a difficult task but as I continued it seemed to take shape and now when I look at the sketch It seems I was able to capture what I was looking at (definitely an improvement I think).

Materials: regular ball point pen and the back/inside of a mailing envelope. (I will scan this later, here is a picture in the mean time).

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Il Postino – Movie

Greetings  to all of you!

A couple of days ago I finally had the opportunity to watch Il Postino, it had been on my Netflix queue for a while and having recently enabled one movie in my profile, it arrived. All this time I was thinking this movie was more about romance and love… I was pleasantly surprised to discover it was also about the discovery of oneself, our potential and a greater appreciation to that which surrounds us.

I came to appreciate the movie even more as I got to watch the movie again while lisening to the audio commentary with Director Michael Radford, and found out that Massimo Troisi who played Mario Ruoppolo died sometime after the shooting of the movie ended.

What an amazing story, not just the movie itself but the journey that Massimo Troisi choose to have this picture made.  Massimo Troisi came across the Italian version of this story and identified with the postman (Mario Ruoppolo), purchased the rights from writer Antonio Skarmeta, and kept calling Director Michael Radford every couple of months to direct this movie, eventually Director Michael Radford agreed.

During the shooting of the movie, Massimo was notified he needed a heart operation and he postponed it so they could continue to work on the film, unfortunately he died right after the movie was completed. What a brave individual, to accomplish his dream until the very last minute.

There are many sites that go in detail about describing the movie, I suggest that if you are curious you just rent it or purchase it and enjoy it without a preconceived idea.

Here is what in my humble opinion would be the equivalent of trying to explain the movie to you, in the movie the character Mario asks Pablo Neruda if he can explain why “the smell of barber shops makes me sob?” The character Pablo Neruda responds (This is mainly the English subtitle translation and a few words of mine – I am able to understand some Italian words as they are similar sounding to Spanish words).

“You see Mario i cannot tell you in words different from those that I have used, when you explain poetry it becomes banal… better than any explanation is the direct experience of emotions that poetry can reveal to a mind predisposed to understand it.”

Il Postino was loosely based on a book called “Ardiente Paciencia” written by Chilean Antonio Skarmeta.

And it was at that age … Poetry arrived
in search of me. I don’t know, I don’t know where
it came from, from winter or a river.
I don’t know how or when,
no, they were not voices, they were not
words, nor silence,
but from a street I was summoned,
from the branches of night,
abruptly from the others,
among violent fires
or returning alone,
there I was without a face
and it touched me.

-Pablo Neruda

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