sketchbook- a day of sketching

Early morning ride on the 505 Dundas East street car to the dojo.

 Some post practice sketching at Cafe Uno in the Distillery District.

 I met up with some Toronto Urban Sketchers for some drinks at the Queen and the Duck (or was it platypus?) pub.

… And then for some dinner.

Sketchbook- Dufferin Mall Food Court

I went to the Dufferin Mall after work to do some grocery shopping and a bit of sketching. Death and taxes are the two things that are guaranteed in life. I'd like to add a third. These retired Portuguese men congregated in the food court chewing the fat. They are the new mall rats.

Sketchbook- Bloor Gladstone Library.

Took a sketch break after work today at the Bloor Gladstone Library. I imagined people who study at the library would make good models, but these 4 guys were the most fidgety. Maybe they were uncomfortable from me openly staring at them. I will never know.

Sketchbook-- St. Lawrence Market

Warm up sketches of people around me.

The man in the foreground sat right in front of me while I was sketching the man reading his paper. Serendipity? Anyways, he was a trooper and didn't fidget, look my way or show any thought to me. I'd say he made the perfect model.

Sketchbook, Jet Fuel Cafe revisited.

I had some time today to sketch at the Jet Fuel Cafe. Here's the other sketch I did of Jet Fuel a few months back.

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Sketching at a local coffee shop. I wonder what I look like to these people who I sketch?

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Sketching some people while I wait for my train back to Toronto from Ottawa.

Ferme Mariposa Farm

Jana and I spent four days at Mariposa Farm's guest cabin in the woods. It coincided with new year's and the cold spell that hit most of Ontario.

 

Jana catching some sun and chilling with a book.

 

The warmest spot in the cabin when the wood stove was pumping out heat to its maximum capacity. That's where I sketched Jana reading.

The wood stove was our only heat source as well as our cooking source. Now I know how the Ingalls felt... well, not really.
The first two nights hit -20ºC and Jana was a gamer and would get out of bed to feed the stove in the middle of the night. The third night hit -30ºC and that's when I felt an elbow to the rib cage in the middle of the night...

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I was waiting for for the GO Train at Union station to get to my sister's place on Christmas Day.

Wanda's Pie in the Sky, Kensington Market.

I went to Wanda's Pie in the Sky to pick up a meringue pie for dessert for tomorrow's Christmas dinner with the family. Sat for a bit and sketched. Some call it a cozy space, I call it small. HOwever, it's nice if you like sketching people pretty much face to face. Makes for huge awkward moments.

On a side note, I didn't realized how delicate a meringue is and on my way home with it, some of the meringue oozed out. I had to shovel it back in but I think it's still edible. Merry Christmas.

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I had some time to kill before I had to make an appointment. So an americano and an hour later, I had this sketch of the Jet Fuel cafe on Parliament to show for it.

As my time to leave approached I was sketching quicker and quicker and I really like how loose the lines were coming out. I'll try to duplicate that looseness the next time I sketch anywhere.

Batman and "Robyn"

This is one component of my niece's Christmas present. Her dad has asked me in the past to do a drawing on this theme and I thought it'd be the perfect time to draw it up. It's been a while since i used watercolors and every brush stroke was like walking on a tightrope. But I'm done and I'm quite happy with it, considering the timeframe.

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I started a new sketchbook today and I broke it in with a sketch of people I drew while riding the subway home.

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My first meet up with the group, Sketching Around the City. A group of us went to U of T's Hart House and drew the afternoon away.
I decided to camp out in one of their study halls and caught a group of students and their tutor cover material for a stats course.
The one thought running through my mind was, "thank god i'm no longer a student anymore! "

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Big man, small computer.

I had a bit of time before I met a friend for dinner, which means a bit of sketching at the Bloor Gladstone Library.

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My studio, living room, dining room, lounge, office, entertainment centre among other things.
I'd be interested to see what other studio spaces look like.

The St. Lawrence Market

It's been a while since I've been to the St. Lawrence market, so I thought it'd be a perfect day for it. It was super busy but I managed to find a table in the midst of all the action.
On a side note, the only good thing about smart phones when used in public is the fact that it makes their users planted in one spot, motionless. Recipe for a good model.

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Waiting for my girlfriend in a coffee shop. Thank god for coffee shops.

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Some people go to a bar on a Friday night. I go to the laundry mat. It usually guarantees a few machines. I was hoping there would be at least another person there so I wouldn't just be sketching a long alley of a room. Wish granted. He was deep into a scratch and win lottery game which gave me the perfect distraction for me to sketch him.

Sumo Crazy

Sorry for the lack of updates, but I just finished the Queen West Art Crawl a few weeks back and it's not only until now do I feel well rested, physically and mentally.

Since last year's show, I had promised myself I would start painting sooner for this year's show (i.e. 2013) But I am who I am, so my painting in earnest didn't happen until a few months prior to the show date. I had nothing at that point. Dry. Nothing in the creative well. In fact, I had many false starts. I was trying to paint landscape, urbanscapes, traditional still lifes etc. But nothing. I think I threw out more half-started canvases than I kept. But as fate would have it, the image of a sumo hit me about 6 weeks prior to the show date. It was time to crank these puppies out. Here are the results:

  

Oil on board, 8x10

Oil on board, 8x10

 

Oil on board, 8x10

 acrylic on canvas, 20x24

 acrylic on canvas, 24x30

 acrylic on canvas, 24x30

 acrylic on canvas, 30x36

 acrylic on canvas, 24x24
(my favourite one of the black and white sumo)

 C'est moi.

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Dropped by a local coffee house to do some sketching. I sat next to a gentle who might be a potential "patron". He expressed interested in a pen portrait. Who says sketching in a cafe isn't profitable!

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I stopped by the Bloor Gladstone Library today after work to do some sketching. What isn't captured in this drawing is the guy who was sitting in the seat next to me, humming and swaying to himself.
Some interesting characters can be found here.

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I was craving some pho yesterday and I was in the neighbourhood of Pho Tien Thanh. Some consider the Golden Turtle, which is just on the next block to be the better pho house, but I usually go to this one because it has greater ambiance, as you could see. Who wouldn't want a sleeping employee in the front of house?! (Actually, I think he was the owner.)

By the way, order the no. 24. It's  pho with rare and well done beef with tendon and tripe. Delicious, but they did skimp on the tendon and tripe. Satisfied and feeling jipped all at the same time.

Red Onion

Red Onion. Oil on masonite. 5x7 in.

Blueberries.

5x7ins. Oil on masonite.

Trying something new with this one. I've really admired painters who basically use oils as a thick paste and just smear it onto their painting surface. This was my attempt at that approach. It's not yet at the "thick, spread on the peanut butter" point, but I like my first attempt.

Apricots

5x7 ins. Oil on masonite.

Mango. mango, mango.

I think it's harder for me to paint a small painting like this than a bigger one because there's a finite space to paint within. I tend to over think and go over the same area over and over again.

5x7 in. oil on board

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I was feeling slightly nauseous before I started sketching at the Bloor Gladstone Library after work today and after I finished this spread the nausea disappeared. Something was reaffirmed today: sketching is my meditation.

Avocado

oil, 5x7inc. on masonite board.

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Some more random people on the train and at the mall.

Duck Duck Goose

What should have been a small, quick oil turned out to be a marathon session of a painting that I revisited several times.
I tend to over think these paintings and knit pick a lot.

Ottawa Airport Grounds Crew

 Final painting. Oil on cradle board. 11x17 in.

I took a trip to Halifax, Nova Scotia this summer and there was a stop over in Ottawa. I thought the view out my window would make a perfect painting. Here are two images of works in progress prior to the finalized painitng.

A pig's head thank you...

I thought this would be an appropriate thank you gift for my cousin when I stay at his place for a few days. He follows the Paleo diet, so I thought some a pork image would be right up his alley... Plus, I was born in the year of the pig. Totally unintentional, but I like the multifaceted meaning of this image.