Pots

Yesterday, I met an inspiring craftsman and was lucky enough to get to walk through his manufacturing warehouse... he fabricates 100% recycled material precast mouldings/sculptures/pots/benches etc. He uses recycled glass in them(straight from the recycling plant-so they are not separated by color- when you look close -the browns, greens and blues are like gemstones) His products are beautiful and can be customized. This excursion got me thinking...

....Pots! The house is mediterranean in style. Here's my sketchbook today. These are just some visual ideas from his shop, books in my library, and pictures from my trip to the Amalfi coast in Italy a few years back. Some pots were water vessels or olive oil containers...

It's amazing how the pottery styles from Pompeii are still very popular today.

oh gosh.... Makes me want to get back to Italy SOON!

LAYOUTS

Not technically hand drawn sketches but definitely artwork that I create for announcements, etc. I think this "fun" work keeps me tuned for presentation graphics. Not that I'd have cowboys (well wait, one client I have definitely would like to see cowboys on his drawings) but skeletons and pink poodles-maybe not.
The western bunco was my bunco night announcement last year and the PINK one, I just finished yesterday for this years. I drew the poodle-but have to admit, used alot of image references from the web. Not original by any means.
And the skeleton was an awesome invite I worked on for a neighbor. The skeleton with falling hands was a beautiful drawing we found online by an artist named Matt Furie. Not a huge fan of his other artwork at all-this one is so different from his other stuff..and perfectly aligned with my neighbors style/theme/etc for their Halloween party.

Process

Here's a process shot of black and white to color rendering. I usually print two to 3 copies to color so if I screw up, I have another to color... one is always for test colors, shading, highlight technique tests. It reminds me of playing with a coloring book when you were a kid. So when I outline the drawing, I think about what lines do I actually have to draw.. and I'm learning that so much can be eluded to with color and not everything needs an outline.

Have to thank Bob Benson, Mimi LaPlant and Cindy Hooper for really my basic art education at College of the Redwoods. Moore was just alot of practice for me and pushed me into different medias like etchings, and print-making. But College of the Redwoods was where I fell into love with art. I fell.. I always liked drawing but there, something clicked on, like a light switch!

Random past sketches

This was a random idea I thought might be good for a magazine or something, but never sent it out for publishing or anything... just drew up a sheet about a fun activity I did with my own daughter; once spring time hits, it's fun to get your hands dirty outside! I did the drawings/layout/etc.

Another card-this one for my best friend who was having a baby-notice I used the cherry blossom theme again-a definite trend in my life at this moment. Sidenote-I miss the plum tree outside my apartment in San Luis Obispo! I suppose I could plant one at my house, but being that it's not a native tree, ,my neighbors would frown to see one. Hmmm perhaps I could hide one... :)

I often draw up my own cards for different occasions...here's my thank you cards for my daughter's baby shower... theme: a cherry/plum blossom-my favorite flowering tree.

Just some of the past year's sketches for projects

So this is not the prettiest of sketches (or the most exciting), but this is what I've been working on lately- an as-built plan for a residence I consulted on. They've built most of it and are pouring the concrete as I write, but as usual, the plans change as the contractor starts to build. This is always good for practicing surveying/dimensioning plans.