More brush pen drawings

Last winter while I was working on my shader I left my car sitting all alone in subzero temperatures and by the time I remembered I should probably be driving it at least a little it had stopped speaking to me. When my parents came to visit me bearing gifts of chocolate and jumper cables we wound up having to jump-start my car three times before it would hold enough of a charge to start on its own.

After the third time we decided we'd have to take it out on the highway to... well, to do whatever cars do at high speeds to recharge their batteries, I don't know I'm not a car mechanic. Anyway we wound up driving up to Lake Macbride and I got some good practice doing nature sketches with my brush pen.





I disturbed a pair of geese that were trying to nest on the beach. They waded out into the water and floated in place a few yards away as I walked down along the sand.



They spent some time honking huffily at me as I drew them but when they decided I probably wasn't leaving they floated away.



This was apparently just a small part of the lake. Boats kept going by, though I couldn't really see where they were coming from or going to.



When we got back from the lake my car had started starting again, so it turned out to be a pleasant and productive afternoon.

I got a brush pen!

I got a brush pen for Christmas! I've been practicing with it using The Internet because it was too cold to go outside.



I didn't do much location sketching this winter/spring; in addition to it being too cold I have been very busy teaching my computer to use the brush pen as well.



It still has problems with depth sorting, but really, don't we all?

I've got a couple new sketches I'll put up soon. Now that it's summer again I should be sketching more often.

Airports

Airports are airports. Lots of bored people sitting around make for easy drawings.







January, 2011

This update has a lot of cats

Went home for Christmas, spent a couple weeks with my parents and sister baking and chilling with the cats.



There's a birdfeeder on the deck right outside the sliding glass door, so the cats have a good view of all the birds and squirrels that gather there. They'll try to creep up on them, hiding behind the paneling and the blinds, but the squirrels have figured out that the cats can't get to them and completely ignore them.



Sometimes the excitement of being so close to a small furry thing will overwhelm their higher reasoning powers and they will run headlong into the glass door. Then the squirrels point at them and laugh.



Then they get bored and go to sleep in whichever chair they think I'll want to sit in the most.



December 2010

Thanksgiving, part 3

The Sunday after Thanksgiving we were back in Pittsburgh, in a crepes shop in Shadyside.



That is my sister in the foreground, failing to look serious for the drawing.

Then it was time to fly back to Iowa.



With a four-hour layover in Detroit.



November 28, 2010

Thanksgiving, part 2

For Thanksgiving day we drove up to western New York to spend it with my mother's family. Thursday was a mix of food, football, family, and episodes of The Walking Dead. Friday we all drove out to an Irish restaurant for a fish fry.




November 26, 2010

Thanksgiving, part 1

A few days before I fly out to Pittsburgh to spend Thanksgiving week with my family, we were pulled out of a meeting at work so they could tell us the company was closing down and congratulations, we're all fired! I spent the next few days wandering my apartment thinking "The last time I watered this plant, I HAD A JOB", "When I bought this spaghetti, I STILL HAD A JOB" so it was a nice change of pace to go home for a while.

On the Sunday before Thanksgiving we ate brunch at Lidia's in the Strip District, which is a multi-course affair that includes baked goods, an antipasto buffet, a daily selection of pastas, and a dessert buffet.





There is also a bridge outside with globe decorations on its post that make it look like it's staring at you.



The Strip District has a lot of interesting shops in it. You can weave your way on the tiny sidewalks past the Steelers merchandise tables (with the blaring HERE WE GO music and the signs that say YINZERS PAY HERE) to get to all kinds of ethnic markets and food stores.



And I have to say, nothing really cheers you up like you and your sister (quietly) bursting into song to the bemusement of the cashier in the middle of a spice store.

November 21, 2010