Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
On Sunday, I tried my hand at figure drawing for the first time since 1995. A friend has been hosting a semi-regular live drawing session at his place with several of my favorite LA artists. It was a privilege to be invited, and a chance to get my drawing muscles back in shape. Couldn't pass that up, even in the rain. We had an incredible model who gave us dynamic poses and exuded CALM, which was perfect for all the internal stressing out I was doing about making the most of this opportunity. Working with so many talented artists makes it hard to think about creating my own art again. Seems odd, but that's the way my brain works. I'm inspired on an almost daily basis to do it, but the doing part is hard sometimes. This session was structured perfectly. We started with five minute gestural poses, 10 minutes, and then graduated on to 20 minute poses that let us spend more time with our work. It couldn't have been better. I was working in charcoal to keep things loose and it worked. I tried switching to pastel at the last minute, but decided against it. It was hard to switch to a harder pigment, especially when I had finally, after almost two hours, finally reached a point where my hand was continually moving on the paper. This whole experience was more proof that it is vitally important to return to the passions that you may have put up on a tall shelf and forgotten. There are so many experiences that pass through our lives, and there's no reason that we can't find them again and discover that they're still a part of who we are.
Continue reading
Some pics from their rainy close on Saturday. They had a line that kept on going past 12 noon. It's been a great run, over 30 years in business and who knows Tokyo 7-7 might pop up again sometime soon. I hear their place and the next door Mexican restaurant are going to be sold, probably redone and turned into a…. bar. People will miss the place where you can get breakfast for under $3!
Continue reading
I think that would be the best photo of a meteor falling from space. Actually compared to the last time I tried shooting them, this was a huge success. I actually caught some bright ones. It was a cold night up the 5 freeway at around 4000 feet up. We didn't get to Mt Pinos, which is 8000 feet up. I'll have to try that, the time time. There was some wind, but overall it was just freezing cold. Of course I used a tripod, and long exposures on the camera. Usually it was 25 seconds and all the way open at 3200. The meteors originate near the Gemini stars, and it wasn't hard to figure out where that was. I've read that this was one of the best examples of meteor showers in a while, and it was pretty good. I'm partial to the Perseids in the summer. Here's my blog from that outing. See the meteor near the top middle? Part of shooting these meteors is getting a frame of reference. Mountain, trees etc, without them, it's just a random photo of stars.
Continue reading
Great works and tons of it. Get yours at Giant Robot! Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.
Continue reading