Lyon Hotel

In Lyon, our home base was the Royal Hotel. The artist, Jean-Christophe Defline and his wife Valerie were stationed there too. Yun and Valerie toured the city. The husbands created lots of drawings over the week and galavanted with some slightly undersirable artist types. Defline and I have a posse who endlessly consume every culinary extravagance the city has to offer, washed down with a bottomless river of the best french wines. I’m Mr. salad and Perrier. Somehow they weren’t embarrassed by my presence. Maybe it was my red beret and fake glue-on Monet beard. Let me fill you in on one of my drawing tricks on the road. I sketch the hotel I’m staying at, or the view out the window, or a building on the block. This way I can draw a little bit at a time over the course of a few days without having to wander far. The mornings are perfect because no one is around except my wife filming me for 2 minutes. In the end, I have a great drawing that I was able to put quite a few hours of work into.

Lyon Corner

Sometimes in Lyon, I didn’t draw the same thing that my cohorts did. They plowed into dramatic panaromics which I knew I didn’t have enough time to deliver in my style. Everyone’s facing the same direction except for moi. Street corners became my saving grace. I can pound one out in a decent amount of time. The roofs are exotic to my used-to-american-architecture eyes. I gave personality to the tiles, chimneys, and antennas. The solo cloud helped make my sketch interesting.

Lyon, France

The first morning in Lyon, my friend Jean-Christophe Defline and I went to Place des Terreaux to draw the Fontaine Bartholdi. It was pretty empty except for the artist, super touffe. He’s a guy who live streams himself while he sketches. He’s got cameras around his neck that are filming, microphones, ear buds in, sketchbook in hand, pens, and watercolors. He’s a one man documentary crew. Very quickly we were involved with him and he was live streaming us as we drew. It’s surrel to be interviewed and filmed while trying to draw this very elobarate fountain. I had to multi-task. It was fun though because he’s a hilariously creative dude. It’s impossible to say no to Super Touffe. I did manage a good drawing in the short amount of time we were there.

Lyon

I just spent 5 days in Lyon at the gathering of the French Urban Sketchers which included some of Europe’s best illustrators. The streets were filled with talent. I felt on display as I drew. I was always surrounded by fellow sketchers checking out everything each of us were doing. There was a constant parade of curious onlookers observing over our shoulders. It was quite enjoyable and slightly nerve-racking too. I managed some great drawings and videos which I’ll be posting in the coming weeks.

Deer Toys

Sometimes you get a very simple salad. Iceberg lettuce, sliced tomato, and a perfect vinaigrette. Other times, you’re served a mountain of ingredients. Carrots, onions, garbanzo beans, cucumbers, crutons, 6 kinds of lettuce, beets, artichokes, olives, walnuts, and on and on. This is a good analogy to explain the drawing you’re looking at. My friends and I each drew the same gazelle at the Natural History Museum and each of us walked away with a simple salad. But I went home and added all kinds of extra ingredients because I’m trying to overcompensate for some kind of inner feeling of mediocracy. So I end up with this enourmous salad. It’s family style, so help yourself.

Juicy Fruit

Before I get back from Europe and have a chance to scan my new drawings, I’ll be posting a few I did this winter in the Natural History museum. I did this sketch demonstrating to my art mates that you can deviate from the colors that you see in real life.

Marielle Durant

I got a call from the great French illustrator, Marielle Durand. She was in town for a few days and wanted to draw with me. We met in Central Park with the NYC Urban Sketchers at the boat house in Harlem. Being too slow a drawer, I chose to just sketch the boat house in the lower corner of the page because I knew Marielle would be done 5 times faster than I would take. I added the animals at a later date, drawing with my homies. The skyline and sunrise I did at an even later date. There you have it.

Leaves

These two leaves on the ground demanded to be painted. I usually draw but these guys were insistent that I break out the old paint tubes to see if I still have any skill left.

Not Normal

I draw what I see and I see some really weird things. Thankfully I’m not what you would call, normal. This sketch is a combo of museum of natural history, botanical gardens, and a few photographs I searched out. My wife and I have been spending weeks in Europe on trains, planes, and automobiles. Managed to do quite a lot of drawings while there. I’ll be posting them soon when I return and scan the hell out of them.

My Hood

When I go draw with my friends, we end up taking long subway rides to get to far away museums, botanical gardens, or groovy neighborhoods. I actually had the painfully obvious idea of drawing with my pals in my own neighborhood. It’s where we all meet anyway. This little bodega happens to be right next to the diner we get breakfast in. It’s as if I just saw it for the first time. Sometimes it’s hard to see what’s right in front of one’s own face. Now I look at my own neighborhood of 16 years, differently.

Three Masks

I wonder what the artists who made these phenomenal masks would have thought of my wacky drawing. I’d assume we’d be copacetic.

Cats


My friend Stephen Petronis and I were in the Botanical Gardens drawing the last vestiges of tulips before they perished. I knew the flowers alone on the page would not be enough to make an interesting drawing. At least that’s how I saw it. A few felines seemed to do the trick. I sometimes work on a drawing for a few days, constantly trying to make it feel a bit more compelling. I have an inner critic that lets me know if something is done or if I must keep drawing elements to help it to its conclusion. Nothing is planned out in advance but I do have a moment when I say to myself, it’s finished.