Rochester Sketchercrawl on Jan. 2, 2010

For lack of anything else to post...

here is the latest state of a Rochester piece I'm working on...

View from St. Joseph's

So lately I've been working on a bigger piece than I usually do, and tonight I was laying out some buildings & trees and such in the background. Sort of where St. Joseph's park in Roc would be.

When I feel done, I go online, tool around a while and eventually make my way to Genine's (awesome) blog.
And what do I see staring me in the face? Her sketch of nearly the exact same view. A sketch I somehow missed every other time I've visited her site. Weird.

And damn. Its way better than mine...

ps. I'm kind of hoping I am in Rochester for a sketchcrawl sometime in the future. Crossing my fingers the timing goes right.

Giveaway in Chinatown

For this giveaway I decided I didn't want to make 10 or 12 individual drawings to give away.

I am lazy.

So I took the drawing of the Chinatown Gate I made from the last sketch crawl and made an edition of 12 prints from it. The original drawing was in my sketchbook, but I wanted to make prints on sheets from brown paper bags. So I made some stencils, and used them to lay out the whites of the image I wanted to keep.

I ran the papers through my inkjet printer and voila.

With only one or two misprints.

So I printed 3 good sheets, for a total of 12 prints. I chopped them up, bagged them, and brought them back to Chinatown.

I placed all 12 on windshields back at Chinatown. And only one woman came running up to me yelling at me for leaving a ticket on her car. But she was okay once I explained what I was really doing. I also left an art ticket on a Metro van, and watched the Metro employee find the print, and look around with a confused look as he opened it up. I got a kick out of that.

Sketchcrawl 25 results

As per usual I was batting about .600 as my third drawing never really came together. Joel and I found a couple of spots to draw around Chinatown and the Shaw neighborhood before we called it a day. Being in Chinatown especially, we had a lot of passers by making kind comments.. and perhaps even one gallery owner... it was a nice day for a Sketch crawl.

DC Sketchcrawl 25

Sketchcrawl 25 is tomorrow, November 21, 2009.

We'll begin at Metro Center and make our way up 9th St. Then we'll probably play it by ear. (If it is terribly cold out we'll have some indoor options we can figure out!)

We'll meet around 10:30/11:00 and you can stay as long as you like.

If you have any questions, head over to the forum http://www.sketchcrawl.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=4327
or drop a message right here.

A Good Reason to fly Midwest...

MyMidwest Magazine (the in-flight magazine from Midwest Airlines) has published an article featuring the Urban Sketchers website.

The article was curated by USk founder Gabi Campanario and features Gabi, Fred Lynch, Thomas Thorspeken, Shiho Nakaza, Kate Johnson, Marc Taro Holmes, Tommy Kane, and myself. Somewhere in there is a drawing I did of Ben's Chili Bowl.

Check it out. And fly MidWest!

(And Thanks Gabi!)

ATE '09

I'll have a piece in my district's second annual juried Artist Teacher Exhibition!

November 2-14th.

Opening Exhibit is Nov. 5, 6-7:30pm.
Ernst Community Cultural Center
NVCC Annandal Campus
Virginia

Hickok Cole Art Night

Hickok Cole Architects teams up with Washington Project for the Arts to host Art Night 2009. Over 50 local artists (including yours truly) showcased their work, splitting the profits even with the WPA.
Of course I post this the day after... (bad blogger bad blogger bad blogger...) Regardless of my tardiness in mentioning it, Lisa & Brooke (of the WPA) did a wonderful job with the show and the VIP tour.

A nice video preview here.

"Comics from SPX"

Crap, I almost forgot to mention.

My SPX cohorts have put a show together collecting our own work, as well as work we have found at SPX.

Internal Combustion Events

Comics from the SPX

Greg Lendeck, Christian
Tribastone and Tom Galambos.

October 14–October 28

"Three Rochester artists explore the boundaries of the comics medium. They will display their own work as well as samples of contemporary cartooning culled from the 2009 SPX in September."

So, my Rochesterian friends, if you have a moment or two stop by MCC's Mercer Gallery and see some artwork and comics that you are guaranteed to like!

SPX Haul, 2009

Kevin Huizenga's Ganges #3

Matthew Swanson & Robbi Behr's Ten Thousand Stories

Theo Ellsworth's Sleeper Car & Capacity

Justin Madson's Birch vols. 1-3

Nate Doyle's Crooked Teeth #4

Bill Kelter & Wayne Shellabarger's Veeps

Ivan Brunetti's Ho! The Morally Questionable Cartoons

A collection of Greg Lendeck prints of his amazing Wax Paper cut-outs.

S's (daughter of Greg) The Zoo

C's (son of Greg) Future Seas

Sean Ford's Only Skin #4

Tom Galambos's print of a geriatric JLA & JSA

Ethan Rilly's Pope Hats

JP Coovert's Insides

Paul Karasik's second collection of Fletcher Hanks comics- You Shall Die By Your Own Evil Creations!

Ken Dahl's Monsters

Erika Moen's DAR: A Super Girly Top Secret Comic Diary

Alexis Frederick-Frost's Ship

Joseph Lambert's Untitled (Dinosaur)

Kevin Panetta & Andy Kettler's Super Wrestle

and

Kevin Panetta & Mike Short's Monster Fight!

Matt Kindt's 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man

Sammy Harkham's Crickets

James McShane's Archaeology

The Book

So I settled on "On Sight" [sic] as my title. And here is the final product I sold this weekend at the Small Press Expo.

I managed to put together 10 books, 5 of which actually sold. TO REAL FRICKIN' PEOPLE nonetheless!
It was pretty sweet.

Granted one of them was sort of a pity-buy by a friend (though he kindly denies it) but I'll take it anyway. My table was shared with two friends, and talented artist both, Greg Lendeck and Tom Galambos. Our table space was a little smaller than anticipated so only two of us could fit back there at a time.

I have to admit I felt a bit of frustration for the first... oh, 12 hours of the combined two day (14 hour total) event. Not because I wasn't having fun talking to people and seeing *coughbuyingcough* a whole lotta beautiful books other people and publishers brought, but I had really hoped to sell at least one copy to someone I didn't know. So when Greg was behind the table and somehow tricked a very kind gentleman to buy a copy I was pretty happy and suprised. The next 3 sales were all just as unexpected. Especially the lovely girl who came running to our table as we were clearing it off to leave SPX until next year. So thank you Greg for pushing my books and making those sales.

It was a great weekend and all the better for having Greg, Tom and Matt (said kind pity-buyer) around to enjoy it with. I look forward to being even more prepared for SPX next year.

On Sight [sic]

The Small Press Expo is this weekend in Bethesda MD, as while usually I am happy to be one of the many spectators and consumers of the great art and Indie Comics to be found there, this year I'll be sharing a table with Greg & Tom trying to hock a few copies of a book I made by hand. It's nothing too fancy, just a collection of drawings I've made in the last couple of years. No superheroes or hipster narratives about my childhood. Just pictures of buildings and stuff. I haven't got them totally finished quite yet, but by this evening I should have 10-15 copies and I will post them when I have something concrete to share.

P.S. While some copies are too far finished to change the title, I am planning on scrapping "Looking Around" from my covers... I took me too long to think of anything decent to call my book!

Some results of Sketchcrawl 24

Today I had the pleasure of participating in a DC Sketch Crawl with two very talented artists Joel & Diahn. We met up, and spent some time drawing at Dupont Circle, where we also ran into artist and teacher Chawky Frenn.

The fountain at Dupont Circle has three statues around it, one of which I drew. I'll certainly have to return to finish the other two eventually.

After some walking and wandering around the city, we soon made our way to Lafayette Park, which provided a nice view of the White House, crowds of tourists who seemed very interest in what we were all doing, and President Andrew Jackson.

Finally we made our way to the National Sculpture Garden on the Nat'l Mall. And here I made a sketch that really didn't come out well, so we are going to pretend it doesn't exist. I will have to refer you to Joel and Diahn's respective blogs if you are curious about that little part of DC, as they represent all locations extremely well.

Sketchcrawl #24

Sketchcrawl tomorrow (Saturday the 19th)

Dupont Circle, I'll be by the fountain around 10:30(ish)

Please join me!

My New Classroom

After 4 years of Art-on-a-cart I've now been handed the keys to a newly built art room. One or two things are still to be delivered, but I won't have as much to complain about this year.

St. Joseph's Park

I've been meaning to draw the remains of St. Joseph's for a while now. It is one of the more beautiful Rochester landmarks. I've got a bunch more Rochester sketches coming down the pipeline, and hopefully I will share them soon.

Monroe Theatre

After doing the edition of 25 in Fredonia, I've been wanting to play with the process of printing on the paperbags and painting them in to be able to make multiples more easily. Ultimately I am going to try and put together a handmade book using the same method... so I'm getting a little more comforatble with it as well and making sure I can use my printer for this too...

71 Central Avenue, Fredonia NY 14063

These are a few prints/drawings from an edition of pieces I just made for an art exchange I have the pleasure of being part of as a teacher at NYSSSA SVA. The program is located in Fredonia, NY and while the town may not have the usual amenities of most cities, has a lot of interesting homes and architecture to offer.

This is my edition of 25 of a beautiful house here in town. My printmaking process was pretty ghetto since I've become quite impatient in my old age (coughjustturned30cough). First I drew the house in my moleskine...

I then scanned it in and printed one off from the computer. I fed it into a copy machine onto some 8 1/2" X 11" pieces of paperbags to make my multiples, painting in the highlights with brush and gesso afterwards.

I'm pretty happy with them!

Peachey Road

I'd been curious to do a quick sketch or two based on Google Street View ever since seeing Bill Guffey's Virtual Paintout website. What better occasion to draw than Cindy's birthday. Above is her former (childhood) house... unless I got the address wrong...

2000 S Street NW

2000 S Street, the house to be used for Real World season 23. Which will likely be filled with some young, horny, politically polar opposites for a few months. Sadly I am leaving town myself this week and won't be able to witness/stalk the house.. well, until August maybe...

At Least Buy Me Dinner First...

So far this is my favorite comment that I've recieved at Artomatic...

Erin Antognoli

Check out Erin Antognoli's great Holga photographs on Flickr. She's been taking portraits of Artomatic artists (among others I'm sure) and even made a great pic of yours truly.

Nationals Stadium

When I finished my space in the Artomatic building I made my way up op to the roof to take advantage of a great view of Nationals Park. Unfortunately it started raining soon after I started so I ended up retreating to the 9th floor to finish this sketch.

Artomatic

My Artomatic space is finally done. Though technically I should still put up some labels up... eh, I'll do it friday.

Artomatic
May 29 – July 5, 2009
55 M Street, S.E. (at the corner with Half Street)Washington, DC 20003
(Metro stop: Green Line, Navy Yard, Ballpark exit)
Free Admission!

Artomatic is a month-long art festival in DC that is free to the general public celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. A brand-new 275,000 square foot building has been donated to host Artomatic, right next to the Nationals Stadium. The event features nine floors of visual and installation art, theater performances, dance and comedy, three music stages, street performances such as fire dancing and drum troupes, and a film screening theater.