“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

I had been interested in visiting F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre's resting place for some time, and finally found a good reason to as my sister told me their anniversary as coming up (the couple was married April 3rd 1920).  So the first weekend after we got ingredients together for some Gin Rickeys, drove out to Rockville, MD to a small church surrounded by commercial plazas and paid our respects.
We made a couple drinks for F. Scott and Zelda, but already there was a collection of pens, books, stones, flowers and coins left by other admirers with similar intentions.

Elizabeth

As far as pop culture figures who make good mural subject, DC has a pretty good knack for picking them.  Marilyn Monroe, Duke Ellington, Chuck Brown, and Frederick Douglas among others.  Well, earlier this season the Dacha Beer Garden opened up with a pretty spectacular mural of Elizabeth Taylor keeping watch over their beer drinkers down below.

Small Press Expo '13

So Baltimore Comic-Con was fun, but the real action came a week later in DC with the Small Press Expo.  If you are into comics, or just art in general this was the place to find every indie or underground comic creator you wish you've heard of. This expo is one of my favorite times of the year, made apparent by how I spent way too much money on art and comics.  So as with Baltimore, I thought I would put a page of SPX sketches together in a way that seemed appropriate.

So Long Marla

The latest Dr. Sketchy's this Sunday featured Marla Meringue's last session before traveling around the country with the Wizard of Oz for a year.  She is one of the consistently best Dr. Sketchy models  in the DC Baltimore area, she'll be missed.

700 Delaware

Sometime late last year street artist Hense came to DC to work on a former church south of the Capitol area.  The project had some minor controversy over whether this was respectful to the history of this particular site, but nonetheless it's pretty awesome and fun to see up close.

I certainly couldn't sketch this without involving all these great marks and colors, so it took me a little while longer than usual to finish the drawing.  I sketched the basic structure and a little of the surroundings on site, but had to color it at home... after running to the art store for a few more markers...
[You can check out more about the project at Design Boom.]

Sketchcrawl #38. Three views of the Capitol Building. Part 3.

And finally, here are three views of the Capitol building.





Last Port-o-potty, I promise.

Sketchcrawl #38. Part 2.

The landscape of the National Mall changes quite a bit with the coming of the inauguration.     News trucks, t-shirt vendors, security, etc... Though not quite a Tardis, the Police box certainly caught my eye as an interesting addition to the surroundings.  And you can't miss the Port-o-potty's, and checking out CNN was just kind of fun.

Sketchcrawl #38 The National Mall, leading to the Inauguration. Part 1.

For this past weekend, we decided it would be timely to have our Sketchcrawl on the National Mall here in DC, as the Presidential Inauguration is happening shortly.  I got there a little early to get a sense of what was around, and there was plenty to see.  My first couple of sketches, as I waited for the other 'crawlers to arrive, aren't strictly Inauguration themed, but a couple of scenes of the Mall.

The East Wing of the National Gallery- in the midst of a face lift.


And a view of the Natural History Museum from Hirshhorn, across the Mall.

I'll post another batch in a moment or two...

Collaborations

So, my friends Greg & Yayoi and I work together over the summer at a fantastic high school age arts program called NYSSSA (send your kids).  They also wisely use their free time there to make beautiful spontaneous collaborative drawings and paintings together.  Of which I am invited to participate in, but am usually too worried that I'm going to ruin what they've done.

Now, Greg and I have often talked about working on some sort of project together, but we have both been a bit busy to start anything.  He more than myself.  So as the year came to an end I thought I'd try and put the beginnings of a drawing together that could perhaps bounce back and forth between us.  Being the cautious type I started two drawings so I could senf him which ever i thought turned out best. Which frankly just made things harder, as I couldn't make up my mind. eventually I thought "Hey, I should send Yayoi one of these!"

I then proceeded to spend a day or two flip flopping between who would get which one.

Anyway. I thought I would post these, as some small way to pressure and manipulate  encourage them to continue the drawings!

Greg got this one.


Yayoi got this one.

Now get to work.

Cheríe Sweetbottom

These are from the second Dr. Sketchy's DC, but last to be held at the Red Palace [RIP] featuring the lovely & talented Cheríe Sweetbottom as our model.

Here are some 10 minutes sketches

And a left-handed sketch that won me a cool pop-up book.

KiKi Allure

I don't have too much to share from the Junkyard Dolls' sessions at Dr. Sketchy's Baltimore, despite their being extremely talented and really fun figure models.

Thankfully the next session I went to was a little more productive, featuring KiKi Allure.

This one even won me a prize* during their blind contour drawing contest.

*free shot

Eastern Market

Reverend Valentine

Reverend Valentine has just begun hosting duties for the Dr. Sketchy's branch in DC, and yet she still finds time to head over to Baltimore to pose for a Halloween themed session too.  That's commitment to the movement.

Dr. Sketchy's DC with Eyrie Twylite

Dr. Sketchy's made its triumphant return to Washington DC last week at the Red Palace, hosted by Reverend Valentine with Eyrie Twylite posing for the group.  It was a lot of fun, and it is pretty nice to have a Dr. Sketchy's in town & within reasonable driving distance. Not that I am going to forgo the Baltimore sessions- heaven forbid.

Add to all of that, Crunkcakes was there with an amazing selection of their specialty cupcakes. Dear god I really wanted to win that half dozen...

Sketchcrawl #37 National Zoo

6-ish of us headed to the National Zoo for the 37th International Sketchcrawl. And while a few animals posed still for us many others seemed to ignore any requests for long posed by the group- instead insisting on walking, flying & feeding while the group was observing them. Good models are hard to find.
Alas, here are two sketches I managed to finish past rough pencil sketches.

Here are some lionesses enjoying the sun:

And a bird whose name I neglected to record:

Sophia Sunday

A couple of drawings from a recent Dr. Sketchy's in Baltimore featuring Sophia Sunday.

Marilyn

The Marilyn Monroe mural by the Woodley Park/Adams Morgan metro stop at Connecticut & Calvert. Commissioned (in either 1968, or 1981) by Roi Barnard of Salon Roi, and painted by John Bailey.

Rockefeller

NYSSSA SVA 2012 has come to an end, and sadly our very own Judy Powers has made this her last year with the program.  The faculty put together a portfolio of artwork as a gift to thank her for her years of work, and this was my contribution. She will be greatly missed!

This is the Rockefeller art building on the SUNY Fredonia campus, and although I. M. Pei is a very talented architect I could not finds a decent angle on it until I threw this sculture in the foreground.

Chuck Brown

Back in May, DC's own Chuck 'The Godfather of Go-Go" Brown passed on at the age of 75.  And one of the nicest dedications to him after his passing was this awesome mural, swiftly created by the students at DC's MacFarland Middle School with the help of their art teacher Charles Jean-Pierre.

22 Sketches of Artomatic

  

So, Artomatic has a tradition of anonymous (or semi-anonymous) individuals who leave gifts, poems or kind comments to participants;  the Benefactor, Brash, the Collector 2.0...

So, with that in mind, I thought that instead of making a regular "Top Ten" list or "Best of AOM" list, I'd try and make a sketch for my favorite displays of this year's show.  I didn't quite finish as many as I wanted, but I did get about 22 sketches done and distributed back to the artists who inspired them. The're not all stellar sketches, but I tried to do them quick, so lay off man.

No name, no email, no signature or website on it.  Just a small small (2" x 3 1/4" specifically) gesture to let them know they are among my favorites of this year.

    

Though it wouldn't take much to figure out I did them... (golly look, a blog post about it!)

Here's how they look as I put the sketches up in the artists' spaces.

 

Zofie Lang, Beth Farnstrom, Matt MacIntire, Stephanie Booth, Sean Hennessy, Rania Hassan, Robert W Kincheloe, Peter Gordon, David D'Orio, Megan Maher, Matthew Malone & Kurtis Ceppetelli, Mariko Iguchi, Jessica Murray, Brian Jerome Murphy, Greg Minah, Giant Japanese Monsters, Bad!, Mei Mei Chang, Marty Ittner, Kathryn Trillas, Erin Antognoli, Ellen Hill, & the DC Creepers (Tommy Corrigan & Eric Gordon).

In addition to these 22, I also loved what I saw from Missy Carr, Christopher Goodwin, Gail Vollrath, Dominick Rabrun, Christopher Grady, Todd Gardner, Frederick Nunely, Jenny Walton, Annie Riker & Amy Keys, Joseph A Corcoran, Cory Oberndorfer, Sabrina Cabada, Jamie Gerhold, Nick Zimbro, Steve Wanna, Becky Hoven, Salvador Casco, Ray Allard, Liliane Blom.

More pics after the jump!