Berlin-SFO-L.A.

I've travelled far and wide the past month. First stop was several days in Berlin for a speaking engagement at a 'Culture Meets Science' conference.  The brutal East German winter hadn't hit yet so it was still possible to sketch outside comfortably.

 The city has an eclectic mix of modern and classical architecture and threaded throughout is a network of blue and pink piping!

 On my last day I made a beeline for the Brandenburg Gate-I couldn't leave without seeing it first hand.

This last picture is more impressionistic-my memories of Berlin.

While in town I looked up Deutsch-uber-wunderkinder Jakob Shuh and Uwe Heidschötter-they showed me around Studio Soi and drew in my book-danke!

Back in SanFrancisco I showed new resident Mr Cruickshank around-we mingled with the un-dead at Dios de Los Muertos in the Mission and hit Ocean Beach to draw the (wrong) windmill.

 Seal rocks are impressive but not as impressive as the Farallons!  In the spirit of high seas adventure we took a day trip out to the islands where humpback whales spout & breach, rare birds nest and great white sharks bite the heads off elephant seals! Not much drawing that day . . .

 Then down to Los Angeles for CTN-X 2012. We stayed around Venice Beach, soaking up the culture and avoiding the nutters.

Highlight of the trip was catching the spectacular Stanley Kubrick exhibition at LACMA

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gesture Drawing book at CTN-X 2012

It's an 11th hour decision but I'll have a booth at CTN-X this year with my book on Gesture Drawing.  I'll be sharing a table with the Happy Beaver himself Mr Jeff Pidgeon-come see us next week!

I've received really great feedback for my first modest publication, many thanks to everyone who bought it and wrote back;

"I've just received your book today! Love it! Thanks again!"
"Wonderful gesture book, Matt. Strong drawing, lively gestures, and all wrapped in a great presentation. Looking at your book is also making me look forward to my next life drawing class this week!"

"I just received the book. Awesome man! It's real nice to see what you are doing, how you're pushing the poses, etc. Thanks so much, I'm looking forward to your next book! -no pressure;)"

"This book is amazing. I read the Drawn to Life books… which was VERY repetitive… and well I wish I saw bigger drawings and less repetition of text. You answered that completely. Love these gestures… and most importantly you have cartoonish gestures, where most books cover more life drawing style gestures. Good stuff! Make more books!"

"I received your book last week and it rocks. It's really inspirational, as you said and I want to study every pose because I think I can learn a lot."

Happy Halloween!

These are a couple of yokai inspired spooky swamp dwellers for Halloween.  I had been impressed by the designs of Japanese netsuke in the V&A museum London then later saw an incredible exhibition in Paris on the supernatural yokai of Japanese culture.  The designs are based on traditional Japanese deities & goblins.

 The rough sketches above developed into these more abstract painted sketches I did for fun as I was painting the larger one

This amphibious swamp creature was a leaving present for Story Commando James 'Zero Dark Thirty' Baker

NYC

I was in New York for a long weekend last week, both upstate for a wedding and the city afterwards. What a town-incredible energy.

Rush hour in NYC is crazier than London or Paris-and Grand Central seems to be the hub of the frenzy. I huddled in a corner off the sidewalk and tried to capture the melee but my sketch doesn't come close!  I was intrigued by the elevated overpass with the stream of yellow cabs feeding the commuter swarm.

Skyscrapers on 5th ave. the older one on the left looked like it had been sliced in half at some point with arches visible in the cross-section.

I couldn't not draw The Statue of Liberty! I thought I'd sketch a view rarely seen -her behind! (Plus it allowed me to skip the face and draw her faster).  Just as I was waiting for some interesting tourists to stray into view these monks showed up-they were thoroughly modern monks; posing for pictures on their smart-phones, smoking even-surely not Buddhists!

This poor soul was ranting in the middle of the sidewalk and plainly had a beef with someone but he was raging at nobody that I could see.  Earlier in the day I saw him amiably chatting to someone-don't piss off New Yorkers!

Here's an impression of Times Sq. with all the characters I encountered over the weekend.  Spot the pickle!

Summer sketchbook 2012

After completing the 30 day Sketchbook Challenge I slowed down a bit but keep the next book at hand  always.  Over the last month I've seen a bit of the United States, including Bodie and Columbus, Ohio and visited a couple of interesting museum shows.

The Jean-Paul Gaultier exhibition at the De Young was as exciting as everyone told me.  Thanks to my regular sketch buddy Jamie Baker we got in on the last day and I snuck a quick sketch in despite the museums' shitty 'no drawing' policy.

If we hit the De Young we usually squeeze in the Oceanic Art galleries and the Japanese Tea Garden next door also. . . 

See Jamie's sketches over on his blog here

On a quick stay in Columbus, Ohio I sketched the facade of the cavernous Book loft on 3rd St in German Village.

Airport drawings are usually so staid and boring I tried to have a bit of fun with them on this trip.

  Over Labor Day weekend we had a day in the sun at the SF Yacht Club (which is actually across the Bay at Tiburon)

Quick sketch of my neighbourhood on the way home from work

'Our Man in the Cabana' Jamie Baker at Trader Vic's Tiki Lounge, Emeryville Marina.

There's a self-portrait of the artist hidden in one of these pics- can you see me?

TRIBE

Digital arts mag TRIBE has published a spread of my San Francisco sketches, available to view freely here. I'd encourage all my creative blog friends to submit work to Tribe mag too.

All these sketches were made on location around the city over the summer.

The Mission & North Beach

Chinatown

Fishermans' Wharf

Ghost town

In April 2011 my ol' Bristol chum Ash Boddy and I attempted to get to Bodie-an old ghost-town from the gold rush era near Yosemite. However the winter had been particularly harsh and the mountain pass was still snow-bound!

So Ash returned to visit California this summer and we made a second successful trip into the mountains.

From San Francisco it's a 5 hour drive to Bodie so we covered that the first day and stayed overnight in Bridgeport so we could have a full day to draw.  Our B&B was where Robert Mitchum stayed while filming 'Out of the Past' in 1947.

Early next morn we set off up the dirt track towards Bodie- once the most thriving and lawless mining town in the West. 

Reputedly the most well-preserved ghost-town Bodie is a fraction of the size it became in its heyday due to a devastating fire in the early part of the last century.  But the buildings and artifacts that remain are fascinatingly suspended in a state of 'arrested decay'.

Peering through windows is like looking into the past; a poker table abandoned seemingly mid-game; a school class-room eerily still fully equipped; the gym, saloon bar, grocery -store all frozen in time.

The wooden buildings look ready to collapse at any moment; their wind-blasted and sun-scorched walls warped and twisted.  No straight lines or right angles- heaven to draw!

If memory serves the shack above was to store ice!

Some of the buildings looked like they were saved from collapse just in time. The fire-house below is one of the more sturdy constructions.

The old saw-mill is still standing . . . just.

At a 10,000 ft elevation the site is that much closer to the sun and drawing in the baking heat was a trial, even breathing was more of a struggle at that altitude. However it was still a pleasure to try and capture as many of the warped buildings and out-houses as we could.

Life was hard living in Bodie-even going to the toilet would've been arduous, braving the elements not to mention the prospect of encountering rattlesnakes.

Read Ash's alternative account with a whole load o' untruths he just plain made up right here!