Town Lake Foliage

I started this image on site and added pastel later. I liked the reflections in the water and of course the plant life above it. I worked on a 5 by 7 piece of Uart paper and a variety of pastels.

A Commerce, Texas landscape. I think this is highway 178. I used St Armand canal paper and a variety of pastels

Tree In A Tangle

The color on this painting is a bit darker than the original. For a while I had my camera set on Bracket which shoots multiple exposures. I forgot that and shot a bunch of art work too dark. I have fixed that now.

More Trial Sketches

This sketch includes the judge, defendant and one of the defense team.

The judge and two renderings of the lead defense attorney.

I did this sketch during the voir dire. It includes people sitting next to me in the jury box and the lawyers. I worked with a medium Pitt artist pen to do the ink sketches. Later I added Daniel Smith watercolors.

Trial Sketches

One of the many perks of my day job is access to trials. I sat in on a few parts of the proceedings going on in the 147th Judicial District Court this week. I primarily worked in ink and added the watercolor later. I like to draw all over the paper with faces and poses. I tend to place the players on the paper without regard to the actual format of the courtroom. My interest is in getting the personalities down and to move on to the next sketch. This was a white collar crime case.

Green Mesquite From H2O

A few weekends ago I went to the local H2O car wash to get my car cleaned up. While waiting I drew one of my favorite dining spots Green Mesquite on Barton Springs road. I later added watercolor at home. The signage was probably the hardest part of the rendering.

Housework Sister

This is a painting of my youngest sister doing her chores. I was sitting on the porch watching her. This is my third painting from that image. This is the largest of the three at 16 by 16 inches. I started out with a charcoal drawing which I covered with watercolor. The pastel was the final layer. I took a few liberties with color.

Adolescent Rooster

My boss has this "green acres" type operation going on at his home in Dripping Springs, Texas. They recently added chickens to their ark. This is their baby rooster ruling his roost. I'm still playing around with the St. Armand Canal paper from Canada.

Birthday Man

This is a drawing of the birthday man Maurice. He was busy playing yahtzee. Its funny how distorted in size his hat is. That is the beauty of drawing from life for me. The challenge of proportions always gets me. It does make for an interesting drawing however. I'm still using the St. Armand Canal paper. This is the sabretooth version.

I did this little painting while sitting in front of the main hotel in Commerce. I used my Renior sketchbook and Daniel Smith watercolors.

Queen Playing Yahtzee

Last weekend I celebrated my friend Maurice's birthday with his partner and mom. After watching a horror flick and dinner, they settled in for a game of yahtzee. I drew them while they were playing. I used St. Armand's blue canal paper. The surface is like painting on fabric and the texture actually adds to the image. His mom's name is Queen.

Traffic Portrait

We were headed to a place called Tracey, California to visit with Pam's family on July 4th of this year. While Pam drove, I sketched the road and landscape in my Stillman and Burn sketchbook. This is a painting from one of those sketches. Since I view painting as play for me, I took liberties with colors.

Fulton Ave Flag

This painting is just another view of the alley way from the previous post. The first phase of this painting was an ink drawing. I then applied various layers of Daniel Smith watercolors. I tried to keep the shadows lively. Every corner of Charleston is a painting I must say. I need to visit again for some plein air work and sketching.

Southern Alleyway

This painting is an addition to my South Carolina series. Its on Fulton Ave in the downtown area. I was fascinated by the people and the buildings of the city of Charleston. A friend and I were walking back from a great dinner at the aquarium and I took the photo that inspired this picture. I used my Daniel Smith palette of watercolors. My goals were to keep the darks interesting and make the light bounce out.

Morning Medicine

Pam was gassing up her car for an early trip out to Tracey, California and I saw this guy sitting on a curb at the station. He had something in his brown paper bag and he had just lit up his cigarette. I liked his grey hair and how it contrasted with his skin. I took a few photos from weird angles in the car. A Facebook friend recently posted a photo of his recent purchase of St Armand Canal Paper. I had read about the paper years ago on a blog. I bought a few sheets. Its a very nice handmade paper. It doesn't take a lot of pastel layers and has a unique texture that peeks thru if you let it.