Aldie historic building

I spent a surprisingly wineless Saturday driving around Loudoun County, Virginia, a few miles west from my urbanified home. My destination was not a winery but a country store in the tiny crossroads town of Philomont, where I bought a pair of deerskin gloves. So my wine budget went to gloves instead. Down the road and through the horsey fields, you get to Aldie, which is another slightly larger town full of historic buildings and attractive shops. I stopped in one shop and sat in a rusty old chair from the next door's property to do this drawing. This building was built in the 19th century as a country store but was turned into a residence and then abandoned, so no one lives or works there now. The double-stairway porch is impressive for a vernacular building. The place is in disrepair and if I had a lot of money I would buy it and fix it up. Unfortunately, I can't make this happen so all I can do is draw it.

I didn't get all the work I wanted done on the drawing because the sun was setting and I was losing light. So I finished it when I returned home. I also did some touching up in Photoshop. I know that the Rules of Plein Air Art forbid such studio re-working, insisting on the Authentic Experience of Being There. Well sue me then, if I can't fix up the real building I'll fix up my drawing.

Pentel Pilot gel pens on sketchbook page, 9" x 8 1/2", September 29, 2012. Clikonthepic for larger view.

Salon Portrait

I got my hair done today, and as usual while I'm waiting for the hair dye to do its thing, I draw on sketchbook or iPad. Today one of the employees at the salon noticed the iPad and when I said that I can make art on it, she asked me to draw her portrait. This is the first time I have ever tried to do an iPad portrait (rather than a sketch or a caricature) of a real live person in front of me. Interestingly, working with opaque "brushstrokes" with a blender was more like working in pastel than in acrylic or colored pencil. I've never done any work with pastel so I was improvising, but it turned out a little better than I thought it would. It isn't great by any means but it's an attempt. If I wanted to I could probably make it more accurate and realistic in Photoshop. I want to do more faces, especially women, and depict people on the iPad, not just Virginia landscapes.

Art Studio, about 25 minutes, September 2012.

Mexican Menu Galaxy

By the time I got to the third series of menu boards, I had some fancy graphic design production values. This "Galaxy" had a nice Art Nouveau typeface and a mainly black-and-white color scheme. The color of the writing was originally white, with some color blends to the left, and the words "Galaxy Dinner Special" and "Nacho" done in metallic silver. The numbers were red or yellow, now faded. I left some of the color artifacts of fading in the writing. I had to simulate the silver with Photoshop as it didn't show up in the image. Despite the failings of the photograph this is one of my favorites among my Mexican menu boards.

The usual with silver metallic pen accents, winter 1980.

September Skies 2012

Autumn comes to my work break and my bleak urban environment. This is a scene a few days ago, as twilight clouds swirled over the few trees bordering the big highway. The leaves are turning a greyish-yellow. I have been looking at this same line of trees for more than 20 years. 

I would like to make fantasy pictures instead of reality pictures on my work breaks. I will not do portraits of Dumpsters, I just can't stand the prospect of it. I have no more than 25 minutes to create something. I want more than dragons. I am sure that many of you are bored with this. I have to promise myself that I will do a fantasy picture rather than a drawing of someone's immense SUV. My ghod those cars are big. They don't even fit in the parking spaces. I already turned one into a creature some time ago. Fantasy pictures tend to take longer than reality pictures though and my work break is only half an hour. I continue to suck at time management.

"Art Studio" app on iPad, September 2012.

Mr. Suds

Beer. Bheer. Beeee-yah! Trader Joe's has it, and this is the stuff, TJ's basic brew, only 4 bucks for a six. I helped design "Mr. Suds" to advertise the house "Name Tag" brand. Mr. Manager came up with the idea for a beer can in a Trader Joe Hawaiian shirt. And thus it just sort of happened that the shirt I put on the can is the one that the manager was wearing on Tuesday when I did the sign. But I didn't give "Mr Suds" a Beer-d like our manager. 

Acrylic and acrylic markers on masonite board, 48" x 36", September 2012.

Mexican Menu Punk Rock

At its height, Paco's Tacos had three Boston area locations, one of which was in Kenmore Square downtown at one of the busiest places in the city. Kenmore Square was a center for live music and music clubs, where bands both famous and obscure could play. In the late '70s while the world was amusing itself with slick, glitzy disco, the punk rock scene was also flourishing in all its deliberate obnoxiousness and intentional lack of artifice. There was one music venue, the "Rathskeller," right next to the Paco's at Kenmore. The "Rathskeller" was the center of Boston's punk performances, and it was known by fans as the "Rat." 

Since many of my Kenmore Square menu boards featured music of various kinds, I naturally did a "punk rock" themed board. This one, done in the collage format favored by punk graphics and design, references a number of bands which were popular at the time, such as Devo, the 2 by 4's, "Human Sexual Response," and the "Specials," who were not a punk group at all but a "ska" band. I also included rockabilly great Duane Eddy simply because I had an album with his picture on the cover, which I copied into the composition (at right). The "Duane" also refers to "Duane Glasscock," the comedy pseudonym of Boston's radio personality Charles Laquidara. There is a cartoon of my then-boss at Paco's, "Kevin," in the center with a one-shouldered T-shirt holding up a burrito. My face also appears to the right of Kevin, with glasses shattered into my starlike art monogram. At the top it says, "Everyone could hear what went on in the Rat." All of this scene is now long gone, even the buildings, replaced by a luxury hotel.

Collage and markers on posterboard, 21" x 13", winter 1980.

Moon Wines Sign

My latest billboard for Trader Joe's advertises a series of California wines all of which have a "moon" in their title. I'm especially fond of "Old Moon" Zinfandel. Note the "bottle rocket" flying past in the upper right area. I'm inspired by old "retro" science fiction comics in this design.

The TJ peanut butter concern has been in the news lately and we are reassuring people that  the store has already withdrawn the product.

Acrylic on Masonite board, 48" x 36", September 2012.