AAU Workshops, Fall 2015

I've been teaching at the Academy of Art again, and it's been taking up quite a lot of my time. On the plus side, I have a nice backlog of demos and workshop drawings to share! Let's start off with a couple of recent figure-drawing events masterminded by the Illustration department's magical model coordinator Sarafina.

Back in November we had the twice-annual Costume Carnival event. The theme for this one was a beastly ball populated by human-animal hybrids...

Just last week, the Drawing Mode workshop gave the Illustration peeps a chance to draw some of the groovy clothing created by the Fashion department. I did a couple of big montages, one of which I gave to Sarafina, plus a bunch of little crayon sketches on construction paper. How kindergarten1

SF Zoo: Fall Favorites

It's been ages since I've posted a roundup of San Francisco Zoo sketches, and it looks like I've accumulated quite a backlog. So with no further ado, here are some highlights from the last couple of months...

Big cats ahoy! Here are an Amur tiger shredding a tasty cardboard box, and a snoozing snow leopard.

 

A couple of my favorite critters: The elderly Uulu and her colorful past, and puppyish young Boone being introduced to his prototype snack-ball.

I'm also gradually adding to my graphic record of the zoo's recently installed sculpture garden. Above, a rough scale lineup of the (mostly) life-size sculptures.

And finally, a record of the Halloween-themed "Spooky Specimens" guided tour, part of the annual "Boo at the Zoo" festivities. Collect all seven lemurs!

March for Elephants and Rhinos 10/03/2015

My second time sketching along with the Global March comes at an interesting time for the fight against ivory and rhino-horn trafficking. In quick succession, we've had a National Geographic expose, a vague agreement between the US and China (the top two markets), and today California governor Jerry Brown just signed a horn and ivory sales ban into law. Feel the momentum! And see marchforelephants.org for more info.

This year's march kicked off at Jefferson Square Park...

...then up to Geary Boulevard...

...to a mini-rally in front of the shuttered Chinese Consulate.

Simultaneously sketching and marching remains a challenge!

Of course, drumming and chant-leading aren't trivial multitasking challenges either.

The closing rally at UN Plaza. This is usually where the crowd starts to thin out.

Dogs dressed as elephants was definitely a thing this year!

Cartoon Odyssey, Part Three

With the start of my fall teaching schedule, it's been slower going on my recap of Homer's Odyssey, but I've reached the three-quarter mark at last. Behold the setup for a heavily foreshadowed day of reckoning with Penelope's obnoxious suitors!

Cartoon Odyssey, Part Two

As I continue with my notes on Homer's Odyssey, I think the sketchnote premise is falling by the wayside and it's turning into more of a pure comic. Well, I have to go where the story takes me, and as Odysseus takes the stage to recount his adventures it's taking us to some really weird places.

Academic Animals

So yeah, I got a membership to the California Academy of Sciences, which is about half a mile from my home. That's definitely going to be the subject of a lot of future sketching!

 First off, we have Claude, the Academy's beloved albino alligator. It seems the two most common questions about him are "Is he real?" and "Does he eat the fish in his exhibit?" The answer to the second one is essentially "no," but when it comes to the alligator snapping turtles who share his space, I can now testify that the answer is "sometimes they do."

 

I really wanted to get back to the Academy while their whale exhibit was still in progress. So many cool skeletons!

The Steinhardt Aquarium in the basement is pretty awesome, even though the low light conditions make color work challenging. Their giant pacific octopus is rather shy, but the day octopus in the new "Color of Life" exhibit is considerably more extroverted.