A Very Productive Painting Trip in San Francisco

I took a trip to San Francisco to reset my brain and did a week of intense drawing and painting. I felt so rusty in the beginning, but I felt like I improved as the week went on. I pushed myself hard, painting as soon as the sun went up, and drawing in cafes through the night. Then working on little drawing projects on my friend's couch where I was welcome to crash. I drew until my eyelids refused to stay open. I work harder on my vacations than on my non-vacations, as far as physical and mental effort exerted, but I really love that I'm working on my own thing. My own expressions. Anyway, these paintings are for sale in my store. I hope they find a caring home, perhaps in San Francisco, where I left a piece of my heart. OH, also, thank you Jeff Lance for letting me crash on your couch. I owe getting out of my creative rut to you. Also, special thanks to his two roomates for putting up with me. Hello Ian and Dan

I sat across from Philz Coffee and painted this scene. This was on 24th and Folsom.

details:

This was the view across the laundromat on Valencia. I did this painting while washing and drying my clothes.

details:

Sitting outside Craftsman and Wolves painting the view. My favorite part of this painting is the car.

Japantown

Travel Art

Mermaid drawing demo

Here's a mermaid I drew last night. I filmed myself drawing it, you can click here to watch me draw!

Black Cat Rescue Service

Happy Halloween everyone! Sorry I've been absent from my blog. My new job is pretty demanding. But I'm really missing watercolors in a really sick way, so hopefully the fever stays with me and I do more of these.

And here are some details!

 And here's the sketch!

I have a youtube video coming up of me painting this so stay tuned!

I'm sorry I haven't been updating. I'll do better! Please keep visiting me! :(

Tiffanny

Austin Zoo

Went to the Austin Zoo today! They had moved the foxes to a bigger enclosure, and they were SOOO happy. They were bouncing around, jumping on their houses. They were SO curious, they LOVED watching people. They looked like they were enjoying watching the people as much we enjoyed watching them. They are so beautiful, not just physically, but in their behavior. It's physically impossible to not smile when you are with a fox.

Check out this lazy guy. Someday, I want to slow myself down, find a tree, and sleep underneath it. I now work really close to the Capitol, and the grounds there are always perfect and peaceful. Maybe one day at lunch, instead of eating at my desk or going to the gym, I'll take a blanket to the capitol, lay on the grass and find shapes of things in the clouds. I will tell myself that I don't have any worries, because I'm not a person, but a nice fat lazy piggy and my purpose in life is nothing but to sleep in the dappled light.

Until later, Tiff

A Sketchy Day

My painting buddies and I wanted to do some serious painting in Bastrop today but the weather was not cooperating, so we sat outside of a restaurant, ordered some junk food (fries, onion rings, ice cream) and sketched away while it rained off and on.

On the way home, we made a quick pit stop at the zoo. We didn't stay long, just long enough to get a few pages of animals sketches.

And that's all for now!
Tiffanny

Zoo Sketching!

Hello readers, it's been a while. I've been pretty busy with work. Please forgive me and continue visiting! Here's some sketches from my zoo trip!

Little kids are great when the sketching is good. This little boy was pleading his mom to look at my sketchbook, but I think she wanted to give me privacy. I volunteered and she seemed genuinely impressed. That feels good.

 Crowds of people block the view sometimes, but that shouldn't stop the flow of ink.

A girl doesn't often get to ride a lion... Here's a picture of me at the entrance of the San Antonio Zoo.

Until next time!
Tiff

Artist Death Grip + San Antonio Wildlife Ranch + Figure Drawing Practice

Why take the time to draw from life when there's a billion photographs of animals and people? The main reason is that cameras flatten and distort pictures. It's impossible to see dimensionality with just one lens. You need two eyes to see depth. Your understanding of the forms are truly better when you draw from life. This comes in handy when you're doing actual animal design from imagination, which I do quite a bit at work. It's so freakin' hard though, the animals sure love to move.

showed my boss my drawings, and he said I was "bold" drawing with a pen. If only he knew, I'm a scared little girl when I draw, especially in public. But I overcome as best as I can. I don't doubt that my public audience understands the difficulty, so I really shouldn't be scared. My main audience are usually kids going "WOW SHES DRAWING THE __insert animal name here___", and let me tell you, children are brutally honest. They will tell you if you've failed.

 I got to practice my Artist Death Grip today.

target acquired....

 approaching target...

DEATHGRIP!!!!! target eliminated. I killed the poor llama.

Now me and the sheep can run away together, without pesky llama in the way. dude look at my boney ass chest. when did that happen. probably the other day when i turned into an old hag. (34th birthday)

ok here are some figure drawings from last week:

I guess that's about it.