Finally, after three months of ‘winter’, it seems to actually be WINTER in Salt Lake. I had planned on working on ‘The Letter’ today, after dropping Asher off to spend the day with my Mother-in-law. Due to a heavy snowstorm which blew in this morning, I will be postponing this plan until tomorrow. As luck would have it, the storm is also preventing me from retrieving my bag, containing my sketching materials, camera, etc. from the afore-mentioned mother-in-law’s house (the bag being accidentally left behind after a weekend get-together). So it is that today’s sketchbook (and yesterday’s for that matter) comes to you in improvised red and white Prismacolor pencil. Enjoy.

Of course, winter has its perks.  Here is a photo of Asher posing with the snowman we made at the park yesterday.

Over the weekend I was able to finish the last of the background buildings on the right side of the figure. I am the slightest bit unsettled by the bright red on the antenna, but I need some details in the building to compete with the bright pink and green of the flowers once they are painted in the foreground. At the same time, I don’t want the flowers lost completely in background complexity, which is why the left side and edge of the building are relatively simple. If, once the flowers are finished, I am not completely happy with the red, I will have to change it.

I took the above image with my old Sony camera, retired last October when I bought my Casio. It is probably the best image I have been able to get of this painting. I can’t give the camera all the credit, however, since there is a blindingly brilliant white layer of fresh snow and a bright sun outside lighting the studio this morning.

Today’s sketch is a sort of brainstorming session on the composition I am considering for my next project.

I want the arch of the bridge (the exact style and design of which are still completely up in the air) to complete the arc formed by the figure’s left leg and arm.  I’m seriously considering red-rock cliffs in the background.  Obviously I have some work to do as far as placing the figure in a believable location is concerned, but I’ve got plenty of time to mull it over while I finish ‘The Letter’.

Here’s a quick little sketch of Asher and me at the art festival in Spring City last year.

Now would be a good time to begin sending in sketches for March’s Guest Sketchbook.   All submissions are welcome, of course.

Ladies  and  Gentlemen (and any self-aware, machine-based lifeforms of the future), today’s  sketch:

Over the long weekend, Sara, Asher and I drove four and a half hours south to warm up in St, George. The parade of homes was going on, which is usually fairly interesting given the unusual flexibility afforded an architect in the red-rock desert of southern Utah. This sketch is of one of the homes featured, part of a small community in Ivans, just outside of St. George called Kayenta. There was also an Art festival going on in Keyenta, which is basically built around three galleries. Not surprisingly, most of the Art in the show was of the southwestern landscape variety.

Kayenta is a visually stunning place set at the base of an amazing red-rock cliff near the mouth of Snow Canyon. The vista opposite the cliffs is an expansive mountain landscape. All of the homes are designed and built so as to feel as if sculpted out of the red cliffs around them. They are all windows, and every room seems to continue right out into the surrounding vista. Some of the homes are even built around large, functional Artist’s Studios. Definitely not for everyone, especially those who don’t like it hot and dry or are partial to more classical architecture, but I love it.

Today’s sketch is a quick little portrait of Sara’s brother, Alex.

Something a little different for today’s sketch…

Yup, no figures.

Without further ado…today’s sketch.

Yesterday was my birthday, and what better way to spend it than working. Seriously. If you can call painting work (which I do… for tax purposes and to avoid that socially unacceptable ‘loafer’ title). I finished the rest of the clouds, those on the right side of the piece, and am now poised to attack the remaining two buildings in the background.

As for today’s art-related activities, I happen to have a new sketchbook entry. This particular pose may very well find its way into my next painting along with a nice arc of steel bridge and perhaps some red rock cliffs.

Today’s sketch, erroneously dated the 8th, is of Asher asleep in the car with his ‘Ugly Doll’, IceBat. These things have to be the coolest dolls ever.

Also, here is a slightly better detail image of the newly finished clouds from yesterday’s ‘The Letter’ update.