The first phase of the mural project is to prepare the original artwork of the final sketch. This was done with a Sanford Uniball Micro pen, a Sharpie fine point pen and a Pentel sign pen on 140# Arches hot press watercolor paper. The size is 14" x 20". It will be enlarged to fit on a 9' x 11' wall using a projector.
I was able to do a few sketches this week. It is always a challenge to carve out a few minutes during the rigors of the day to make a drawing, and many times the best opportunities are while waiting. In these cases: waiting to pick up my son, and waiting for my car to get washed (on two separate occasions). That's why I am rarely without my sketchbook.
For my portable studio these days I am using a vintage Art Bin, a throwback to my days in art school. This one is perfect: it has ample room for brushes, paints, my Holbein folding metal palette, pans, pencils and everything else I need.
I am working on a wall mural for Rameen's work station that will be a black and white line drawing of downtown Los Angeles as seen from the City Hall observation deck.
I finished my model this weekend. All that is left now is to complete the landscaping.
Here is some recent work done this past weekend: The top image is a painting of the Arlington Garden in Pasadena. Below that is my folding metal Holbein palette after the session. I did a few previous attempts that I was not happy with, which are shown in the third image. And finally some study sketches.
Here are some recent pages from my sketchbook. A few of them are from the driver's seat while waiting in traffic, at the car wash, or in line at In N Out Burger.
My brother Jim has a cabin in the Colorado mountains. It is a beautiful place nestled in among aspen and pine trees. He is in the process of enlarging it with a great room and began the design process with a scale model.
He wanted some design advice, so we spent an hour texting back and forth: he explaining his ideas and me rapidly sketching them and sending them back. The result of this little design charrette is shown above: a shed style addition with clerestory windows facing north, a stone fireplace, and a little deck facing east.
Here is the completed train table. My friend Yung made it for me using birch plywood, poplar, and douglas fir. It is perfect, almost too nice for a train table.
I will be attaching the track directly to the wood and leaving the layout as a nice piece of furniture suitable for the living room. As for now though, it has a nice place in my studio, under a series of train station paintings from my collection.
I finished the freight depot addition yesterday. Those familiar with the real station will notice that I have shortened the structure be removing the section between the freight depot and the station office.
Here are some progress photos of this weekend's work. I finished blocking out all of different station components using thin card stock, which I later painted with a thin wash of watercolor in order to get a sense of the finished station, and I built the final entry arch and trainmen's room.
