Posthumous

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Phoenix Tears Productions presents, Posthumous an immersive interactive Zoom show where you act as investors or new employees and through your choices take one of five paths and cause one of ten endings. Audience is encouraged to interact, participate, ask questions, talk to Posthumous employees, and directly affect the story.

I sat in and sketched a beta version of the show which I imagine is the equivalent of a dress rehearsal. After a quick introduction to the Zoom interface, I was moved into a zoom meeting room for new employees. There were about 30 people in the zoom meeting to start who were new employees, prospective clients, or potential investors. Having so many people in the meeting set me into panic mode as I scrambled to fit everyone on the page. I probably wasn’t the ideal new hire since I was sketching the entire time.

The general premise is that Posthumous is the the biggest and best afterlife company who supplies an ideal scripted afterlife for people’s souls after they die. As part of the new research team I got to meet one of the recently deceased who was a bit disoriented. We got to experience one of her final waking life memories and began to unravel both the mystery of her death and the darker side of the Posthumous corporate culture. An amazing twist is that we were able to interact with the memory as if we were in the body of the deceased. Any questions asked would alter the memory.

I felt a little disappointed that I had lost so many people as they branched off to their own individual adventures. Slowly however people began to trickle back into our meeting to share their experiences as investors and prospective clients who had been given a tour. Giving a corporation the ability to curate death has menacing consequences and it became our responsibility to get to the bottom of a dark mystery.

Only at the end did we discover who was in the cast and who was in the audience. Those distinctions blurred and didn’t matter as we worked to unravel the corporate mystery. I fully enjoyed the experience. I certainly would have been able to contribute more if I had not been distracted with sketching, but there was a dark delicious humor to the show as a whole.

Show times are,

  • Fri., Sept. 23, 2022 at 8 p.m.,
  • Sat., Sept. 24, 2022 at 3 & 9 p.m.,
  • Sun., Sept. 25, 2022 at 1 & 7 p.m.,
  • Fri., Oct. 7, 2022 at 8 p.m.,
  • Sat., Oct. 8, 2022 at 3 & 9 p.m.
  • Sun., Oct. 9, 1 & 7 p.m.

Tickets are $35 to $45.

Crealde Sketch Demo

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This was a demo I did for my Crealde Urban Sketch class. The primary point of the demo was to use high contrast to draw the eye to what you want the viewer to look at. In this case I want the viewer to look at the wings and then the sculpture on top of the column. When there is a pure dark black color against white it becomes an eye magnet. It is hard not to look at that area.

The rest of the page was covered with quick washes and line work. Some students stayed to see the whole sketch until it was completed while I encouraged others to branch off and start their on sketch once they wanted to. Personally when I have the chance to watch an artist whose work I admire, I watch their every move. How often do they look up? How big is the pallet with how many colors. Where do they linger and where do they rush in the sketch process.

I learned quite a bit by watching a Russian artist whose work I liked. I didn’t understand a word he said, but I learned from every movement of his hands over the page. A sketch consists of millions of quick decisions and refinements of mistakes made. Words fall short in describing every flash of inspiration ad desperation that happens while a sketch is in progress. Sketching on location raises the stakes, making it necessary to make all those decisions in a compressed amount of time. In a studio an artist has a tenancy to linger and get lazy.

The next series of Urban Sketching classes starts after October 17, 2022.

 

Crealde Classroom

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Most of my Crealde Urban Sketching classes have been held outside during the pandemic. Sometimes however the weather forces us indoors. For those classes I teach the students how to populate a sketch with multiple people in an indoor setting. The lesson starts at the blackboard where I explain how to relate one figure to another in a sketch.

I put away the desks for this class so we would have a wide open space to sketch. Many students have difficulty sketching people who are behind a desk. Like most of my sketches done on location I teach the students to think about drawing the room and then adding actors to that room.

As always, I do a sketch along with the students and show them my progress at the various sates of the sketch’s progression. I have a love affair with line and I try and convey that passion to the students. Watercolor washes are a fun afterthought to pull together all the elements that have been locked in place with line.

The next series of Sunday Crealde Urban Sketching classes starts after October 17, 2022.

Orange County Regional History Center

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My advanced Urban Sketching student and I went for a sketch excursion at the Orange County Regional History Center (65 E Central Blvd, Orlando, FL). I leave it up to my student to decide what to sketch.  She was intrigued by this Orlando Air Base display. With this display about 1/4 of an airplane fills the gallery while manikins inspect the wheel well.

The challenge was to make the plane and wing appear huge in the small gallery space. I opted to make it clear that the plane was enclosed in the room. The sketch isn’t absolutely accurate. There was a platform that the airman stood on but I didn’t think it helped to tell the story, so I left it out. I felt that what helped make the plane parts feel massive was the dark shadow they cast on the wall.

The display tells the story of the Orlando Naval Training Center which was established in 1966. For about 30 years the training center was in operation. The training center was fully operational between 1968 and 1994. More than 652,000 recruits passed through the facility. After being closed and demolished, the site became the Baldwin Park neighborhood. Blue Jacked Park in Baldwin Park has two memorials  dedicated to the Naval Training Center, the Lone Sailor, and the Blue Jacket Recruit.

 

Crealde Outdoors

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I conduct my Crealde Urban Sketching classes outdoors during the pandemic. Much of the point of the class is to get students to sketch outside or an any venue they happen to be at. I always execute a quick sketch along with the students to show them the three steps of my process. I walk around and see how they are doing three times and share what stage my sketch is at so they can see how I pace myself.

It was cloudy when we all started to sketch but the sun came out as we worked. The one woman seated on the grass and drawing on a bench ended up in the direct sunshine. I advised she take cover and she came inside the back patio cover and lay down on the shelving to finished her sketch. Despite the change of location, she did an amazing job.

One student had a very fine eye for how to use watercolor in the areas of foliage. She was the student I respected the most both for her talent, and the fact that she wore a mask for every class. I also remain masked for the entire duration of the class, it is a small sacrifice to keep my students safe.

Crealde classes start up again after October 17, 2022. I personally always love to sketch zombies and anyone who puts in the effort to dress up for Halloween.

COVID Super Dodgers

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Have you not been infected by COVID-19 yet? How is that even possible? You are a member of a very exclusive and ever shrinking club. BA-5 invaded our home when a house guest caught COVID from a summer camper. Somehow by taking simple precautions of masking hand washing and social distancing, we manged to dodge that very close bullet. At some point, we all will get infected. There are no winners in a pandemic.

Over 80% of all school children have already been infected and they brought the virus home for the parents and grand parents. As of September 13, 2020 COVID-19 has infected over 600 million people. The CDC estimated that at least 60% of all Americans have already been infected at least once. Re- infections are now the new normal.

Some of us want to keep dodging the virus. Even being fully vaccinated, there is a risk of long COVID which could drag on for months or even years. Americans are acting like the pandemic has ended. I however am still ducking and dodging for as long as is humanly possible. In grade school I enjoyed playing dodge ball. At some point however, it becomes statistically impossible to keep from getting hit.

Phantasmagoria Stumble Through

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This Phantasmagoria rehearsal was held at a dance studio in Winter Park. Walking in the back door, Phantasmagoria founder John DiDonna instantly made me feel right at home. In the front dance studio, actresses from the Tampa acting company were getting fitted for costumes. The rehearsal proper however was in the back dance studio. John had generously set up a chair in the corner of the dance studio for me.

Phantasmagoria is a Victorian Steampunk Horror storytelling group stationed right here in Central Florida. What I appreciated from the start was the love and respect every member in this company showed for each other, because everyone wore masks for the duration of the rehearsal. Things started off with dance rehearsals.At times members of the cast were almost in my lap since the room must have been a bit smaller that the stage they were preparing to perform on. Though this rehearsal was the first time all the numbers were being performed in order, the dances in particular seemed to flow effortlessly. At the end of the evening I learned that there had been nine rehearsal prior to this one. Then fight sequences were rehearsed to be sure everyone stayed safe for the darker and more violent scenes in the show.

What followed next was a full run through of the show. Actors were still, “on script” meaning they could hold the script to be sure they could see, and if needed read, their lines. John had described this rehearsal as the “Stumble through” but it went amazingly smoothly. The only time things stopped was when the many actors had to re-position themselves on the stage.

After the rehearsal, everyone sat on the stage floor for notes and a discussion. The show rehearsal had run amazingly close to the desired run time. Every actor and actress could bring up concerns to be addressed in future rehearsals. This was a true democracy with every member having a say about how things could run more smoothly.

Victorian Horror Troupe PHANTASMAGORIA brings to life 8 haunting works of terror from Edgar Allan Poe in Phantasmagoria XIII – “POE, Through the Tales Darkly”. The perfect “whimsically macabre” way to usher in the Halloween Season! ORLANDO PREMIERE at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts – October 6th, 7th & 8th.

Juggling Variants

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The COVID-19 virus continues to create new variants. Some hope that the new variants will be less infectious and less deadly. However this outcome is not guaranteed. When I shared an illustration titled “Vaxed and Relaxed” I got a response from a nurse saying, “Working in the ER now, Covid is very much not “over”. I wish people took health and safety more seriously.”

I sketched at an opening last week and I was one of two people wearing a mask in a crowd of perhaps 300 people pressed into two gallery rooms. For most Americans the pandemic is over as hospitalizations slowly decline. The virus however has plenty of human fuel as we head into the fall season, ignorant and unprepared.

A new variant following on the heals of BA 5 is variant BA 2.75 nicknamed ‘Centaurus’. Studies suggest that this variant is similar to BA 5 which is capable to dodge immunity conferred by infection and vaccination. The variant seems to have a “quite sizeable” transmission advantage over BA.5 according to Tom Wenseleers, an evolutionary biologist at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, who has modeled its rise.

The Centaurus variant has arrived in Florida in mid-August. Viral loads are once again rising in the Miami, Orlando and Tampa Bay areas. Coronavirus particles found in wastewater from Orange County, home to Orlando, have nearly doubled in the past two weeks. COVID tests conducted last month in Florida confirmed that the BA.2.75 omicron sub-variant, which fueled a recent wave of infections in India, is circulating among people in the state.

So, have you gotten your fall vaccine booster? If not, you may be juggling chainsaws with little experience.

Contour at Crealde

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At some point in each series of Crealde Urban Sketching classes we cover contour drawing. A contour drawing is done by staring at the subject and moving the line on the page slowly and deliberately as the eye moves along the edge of the subject. It is possible to do a drawing this way without ever glancing down at the page. The slower a drawing is done, the better. The hardest thing is to get students to take the leap of faith. Things tend to get wonky but there are always passages of highly well observed line work. It is easy to see if a student was glancing at the paper and judging themselves while sketching since shapes are carefully closed off.

This drawing of students was done with contour and I would glance at the page only when I needed to re-position the pencil. I like the way a pencil digs into the paper causing resistance. You can feel yourself creating the lines. I only put a couple of watercolor washes over the sketch since I wanted to focus my attention on helping the students.

I love sketching students as they create. Every artist has their own distinctive gesture as they draw. I also miss the days when people would responsibly wear masks. It meant I didn’t have to sketch noses or lips.

5 Minute Demo

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With my Crealde students, one class is devoted to just doing five minute sketches of everyone in the class. This is s demo done on the back patio, to show how much can be blocked in on a page in 5 minutes. I am training them to think of the figure as just  fraction of what goes on the page. Most beginning students don’t get much more that the head on the page in 5 minutes, so I give my students all the short cuts I use to get human proportions down fast.

I am also demonstrating how to use every tool in the toolbox to get things don fast. Sometimes a fast watercolor wash will block inn an area faster that a series of lines. This sketch also shows the strange transitional period of the pandemic. Masking requirements were lifted, but I was happy that one of my students remained masked at all times.

For the past 3 months more people have died from COVID-19 in Florida than in any other state. Hospitalizations are going down now so this peak has passed but I still believe in taking every precaution until the pandemic is over. Over 80,000 Floridians have died, many of them needlessly. Over 400 Americans are dying every day due to COVID-19  and that ha become the new norm.