Like any boy who has played with an Erector set as a child, I am fascinated by construction sites. This building is going up on South Street and North Hughey Avenue. I used this location as my second test of the Motion Computing Tablet PC in the field. I have not been using the Tablet since it has always died within an hour using the standard battery. That means I have always had my sketch interrupted before it is complete. I just got a second battery and I could have up to 5 yours of sketching time now. I managed to crash the program Sketchbook Pro since I raised the resolution on this sketch from 100 dpi to 300 dpi. The program became sluggish and crashed when I tried to paint the sky. Rather than try a second time, I decided to paint the sky in when I got back home using Photoshop. I am pleased with the rich colors I get painting using the Tablet as opposed to the subtle effects of watercolor on paper.
I am toying with the notion of doing a sort of time lapse series of sketches all done from the same site to show the buildings progress. I noticed a parking garage near another construction site and I may go to the roof of that garage to start the series.
Strip Mall Construction
I am always surprised when I pass this construction site. With all the devastating financial news of the past months it amazes me that workers are still crawling all over this mega ritzy mall construction site. It seems that all new construction must come in Izod colors and look like it belongs in a Disney Theme park.
I am finding this sketchbook is consistently making me feel cramped horizontally. My last sketchbook had panoramic spreads. Well with this posting of one sketch a day, you get the good bad and the ugly.
Cool Treats, Magical Midway
Today I wandered over to International drive. I Drive is only about 2 miles from my home but until now I avoided it like the plague. Tourist traffic during high season can be insane. Everyone driving on International drive is lost so defensive driving is always needed. It seems ironic to me that many tourists who visit Orlando never see any part of Orlando besides International Drive and the Theme Parks. Today’s sketch was pleasant to do since the weather was so nice. I misread the name of the hotel in the background it is actually the Enclave Hotel. I guess my eyeglasses are not up to snuff. As I finished this sketch the lights and background music began to turn on.
Church Street Station
With this sketch I was sitting under the I-4 overpass looking East. To my right there was a small stash of clothes presumably from a homeless person. I did the sketch around noon and the foot traffic was light. Once in a while a truck would rumble onto Church Street to deliver produce and beer to the restaurant and pubs.
Recorders trio
My wife Terry invited over Roger and John and they played Medieval Music all this afternoon. The music is sublime in its simplicity especially when they play the final note in harmony. It was nice to be right on top of the performers as they played.
Tablet sketch
Today I was pleased to use my tablet PC as a way to show off the artwork I had created for a poster. It was very convenient to open Photoshop and then pass around the tablet so people could see the work up close. I did this sketch during that meeting. I found the pen slid around a bit to much for my taste, but perhaps in time I will adjust to that slippery tactile feel. I liked that I could keep adjusting the size of the page I was drawing on. I enlarged the width of the sketch several times. I also found that I tended to erase more often than I usually do.
Got Junk?
Today I will simply see if I can post today’s drawing. You can see this truck any time you drive down Sand Lake Road. It must be parked permanently in this spot just as advertising. I have seen it at the same spot everyday for over a month. I cant help thinking any time I see it, “Yea I got Junk, I got junk in the trunk”.
January 1, 2009 Day 1
This is a test to see if this blogging thing works.
If you are reading this than you may have probably surfed back through many sketch entries. To start I should supply the 5 W’s… Who, What, Where, When, and Why.
WHO… My name is Thomas Thorspecken.
WHAT… This is a place I will post daily sketches.
WHERE… I find myself living in Orlando Florida after a 10 year stint of working with Walt Disney Feature Animation. Disney closed the studio since they feared that people would only go to films produced with a computer. These last few years I have been rediscovering my own artistic vision. I have been using the computer more and more in my daily work. I just bought a tablet PC, and I will be posting sketches produced with that as well as sketches done by traditional means of pen on paper. That way I should over time figure out which medium works best for the work I do on location.
WHEN… there seems no better time to start then at the start of a new year.
WHY… Of late I have become more and more fascinated with artists sketch blogs online. I have been lurking and learning from those artists entries. This blog then is my way to join that discussion and perhaps a visiting artist will learn from my mistakes and triumphs.