Crealde Urban Sketching Tent

Posted on by Thor

One of the first assignments my Urban Sketching students get at Crealde School of Art is trying to sketch this outdoor tent. The day starts with a lesson in 1 point and two point perspective and then we go outside and sketch the tent.

There is a lake behind Crealde and the far shore gives a clear indication of where the horizon line would be in a sketch. Before students get too far into their sketches, I visit each one individually and give them a thumbnail sketch to indicate what features I would look for if I were to attempt the sketch from their angle.

Sometimes we just work in pen and ink and sometimes we push further and use watercolor. It depends on the vibe of the students. Each class tends to focus on one premise which is rolled into what we learned the previous week.

This is the perfect time of year to attend the Urban Sketching Class since the weather is so cool. In most classes we are outside exploring the camp us or heading out to a location to sketch. Past locations have included, a dog park, bowling alley, Panera’s, and antique car meet ups. The possibilities on a Sunday morning could be endless with enough research.

If you are interested in improving your skills and joining an international movement of like minded artists you should come on out. We meet for 3 hours and the goal is always to push the sketches to a level of completion with line, value and color. These are sketches not something for a museum wall. When you stop worrying about the final result you tend to take more chances and surprisingly the sloppy experiments are what works best. In my work the sketches are almost always populated with people, so in one class students sketch one another.

I just got an email from Crealde and unfortunately the January 19 series of classes have been canceled but you should think about signing up of the next series of sessions starting in the spring. I can’t figure out why sketching on location is not more popular in Orlando. I have been sketching everyday on location since 2009. I just did the math, that is 16 years. It is a habit that keeps me motivated and inspired each and every day.

Today I will be unpacking all the sketchbooks I have filled over the past 16 years. They take up a shelf and a half on my handmade bookcase. I also discovered I have tons of wood stretchers and raw canvas. It might be a good time to start working on larger paintings on location. I am now in a rural Lake County Florida, so I will soon be hiking into the woods to sketch and perhaps work on larger paintings. This is an exciting time, much like a residency. This new location should inspire me to take more chances moving forward while still working on the COVID Dystopia book.

Cabaret: Third Pass

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With this pass at the Cabaret poster for the Orlando Shakes, the MC, or puppet master was added. The title was also changed to distress it as you might see in  run down seaside signage with illuminated bulbs. We considered the same image without the strings.

The revised title treatment was rejected and we went back to the brighter colors which popped more. The odd this about this version is that the title was moved down to cover the heads of the dancers. This was an unexpected change but I ran with it.

Notes I got on this version resulted in the final poster image.

The Orlando Shakes will take you back to Berlin in the late 1920’s where, inside the Kit Kat Club, a spotlight shines on the colorful, gritty, and hedonistic lives found inside. Don’t miss this landmark musical that is filled with iconic songs and electrifying dance, including Wilkommen, Don’t Tell Mama, Maybe This Time, Money and the title number Cabaret. It’s an astonishing and eye-popping tale that has renewed resonance in today’s political climate. Tickets are online.

Cabaret: Second Pass

Posted on by Thor

A request was made to have the central dancer look out at the viewer.It feels awkward. It could be made to work if I adjuster her entire gesture. This breaking of the 4th wall was rejected.

At this point a decision was made to incorporate the MC as a puppet master. The title would have to be lowered to make room for him. I embrace big changes and assume they will improve the final result.

The Orlando Shakes will take you back to Berlin in the late 1920’s inside the Kit Kat Club, where a spotlight shines on the colorful, gritty, and hedonistic lives found inside. Don’t miss this landmark musical that is filled with iconic songs and electrifying dance, including Wilkommen, Don’t Tell Mama, Maybe This Time, Money and the title number Cabaret. The show runs from February 5 to March 2, 2025. Tickets are online.

Henry VI Part 2: She Wolf of France: First Pass

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The first sketch for Henry VI featured Margaret of Anjou. My depiction had her head largely covered in a metal mesh with her hair disheveled.

Most elements of this design would progress towards the final painting. However The She Wolf of France needed work. I wanted something more angular and cubist to the armor. I sought inspiration in classic sculptures.

Margaret was known as the she wolf of France because of her fierce and determined nature during the Battle of the Roses.

The play involves a love triangle, a plot to murder, and a rebellion which are all part of this thrilling tale – centered on the Wars of the Roses! In this raw, “Bare Bard / Original Practices” production, Orlando Shakes’ actors will perform the play with less than 40 hours of rehearsal, no designers, and no director – just like the acting companies of Shakespeare’s time! Don’t miss this exciting next chapter in Orlando Shakes’ popular Fire & Reign Series. The show runs through January 19, 2025. Tickets are Pay what you will, between $15 and $50.

Video Edit

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My friend, Stella P. Arbelaéz Tascón had notes for James Parris, a former animation artist, now a director, His production company, Paper Tiger Films, produced a SECAC Film which was a short documentary about the SECAC Art Conference which is a national non-profit organization devoted to education and research in the visual arts. James wrote and edited the film. When I joined Disney Feature Animation on the production of Pocahontas, James was my lead for the clean up on the character of Powhatan. He checked all of my drawings and offered plenty of advice as he refined my crude beginners mistakes.

Together James and Stella worked on extending some shots and refining others. Stella turned the laptop screen towards me and James saw me for the first time in 30 years. Since I had completed a short animated film we discussed film festivals. James doesn’t believe film festivals benefit viewership. He prefers to release his short films on You Tube where he can keep track of viewership. Film Festivals are definitely a money pit. I had released film about COVID that had a very short window where people could accept my dystopian visions.

Crealde Parking

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It has been a while since I taught a Crealde Urban Sketching class.

Our class was usually held outside and we would sketch the Crealde campus. Each class was built around a single premise and we built our sketches up from line to line and wash then fully developed sketches.

I never forced my style of sketching on my students, preferring instead to encourage what is unique in each of their sketches. When we shared our sketches at the end of each class the variety was always something to celebrate. I would always do one sketch myself but I would walk it around and share it with each student at each phase to show progress. I would then also do thumbnail sketched with suggestions to share what I would focus on with each of their unique views.

I will be moving further north in January, so I am not sure if it will be worth it to drive back to Winter Park on Sunday’s to conduct classes.

Milton Damage

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Hurricane Milton caused some major damage in Florida.

An artist friend of mine, lives north west of Lake Apopka and I have been helping her constructing a large sculpture.

There are many tall pine trees in her back yard and Hurricane Milton knocked over a bunch of them. Luckily none of them hit her house, but one is leaning precariously against a shed and several other fell over taking out fencing.

My friend and I both had work accepted at FusionFest over the Thanksgiving weekend. She volunteered to paint on location during FusionFest. I thought I had a cold after going to the Pittsburgh Shorts Film Festival to promote COVID Dystopia. I actually was infected with COVID-19 for the first time when flying back to Orlando on Delta flight 1652. I tested myself the first night back and now know that the first test was a false negative. I proceeded to help with My friiend’s project thinking I just had a cold. I didn’t feel healthy enough to go to Fusion Fest.

Later in the day I sketched this tree which had been uprooted by Milton. The ripped open root ball reminded me of how my insides felt. COVID is an airborne vascular disease that affects the heart, arteries and fuses brain cells killing off grey matter. It effects just about every organ in the body. The “cold” had knocked me on my ass. The sun started to set as I worked on the sketch, so I rushed to finish before it got too cold out. The ripped open root ball reminds me of the unseen damage being done to my inner vascular system.

H5N1 killing California Cattle

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The H5N1 virus has been infecting America chickens. Over 90 million chickens have been killed because of the infection. There is some concern that the virus might be in eggs sold at the supermarket. Cooking eggs at a temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit should kill the virus. It is best not to make runny eggs.  Chicken dropping are added to cattle feed and that might be how the virus spread to cows.

In Tulare, County California, cow carcasses are piling up on the roadsides. Farmers and veterinarians are surprised by the high mortality rates from H5N1 infections. Overt 600 cow herds have been infected. There are now 31 confirmed human cases in California. The virus has been found in raw milk which is still being sold cross America.

Since a 1970 outbreak in Hongcong, there have been 970 Human cases of H5N1. Of those cases 470 people died. That is a case fatality rate of about 48%. COVID -19 had a mortality rate of about 0.8% which resulted in well over a million Americans dying. More than 100 million birds have died due to the virus since 2022. It is hard to imagine the human devastation if the numbers are right and it starts spreading between people.

H5N1 has being detected in wastewater across America. It has been detected in Saint Petersburg, Florida. Tests being done on Ferrets are not promising. Ferrets closely resemble humans in the way they react to influenza infections. The virus has causing very severe disease in the lab animals. Media has been reporting mild cases in humans so far, except the teen in Canada who is in intensive care. One of the symptoms is conjunctivitis, or bloody eyes.

COVID -19 had a mortality rate of about 0.8% which resulted in well over a million seven hundred thousand Americans dying. more than 100 million birds have died due to the virus since 2022.

There have been over 55 confirmed cases of H5N1 in humans. Many work in the dairy industry, but there are some cases that are a mystery. A child in Canada is in critical condition and the cause of infection a complete mystery. The virus infecting this child has shown an ability for its binding receptors to infect humans. That fact alone is concerning. The possibility that H5N1 is airborne is a very real possibility.  If the virus starts to spread from human to human the outbreak will ignite.

My biggest concern is that the incoming administration will make all the same mistakes it made with the COVID-19 pandemic. The easiest action for any politician to take in a public health emergency is to deny, deflect and minimize the outcome. The stakes are much higher if H5N1 becomes a pandemic. People have decided that any form of mitigation is an infringement on the or personal freedom. They yearn  to be infected and to infect others.

Student Demo

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I always try to encourage my online students to sketch and paint everyday objects. Youngest students are often engrossed in sketching video game characters. My hope is to help them realize that those characters are made possible thanks to direct observations from life. In one class I ask the students to simply sketch and paint what is on or next to the desk they are seated at.  I sketch and paint along with then so they get to see my process in blocking in a composition. In this case I just painted the cup of water I had on my desk. I kind of took a few sips of water changing the water level in the cup.

This was created at the golden hour of sunset, which accounts for the orange glow on the illuminated wood. Indoor light was a bit cooler but the desk lamp gave my other mug a warm glow as well. Convincing students that the detail and values inside of objects is as important if not more important that the outline of the object is the greatest  challenge.  It takes time for students to see and start finding ways to recreate the values and textures needed to make everyday objected believable.

I am integrating digital into my everyday sketches more often now. Doing traditional watercolors in sketchbooks feels good when I finished the sketchbook and file it away on the bookshelf, but digital gives richer colors without any worry of making a mess. My heart may be analog, but the work continues to shift towards the digital. What I fear about digital is finding work getting lost on old hard drives or the work shared online may one day just disappear. I prefer a paper trail with art and finance.

Flight out of Pittsburgh

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Flying out of Pittsburgh there was a layover in Detroit. I knew I was heading home when I saw Mickey Mouse on someone’s luggage. One other person was masked in the waiting area. He was Japanese where there is no stigma against masking. I charged my iPhone so I would have juice to order a Lyft once I landed.

The flight to Orlando was the most crowded flight I took. I was glad that I was in an exit row and because of that I had plenty of leg room to stretch out and relax. My hope was to hunker down and sleep. I tried to sleep but really didn’t succeed. Two rows behind me, several people were coughing up their lungs. The risk of exposure rises on longer flights.

After getting back to the studio, the next morning my throat was scratchy and I started coughing. Of course my first thought was COVID, so I tested myself. Thankfully the pink Binax test came back negative. What I assumed was a cold however, knocked me on my butt for several days. I am still snuggled up on the couch under a blanket. I was experiencing shivers. I haven’t been sick for over 4 years. I forgot what it was like to be out of commission.

The days after the flight out of Pittsburgh, I felt like crap. I used an at home test kit and it came up negative, so I chalked it up to a bad cold. However after several days of hard work outside, with a friend. I returned to the studio and decided to test one more time just to be sure. That test came up positive for COVID-19. It was a strong solid red line. I was infected on Delta Flight 1652 flying back into Orlando fro Detroit. I  have to wonder how many others are spreading the virus around Orlando after that flight.

In the time I thought I had a cold, I managed to infect a friend which I feel horrible about. I now know I need to up my masking game when I travel by plane. The problem is that I have facial hair which breaks the seal of the mask. There are also small travel sized HEPA filters which I could pack in my travel bag and run during the flight. Though I take basic precautions, I now know they are not enough. When battling something as small an airborne virus, more precautions are needed. I need to buy new N-95 masks and I will have to shave my beard any time I travel. I may even decide to get goggles when I board a plane. More likely I will stop promoting my animated short film COVID Dystopia in person. Packing into a sardine can in the sky isn’t smart.

Since I am so sick, I decided to not go to FusionFest to sketch.  I still feel it is important to keep others safe, so I am social isolating at my  friend’s house. I was helping this friend with a huge outdoor sculpture, Since the first test came back negative, I continued to help. My friend however caught what I have, which is, as it turns out, COVID-19. I want to keep others safe but with my first infection I managed to fail horribly. I am social isolating in my studio now and will test myself again in 5 days.

So, is is safe to fly during an ongoing pandemic? F*ck NO. I managed to evade COVID for 5 years and now I have to up my game to evade it for the next 5 years.

We might be done with COVID, but COVID is not done with us.