With an auto repair that will cost over $3,000 I decided to take a look under my hood to see if I could spot any problems. The only item I have ever touched is the oil dipstick in the lower left corner. All the other wires, tubes, nuts, clamps and hoses are a mystery. I figured if I could see the problem then I should be able to fix it with some Duck Tape. To me everything looks in order.
Oil Change
I decided to go in to my Nissan dealership today for a long overdo oil change. The waiting room area had a window that overlooked the actual work space. Donovan sat reading a good book and another costumer surfed the web with a laptop. It turned out that my truck has a few leaks and the grand total for the repairs would be $3,500! I called my wife and she suggested I go to her mechanic for a second opinion. That second mechanic claimed he would do the work for 10% less than my dealership. When I got to this second mechanics shop however I find that he has a backlog of work and at the least the repair would take 2 days. That means I would have to pay to rent a car for 2 days. I came back to the studio with just the oil changed and now I need to decide what to do next.
Pirates Dinner Adventure
I wandered over to International Drive again to give the tablet another try. This pirate ship is one block East of International on Canada Avenue. As I walked towards the theater I saw 2 pirates on the street corner trying to entice tourists to get tickets. I thought, what luck I get to draw some pirates today. Unfortunately they turned on there heels and headed for the stage door before I had a chance to put a single line down on the tablet. As I was sketching a young British tourist who was lost asked me if I knew where Walgreen’s was. I didn’t have a clue.
Sketch Crawl Old Railroad Station
This is the last sketch from Saturdays Sketch Crawl. This was done from a parking garage overlooking Church Street Station. While doing this sketch I noticed a black purse on the railing of the garage. Inside the purse was a small zebra stripped wallet with a drivers license and a credit card. Rather than trust the garage weekend guard I figured I would return the items myself. I tried to find the person online and in a phone book with no luck, but of course the license has an address so I will mail it off. I considered driving to save postage but the place is like 50 miles over by Tampa. So today I will take a trip to the post office.
Swan Boat Dock Lake Eola
Although I did some sketches today of my wife’s horse riding lesson, I will post another drawing from yesterdays sketch crawl. The little girl had an ice cream and soda. When the wife returned with some more food, the couple argued a bit. Dad didn’t want to pay $12 to float around on some Swan. Gabi over at sketchcrawl.com said that this was his favorite crawl sketch, so it would be a shame to not post it here.
Sketch Crawl Orlando
Well today was the Twenty First World Wide sketch Crawl and Orlando is participating for the first time. Two other artists showed up to meet me at Church Street Station Paul and Don. Paul did a sketch of the old Steam train at the Old Railroad Depot and apparently was constantly being asked for money by homeless. I tried my Tablet out but made the mistake of sitting in the small shadow of a street sign. Within a half an hour, I was fully in the sun and the battery gave out half way thru that sketch. I ended up loosing about a half hours work since the sketch reverted back to its last saved state.
I then pulled out the old trusty pen and ink and got to work. I only did 3 sketches but I am pleased with the results. Today I will post the first which is of the Church Street Ballroom. As I sketched the lawn keepers busily blew cut grass and leaves into the street.
21st World Wide Sketch Crawl
Only one day to go until the twenty first world wide sketch crawl. Orlando artists will meet at the Old Orlando Railroad Station at Church Street Station at 10am. I will be working with my tablet until the battery dies and then it is pen and paper for the rest of the day. I am looking forward to a solid day of sketching and hopefully meeting some local artists.
For anyone who. like me, does not like paying for parking, I tend to drive east through downtown until the suburban streets loose the parking meters. That adds some walk time to my trip but I can use the exercise.
Construction South Street
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.