Mon Petite Cheri in Winter Park

Posted on by Thor

I was asked by Querto Press in London to execute a series of sketches of cafe’s for a possible book about how to sketch cafes. Now Orlando isn’t Paris, but I started to search for the best cafes in the area. It is quite calming to slow down and sketch a cafe while sipping a coffee and chocolate croissant. Mon Petit Cheri (333 South Park Avenue Winter Park, FL 32789), seemed to feel like the most European cafe that I could find.

I stopped in several times doing thumbnails and final sketches for possible spreads in the book. Thumb nails are a really great way to organize your thoughts and create quick compositions without committing too much time on a finished sketch.

I also wrote copy to help in creating finalized layouts that showed ow the book might look. These spreads were shown at a London Book Fair to pitch the idea to prospective publishers. Unfortunately the book was not green lighted.

In this digital age it is nice too see that there are some places where people still sit an chat over a drink rater than hiding behind their phones to communicate with the hive. Perhaps my sketching is a similar anti social behavior that happens in slow motion, but for me sketching helps me truly feel a part of any new place I visit.

Universal City Walk Perspective.

Posted on by Thor

I went to Universal City Walk on assignment for Querto Press to do a step by step sequence that showed how I would approach a scene with multiple vanishing points. This scene has five different vanishing points because all the buildings are at different angles to each other. The book on Perspective that this sketch was done for also has a large section in the back that feature drawings done in Orlando that can be completed by students to learn about one, two and three point perspective.

I was at the location with a friend a month before but there wasn’t him to sketch. Unfortunately security at Universal Studios considers an artist stool as a threat, and I had to walk back to my car to get rid of it. Going to sketch in such a controlled environment has it’s disadvantages.

At ant theme park setting there is always a wall of tourists walking around. It becomes a challenge to decide which tourists to include and where. If someone stands a few feet in front of me blocking much of the view, they are ignored. I had a hotdog at a street vendor around the corner and the dog was quite good, but expensive. Although I used to live only a quarter mile away from City Walk, I seldom went, because I prefer to keep my distance from the tourist hoards.

Would it be possible for a madman with an assault rifle to go on a shooting spree at City Walk? Most likely the answer is yes, but he couldn’t sit on his own stool.