Couple of San Francisco Sketches

Last week, Chris and I took a trip to San Francisco. We had an amazing time! I'm so grateful for all of the people who took time from their busy schedules to show us around. In addition to traipsing about the city, we went to the Walt Disney Family Museum and got to take tours of Dreamworks PDI and Pixar--both studios were amazing. Huge thanks to Jesse Carlson, Melanie Cordan, and Aaron Hartline for being so generous and allowing us to see the studios. You guys are awesome!


We met up with Jesse the weekend we arrived. He was kind enough to take us around the city. On Saturday night, we crossed paths with this fellow, who offered us sagely advice:




And here is an illustration of some girls traveling by bus:

Bennett Halverson

Here is an illustration I did of Bennett Halverson from Joss Whedon's short-lived Dollhouse. If you aren't familiar with the character--Summer Glau as an introverted mad-scientist with a Dr. Strangelove hand.

More Zoo Drawings

I went to the LA zoo Sunday afternoon. I didn't get a ton of drawing done, but here are a couple of sketches from the day:


A couple of gerenuks at the animal care center (brush pen and marker)


And a bongo resting along the wall of its enclosure. (Gel pen + watercolor)

Cooking!

Phooey. I was trying to be a diligent little blogger and I have faaailed.

Anyway, today's topic--cooking. I love cooking! I'm not great at it, but I really enjoy doing it. Unfortunately, we had to get the batteries for our smoke detector replaced a few months ago and since then, cooking has been something of a challenge for my roommate and me. Though the smoke detector is down the hallway and away from the kitchen, the damn thing screeches up a frenzy almost every time anyone uses the stove, oven, or worst of all the stove AND oven. I'm somewhat tall for a girl, but I'm not casually-reach-up-and-touch-the-ceiling tall. This means that anytime the deafening alarm sounds, I have to grab a chair and scramble down the hallway as fast as I can. I have, more than once, sprinted down the hallway without a chair due to my panic, and had to hop around like an idiot until I managed to turn the thing off.

This has turned me into a very paranoid cook. Sam (dear friend/roomie) has this thin and flexy cutting board that I use to fan the hot air away from the hallway when I saute things over the stove. It actually works! Unfortunately, this is how deranged I look every time I cook:

Run, Run, Run as Fast as You Can...

Every time I drive by KFC, I laugh on the inside. I know my brother and I weren't the only kids who thought the Colonel's tie was his body.

Crazy Museum Chick

Yesterday afternoon I stopped by the Norton Simon Museum for a bit to do some sketching. I did some hideous studies of sculptures and paintings and wandered around for a bit. I was there to look at the art and the beautiful garden, but I found myself distracted by the museum's visitors. There was one girl in particular who made an impression on me. She was a petite twenty-something year old wearing a bright fuchsia shirt and a powder pink miniskirt. She had gigantic legs (as in they just seemed way too big for her upper body). She was extremely enthusiastic and had an intense, childlike fascination with everything there. She was accompanied by her boyfriend, who had a lethargic demeanor and seemed mildly frightened every time his significant other found something new to be excited about. I ended up drawing a page of her in my sketchbook:

Cutesy Cute

My weekend ended on a rather sour note. Sunday I received a letter from my health insurance provider informing me that they would not grant me an individual plan because of my asthma and BMI. I've spent the last couple of days writing appeals, researching other alternatives, and filling out overly detailed application forms to other companies. Initially I was furious...now I just feel drained.

I wanted to draw some cute and happy things for myself yesterday. Things that would distract me from these unfortunate circumstances. And so I drew some cutesy hammerhead sharks in my sketchbooks.

One page of cutesy:



This is a page in my sketchbook that got out of hand. These are pencil/watercolor sharks. I threw a little digital paint on it because my watercolors were messy and they scanned even messier. (Boo!) Nevertheless, I kind of like how silly the idea is, and I'd like to do something with it. Maybe I'll make a looping animation or make a series of little paintings...