Biker Once More

Motorcycle with backpack strapped to it
Azula loaded for an art ride

I bought a motorcycle last October. I told the wife I needed one and she agreed. It’s a 2011 Yamaha Stryker 1300. I will be cruising along wondering why everyone is going so slow before I look down to discover I’m going 90 and couldn’t tell.

I’ve been unemployed (again) for a little over a month. After a morning of filling out applications, sending resumes, I decided to load the art bag on her and take her out for a spin.

30 minutes down the road from me is No Label Brewery. Founded in 2010 they are in an old rice grainery. I thought the grainery would make a nice sketch so that’s what I did.

rice grainery
No Label Brewing Co.
ink and wash sketch
Ink and wash sketch

I did most of it live on Twitch, but it was difficult to get the camera to stay still, especially when the wind picked up. However, I did manage to video most of the process so watch for it on the you tube. I’ll update this later with the link.

Painting Class: Fire Hydrant Finale

Tonight in Painting Class I finished up the fire hydrant example I have been working on. We talked about pushing the colors, using quality materials, atmospheric perspective and the whole lot. Immediately after I turned the cameras off, I decided to ink it. I'm really glad I did.

The class is online and free at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/19435761
The password for the class can be found in the current newsletter here: https://www.artisticbiker.com/newsletter

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In album The Classroom (1 photo)

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Daily Drawings

A couple of years ago I committed myself to the first 200 drawing challenges from the Everyday Matters group on yahoo. I made it to 152 before I let myself get distracted. The purpose of the group is to point out that it's the every day matters that make every day matter. The mundane is what makes life special. Today, I decided to pick it back up and look for other sources online as well so that I will be challenged to draw every day. It is how I want to start and end every day.

There are about thirty that I haven't posted, but you can find the bulk of the previous drawings here: https://www.artisticbiker.com/the-gallery/every-day-matters/

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In album Daily Drawings (1 photo)

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5 Minute Nudes

NUDITY ALERT
Duh! :)
I have this continuing project that I like to do called 100 Days. The premise is that if you want to get better at anything, do it every day for 100 days. It doesn't matter what you want to get better at: drawing, painting, public speaking, dancing, making love, WHATEVER. Do it for 100 days in a row, even if only for a few minutes, and you can't help but improve. After the 100 days, take a break, try something else, or just do it again, especially if you are trying to improve your love making…

On Twitter, I'm tagging it #100DaysArt because 100days was already being used by another group and the nude drawings were freaking some people out. Speaking of nudes, back to the point. This time around I'm drawing 5 minute nudes. I find that I am not satisfied with my ability to capture the figure quickly, especially a dynamic figure. So I am limiting my time to capture as much detail as possible. The nudes are "figure models" from around the internet. I have found a few good sources such as posespace.com where the nudes are purely artistic and in common everyday poses. I have also come across many other sites that I won't list here, but let me just say "artistic nudes" searches bring up some interesting poses and closeups.

Anyway, just to get the G+ album caught up, I'm posting the first 37. I'll make this a weekly posting so you can track the progress with me. There will be rough spots along the way, but in the end I believe it will make me a better artist.

*Please note the dates written on each one as Google didn't load them in order. If anyone knows how to sort photos in an album, I would LOVE to learn.

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In album 5 minute nudes (37 photos)

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Drawing Class 8: 2b or not 2B

Tonight in Drawing Class I gave a brief explanation of what all those numbers mean on the ends of your pencils, why you would choose one over the other and why it matters. I touched briefly on the concept of surface "tooth" and grain.

To illustrate the point, I used one of Boy2's toy cars with different pencils clipped to it to draw lines across a page. This demonstrates how the darkness of the pencil varies while the working pressure remains relatively constant, thus preserving "tooth".

The class is free and online at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/19418035
The password to get into the class is in the newsletter here: https://www.artisticbiker.com/newsletter

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