cuenca

Cuenca is an old city perched between two deep river gorges. Fantastic landscape and architecture and a sketchers heaven if it wasent for the torrid temperatures!

sketches from buena vista, co

south main development, buena vista, co, originally uploaded by mike thomas.

Finally did some on-site sketching. I was in Buena Vista, CO for the long weekend, and made the time to do some en plein auto drawings of the town. I drew from the car for two reasons: when the wind wasn't blowing gale-force, it was too hot. Plus, I was working on-the-run.

shed and courthouse, buena vista, co, originally uploaded by mike thomas.

Out and About in Istanbul

I've been taking an intensive Turkish course which has been occupying most of my time during the week except for breaks and the metro ride to and from class. I love languages, and I find Turkish to be particularly fun. What makes Turkish so different is it's reliance on vowel harmony and agglutination. Agglutination is when you attach affixes to a word— in Turkish there are affixes for tenses, the possessive, and loads of other grammatical things with names that escape me. The vowel harmony is what makes the language so musical— words with vowels sounded in the front of the mouth will have affixes with similar sounding vowels, and the same goes for words with vowels sounded more in the throat. On top of that, there are no genders and everything is phonetic.

* The following three sketches were done today around town *

Back on the Move:

Yep - it's more sketch-portraits of British folk on trains to show you.



They were all tinted afterwards in Photoshop, just like the last batch.



This train home from London was so late and long-winded that, towards the end, everyone in the carriage got off except me, so I had to resort to drawing my own feet:



I am really pleased with the way the limited colour tints make them look like screen prints - completely unplanned and so a nice surprise!

One Day With Tia @ Tia's Singapore

Being with Kiah Kiean in Penang showed me the Penang I never realised exist from past visits. That made Penang a very charming, full of life and charactors that I would re-visit any time.
The same (good) thing happened again when Tia brought Pramote and I around Singapore on 17 Jun. Tia pick us from North bank of Singapore River around mid-day and the following 9 hours (goodness, it'full day's work!) was, as much as I know, my best time in Singapore. Thank you again, Kiah Kiean/Cheang Jin and Tia for for time and such wonderful company in Penang and Singapore.

The morning before meeting Tia, my artist friend, Pramote and I spent a couple of hours at the famous Singapore River (comparable to Singapore Sling?) The view of those skyscapers was a real visual treat. The river was so clean albiet quiet. I wonder if I would prefer it the way it used to be or this spotless version.
Some thirty years ago, Singapore River was bustling with all kind of river boats. Though messy but was full of lives with all manners of activities. Another type of visual treat, I supposed.

Above is the row of shop houses well preserved but under-used, under-appreciated as they served as eating outlets that mainly active after sun-set. Nevertheless, it is still a lovely sight one love to see any time.
And below, the energetic, imposing neighbourhood.


The heart of Singapore financial hub is in the form of an open green space above one of the underground mass transit interchange. I was surprised to servive my sketching session there (the day after meeting with Tia) unscathed. It was lunch hours and the crowd was at its peak pace. Another view of those skyscrapers were from the front of nearby Fullerton Hotel, by the foot of the steel cables, pedestrianised Cavanaugh Bridge.

The real first day in Singapore started when Tia pick us up and brought us right to the great lunch! It was a full scale Japanese buffet that took us many many trips of serving followed by a long exchange on our sketching activities. Tia also showed Pramote and I her very first sketchbook down to her very organised and systematic handling of her sketching gears, etc. Thanks again, Tia for the wonderful lunch. We left the restaurant well after 3 PM, when they really had to close for the afternoon.
Suntec City Convention Centre, where we had lunch, sits on a reclaimed land along the south eastern waterfront stretch of the island. From SCCC, we proceeded to the more romantic side of Singapore, at the fringe of Chinatown. With many of its 2-3 storeys decorative shop houses on gentle contour and bends, Club street area was Tia's (and mine) favorite. Here we visited a small and very special book shop (Tia's friends' of course) Polymath & Crust where Kenny and Carol's love of books was very contagious! It was unfortunate that we did not have time to do any sketch, except the one Tia and I did from the opposite end of shop, below:

It was now late in the afternoon but no, that's far from the end of day. Tia decided to take us for a good time in the pleasantly cooled-down evening at the esplanade. This is where the famous performing art center -The Durian- sit comfortably surrounded by the happy crowd, from the water edge's steps to Harry's, where we had some cool drinks.
The sketch below was the waterfront Integrated Recreation Center, under construction. This is one of the two major entertainment projects that includes casinos among others facilities. The IRC sketch was done on the next day from across the bay near the symbolic Sea Merlion where over 20 construction tower cranes were at work simultaneously!

That evening at the esplanade, a couple of flying objects misteriously appeared above the wide river mouth. One of them flew so close to the water level it sent up fume of fine mist over a large area. And a few moments later, as seen above over some cool drinks, those flying objects came back around with huge flag of Singapore like a magic show. Oh, they were just rehearsing for the upcoming National Day Parade on August 9.
Boy, was I impressed!

Impressed!, but no, this is not all. I would need a part TWO for my Singapore visit. There's more about Singapore, my next post would be more relaxing, I guess. How about a stroll along Orchard Road?
Cheers... from Asnee

Hot Dog Eating Contest

In Coney Island, Nathans hosts a 10 minute hot dog eating contest and this year Joey Chestnut won by eating 68 wieners. The Orlando take on this contest is a bit different in that the contestants have 10 hours in which to eat the hot dogs. When I arrived at Dandelion Communitea Cafe, Brian Feldman had eaten only 3 hot dogs and he only took a few bites from another politely using a knife and fork. If anyone asked who was winning, they would respond with, "How do you define a winner?" They were not competing it seems based on simple numbers but it was a more refined competition based on savoring the moment. Caroline Johnson, who is from Spain, was reading excerpts from a novel while Brian and Zac Alfson slowly tasted their vegan hot dogs. Caroline was also a contestant since she had a small mountain of uneaten hot dogs in front of her, but she never tried a hot dog while I was sketching. Eight hours into the competition, the contestants had honestly lost count of the number of hot dogs eaten. The hot dogs were wrapped in a pita like bun called a Snuggles which are made locally in Orlando by Toufayan Bakeries.
Dawn Weleski, from the Pittsburgh Artists Registry, acted as the MC. She would periodically interview members of the audience. She would ask the audience member to sit in the blue chair to the left of the staging area and then ask them to wear an uncle Sam hat and white beard. Brian's mom and sister showed up late in the competition to watch the relaxed proceedings. Another announcer named John Thiesen took the mic and decided to MC shirtless. He threw the sweaty shirt right at me and I caught it and then didn't know what to do with it. Putting it on the table would be unsanitary yet dropping it on the floor would be rude. I decided to drop it on the table, and the two girls eating salad right next to me didn't seem to mind.
From here Terry and I headed downtown for the Lake Eola Fireworks display. There, during the fireworks show on mortar must have fallen over because it fired off not into the air, but straight across the lake at the audience. It blew up just yards from the shore sending hot embers showering over the crowd. I do not think anyone was hurt.
-Analog Artist Digital World

Scooter rally

On the ferry to Rothesay a whole squad of scooters on the way to Port Bannatyne for a rally. When they started to rev up to start they started to buzz their horns, it was cool to see some kids joining in with their bicycle bells.

The Millenium Bridge from the north

The very popular view if the Milennium Bridge in London is from the platform at the southern as you turn to go down to walk down the Tate Modern.

I drew this alternative view - from the north - while sat on one of the benches on Peter's Hill (just above Victoria Street and just below St Paul's Cathedral) on one evening last week. I'm looking down the remainder of Peter's Hill to the Millenium Bridge and the Tate Modern.

There were hordes of people out and about as the heatwave continued through the early evening.

You can see the Tate Modern and its tower in the background.

A family of peregrines nest on top of the Tate Modern tower. Apparently they favour the higher buildings which have a flat roof.

Weiler Building

Weiler Building, Victoria, originally uploaded by mc_bds.

A fairly quick and loose pencil sketch of the Weiler building.
I liked the aspect of this sketch - sitting in a doorway looking uphill towards the street above.
I can imagine the offices in this old building don't turn over too often, those big generous arched windows look out over the inner harbour with all of it's maritime and aviation activity and life.
I don't mind the distortions and inaccuracies in this sketch as it's compensated by a sketchy immediacy I think.
The preservation architect who restored this building and several others in the immediate neighbourhood happened to walk by and took an interest in the sketch. We had a nice chat. He mentioned that his first thought was "oh my, another street person sitting in a doorway" - he seemed thrilled to see a sketch of a building he obviously has a strong connection to.

Sketches of Statues in London II

This is my second statue sketch and this time it is of a great painter, Whistler.



I was drawn to this statue because it is near my studio around Chelsea, but also because he seemed to be sketching in the statue. He has a sort of thick sketchbook in one hand and a pen/pencil in the other as he faces the River Thames, just off Battersea Bridge(Chelsea Side). I sketched this in my A4 sketch book with 4B graphite stick .



To view some of his works and where they are you can check this link

Happy Fourth!

© The Seattle Times. All rights reserved.

Like Thor, I also drew some firework tents this week. Now it's only noon, but my neighbors are already blowing up a bunch of noisemakers on my street as I type this post. I love the spirit of 4th of July but I can't wait till July 5 for some quiet time! See more drawings at my Seattle Times blog. 

it's not easy being green

Toad Hollow, Davis. Did I ever tell you the story of the Davis Toad Tunnel? Several years back, the powers-that-be needed to build a big road right through the middle of the home of a large population of toads (it might have been frogs but the alliteration of toads with tunnels is nicer). The city was, er, swamped with complaints. They decided that to help the toads get across the road (remember the game Frogger? Very influential in urban planning) they would build a tunnel under the road, the ‘toad tunnel’. Nice idea. But then all the local snakes thought, hello, they built us a nice tunnel, that was nice of them, and it has a free constant supply of toads for us to eat too. So the city thought, ok we’ll put lights in the tunnel so the toads can see if there are any snakes lurking. But the snakes just waited outside, grabbing them as they popped out. So the city decided to fool the snakes and build a little house – a post office, in fact – for the toads to go into the access the tunnel. Nice idea. Toads delighted. And then all the toads starting burning their backs on the lightbulbs in the tunnel, which were hot and not the energy-efficient ones you get nowadays, and the city just said, oh leave it then, we gave you a flippin' post office, write and complain to your senator or something, we have better things to do than worry about a load of bloody frogs or whatever you are. Of course that lost them the amphibian vote (the famous tadpole-mom demographic), but, y’know, in local politics those are the risks you have to take.

Incidentally, they really are pretend solar panels on the roof. This is Davis, after all.