Gone Too Soon

Hug someone you love today. There is no telling what may happen tomorrow.

Salon and On and On and On...

As we always say in our group posts, "Greetings Salon monkeys..."
Wow it's been 6 years since Figure Drawing Salon got its start. Here's a look back at some of the posters I put together to advertise Cogswell College’s Figure Drawing Salon.
A special thank you to Reid Winfrey for originally coming up with the title, ASB and to Student Life for sponsoring this weekly drawing event after all of this time and to my friend and collegue David Perry without whom these sessions would not have become a reality. Also a gesture of thanks to the Palo Alto Model's Guild for bringing us great models all of these years. But the biggest thanks goes to all of you who have dutifly paid your three bucks each week to keep the Salon going.
I am sad to say that circumstances outside of school have prevented me from attending many of these sessions as of late but now, I think it will be entirely possible to attend the Wednesday night sessions and get back into the swing of figure drawing.
So without further ado, here's a look back to some of the doors and windows and occasionally the candy machine where these posters have been hanging all this time. Our first official poster Spring of '03.
Note the ongoing reference to Officers Perry and Jackson. If you'd ever had storyboarding you'd know what this refers to.

Hard to believe that I went to all the trouble to make some many posters in one semester. That doesn't happen anymore, that's for sure.Woof! Some of the drawings on these things are terrible! I'm surprised anybody came considering the yucky visuals.
Wednesday night...Tell your family you won't be home.
I don't know what happened to summer and fall 04, sorry.
Bad drawing night? Try drawing trolls...'works for me. Used to reserve that for after 9:00 but now it may just be a troll night. Luckily the models haven't taken offense yet.
We try to play different music and just be low key overall. The Plan Nine From Outer Space soundtrack has been played more than once during these sessions. As has William Shatner, lounge acts, wedding music and hockey games. Sometimes it's hard to hear the music over all of the folks insulting each other for fun.
Mmm trolls.
We've tried different formats too. I think this one is still on the cards.
Mmm more trolls.
Trolls don't work for you? How about super heroes, horses, gorillas, or even pigs?
At least the design is little better.
I didn't think about it, but I use certain fonts a lot.

Uh..heh looks like I ran out of time to be very creative for the summer '08 poster. I hope nobody noticed.Five years and still three bucks. What a deal.
The most current Poster. large enough for you to print out and make your own. Hang it on a candy machine why don'tcha?
Hope to see you there.
"Short poses; because life's too short to draw long poses."
Have fun drawing, and thanks again.

Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas card for 2008. Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and may the best of the new year come to you and yours. Top is front, bottom is interior - make your own!

Some Drawings

Hello out there. Here are some drawings from in class sessions this week.
It's always fun to draw the characters my students come up with and Yoda is a tough one to draw out of your head. 'Guess I need to watch "Empire Strikes Back".
Some from our Friday class with one of my favorite models, Rita. 'Brought antichrist brownies, everybody did well. Sorry these are such terrible scans
Drawing = fun!
Speaking of fun and Yoda, that will probably be the next challenge. I know I haven't done one in a long long time but get ready we'll do one soon. 'Can't believe I won't be teaching next semester, so I guess I gotta get in one more challenge.

Studio To Amara's Room

Because the Jackson three got bigger by one, we decided I would have to move my stuff out of my studio and turn it into Amara's new room. So, after moving everything out and getting rid of a lot of my stuff (thanks, Jessica for giving my table a good home) we began painting the wall like a sky. Amara was pretty excited about moving into her new space and I encouraged her to help. We stayed paint free with the help of some old pajamas and a little plastic painting smock.
Painting blue was fun for a while, and then she lost interest and left. She came back only to find that I was in the process of painting the clouds, which she wanted to do. So I taped off some cloud shapes which took so long, she lost interest again and left.
Finally it was finished and below is the final product. I need to set aside some time to paint something cool on the rest of the walls later but just know they will be covered with High School Musical 6, Hanna Montana, and Princess posters later.

She loves it!

Kai Reece Jackson

What better way to celebrate my 100th post then to ask you all to welcome the Jackson Clan's newest member, Kai Reece Jackson! Born Oct 14th at 9:03am he weighed 9lbs 10oz and was 20 inches long. Both mom and baby are doing fine although the little guy was processing his glucose too fast and had to be on IV in the nursery for most of his life outside the womb. But at 9:00 last night he got to come off IV and stay with Mommy and I. He's sleeping well and Mommy is doing great, walking around and doing a little soft shoe. Amara is a very happy big sister and so far has adjusted well to this new little being. Both Mommy and Kai will be coming home soon. More pictures soon,

Thanks for stopping by!Kai's first picture.

No flashes Daddy!
Hair!Finally some open eyes

Thumbs...Swaddled upAmara and her little brotherThe fam
The feet...More later have to get back to hospital now.

Skeletal Proportions

A recent lecture on proportions. Bones are neat!!
By the way this is my 99th post...My next post is going to be a big one (really).