Sketching in the "Field"

Field Trip Day for the Animation Class today as we ventured into the rainy downpour of San Francisco to the CARTOON ART MUSEUM. On display were works by editorial cartoonist Kal, classic Warner Brothers Animation, and other various samplings from the history of cartooning. My favorites were the Al Capp works (beautiful line work, not so beautiful person in real life), the Will Eisner page, and the Jonny Quest page of heads (a model sheet). Kal's work was very good too as I appreciate seeing good inking in black and white.

After a morning of art, we journeyed across the street to THE GROVE for lunch. We lost a few students along the way, scared off by the weather, other commitments, or maybe the high prices of the restaurant but we had a good lunch and some excellent discussion between myself, instructor Arthur King, intermediate animators Alysse & Diego, and Paula, my soon-to-be colleague in teaching art this summer.

After lunch, there was no time for a gallery stop I wanted to make so Paula and I checked out the BLICK art store down Market Street. What a HUGE store! No mirrors for self portraits though. I bought my first Moleskine sketchbook (to hold up to the rigors of water-base media) and more blue pencils, which I'm really liking. I knew artists sometimes used the non-photo blue for sketching but I avoided them for years assuming they would be all waxy like my prismacolor pencils and repel any inking. Not so. Just blue graphite and ready to ink.

Here are some sketches I did from the Cartoon Art Museum...