bridge garden

this began as a color "rough" but as i realized classes start on monday and i probably won't have time to pick this up again for a more finished look, so i decided to see just how far i could push it yesterday and got in some pretty good brushstrokes in the foreground around the bridge/garden thing. took a second look this morning and after a few more touchups i scanned it and chopped it up and added the clouds. it could probably stand a few more trees also.

isometric explanation

hopefully this is a clearer description.
(the next task is figuring how this contraption sits atop a tower)
also
sent out some rough figures to the "lab" to calculate some estimates of forces involved. the numbers will give me a sense of if i'm even designing on the right scale.
like
how much horsepower can a single piston in a stationary steam engine produce and how does that relate to the torque down a series of gears?
and
how much how much energy is going to be needed to rotate a 5-10 ton disk around a centered pivot?
something tells me the stationary steam engine is going to need to be larger, but even a few horsepower could be all that is needed.
we'll see what the numbers say, when they come back.

telescope

i'm reading the Discoveres by Daniel J. Boorstin right now and it made me realize that telescopes are rad. this book is going to be awesome.

need a cool name

like wordsworth or rockwell (if he was a musician) but for images.

getting back to the figure

decided to take my figure studying up a notch and get ready for class the week after next. which means getting away from the pages of 3" gestures from airports and coffee shops in my moleskine, and back to full figures on a big pad of newsprint. (and the creamy creamy conte crayon)
after the first 20 minutes i realized just how rusty i was and spent the day getting back into the rhythm of things. Which ended up in doing a longer slower intensive study of my face to get re-acquainted with the forms, and this sweet Wolff's Carbon pencil.
(and ended up with a picture for my profile too)

remember gouache?

i was planning on taking landscape painting through the fine art department this spring semester. got waivers and permissions all taken care of and everything, and it turned out to be the same day as digital painting so i had to choose. still love atmospheric perspective though, guess it'll just have to wait.
anyway i finally made use of searching the remote areas of the google earth landscape looking for uploaded photos to give me a sense of the landscapes architecture. i remembered these photos from a hiking trail down in Bolivia, near somewhere called the Refugio los Volcanes, and thought these would be good references for study. Since i can't seem to pull it together quick enough on location.
also dug out the gouache to see if it was still wet, i heard they have a tendency to dry out. So gouache, how to approach it? is it opaque or transparent? those words mean much more now than they did last semester, after semester of practice i should be capable of either.
i wish i had made up my mind on the first one, took all afternoon/evening too. i felt i was fighting the medium and the habits with the brushes. watercolor brushes but not watercolor, if you want?
felt i did better on the second one, less time and paint too. managed to save the white of the board for the lights on the orangey cliff faces in the center.

plein air again

about 2 hours on location, and another hour or so at the house from photo ref.

i felt a bit cheated when i went to go sketch at the beach the other week and it began to rain, and saw an opportunity for a rematch yesterday. A few of us went to stow lake in golden gate park to find and capture a good view.
i'm starting to think this plein air painting isn't as glamorous as i initially thought. capturing the gesture of falling water isn't easy, and being so close to it was really really cold, plus sitting on a rock for a few hours left my back aching today in unfamiliar places.

however all complaints aside, the minor insights into the shapes and essence of stone and water in the short hand of brushstroke felt worthwhile.

Figure Painting

Some class work and the homeworks; NC Wyeth mastercopy, portrait, and indoors 3/4 figure.
I feel the least confidant about my figure, so it was nice to get a chance to practice the forms and get acquainted with some flesh tones. And an excuse to labor over a canvas on the weekends is also well received.

Highlights from Ill 2

Ill2, what a class. Sack Design, Narrative Editorial, and Fairy tale or Myth 2 page spread.
If working in oil paint is running an obstacle course as quick as you can, watercolor is like the same course just backwards and blindfolded. And I say blindfolded cause one careless uncorrectable mistake, like forgetting to mask a highlight, and you're in the pit of alligators. You can still finish running the course, don't get me wrong, but you'll have scars from the battle.
And the battle is half the lesson,
definitely looking forward to rematches.

while i'm at it

These are my favorites of Ill 1 from spring of '09, the fairy tale and vignette. I didn't realize just how much Chantal cracked the whip in that class until this semester. Another really good learning experience in the presence of weathered tutelage, not entirely pleasurable but the best experiences in hindsight usually aren't "fun" now are they?

clothed figure fall 09

Finally got the semesters work ready to post. Clothed Figure 2 with Mr. Sanchez was an incredibly enlightening experience. I'm really glad I stuck around after class and asked him my stupid questions, and got to know the mind of one who has endured life as an artist for so long. Even if just on a superficial, teacher to student level. Bill is a great teacher who actually seems to enjoy dropping knowledge on you and breaking it all the way down for you to understand, which was refreshing and rewarding.

holiday travels

went to go see the family for the "holiday" this last week. didn't get anything worth posting out of the sketches of people at airports and on the planes. but i did manage an alright sketch of R2D2 (you know, the droid that has the force) from the skymall magazine. Which is - by the way - my favorite way to window shop while using the restroom at near sonic speeds six or seven miles above the ground, makes me feel decadent and important.

Day at the Academy of Sciences

Took the opportunity to get some drawing from life done at the aquarium, and then toss in some graphite and brushpen later. Drawing fish felt like trying to draw traffic or a tree in the wind for a few hours. Especially the small warm water fish, sketches not included.
also
Diver Gary taught us all about coral and what the brightly colored tropical fish eat and get eaten by.

breaking the ice after the winter break

on location drawing and painted at the studio due to rain.
its nice to see my friend value-problems didn't go anywhere this break either.

intro

your journey around the internet and into the blogosphere has lead you here, welcome.

my name is andris eriks liepnieks and i'm studying illustration at the academy of art in san francisco.

in the vain attempts to keep up with the currents of flux, and this "internets" i've been hearing so much about, this blog has been started. mostly for the friends and family to see how things are going, and random eyes to appreciate and contemplate.
(if i play my cards right)