Student Structures

Students on our campus usually play an active role in shaping the physical landscape of campus.  These first two pictures are houses build by students.  They reside out in the canyon and have not been lived in in quite some time but with a little work could be brought up to date and made live-able.

The final picture is a horse statue that is now it the library.  It is called the living library mustang.  I'm not sure how living it is.  It seems to only have a couple of plants stuck on it after the fact, but..... oh well.  The students build the entire statue from recycled materials.

Painting Metal Flowers

I just had to get outside to paint today.  I made up my mind early, collected my materials, and when lunchtime rolled around, it was out the door.   We have a lovely little arboretum on campus, and though it is a bit of a walk, I wanted to get up there to paint.

As it turns out, I might have been just a bit  early to get there.  Though it is near 80 degrees today, the flowers don't quite think spring is here.  Most of the plants are either still dormant or are yet to bloom.  So, I had my choice of colors to paint: brown, green, grey, or some combination of the 3.  Well, here is my lunchtime story.

A 13 minute walk up the hill to the arboretum.  6 minute walkthrough to find that there is no color yet.  20 minutes to draw and paint (thus the simplicity of the paintng).  A 12 minute walk back to the office.  9 minutes to scan the picture in and write up this quick post.  

I settled on this rusting metal sculpture of some flowers.  I've no idea of what kind of flowers they are supposed to be.  They were in the shade under a few California (Coast) Live Oaks.  I sat on a footbridge over a dry creek and painted.  A little vitamin D and a little exercise for the body and soul, and I'm ready to tackle the afternoon.

steps

Well, I went back to the arboretum today.  It was really nice.  Yesterday there was a group of people at the gazebo and they were making a bunch of noise.  Today there was nobody but me.  I sat in the same chair, but instead of looking down the hill I move the chair into the walkway, and faced it up the hill.  You can see some crazy plants at the top of the stairs, and there was a huge terra cotta pot on the left hand side.

I chose this because I like the rocks so much from yesterdays paintings that I had to do some more.  I don't think I quite got the contrast in the rocks that I wanted, but I think i got a fair representation of the rocks on the path.  I didn't have enough time to do all the shading that I wanted to.  I might go back and put some in later.  I might, also, to make the individual stones and rocks stand out a bit more, outline these in black pen.  I havent really decided yet.

I purposely left a lot of white in this painting.  There was mortar between the stones that make up the stairs, but I thought it might be a little better to leave those spaces white.  I'll bet yo that until you read that last sentence and looked at the picture again, you didn't notice it the white spaces.

I painted this whole painting with one brush.  Usually, I use two or three.  My travel set came with a very small pure sable brush.  I had never tried it before, but it has the benefit of being small and easy to carry (I know, all brushes are small and easy to carry).  Having tried it, I can definitely see why so many people love sable brushes.  Not only could I do thin lines with it, i could so a larger wash and every thing came out pretty good.  I might have to invest in one, or in a set soon.  I'll keep you informed.  In the mean time, hope you enjoy the paintings.

PAC Center

This is a quick little painting I did of the PAC.  The Performing Arts Center.  People seem to call it the PAC Center for some reason.  Really they ought to call it the PA Center.  There are some dorms that really should be behind the trees on the left hand sid, but I took a little license.  And there should be some mountains behind the trees as well, but......  I think i did  a great job with everything I did put in.  Looking back a t the picture, the only thing i forgot to put on are some shadows across the sidewalk.  enjoy it.

Campus Market

Can you guess what this is a picture of?  Yes, you got it, the Campus Market.  And guess what else, they have a potato bar.  Woooo Hooo.   I love the look of the metal, stone and glass on this  building.  I tried to do it justice.  In reality there are a few picnic tables in front of the building, but I tried to draw them and it got to be just a bit too much, so I left them off.  Looking back now, it really could use something in the lower right hand corner to balance the picture out a bit.

Can you spot the glaring problem with this painting

There is one huge problem with this picture.  Can you spot it?  I know that technically There are some problems with the picture, but there is one huge problem.  I didn't realize I had done it until it was time to scan the painting.

I on looking at this painting again, I think I need a shadow from the large pine tree on the left hand side.  I could go back and add that in later.  It's funny what you notice while you are painting and what you dont recognize until later.

buffalo wings

Today the Cal Poly Urban Sketchers met in the Biological Sciences Museum to do a little sketching.  After looking around at all the animal heads on the wall, I settled on this.  It is an African Buffalo.  It is really a dark brindle color, but I didn't want to make it quite that dark for fear of it becoming too dark.  I think this way it gets the point across.

As you can tell, it's really just a head.  It is hanging over the door, which i neglected to put into the picture.  From the size of the head, I have to believe that the beast is enormous with the hind 3/4 attached.  I definitely think our group will be back to paint again really soon.

Cotchett Education Building

This is the Cotchett Education Building on Cal Poly's campus.  In the foreground you can just see the word Design, which is on the Architecture Building.  Expect to see a picture or two of that building in the coming weeks.

I love the way the trees turned out on this picture.  They look like they have movement and life too them.  I also like the purple plants in the planter in front of the word design.  

In judging this one I think I should have made the shadows on the building darker. I think that would have given more definition to the building.  Also, I think I am gonna start to draw in pen so that I can get leaves on the trees.  As you can see I have loose drawings underneath the paint.  Drawing it this way allows me to have a general shape to the tree, but not get bogged down with a "tree" shape so that I can then just put the color on and let the tree become a tree.    Hope you all enjoy this.

Back Door to the CM Office

So, I was painting outdoors again today.  Once again I painted building 186.  Some good and some bad.  This is the first floor.  The second and third are of course not represented here.  The very top of this painting is where the railing for the walkway would be attached.  Yes the windows are a bit goofy, the bottom pane is opaque.  There are a few plants in front of the railing that comes from the door.  The lamp post is perhaps a little too thin.  It is close to the bench that I sat at to paint.

Now the good, I've been working on not having solid colors,  I think I got some of that where not all the sections of the wall are the same color.  Not all the panes of the windows are the same, not even all the concrete is the same color.

One more thing.  All but one line and I've got the perspective lines right.  That means my drawing is actually getting better.   Hope you all enjoy.

College of Business

This is a painting of  the back side of the College of Business.  The closest building is Crandall Gym.  I've painted the front of it which you can see in a previous post.  Yes, the grey thing in the middle of the painting is a post that is really there. Could I have drawn it out of the picture, sure, but I thought it would be more interesting with it in.  I think i did a pretty good job with the HVAC system on top of the building.

Building 186

Painted with my new paints.  This is the third floor landing of building 186.  I'm trying to do a more detailed drawings of what I paint.  In this painting I did the building outline, of course, but also the windows, window louvers, and even the railing.  It was hard to draw it and get it right, but I think I did  a pretty good job.

The worst thing about this painting is the railing in the foreground.  I tried to put some shadowing on it, but it just turned out as bad lines.  I like the windows a lot.  I think i did a pretty good job with the.  Yes the bottom row is blue/green.  They are panes of glass that let a little light through, but are not windows to look through

New Sketches

Two buildings from the Engineering complex here on campus.  I couldn't tell yo the names of them, but I can tell you they have some fun angles to try to paint.  I think these are really fun and I can't wait to get out and paint more of the campus.  While I was painting, a student happened along and stopped to look over my shoulder for a few minutes.  Truthfully, I was getting a little annoyed, when he said, "Those are looking pretty good" and went about his way.  

Hope you enjoy them too.