Cafe Kubal Opening Downtown Syracuse

Cafe Kubal had their first day in Downtown Syracuse on December 12th. It was a quiet opening as they were fixing all the kinks. But It just happened I was downtown that day and was surprised to see them brewing the espresso. So I popped in and documented the opening in a brief sketch.

Three Thank you's

Thank you notes are a special form of communication and one that retains a great and simple joy for the author and the recipient. Here are three "thank you's" that brought joy in the making and equally, if not exceedingly more, in the friends that received them.

Lunch and Coffee at Pastis in the Meat Packing district in NYC.

A Thank you to Jackie! I can only think more to come.

 

Syracuse Office Interiors open house at Pioneer Companies, Syracuse, NY

A Thank you to Marb and Rebeccah for the invitation! An amazing space!

George Washington's compass. A special Thank you to Glenn for the privilege.

8 Scenes in NYC

Awhile ago when traveling to NYC I put together a series of 8 sketches that have served as several lessons with students about documentation, page layout and efficiency of lines and construcutions.Reading left to right top, the series provides 8 snapshots of several moments as described below.

ready for take off from Syracuse

E train from Jamaica Station














Looking North towards Times Square

Lunch and esspresso at Pastis.










Taking a cab from meat packing to 47th st


Green Room in Beck's studio









jetBlue concourse


Waiting for lift off at JFK back to Syracuse

Return of the coffee sketches

Coffee sketching is practically therapeutic for me. There is a calming pattern of sighting a compositon out of basic forms at breakfast that begins a day with fresh eyes to design and appreciate the greater, broader and conversly more subtle compositions of the everyday.

As I discuss with my students, drawing is as much about recording as it is about editing. This series here, from over the last month or so is a typical gathering, documenting and editing of these caffeine vesels, their friends and morning habitat. Enjoy!

Surreal trip to NYC-Oct 4 2011

Amy and I  had, what could best be described as, a surreal experience when we were flown down to NYC as guests of Glenn Beck.(See the post below of July 5th showing one of the two sketches given to Beck). With his new set constructed, we were invited down to document the set of his new network on GBTV http://web.gbtv.com/schedule/index.jsp

We had an amazing tour of his office and the studio. During which we had the pleasure of meeting him and thanking him for the opportunity to come down. Here are a few skectches during our visit.

The set panoramic

The crew

Artifacts from his office.

601 Tully Sketch

A quick visit to 601 Tully in Syarcause, NY provided the opportunity to do a coffee sketch...something that was long over-due. This fact is somewhat obvious in the limited clarity of the over all composition. Usually these drawings compose themselves by rules of proportion and geometry based on the cup, but in this case the geometry of the cup competes with the perspective/elevation of the front counter (where you can see Matt the purveyor of Cafe Kubal, exploring his iphone).

Somewhat more frantic then other coffee sketches, the complexity is somewhatintriguing, the tone of the coffee is nice and there are some relatively strong aspects, but overall it reveals how without the daily exercise of drawing, how quickly we can loose our discipline.

Going bananas

So this is inspired by my students. In a recent assignment they had to draw an apple being eaten. I had happened to draw a banana during the same time they were completing their work. What I realized is about a year ago I had done another banana and from 13 years ago I had done another Banana. So here they are collected as a Banana series.

They are presented here from the oldest to the most recent. Note: On the last one, the yellow was put down first as a figure ground exercise and then the lines were applied.

James and State + Coffee and Fair

At the intersection of James St. and State St. in Syracuse, just past 81 overhead is a small lot with a building about 3 feet from the edge of the the raised highway, in the background is the tower of a local closed church (turned Stained glass studio). This sketch is awaiting a watercolour (I will post it when complete) The square is clearly seen in the background and a few sketches are awaiting the church from different vantage points.

For fun I thought it would be neat to do a whole series of the state fair. So my goal was to do at least one sketch per visit. We went six times. This is the only sketch I completed. go figure.

The other sketch is a compound drawing of a coffee cup. On the left the perspective can be seen, on the bottom right is the elevation with a small hint of a section of the saucer. On the top right is the plan of the cup which then extends into the other views, unifying the composition as a whole.

Two cups and Lecture Notes

School Started last week and with it comes a series of meetings and lectures. Talking to Daniel Lim in Singapore, he shared on his site sketches of his meetings. This one is for him. The subject is obvious. What is not so obvious is the "signature stance" that many people take. Consider watching people around you and see that the way they stand is a part of their persona/identity. Here are four people in the upper admin of Syracuse University...despite their names being present...can you recognize them by the positioning of their feet?

The Next two postcards return to my joy of Coffee sketching. The first one is a recent sketch from a local cafe: "Stronghearts Cafe" on E. Genessee St. Very college culture interior, all vegan...which adds to the "complexity" of the cappucino illustrated. The second sketch is for Kiersten at Cafe Kubal on James st. I have owed her one for some time now. Neither really show a strong experimentation with composition...nor development in illustration...but they serve more of keeping in practice of reading lines, form and light on surfaces. There is even a small sketch on the kiersten's card that just focuses on the negative space of the containers. It's the in between that can often go unrecognized.

Stronghearts

Kiersten's Sketch

Border Crossing

My wife and i went up to Toronto, Ontario last weekend to celebrate our 5th anniversary. We stayed with my Uncle and his wife and had a great time. While on the move, we didn't get much down time to sketch, but I was able to get the following views out:

La Societe Bistro
There is a new restaurant on Bloor street where my uncle and I collaborated on the 20'x30' glass ceiling. It opened in April 2011 to much acclaim and I thought it would be a perfect place to celebrate our anniversary. This is the sketch from dessert and an image of the ceiling.

And if you are interested in seeing the scope of my uncle's work here is his site: http://www.solariumglassdomes.com/

The next morning we woke to a wonderful breakfast with fruit in a glass container and a bowl-o-latte

after running about town we finally left for home. What a dream! the QEW was accident and backup free. We zoomed all the way into Lewistown to cross back over the border when...all came to a halt. For 2.5 hours we sat at the border crawling the final 1/4 mile to the States. This sketch (done in our final minutes in que) was executed more out of frustration then inspiration...and when I was finally getting into it...of course we get up to the border gate. ugh. Has anyone experienced this?