Tuesday, April 03, 2007

sf

Recently I attended the Illustration Academy in San Francisco. It was an intensive week long workshop with lectures, demos and assignments. My main draw for attending was to meet some of the heavy hitters of illustration like Gary Kelly and C.F. Payne and just to spend an entire week up in the bay area. It is definitely one of my favorite cities.

Unfortunately the workshop lasted 12 hours a day with only a break for lunch and dinner. I would return to my room by 10p.m. and would then start my homework. It was a real dissappointment not to be able to see more of the city, especially without the heavy tourist weekend crowd. I did manage to sneak off one afternoon to do some of my own sketches and ofcourse sketch during the demos.

All in all, the experience was great...I love the demos but wanted more personal interaction with the illustrators....for me just to be around the rest of the team from here and the U.K. office was the highlight of the trip. Here are some of my sketches from the trip.




The instructors: John English, Gary Kelly, Anita Kunz, Chris Payne, Sterling Hundley, Brent watkinson...
Mark English and Andrea Wicklund were also there but not in the drawing.



During the Gary Kelly demo. uber talented guy but works intuitively. Hard to get a full understanding of the decisions that he made.



Sneaked out to sketch for myself during a lecture. It was a beautiful afternoon. I could not resist.
Walking down a steep hill and found an interesting alley. I envision all the old noir movies when stumble acrossed this.



Academy of Art Building. The Acdemy of Art has several buildings spread through out the city. This is one where the Illustration Academy was held.








An ode to Stefan Kardos, a fantastic artist and a great guy. I absolutely love his drawings and his sense of design. Lately, he's been drawing old cars. This is my homage to him.



A painting done from a sketch. This is looking down California St. where China town borders the towering buildings of the Financial district.




early in the morning from my hotel window. I was working on my color comps from the night before so I still had my paints out.


I added on one more day in the city after the workshop so I can get a chance to spend some time outside the classroom. This is my view from the new hotel room. It had floor to ceiling windows. Unfortunately, the rest of my time there was overcast, cold, and wet. Everytime I busted out the sketchbook, it would start sprinkling on me.




The Redroom at the Clift Hotel. Modern and swanky...$9 for a beer...but it was a belgium ale.

17 comments:

Larry said...

Wow. You got plenty of good sketches here, bro. Hard to pick a favorite. Can't wait to see the originals.

Kelvin said...

great stuff rich...this is a nice little collection of sketches and paintings. my favorite one is the red room. did you do this on location, or from a sketch?

Kimberly M Zamlich said...

wow! you were definetly inspired. I miss the city also. Beautiful, reflective work, rich.

Dan Bob said...

beautiful work! these are really nice.

RYAN ASTAMENDI PHOTOGRAPHY said...

Rich,
So much good stuff! I think I need a print of the Redroom for my house.
When are you gonna have a one man show?

Tanner said...

All these are alright I guess, if you're into that kinda stuff. J/k Rich! Amazing work! Really captures the mood of the place...and Ben. Getting better all the time! You wouldn't happen to know of a kick ass blog that reviews hawaiian food, would you?

Jorge Mascarenhas said...

Haha! Pretty funny...I like the two top ones. Cool stuff man! I was there too..

richtuzon said...

thanks guys. It was a blast to be in S.F. despite the lack of sleep.

kelvin, most of the painting stuff was done back at the room. I just draw on location and try to commit the mood and color to memory.

Dan, we should still try to go to downtown or chaintown to sketch.

Ry, certainly...the redroom print is yours. Solo show is not in the works at the moment. I have a five or six man show coming up and a slew of big group shows.

Jorge, thanks for stopping by...were you there this past academy?

richtuzon said...

Eric- let's go EAT WITH LARRY.

Vince M said...

Great stuff, Rich. Very inspiring.

Unknown said...

Wow Rich, great post, fantastic sketches/paintings, I love your choices of colours, the mood is beautiful.
I really love the colours you added.
The view from your hotel at the weekend, the redroom... superb!
I need to go around with you and steal some of your talent :)
Bravo!

Larry said...

Hey, wait a min! You did the Bow Bow room back in Nov!

Anonymous said...

Awesome!!! Love all the cityscapes. This is a great set of works and in such a short time. Imaging what you could have done if you HAD more time. Wow !!!

I will start coming to drawing sessions again, and I will bring more books :) See you soon.

Jon Han said...

wowser... i really need to draw more... Awesome drawings and paintings Rich.

Jorge Mascarenhas said...

yes rich, i was there..didn't get to finish my piece..

Ester Wilson said...

such beautiful sketchbook pages and paintings. Love your color choices!

richtuzon said...

Ester, thanks for stopping by.