Day 359: Toothless

Just like me Toothless likes fish.

Drawing this reminds me of how much I loved drawing characters from my favorite comics and animations when I was young. 

Why not doing it now as well, right? He's on TV at the moment. Good animation. Highly recommended.

Day 353: Holiday Season

We've got bags of popcorns, an enormous cake from the landlord, cookies, more cookies, gingerbread house, chocolate, mint chocolate, US-Capitol-shaped chocolate, pretzels covered with chocolate, grapefruit, oranges... I am sure there are more to come.

Day 346: Rockefeller

Eh...my sketch is nothing compared to the photo and the real place. My coworker just went there over the weekend and the last time I was there during Christmas was ten years ago. Definitely want to re-visit!

Day 345: Democracy Monument

It's Constitution Day in Thailand. 

ummm my sketch is totally out of proportion. 

Day 344: Floating Market

A quick sketch of Floating Market (which I visited early this year) inspired by The Art of Urban Sketching.

And I've just posted two of my painting for silent auction at the office party last month. Check them out. :)

Day 342: Street Market

You might need to bear with my pencil sketch for a couple days. I have just got a copy of "The Art of Urban Sketching" and I am in awe.

Day 341: Christmas Market

Have you heard of Christmas market? It looks quite magical. :) 

Day 340: Nobody

Just a rough sketch today. Sorry! What a day. And it will be a longer one tomorrow with an early start downtown.

Day 337: Lincoln

I hesitated to draw this after I watched the movie, Lincoln, over a week ago since he was such an iconic and one of the most respected and beloved presidents of the United States. But after I watched the interview with Steven Spielberg, Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field I decided to do it. I would love to have his image on my sketchbook. Everyone basically admitted that they approached this movie with fear but that feeling pushed them to do the best they can.

Great movie with a great message. I have just ordered Team of Rivals which 5 pages of this book the movie is based on.

Day 332: My Favorite Scene from Up

On Day 7 I drew 'The Adventure Book' which represents what Ellie wanted to do in her life. Today I drew my favorite scene at the end of the movie, Mr. Fredrickson and Russell after they rescued Kevin, the bird. These two finally helped each other, overcame the obstacles and achieved the goal in their lives together.

Day 237: A Man in a Snow

I am sure I intended to paint a man in a snow. I think he looks like a woman.

Oh well...the painting style I use today is inspired by the work by Alex Powers. It's a combination of watercolor painting and pencil rendering.

Day 219: Draw without a Rubber

...because I can't find one. Anyway, wanna guess who this is ?

Day 183: Homewood Suite by Hilton

I guess staying at Homewood Suite by Hilton with my sister who is on her business trip can be considered as my mini vacation. Since my dear little sister needs a ride to her 7-am meeting at her office every day I will be staying with her here and drive her to work every morning. (Ugh, I wish we were still at the old office! It's just 10 minutes from here.) She could take a taxi and get a reimburse but, you know, when you see your only sister twice a year you try to make the best out of that little time you have together.

Anyway, today I spend my free evening sketching the plan of the room we stay. What I like about a hotel is that the room is always so compact but still functioning and organized. Now I have an urge to clean my own place.

My sister and her best friend from work get the connecting room so I have a chance to see the sealed door frame that makes sense. This hollow knock-down metal frame on 4 5/8" thick wall has 2 strips of rubber and felt on all side to seal the sound. Well...I guess my love for architecture is still left somewhere in me. Who would look at door frame when they're on vacation ?!

It's Monday again. Have a happy week!

Day 180: Reston

A little bit sketchy today but it's only because I want to write about what I heard at a history lecture about Reston and Lake Anne Plaza earlier this evening. The lecture was hosted by Reston Museum and today they had Mr. Simon, Reston Founder, two original engineers and a house salesperson. And it was a great opportunity to listen to them telling what they went through when they built Reston.

Here are some info I learnt.

- Lake Anne was originally located toward east and closer to Lake Fairfax but there was a gas line running in the northeast- southwest direction.

- Lake Anne dam was finished in about 6 months in 1963.

- Reston was designed to have 7 villages accommodating 10,000 people with one grocery store at each location.

- The name of the residential tower is Heron House

- The 2-story mix-use building as you see on my sketch is called "J" building because of the shape of its floor plan.

- The original stores/offices at "J" building were dry cleaner, Safeway, barber, hardware, library and community center. (And a couple more I forgot.)

- Reston is considered historical because of its many "first" not because its age.

- The design started by determining the function, program, building types the town needed. The planners decided what the town should look like and go back to the zoning later. (Almost like it has its own zoning.) It was designed to be a self-contain town.

- Mr. Simon started this project in his 50s and didn't feel the town missed anything especially when the master plan was approved in 14 months.

- The town was designed to be an open community meaning it accommodates people at any ages, races, income levels. Many architects, builders were involved in order to produce various types of housing.

- Everything was built at the same time from houses, amenities, nature trails, etc.

- South Reston was designed for traditional housing which was requested by banks.

- In the beginning of the house sales many people thought the town was for the retired citizen as the name could be read "Rest-on."

- The selling point was you're not buying a house but you're buying a community with amenities. Swimming pools, golf course, courts were included in the original design.

- The early residents received a welcome package including direction, brochure and also a welcome letter signed by Mr. Simon.

- The cooling system was very unique at the time. The A/C pipes were buried at the bottom of Lake Anne to avoid using the individual A/C compressors which would be noisy. However the water in the lake is always too warm to cool anything down.

You can look at photos of Reston through time by clicking here. Or google to read more about it.

Day 176: Artklub

Joining Artklub at Atlanta Bread today. A lovely group and store. Everyone just did their own art such as photography, sketching, soap making, glass jewelry, 3D modeling, sculpture, sewing or even improving handwriting while eating and chatting. I even ran into our new coworker who has been with the group for about a year.

Nice setting. It reminds me of our own craft night which has been on hold for a while.

Day 168: A Sketch of Lake Anne (on Site)

I was planning to meet up with the Urban Sketcher DC group today at Artomatic in Arlington near Crystal City. Well...after I waited for a while I couldn't find them in the lobby so I decided to go see the art event instead. A little bit disappointed because I would like to know people who share the same interest.

So not to abandon my sketch-on-site will I went to Lake Anne early this evening and drew this there. It's challenging. But I think I start to like it. It's  such a great way to practice sketching and strengthen my confidence in drawing. I can't hide in a studio all the time, can I ?

Let's come back to Artomatic a bit, shall we ? :)

Artomatic exhibited the art from over a thousand artists in a vacant eleven-story office building. Since the office interior design is the core work of my firm I found this a very intriguing use of empty space. The whole building (except 5th and 6th floor that were closed) became an artists' playground. Many walls and carpets were artistically repainted, splashed with colors or even clay. Graffiti, art, pamphlet, announcement were everywhere. I hardly found a blank wall. The existing offices turned into small showrooms. The existing conference rooms became a workshop. The open offices became an open art space or accommodated performance stages with benches or couches.

And this building has gorgeous view of the Potomac River, Regan Airport. So it might be occupied soon.

If you are in DC area and haven't gone there, you have until June 23 to check it out. (I love peep projects! it's my first time seeing the actual work of the peeps.)

Day 164: The Festival Map

I guess I am wrapping up my trip in Fredericksburg here. :) Tomorrow will be a different subject. Stay tuned!

Day 162: A Local Store

I guess I am creating a series of sketches from my visit at Fredericksburg. This is a local store not too far from a city dock.

Day 161: Rappahannock River, Fredericksburg

Such a long day with a long drive. But it's well worth it. My friend and I went to "Celebrate The Rapp - An American Canoe Association Paddle Green Event" in Fredericksburg, Virginia. A small lovely town with a stretch of Rappahannock river for itself. Everyone there seems to own a boat and they paddle or fish as their daily routine. I took tons of photos and there are a lot to tell since we helped cleaning up the city dock, taking a 2-hour historical tour via river and watching nine paddling movies/documentary right on the river front. They're very very good. It is always nice to see people passionate about what they do. A bunch of them related to Environment concern.

Please stay tuned. I'll try to post it later this week. (Sorry I have deadline at work.)


Update 6/12/12: Read about my trip on my paddling blog.

Day 160: Yanni at Wolf Trap

My friend and I went to see Yanni tonight at Wolf Trap. Such a great concert even though I don't much of his work. The solo parts for each instruments were awesome. 

We will go to Canoe Festival tomorrow!

Have a wonderful weekend!