A New Start In The Studio

November 20, 2015
   Finished the last page of my latest sketchbook this morning. This is the sketchbook I carried to Europe in September on the van Gogh tour. Each sketchbook has 100 pages, and they typically last about two-and-a-half months. The spiral binding got smooshed, probably from an overhead bin on an airplane, but it is full of crazy ear sketches almost all the way through. I usually give it a little extra juice on the last page. Funny how that is. If I worked this hard every day, on every page, maybe I'd be a better artist. As it took shape, starting in bottom-right corner, I decided to draw all the things I dig.

 

Daily Whip Outs: "Everything I love"

   My studio, which has been a pit for a very long time, is being whipped into shape by Curator Cal. It currently looks like a dad-burned BBB museum. Check out the foyer.

 

 The New and Reclaimed BBB Foyer

   This latest sketchbook joins a long and growing gaggle of sketchbooks stretching back a couple decades now. Funny what you can accomplish if you just commit to doing it.

 

The BBB Sketchbook Morgue

   Cal has also commandeered my computer area and replaced the mess I had there with black and white images, including photos of several big influences in my life: Charlie Waters and Paul Revere, Al and Bobbie (my parents) and Bob and Louise Guess (my grandparents). That's Doc Holliday, upper right.

 

BBB studio computer area

   Of course, it's hard to keep the entire area looking so pristine because when I work it's chaotic and I have numerous projects going at the same time and my work area tends to look like this:

 

One of three art desks, my main one. Yes, that is today's sketches, bottom left, which I added some washes to from the pallette at right.

   Of course, I'd like to say I am turning over a new leaf and that I will stay on top of the mess and my studio will stay so classy, but well. you know.

"If you can see the light at the end of the tunnel you are looking the wrong way."
—Old Vaquero Saying