J U S T I N P A S T O R E S

I was terrible with taking photos from the show. I tried, but too much was going on from chatting with people to running back and forth. So most of these photos are from friends or friends of the artists. I'll consider to upload a round II of photos once I get them from other folks. I had to use what was available, but Enjoy!

The view from our perspective during the group photo. Great turnout. That's Heidi's (The director) hand introducing the five selected artists.

I had the main entrance space, The Ron Collin's Gallery. So it's the first thing you see when you walk in. I posted a photo of this a couple blogs back with just the two in the back hung. Now here it is with everything installed including the decal & labels.

Lots of folks responded well to this piece. I was told a story about how a woman named Katalin's first experience in SF chinatown. She had a run in with an elder asian woman. They exchanged glances and the look she received from the older woman was very similar to the look from this piece. I'm glad that these portraits give the viewer some personal flashbacks regarding human behavior.

I really love Kyong's work. She uses multiple layers of paper that she cuts shapes to form space and dimension. The colored paper rests as the first layer to give it some weight and acts as positive space. Most of her work are in white, so it has a clean, fresh, and elegant nature to them.

Ryan did a performance during the second half of the opening. Dressed up as an Executive doing blue-collar work. He carried concrete blocks from the parking lot to the middle of his space. I didn't get a chance to see the whole thing, but I thought it was a well executed performance from what I was able to see. He was in character and everything.

Emanuela's intricate abstract drawings/paintings are crazy impressive. Her use of gouache is beyond incredible. To think how many hours go into her pieces is almost unimaginable. They really interact with the viewer and allows us to get lost in her work. These works feel so personal, it's almost like you're taking a glimpse in what goes on inside her head.

I wish I had taken more pictures of Tibor's work. His limited palette and tinted figures draws full of emotion. His work is mainly figurative and delivers dynamic compositions paired with haunting images of the figure in several vantage points. Up close you can really see the build up of paint. Maybe I can sneak back in and take more photos of their work when no one is standing in front of it.

I arrived an hour early, so I had some time to kill. I ended up painting the building and finished right at 5pm. Just in time for the opening! It's funny, lots of folks were passing by, I don't think they knew I was one of the five artists showing. Who's this child painting this building? 

Brother treated me to pizza. YES! Half Clam & garlic, half Veggie.

So I'm going to try and get some better photos of the work. Definitely before de-installation.
Again, thanks to those who made it out to the opening. I really appreciate the support and your efforts to drive over. For those who couldn't make it, no hard feelings! I'll have more shows in the future. And when you can't make any, you can find out how it all went down here!

See ya Wednesday for the Weekly Feature.

As promised, lets talk about some of my materials. Since the previous post was on works from my sketchbook, I might as well talk about what I use to make that piece. This is one of those cheap pencil cases that usually comes with pencils, erasers, and a sharpener. Generally meant for beginning student use. Actually, (enter jingle) "I got it at Ross!" for around $3 give or take. Not sure what I did with the pencils, but I immediately knew I was going to use it for other sketching materials. 

So I got the basic stuff in here: tubes of gouache, brushes, a pen, and a folding plastic palette. The case measures 10 1/2 x 12 inches when opened and 10 1/2 x 6 when closed. I've switched out materials plenty of times, but this is what's current.

A detail shot of some things. I got a tube of M. Graham gouache. I like their brand of paint. Their pigments are strong, archival, for watercolors they use honey as one of their vehicles to keep it from drying. Can't say the same for gouache because of its heavy body, but they are economical and stand strong against the higher big brand names. Got some flats that are withering away and other cheap round brushes along with a few riggers.

I've noticed that I'm starting to collect folding palettes. However, most of the ones I have are standard ones you can find at any art store. This is the Yasutomo Niji folding palette. You can get it for $6 at Blick or Utrecht stores. Before I would use it for watercolors until I got a bigger palette. Now I use this for gouache. You can see how much caked up in the wells and mixing areas. On the right I have a Lukas tube of titanium white, and a couple of small tubes of M. Graham Viridian & Cad Red.

Detail of stickers I collect on my palette. Shout to Cookiebar in Alameda. Get your ice cream sandwich fix from them. They make all their own products. Super fresh, super creamy. Local guys making it happen. Thumbs down to CREAM that just opened up near Target. Support LOCAL!
That was my advertising for the day.

I'm pretty sure everyone knows these books. This is the Moleskine sketchbook. They have a wide variety of books from watercolor, storyboarding, note taking, etc. This is the one meant for drawing. Paper is an off white smooth almost like bristol? It's a pretty versatile sketchbook. You can paint in any medium (with the formal preparation), draw, glue stuff, whatever, throw it at somebody. Kinda lazy to get the measurements cause I'm typing away on my bed and the book is way across the room. but its like 5 x 8, give or take. Comes with an elastic band, pocket at the end, and a stringed bookmark.

Here's another plug. Went over to PKC today to get our sweet fix. Horchata is our fav, and just had to try their Maple Bacon flavor, which is quite darn swell. Another local business who marked their first year at their store front in the Laurel District of Oakland. 

Anywho, reminder that the reception for the Emerging Artist Show is tomorrow from 5-7pm at the Marin MOCA in Novato, CA. Hope to see some familiar faces there. I will bring my camera, so You can check back here on Monday in case you missed it!

Enjoy the weekend!  with sweet treats from locally owned Cookiebar Creamery (where you can't buy happiness but you can buy cookies and ice cream!) and Peter's Kettle Corn, Popped Fresh Daily! 


















wheres my free stuff.

This week's feature is another peek in my sketchbook. Like many artists, I use my sketchbooks as studies, thoughts, shopping lists, whatever. My studies are usually for future paintings, experimentation, and personal enjoyment. 

 At first, I was saving each page for its own sketch, but eventually started trailing over to both pages. It usually happens when I've felt like I screwed up on the initial sketch and try to make something else work on the next page. Then there's this imbalanced feeling when I open to an awkward spread, so I then work something in between to form connections. It's interesting cause even though sketchbooks are meant to be rough and imperfect, I find that I still treat them almost as refined studio work. 

 It's a constraining, yet liberating feeling to have. It's funny when you ask permission to see another artists sketchbook cause every artist that I've met so far has that, "Oh it's not finished....that was just..blah" response. Dude, I know it's a sketchbook. Then you meet some artists who have each page completed  like it's ready to frame or sell. You're the kind who's causing all these anxieties for these other guys! kidding, I'm trying to be one of them. 

I worked from my photos except for the figure on the left. I notice that through my very short studies of the human figure, I have very much more to learn. Drawing from imagination screws with my brain! Even when I meant for it to be a little stylized, I need more live model sessions. What's great about snapping photos of strangers is I have all this material to work right from my hard drive! I hope officials won't confiscate my things. MINE MINE MINE!

A couple of weeks ago I said that I would talk about some of my materials and I ended up not doing it. So, I'll form those things together this week. Still not sure how I'm feeling about this three blog posts a week. More pictures and less words maybe? See ya Friday.....or perhaps....not?

A panoramic view of the Ron Collin's gallery space at MarinMOCA. This is the first room you enter into the building. Towards the left are more spaces for the other artists. During our gallery visit, it was a first come first choice and out of the five spaces, none of the artists, including myself fought for this area. Not that the space was bad, but I think it was more of an issue for how the artists works compliment with the area. Since everyone was fighting for the second and third space, I thought it would be easier for everyone to just go with this one. Turns out, my work fits the area nicely.

Lee, a gallery volunteer for many years helped with installing. We got to install all of the big pieces except two. They're still deciding where to put the decals for the show, so Lee will finish up on Tuesday and everything should be ready for the opening on Saturday.

My only issue with the space are the fountains on the left. It really disrupts the flow of things. But besides that, I think the whole area cohabits well with my work. The center wall will introduce Flicker, one of my first paintings when I was starting to work with oils a couple years back. This piece launched my interest in how my work looks today. Title of the show will be placed above it. 

Celebratory pizza socks. Classic pepperoni. oh yes.

See ya on Wednesday for the weekly feature!

This week is the installation process for the Emerging Artists show at the Marin MOCA. I asked Vincent to help with assisting to speed up the process. I delivered nine pieces and was able to install four. There were some issues on placement with the space, so we've all decided to nail that on my next trip. I'm coming in on Saturday to bring three additional pieces and finally figure where things will go.

Unrolled these 72x42 large scale figure paintings and clipped them while they're being weighted down.

Vincent assisting with nailing the edges of these large scale drawings. Thanks man! Wouldn't have gotten it done faster without you!

Figuring out where I should put my remaining pieces. I miscalculated a part of the space and may have to bring an additional painting to fill it up. Once everything is present, then I can make final decisions. I will be taking more photos on Saturday and post them up on Monday. 

Below is the poster for the Emerging Artists show that features all the artists, time & place, and running dates.  This will be up on my main page for the rest of the coming months.

Had to have celebratory pizza afterwards at Arizmendi Bakery. Those confusing coordinating installations, traffic, and long talks of food in between was well received by the satisfying pizza baked with sourdough, cheeses, poblano peppers, corn, and lime juice. I'd like another please.

This week's piece is on one of my newer works from my Fourfold series. To know more about that series, you can find it here or click on the photos. On Break is a part of my Disparities series that focuses on the similarities & differences between generations. Usually on their lifestyle, morals & values, and physical appearance. There are some instances where we carry on the tradition that our parents, grandparents, etc., to keep the lineage alive, and sometimes it gets lost as future generations succumb to assimilation in new homelands for an easier transition.

On Break is a life size done painting in watercolor and modeling paste on  paper. I've done life-size drawings before, but this was the first I've done it in watercolor. The paper is Strathmore. It's smoother than what I'm use to working with. I used modeling paste tinted with watercolor to give it some texture and break the fluidity and interactions that water does with pigment.  

Doing figures this big in watercolor, I don't think I'll ever go back to doing smaller ones. I take it back, of course I'll do smaller ones. These large ones however allow me to have that freedom, keeps me on my toes, and allows me to experiment. 

This piece and my Fourfold series will be on view at the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art for the Emerging Artists show from Aug 29th(reception 5pm-7pm)-Oct 4th in Novato, CA.

This Wednesday's Piece of the Week is a snip from my sketchbook. Drew this from reference photos I took of my friend's kid at a birthday party. I always feel the need to bring my sketchbook around to catch an opportunity to draw something from life, but most of the time I end up with empty pages. 

Trying to frequently use my sketchbook. Maybe I'll post something on Friday. Maybe, just maybe I'll be doing more blog posts throughout the week. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday? Too frequent. We'll see how long I can keep this up for and figure out some kind of schedule with topics to cover. Meet again on Friday!

@unadigs on Instagram asked for a step by step process of how I approach a plein air in watercolor. I always forget to take pictures while working, mainly cause I'm too wrapped up in painting. Paint dries pretty fast outside in the summer and I like to paint wet in wet. I don't have the best multi tasking skills, so holding a palette, brushes, and remembering to take pictures was...OKOK! enough of the excuses. lets get to it! One last thing, sorry for the tilt of these photos.

Here's a short rundown of my supplies. I'll do a more in depth blog post of my things in a couple days. I use four brushes, a collapsible plastic water container, atomizer, full palette, and carry a tube of white watercolor.

Brushes used:
-Cheap  bristle brush
-Pinstripe dagger
-#6 Round
-Size 3 squirrel mop

Paints used for the painting
Cerulean
Ultramarine Violet
Viridian
Yellow Ochre
Cadmium Orange
Alizarin Crimson
Neutral Tint
Titanium White

Step 1: The Drawing & light washes
I no longer use a pencil for the underdrawing. Instead, I use a brush using a light value (lots of water, less pigment. aka "tea") from whatever that's leftover on my palette. For me, I just like the fresh look of the paint without the markings of graphite interrupting the flow of the painting. 

Check out the work of Frank Francese who is an incredible watercolor artist that for me defines freshness in a watercolor painting.

I made my necessary marks establishing the horizon line, the height, width, and angles of the subject, tried to save some white of the paper. Honestly, I do this pretty loosely, so sometimes some of those things are off. I have my board tilted  and work from top to bottom, so that my washes can be coated evenly on the paper. I let the paint mix and mingle together and not worry about it. Leaving some bleeding adds an interesting effect that you can't mimic.

Step 2: Establishing shadows
I let the paint dry completely before I move on to mid-dark areas like shadows. This mixture of paint and water should be about 50/50. 

Step 3: Moist and Darks
I try to add these darks using dry brush  while the application from the previous step is still wet. It's the best time to work I think. You get to play with edges. Honestly, I didn't do a good job at it. I tried to give it a few sprays while I was working, but the sun was getting stronger by the minute! 

Step 4: everything else!
I forgot to take a picture of the cars and figures before this stage, but I admit that they weren't painted well. I would have liked to have painted these more thoroughly and more wet, but excuses excuses!

Step 5: Final touches
I added and  mixed white with the other colors to create highlights for figures, bell tower, and cars. I'm too careless with saving the highlights from the paper, so using that titanium white allowed me to add it on instead. 

Final thoughts
This was my first time painting at this location, so there are a bunch of things that I'd like to do differently the next time. Things like being more careful on saving whites & overall structure of the drawing, paying more attention to the temperature and tone, choosing a different color scheme, and pushing the background back some more. I felt like the first wash of the building was too strong and the shadows of the building weren't strong enough.  The next time I'll play more with stronger contrast and color harmony.


An artist to check out to better understand the consistency of paint and water, see Joseph Zbukvic and his book Mastering Atmosphere & Mood in Watercolor

And again, Frank Francese if you want a more fresh and graphic approach.

I've updated the watercolor/plein air section from the Artistry page with a few new works including this one, so check it out by clicking on the picture above! See ya Wednesday.

Here's the very first Piece of the Week that I'll be posting every Wednesday. It'll also be the featured artwork on the home page. I thought I'd switch up the images on there instead of the same ones being recycled.  Also, it'll give me something to do!

One of Alameda's known attractions are its Victorian houses. For being a small island it's one of the more noticeable things you see in town other than our small beach and our speed limit. Sure, Oakland, SF, Berkeley, and other towns have tons of old architecture too, but Alameda is just way easier to get to and see. The homeowners also do a good job at maintaining them.

I started painting around 7pm? A little late in the game, but good thing it's summer. A nice evening to go out on a walk, ( Hey Stacy & Fidelio!). I had some good light on the Victorian, giving me nice cast shadows from the railings and eaves. I know I was limited on time, so I had to make it quick. Good thing I work in watercolor for these occasions! I implied the cast shadows from the start after a thin wash of that funny orange-pink, which caused a lot of blossoming. 

I was too careless to save the whites for the trimming, so I knew I'd touch that off with opaque white.  Used wet in wet for the foliage and the background shapes. Finally finished it off with a rigger for the details. Dang, If I knew that I would have been blogging about this, I would have taken a step by step pictures. Then again, I was racing against the sun setting. 

Speaking of, by the time I was done, the lights were all gone, and the sky turned a radiant pink. Would have been nice to get that sky in rather than the gray blue I started out from. I think I may do a studio study of this again but with the pink sky. Anyway, cheers to the first Piece of the Week. Check back next week for the new one!

Family time in SF at the Piers and Musée Mécanique! The museum hosts over 300 mechanical games including: music boxes, fortune tellers & love testers, and various mechanical games from the 20th century. They also have current video games, but who cares about that?

The puppets they have sure are creepy, but are very fun to draw. May do a little series of these guys. This is a page from my sketchbook done in graphite.

Before there was Rock Em Sock Em Robots, there was Boxing Match...

Man vs Machine at the Arm Wrestler. Pay a quarter to test your might. You will most likely lose.

Took many photos of the piers and used some as reference for little watercolor paintings. Here's a street scene that features  the Fishermen's Grotto. Below is  Ghirardelli square. Need to go back and take more photos and paint from life. There's just a completely different feeling about working in the middle of it all. 

We also took a short bike-cab that took us from the piers to Ghirardelli, Lumbard, and through Little Italy. Our rider was very informative of the  cities history. I'd recommend  hopping on one of these even if you're not a tourist. I think it was $20 for 15 minutes. It's an interesting experience. We zoomed through pedestrians and cars. Didn't get hit once! They can take you to Chinatown and even to the Golden Gate Bridge.  

More to come! Will start posting an artwork of the day once a week. Haven't decided on which day. Maybe smack dab in the middle on wednesdays? Sounds like a plan.