Sketchgrams

Introducing a new series of video 'sketchgrams' - films and drawings made around Los Angeles.


Drawing around Santa Monica & Culver City









Sketching around Venice Beach, California with animation artists Ian Abando, Adam Dix and Dirk Van Dulmen.

Summer '16

It was a long, hot summer in Los Angeles and a creative one for me. I got out and about and kept up the plein air painting. See dozens more videos of me painting and drawing on my You Tube channel.

Los Angeles Plein Air Festival 2015

I was pleasantly surprised to receive an 'Honorable Mention' in the Los Angeles Plein Air Festival 2015 two weeks ago. It was a really hot day but we all muddled through. Here are the three pieces I submitted.

  'The Must'

'The  Pan American Building'

'Indian Alley' 112 Winston

Last Days of Summer

More architecture sketching while exploring Los Angeles . . .

 '8 Bit' beach house at Marina Del Rey

Culver City High School

Culver City Theatre

 L.A. School of Performing Arts, Downtown

Sacred Heart Chapel, LMU campus

 Downtown Los Angeles

 Arts District

Little Tokyo

Dennis Hopper's old pad (designed by Frank Gehry)

 Vista theater, Silverlake

 Wolf's Lair compound, Hollywood Hills

 Hollyhock House, Barnsdall Park (Frank Lloyd Wright)

 Manhattan Beach

 'Snow White cottages', Los Feliz

Ballona Creek Bike Path, Culver City

'Noir' architecture L.A.

More exploring Los Angeles with paint. I had 2 architectural targets this weekend: first the 'Spadena House' or 'Witch's House' in Beverly Hills, another example of 'storybook' architecture. 

A quick sketch to familiarize myself with the architecture and figure out any tough perspective problems. I'm also looking for detail: both to include and exclude. The property has a very interesting garden but I had to pare down the detail to the fence, the bridge and some choice flora and foliage.

I've noticed the curb markers in Los Angeles and this address has an apt design.

 Leaving Beverly Hills I wound up Sunset Blvd into the Hollywood hills to find the 'Dietrichson House' from Billy Wilder's 'Double Indemnity'. "It was one of those California-Spanish houses everyone was nuts about ten or fifteen years ago; this one must've cost somebody about thirty-thousand bucks...that is, if he ever finished paying for it." - Walter Neff

I made a quick sketch of the building to wrap my head around the architecture. There are some tricky planes and decorative elements in this one. It also makes me focus mentally on the colour choices I might make; taking note of the multiple greens in the shrubbery, what colour may work for the shadow area, the accent of the painted window frames etc. 

A resident told me the house opposite was where James Dean lived before he died. I made a quick sketch before heading home. I'll come back to paint that one again. 

Plein Air

The fine weather and light of Los Angeles is inspiring me to paint on location more this year. There are so many beautiful spots down the coast and hidden architectural gems within the city. These are pretty quick sketches - no more than 40 mins each.

'El Segundo'

'Point Vicente Lighthouse' Watercolour sketch below and gouache study above

'Higuera'

'Poinsettia'

                                                                      

  The Lawrence and Martha Joseph Residence, Culver City

Hutchison Ave, Helms District

Two angles of a modernist home on Helms Avenue.

'Fay Street'

'El Baron on Washington'

'Baldwin Hills Oil Field'

Modern beach-front house on 'Venice Beach'

 The 'Samitaur' building in the Hayden Tract designed by architect Eric Owen Moss (Culver City).

I stopped on the way home at Marina Del Rey and found this fishing boat just returned -at least it smelled like a fishing boat. Its crew were swabbing the deck which attracted a mob of gulls and small pelicans.

Venice Beach sketchbook

More sketches from the neighbourhood . . .