This illustration is based on a photo taken at the National Arboretum in 2007. It’s interesting, I went there yesterday and there was that same tree. It seemed like it was exactly the same. And yet it is alive and growing like any other tree. The National Arboretum has quite an amazing bonsai collection in a really beautiful setting. And as far as an artistic subject, these tiny trees just lend themselves to creating something wonderful.
These are some vector drawings of Eames chairs. Just for practice really. I love looking at Mid Century Modern furniture, and there’s something about the structure of it that lends itself to vector drawing.
There’s a great documentary on Charles and Ray Eames, called the Architect and the Painter. Among other things, it tells the story of how they came to make these famous molded plywood chairs. I like how Ray Eames is initially introduced in the film as “a painter who rarely painted.” Sounds like something I can relate to.
Sometimes I think I take way too many pictures of flowers. They’re like the low-hanging fruit of photography. I mean how hard is it to take a bad picture of a flower?
Still. I love this picture. The stillness of it, the vibrancy. And by saying I love this picture, it’s not like I can take credit. You use a good camera with a wide open lens, point it at God’s creation, and this is what you get.
This is a vector drawing of a marshmallow sofa. I found this is my illustrator folder and had completely forgotten about it. I think at the time I was just practicing drawing furniture, and the mid century aesthetic has always appealed to me.
The sofa itself was designed in 1956 by Irving Harper. It doesn’t actually look comfortable, does it? And yet it is the quintessential mid century modern sofa.
This is a vector drawing of a beach on the South East Peninsula of St. Kitts Island. It is referenced from this photo I took in 2006:
This is from a photo taken in Lubbock, Texas in 1999. I scanned the photo and then painted over it using ArtRage for the iPad. It’s a kind of a boring part of the county if you’re looking for things to do; however, the light and the landscape are amazing. I once saw the moon rise over the freeway in Amarillo and it was absolutely remarkable how big it looked.
What was I doing in Lubbock? Just passing through on a cross country road trip. I think I was on my way to Albuquerque. I don’t really remember much about Lubbock, except for the the Buddy Holly memorial that spells his name wrong.