Weekend Coffee Shop Sketches

Always fascinating is the American coffee shop and their folks, a wonderful place to pause my life and sketch real life.

Skinny jeans and a huge latte.  I am not sure how all that coffee fits into this guy's body.

Then there are the folks that browse the snack counter.  Snacks = high calorie, sugar and cream infused food-like items.  She made the final decision on one of each.

Also great is watching the new world of dating and relationship progression.  In our technology age, it seems that the progression of a relationship is device based.  It seems that dating starts with a mutual PDA date.  This is where the couple spends the time on their PDAs, hopefully texting each other.  This progresses to the Laptop date, where the couple has that "no talking" comfort level and spends their time on their own laptops, next to each other.  Again, I hope they are Facebooking, chatting or, at least, emailing each other.

Here are some spillage / muffin top sketches.  Who doesn't love the ever expanding waistline of America?  Me.

I think she is so happy because of her hair.  I know I am happy because of her hair.

And then this one is sad, because of her hair.  Again, I am sad because of her hair

Custom Grace Top Sheets

At Grace skis, we can burn our customers a custom top sheet.  This allows the owner of to represent their company, branding, style or something meaningful to the Grace owner.

First are the stock top sheets.

                                   Jake All Mountain     The KIWI Big Powder    Kylie Big Mountain

Gulmarg India 2013

Drew Ingardia : Roots Team Athlete

Alex Riedman: Core7 Athlete

Cole Herdman: Roots Team Athlete

Drew Rouse: Core7 Athlete

Mark Kolgelmann: Grace Roots Athlete

Osprey Packs

Alaska Powder Descent

National Ski Patrol 75th Anniversary Ski

Kind Design Company Ski

Tonight's Napkin Sketches

Hit a pizza place for dinner tonight with the crew and we like to play a game of Guess the Face.  Here are a collection of napkin sketches of the folks that we shared the restaurant with this evening.

Yeah, no sleeves on your shirt is a great look.  Especially with big, soft arms.

Old handlebars sitting by the door was an easy catch

Four faces to a napkin.

And of course, last but not least, our waitress.

Who uses napkins for cleaning up anyway?  Not me.

Painting at local business

I walked into a local Golden business to see my painting in the entrance.  Warms my heart...my cold black heart.  

This is 12"x36" acrylic on canvas of an European landscape.

See some of the other landscape paintings: http://patrickv.com/fineart_solitudes.php

Holiday 2012 Photo Gallery

Here is the photo gallery from the holidays. We celebrated Anya's birthday and Christmas in Golden and then down to Florida for some time with family.

Click on the slideshow to view the complete gallery and download any images.

Click here to view the last photo gallery

My CCAF 7News Interview

I was fortunate enough to be selected at an emerging artist for the 2006 Cherry Creek Arts Festival.  As part of the event, I was interviewed on 7News Denver, which sounded like a great idea, at the time.

That is, until the host, Betha Lynn, called me demented.  At least she pronounced my name correctly.  That is a good thing, right?

See the complete interview here:

It was a great event and unforgettable weekend.  If you are in Denver over the Fourth of July weekend, I highly recommend getting out to Cherry Creek and supporting the artists.  

Learn more about the festival here: https://www.cherryarts.org/

More sketches of more folks

Some faces and folks that just needed to be captured.

We got Mr. Shiny Bald Head and his buddy Chubby Tiny Face.  I love when chubby people have tiny faces.  I wonder how tiny a face can get...I am on the search for the tiniest face I can find.

This poor lady has one of the angriest faces I have ever seen.  Her mouth pointed so far down she looks permanently mad.  If she could only turn her frown upsidedown, she would be the happiest person in the world.  But, unfortunately for her, it doesn't look like she even knows how to smile.

And, of course, another round american women.  I am not sure what is bigger:  her rear, triceps fat or her hair.  She was definitely jolly, though.  She's got that going for her, which is nice...I guess.

From Sketch to Model

Doing some tests for an upcoming project, I did a first run from a sketch to a 3-D clay model of a character.  

Sticking to only the head, this was an easy start, and fun to get back into clay.  

Here is the sketch of the guy's head...

...and then the clay version.

Not mathematically accurate, but pretty close for a free-hand start.  What is math anyway, but a crazy science behind numbers, quantitative values and spacial relationships.  

Stop staring at me!  I can crush you back into the ball of clay you came from! 

Why do you not listen to me?  Why?!?

Spanish Church on display

It is always fun to visit a house and see a painting of mine on display.  Spanish Church II in a Florida home.

Sometimes when paintings are sold or given as gifts, they disappear from my collective consciousness and it is nice to see them alive and part of someone's living space.

Spanish Church is part of my Solitude Collection.  See the complete Solitude collection here:  http://isil.us/0w88O

Faces from the Florida Flight

Another flight and another collection of folks to share my time with.  

She waddled by, staring intently into her phone, with no awareness of the world around her.  While "Smiley", on the other hand, desperately scanned the crowd of people looking for some kind of eye contact and visual acceptance of his existence.  These two should get together.

And so we got on the plane and were greeted by our beloved flight attendants.   I think all flight attendants are either cougars or gougars (gay cougars), and this flight was no different.  I did get two Jack bottles for the price of only one, that was nice.

It seemed like everyone was going back to school on this flight, so I had the pleasure of feeling like I was at least 40 years old...oh wait.  I mean, I felt like I was 70 years old.  There is no way I looked that young in college.  I was definitely a man by then, not a pencil neck, self-conscious, baby faced adolescent, like this crew.  Frankly, I don't think I had reached that stage by graduation.

No flight would be complete without my row neighbor.  I got the "Please don't sit next to me" guy that was squeezing his way through the seats.  His eyes gazed and set on the numbers above my row and rest was history.  Side fat rubbing against me, snoring and wheezing and even less space the airplane seats offer.

But, back in Colorado, safe and sounds and that is really all I wanted from this trip anyway.

A winter day on Siesta Key

The weather cleared and we finally get a day on Siesta Key.  So nice was the weather and the view and sunning ladies.  No sunning ladies in Colorado, especially in December.  Always appreciate the sunning ladies.

In Sarasota, there is a populate of Menanites (which my spell check corrected to Meningitis...ha ha).  These folks have to wear dresses, the same dresses, all the time.  Even at the beach.  This poor girl stared longingly at the water, clad in her full length outfit.  Obviously, this dress will be the difference maker at judgement day.

Lot of folks enjoying the beach, well, except for the fact that they are on their mobile devices the whole time.  Answering phone calls, texting people that aren't around them, playing games...but most importantly, not talking to the people around them.   

Another fascinating example of lower lip fat.  There are some big folks on the beach and I have noticed that when folks get big enough, even the lips get fat.  The amazing thing to me is that some people pay "doctors" to get fat injected into their lips.  God bless 'merica.