Pottery Trial and Error

Here are a few pictures of my adventures...and misadventures in the pottery studio. I'm cranking out work for an upcoming sale, so it's been all about repetition and moving quickly. The challenge of clay is that there are many places in the process where things can go wrong. As you can see in the first picture, the bottoms blew off a few of my pieces in the bisque firing. Here you can see how they look before they're trimmed. Trimming is a great way to eliminate excess bulk/weight from the bottom of the pot and it also allows you to give your pot a more continous shape.


This last photo shows a glazing mishap that has rendered these bowls useless. I'm thinking that maybe it's time to experiment with a mosaic project. Besides, who doesn't love to smash things with a hammer once in a while?

Rested, Renewed and Home from my retreat. Had lots of time during class to sketch as the lecture portion got a little long and tedious at times. My sketches all happened among taking notes. Very middle school, but this time no one said anything.  If anything, it kept me in the moment and aware of all material presented. I just got to keep hands busy and wow, it felt so good.

The Last of the Sketches from Project # 2

Here are the rest of my sketches from last week's project. I look forward to continuing to sketch unsuspecting subjects. Ultimately, I'd like to capture more people in motion, out and about doing things and not sneakily sketching them from behind. While I explained the concept of the CWP to my step-father and showed him my sketches, he made a great observation: my sketches (most of them) are of people in cafe's of one kind or another. Portland is all about coffee, bars and cafes. We are a city of foodies. So in looking for the subtle differences between my art and Mandy's art, our day to day subject matter really does reflect the culture and lifestyle. Hurray! It's working.

Anyhow, here are my sketches starting with the most recent...
Guy sitting at the bar at Besaw's during happy hour. 6-16-10

Tony P in the standing Tuesday marketing team meeting 6-15-10

Guy with unruly children (not pictured here) at Bank of America early Saturday 6-13-10.

Breakfast at Genie's for my step-dad's birthday. We got there early and these were the only other people to sketch. Not a great view. 6-12-10

Playing hooky from work- buying magazines for "research" I stopped by Starbuck's for a soy chai latte and spotted this lady, who was completely engrossed with her phone. Starbuck's on NW 23rd. 6-11-10

In Mandy's absence I have been spending many hours making pottery and cards for an upcoming sale. I'll call my personal assignment for this week Bowl Making. My goal is to complete (throw and trim) 20 bowls by next Saturday 6/26. I think I have about 5 done so far! Whew! Here we go again...

Down Time

Hmm... sort of lost some momentum on that last project. I have drawings to share! Really, I do. It's all about remembering to use the scanner at work. My partner in crime is away at a yoga retreat and is banned from using technology, so I'll keep sketching random people I encounter this weekend until she returns and we can start another project. In the meantime, the weather in the Pacific Northwest remains gray, rainy and cool so I thought I'd try to will the sun to shine by posting some photos of sunnier days to inspire me and my Portland peeps.

On the Other Coast...(Hot,Hot,Hot)

Warm, well HOT weather sketches. Not getting much detail on these due to the fact that I made them at the Whirlin'Waters Water Park. Where not only does no one stand still, I feel a little uncomfortable staring at people in their bathing suits for to long.

A great place to see lots of bodies, not to mention lots of moles, tattoos and movement!

(but, my sketch pad is a little wrinkly now due to water/moisture damage :)

Thursday Rainy Thursday

It's mid-June and people all over the city wore hoodies and fleece today. Seriously. The rain and gray days have the entire city of Portland in a funk-myself included. I went to Laughing Planet for lunch and while we were waiting for our food, I spotted a woman leaning over the condiment table intently. Gray flowing skirt coupled with a heavy, lined hoody. Case in point on the gross weather and what it's doing to our spring wardrobes.

On the drive back to the office, I decided to draw KW. It was somewhat awkward for me to be "in your face" about drawing someone. And of course he had to make faces at me. But, it was somewhat liberating to draw someone I know so well, and be able to show them afterwards, even though I didn't feel it looked like him so much. He thought it was more accurate than I did. Who knew?

Wednesday 6.9.10

I'm surrounded by people. All. Day. Long. My "office" (aka cubicle) is in a factory that employs some 160 people. They're everywhere: working, eating, playing ping pong, sitting in meetings, getting coffee... you get the idea. It should be easy to crank out two drawings a day. Yet I found myself waiting for the right opportunity to draw any one of them yesterday. So I'm confessing up front- I am one drawing short for Wednesday (hangs head in shame).

Now that we've got that out of the way, a little about the drawing that I did get- so much of my job is about sitting in meetings, having conversations, taking notes, making something happen and re-capping what just happened. What better way to capture those magic moments than to sketch my co-workers? Talk about jumping out of your comfort zone. Most of these people have never seen anything I've created (excluding all the killer events and media coverage I mastermind), and it does feel a little... something... to be "doodling" during event re-cap meetings. I felt like I was back in high school doing something devious or inappropriate, but that feeling was kind of exciting; just like it was in high school.

Well, I placed my sketch pad in my lap under the table and sketched furiously. I swear my boss gave me a puzzled glance at one point, and I thought "uh-oh", but I'm realizing most of this is probably just in my head. Early on in my drawing, I had assessed the proportions of my subjects head incorrectly. Usually, I would abandon the sketch and start over, but I pushed on. Once I had eliminated any aspect of her likeness, I focused on her shoulders and necklace, which came out great! The rest of the sketch- not so much.