I've had this beautiful old writing tablet for quite some time now, unsure what to use it for. It has the most gorgeous smooth paper that has somewhat yellowed and turned a nice greyish creme color.

Anyhow, I so enjoyed drawing the buildings of Main Street in WDW that I thought this might be a nice notebook to continue drawing these beautiful buildings. Even the cover reminds me of Main Street.




I started with casey's corner, the famous hot dog place. My goal is to draw all the buildings on main street and then sell them.

Sketches from Disney World

I just got back from one of my very favorite places to draw, Walt Disney World. This is the sixth time I've had the privilege of drawing WDW. I wish I could draw every detail of it, right down to its endless varieties of trash cans, lam posts, and restroom signs. It's something I'll never accomplish but it's fun to try anyhow. There are certain places in WDW that I especially enjoy drawing, such as Asia in animal kingdom, Main Street in the Magic Kingdom, and there's something about the tower of terror that I love to draw repeatedly. I also like drawing in the line queues, even though it usually gets some strange inquisitive looks from people passing me by in the line. I could spend hours drawing in the queue to expedition everest. Anyhow, below are some of the drawings from this past trip.



I think it's interesting to look back at the sketches I did in my first sketchbook at Disney World back in 2008. the one below is from that sketchbook (I've always loved those rickshaws and wagons in animal kingdom ;)



Here's a link to all my Disney sketches from this 2014 trip...
Here's a link to my Disney sketches from 2013...
Here's a link to my Disney sketches from 2010...
Here's a link to my Disney sketches from 2009...
Here's a link to my Disney sketches from 2008...

More from the right side of the brain...

I must say that although I enjoy doing these drawings, and I feel satisfied with the results, I do not feel the same kind of emotional attachment to the drawings themselves as I do ones in my observational sketchbook.
 With these it's all about the process as opposed to the finished work. I enjoy working this way. It is as if my hand and my pencil are in control and my mind is just along for the ride. Many times when I begin these drawings I have no idea where they will end up. I usually start out with a pair of eyes and let it evolve from there.
I wish i could say that in this sketchbook I have no preconceptions, no rules or boundaries. But the truth is that I'm extremely critical of what I draw here. On many occasions I spend much time on a drawing only to cover over it with paint, something I would almost never do in my observational sketchbook. Some of these pages have 6 or 7 rejected drawings under the layers of paint. But since I have no emotional attachment to them it's easy for me to simply forget them and start over again.

Imagination versus observation

01, a photo by Sketchbuch on Flickr.

I find it helpful to have two sketchbooks going at all times. One book is dedicated to observational drawing of people, places, and things which are part of my everyday life, while the other book is for drawing completely from the imagination.

This one is from my latest imagination book, the mr. hyde to my dr. Jekyll.

In The Back Pocket of My Moleskine

The little talked about back pocket... In mine I usually keep all the little scraps of paper that make up parts of my everyday life. Here I have plane/train/subway ticket stubs, mickey mouse stickers I aquired in Disney World, some dental X-rays I got in the dominican republic (I was thrilled that they actually give them to you there!),  a leaf from an uva de la playa, a tiny feather, drawings my niece and nephew did (they're awesome artists), menus, a coaster from a resort, a drawing of leaves my wife did, some paint and countertop samples, and sometimes I even keep receipts from places I want to remember. I love opening up books from years past and taking a look at all the little scraps I keep in them. It brings back such vivid memories.
So, what do you keep in that little back pocket?

Disney World Sketches

So my family and I just got back from Disney World, which is one of my all-time favorite places to draw. For me it's kind of like training camp for the sketchbook artist. EVERYTHING you could probably ever hope to draw is there. You have at your constant disposal architectural and design styles from every continent, as well as from the past, the present, outer space, and even the fantasy world. This is one place where you can feel like you're drawing an abandoned 1930's Hollywood Hotel in one moment, and only a short stroll from there you're drawing a life-size Star Wars At At. Different nationalities, styles of dress, foods,  languages, modes of transportation, styles of construction and design, from every locality both past, present, future, and imagined, all converge in this place. It's like high intense cross-training for me as someone who draws in a sketchbook. At times it's a very challenging drawing situation, especially when you consider that the common denominator among all these worlds is the strollered two-year-old. But I enjoy the challenge, and this is the 4th time I've had the opportunity of drawing Disney.

Each time I draw here, I probably experiment a little more with the subject, trying to capture what it is I like about Disney, and not necessarily trying to provide a general all-around tour of each park and each resort. Except for a couple drawings of Cinderella's castle which I drew while waiting for the fireworks, some might not even recognize these as drawings from Disney World. But I drew what I drew most oftenly because these are things which I recognize and enjoy each time I come here. Sometimes I just draw something too because it's convenient and I have the time, I might be waiting for food to come or something, but I almost always fill that time in with sketching, even though that might mean sketching something which doesn't necessarily appeal to me visually.

So without further ado... posted below are some of the sketches. You can find the whole set of them here in my Flickr blog.

A New Book by Danny Gregory!

Danny Gregory posted on his blog this morning a picture of the front cover of his new book, An Illustrated Journey. I'm pretty excited about this one because I'm one of the many artists featured in it. Another book of his titled An Illustrated Life travels with me everywhere I go and has become for me a real source of inspiration. I have no doubts that this one will be equally beautiful and inspiring. I can't wait for it to come out!

You can see Danny's post here and you can pre-order the book on amazon here. Also, you can see some of the beautiful artwork and artists that will appear in the book on Danny's Pinterest page.