PokeStops - Fritz

This is an old theater in Denton, TX. It also happens to be one of my favorite PokeStops. Painted on location.

Balcony - Fritz

Today, it's all about the balconies, baby. I mean, not for me, personally. No, I'm pretty sure those things are death traps.

I am having a blast practicing watercoloring, but I think I should paint in a bigger sketchbook. I won't until I finish all the pages in this one, but it would be nice.

Fireflies Didn't Work - Fritz

So, right now on reddit, all the prompts are birds. I didn't want to paint a bird, so I asked my sister what I should paint. She told me fireflies. Well, joke is on her. I tried. And guess what? I can't paint well enough to capture their ghost-like nature-beauty.

I gave up. What could I paint? How about...my paint! So here is my paint palette/box thingy. I have a black color in my palette. I really dislike it. Forget the fact that it's actually graphite grey. I still don't like it. I've been having such a blast mixing colors, even blacks and greys. The blacks and greys in this painting are mixed by me. I feel like the "black" I put in there is just a waste of space.

Car stuff is really expensive. It's the worst.

Pokemon GO

When I started this blog I said to myself "Fritz, this lunch meat has gone bad." Now, those things aren't related, but now we know each other better. Also around the same time I said I wouldn't miss a day on this blog unless something important comes up. This was before I knew Pokemon GO was going to come out.

Pokemon GO. You've probably heard of it. How do I know? I actually watched my entire city shut down completely for three days straight. Shut down and playing Pokemon GO. Went to church on Sunday, Pokemon GO. Park, Pokemon GO. Target, Pokemon GO. The only time I didn't see Pokemon GO happening was when Tiny Feet suggested Pokemon was for kids. You get that dirty language out of my house, Tiny Feet!

In actuality, Pokemon and I go way back. One of my first jobs ever was working for Wizards of the Coast, maker of the Pokemon card game. It was a retail gig, but also I had a lot to do with running the Pokemon tournaments for the kids there. It was a lot of fun.

Anyways, here are my sketches for today and the weekend. This is Koffing and Oddish from Pokemon. One thing I was really happy with with these is the colors. I've been pretty hooked on the aspect of mixing color and I think I'm doing fairly well. I like the puzzle of seing a color and figuring our what it's made of. For the purple of Koffing I started with Cerulean Blue, Chromium and Quinacridone Rose. I figured the skyish blue and the pink/red would make a good purple. I wasn't right initially. My first mix was a very royal purple sort of color. I saw I was, somehow, lacking both blue and red in the color. I added a touch more Quin Rose and then a ton more Cerulean. That got me a lot closer but I realized I was missing some warmth from the color so I added a bit, just a touch, really, of Ultramarine Blue. That did the trick!

I've learned that having a scrap piece of paper for testing colors is an absolute must. Anyways, there you go!

Free Draw Friday - Fritz

I asked the wife what I should sketch today. She said cats. I'll probably do that, but first, this building. We have a downtown area here in town we call "The Square." It's really a very cool place. Live music all the time, weird hippies, trees, all sorts of great things. One of those things is J&J's Pizza. The pizza and calzones are amazing.

The most fun thing about this was that I did it on location. "Plein air." I was covered in ants by the end of it, but it was fun. I lugged my entire painting kit out there, but it was too much. I mean, I used it all, but I need to think of a way to have the tools I need in a smaller package.