Oh happy day! Elation, relief and most important HOPE. History was made and I’m so proud of America today. ’nuff said by me. Love and Peace.
News & ramblings from Leslie Newman, graphic designer & illustrator
Change has come to America
Same big driftwood at La Push on the Washington Coast
I stood before this huge driftwood log two years ago, it hasn’t budged. The wild north Washington coast is the land of big driftwood beaches. We’ve gone out here every February for about 4 years, and somehow we luck out with the weather. Sure it’s cold, but clear and sunny? That’s not normal, it’s a treat. The afternoon we arrived I asked the woman manning the front desk of the Oceanside Resort if she had seen any sunshine that day. She laughed like I was a crazy person. But sure enough the sun came out for our visit. We visited the beach at Oil City (not really a city at all, but reportedly the beach with the most driftwood in the world.) It’s a ten mile drive from the highway, then a 1 mile walk to the beach, which is at the mouth of the Hoh river. Part of Olympic National Park, Oil City is a starting point for hiking the Olympic Coast up to Third Beach which is near La Push. That would be a rugged challenge, bring your tide chart for sure. Instead of roughing it with a backpack, we stayed comfortably in deluxe cabins and drove south to Ruby Beach, pictured below, to enjoy the sunshine and search for the perfectly shaped rock.
Keep on keeping on… life drawing
I’m so lucky. A group of drawing buddies get together to do some figure drawing. We share the model fee, our fearless leader books all the best models. How great is it that they are willing to bare all for artists practicing their craft/art or whatever you want to call it? Practice is the best word for me, I don’t have many expectations. It’s the experience of looking and putting marks on paper. Stop thinking about keyboard shortcuts and undos and start making my own hand create a mark that is unique and expresses the live form that is before me. Feel the gesture, follow the contour, see the shadow shapes, angles and relationships of shape to shape. Line, wash, smears, scrubs, thick, thin, heavy, light, fast, slow… OMG so many possibilities, don’t think too much just practice and try something different on the next one. It is exhilarating. Stack the papers up, don’t judge too carefully, just remember the experience. Definitely show up in two weeks to do it again. Keep it up, fill the recycle barrel over and over.
In March our fearless leader will be holding a workshop “Mixed Media Figure Drawing” here in Seattle, I can’t wait.
Drawing at the zoo
Tuesday I completed a six session class, “Drawing outside the studio” taught by Barbara Fugate. The focus was expanding our mark making vocabulary, making marks that move, touch and feel. What an inspiring way to spend Tuesday afternoons, it was a treat to get away from the computer and get my hands dirty with conte crayon filling up a 9 x 12 sketchbook.
We drew at three locations, the Conservatory at Volunteer Park, the Seattle Asian Art Museum and my favorite, the Woodland Park Zoo. It’s been years since I visited the zoo, the diversity of the animals at Woodland Park is amazing. Emus, ocelots and elephants, oh my! Above is a barred owl, who slowly moved his head around checking out the other raptors and people watching him.
Trick or Treat in the Junction
I can’t believe it’s almost time for Halloween! Where did summer go? The West Seattle Junction Association is using my Trick or Treat poster to promote their very popular trick or treat event. They really don’t need to advertise it, somehow kids and parents just know and they turn out in droves. But the poster I designed last year was popular so we’re using it again. I really like my hairy green spider, so I decided to add this design to my CafePress shop. My order of mini buttons and magnets arrived today and they’re a lot of fun. Of course, if you’re so inclined, thongs and mousepads are also available.
Apple iPhone — I couldn’t wait
OK, I really did not plan to get one of these things. I was concerned… could this device live up to the intense hype? will Apple stock plumet after this thing debuts? I’m not a early adopter type. I could wait ’til gen 2. Well, after I saw the husband’s Saturday morning, I realized this is a must have. Why wait? I ran out and got one. Since we had an AT&T family plan and I’m a full-time Mac user it was an easy decision. Wow, we had fun playing with them all weekend. It was a little surreal, I felt like we had jumped a few years in to the future. The demos on the Apple site show it off, but when you hold yours in your hand with your calendar, your address book, music and photos in it you realize the possiblities. Now if AT&T can handle all the extra demand, we’ll be just fine.
By the way the photo shows the iPhone in a nice protective cover made by incase without it it’s a bit slippery. Geez, I don’t want to drop this thing!
Hooray for Cooper Black!
I finally had the opportunity to use Cooper Black, a classic retro font, that I used to hate, but now have a strange fondness for.
This is the 2007 West Seattle Community Summer Festivities Calendar. You gotta know when the HiYu Kiddie parade is and the Rotary Raspberry sale is not to be missed. My spouse makes killer jam every year with those raspberries, mmm. Curious for more details here’s the West Seattle Summer Festivities Calendar in pdf format (248k).
Now where else can I make use of Cooper Black?
Expressive figure painting workshop
In June I had another opportunity to participate in a weekend workshop with Barbara Fugate. It was intense two days filled with instruction and inspiration. We studied approach of the Bay Area Figure Painters, except we painted from the live model. We did four paintings in the two days. All 24 x 36 inch or larger. Needless to say there was no fussing allowed. I’m looking forward to this weekend’s Fugate workshop, three days of “Figure in the Landscape” on Guemes Island. I’ve got my wide brimmed hat and the weather is looking fine!
Spring in the West Seattle Junction
My studio is located in West Seattle, specifically in “The Junction”. It really is the Heart of West Seattle, I love being part of the neighborhood. There’s great shopping and lots of good places to eat, it’s very lively these day. I can walk out my door, cross the street and find great desserts at “Coffee to a Tea with Sugar”, yummy sandwiches at Capers and Husky Deli, hmmm where should I get lunch today? Easystreet Records has great coffee (and breakfast — hi Lydia), and funky-graphic-overload decor, amazingly the CD I want is always on sale, YES! There’s too many great small businesses to list, you get the idea.
Recently I had the opportunity to create a Spring direct mail promotion for the Junction Association. It was their first big mailing, it promoted the start of the popular West Seattle Farmers Market and Spring sales and events coordinated by merchants. The back of the postcard had 20 coupons from Junction establishments. They let me go loose with a fun and colorful illustration, you certainly couldn’t miss it in the stack of mail. I think it brought the Junction’s visibility up a notch — with style!
Sweet Pea dismissed
I’m late in posting this, I was just plain tired of talking about it. April 3rd we heard that the case was voluntarily dismissed by the plaintiff. In fact, the few settlement fees that were paid to the plaintiff’s attorney early on have been returned to those defendants. Hard to believe, but apparently true as reported in the Miami Herald by Jim Wyss. Also it appears the attorney Alexander E Barthet no longer has Sweet Pea Ltd. as a client. I feel so sad for him. For the many Sweet Pea defendants that settled recently at no cost, though details can’t be revealed, we can definitely say that it was done in our favor and that it particularly addresses our key creative and legal issues. The whole sorted story is at sourpeas.org. For those of us that settled the case is dismissed “with predjudice” meaning they can can’t sue us again for the same claims. Now on to happier pursuits…
