At the last Paris show at Galerie Arludik, because so much of my work on Out of Picture 1 was purely digital, I didn’t have very many original pieces of artwork in the show. I had to exhibit mainly giclee prints and just a few rough sketches. For Out of Picture 2 I made sure I had more physical artwork to show for my efforts. I thought I’d share some of the drawings that will be on display in Paris on thursday.

I am SOOOO excited to announce that next Thursday, September 3rd, Galerie Arludik is opening their exhibit for Out of Picture 2! Many of our artists will be there – myself, David Gordon, Jason Sadler, Vincent Nguyen, Peter Nguyen to name a few! – so if you happen to be in the area PLEASE stop by and say “Bon jour!” Arludik had a show for OOP 1 three years ago, and it was one of the most fun experiences in my artistic career. It felt more like a street party than an art opening, and everyone was so incredibly friendly and receptive.

These are a couple doodles that were inspired by trips to several of Paris’ comic shops.

This is one of those drawings where I really have no idea what was going through my mind. I had been looking at a lot of Carlos Nine at the time, but I don’t really know if anyone would know it by looking at this. Oh well.

This one is simply titled “Ghost Girl.”

After Florence, we took a really looooooooong ferry ride (I don’t think we’ll ever take an overnight ferry ride again) to Barcelona  – our last stop on our trip. Barcelona is an amazing city. If you like architecture, you will LOVE it there. Didn’t do too much sketching while there since we were running from one Gaudi building to another and hanging out with a few of our friends who are from Barcelona.

These are a couple of the sketches I did while either at the airport or on the plane – I can’t remember which. Who knows what I was thinking at this point. Apparently something about chin rolls…

Okay, okay, so this one’s not from Europe. It’s Bethesda fountain in Central Park in NYC. But it is the last sketch in my sketchbook from that trip, and I thought it fit right in… I did this one shortly after our return.

In completely unrelated news, I checked out the Editorial/Book show at the Society of Illustrators in NY today. Pretty great show if you have the chance to see it. Congratulations to my good friends Robert Mackenzie and Daisuke Tsutsumi who both had pieces in the show!  Way to go, guys!

So, after Paris we took a train to Venice. We went to Venice in April when there weren’t as many tourists, and I just have to say it is one of the most beautiful surreal places I’ve ever imagined let alone visited. I didn’t do as much drawing there because we were too busy getting ourselves lost in its labyrinthine streets and then finding our way back out again. I also had an $18 slice of pizza there. Yes, it actually was that good (although I had no idea how much it was going to cost when I ordered it).

I have to explain the sketch of the fellow with the rose. We were eating dinner one night out on one of the small city squares when I saw this guy walking down the street across the piazza. He looked kind of like an incognito Pavarotti with a huge cape draped over him, a wide brimmed hat and he a single rose in his hand.

Some doodles on the train from Venice to Florence.

These are a couple sketches I did in the Firenze Sculpture Piazza.

I didn’t actually do any drawing when we went to the Academia to see Michelangelo’s David, but the place just blew me away. The high point for me there wasn’t David – far from it – but a room filled with incomplete busts, figures, and just incredible sculptures down the hall from David. I didn’t want to leave. The next day, we went to the Bargello Museum to see the works of Donatello. Books just don’t do justice…

By the way, the food in Florence is AMAZING. They make steak like nowhere else.

These sketches were all done during my first trip to Paris in 2006. Three of them were done at the Louvre and the fourth at the Musee d’Orsay.

This one was done as the Louvre was closing. The security was kind enough to let me finish what I was doing as they ushered everyone else out.

Hit this one on my second trip to the Louvre later the same week.

Alright, this one really deserves an explanation. Mullets are an easy target, but most I’ve never seen one quite so deliberate and perfect. This waiter at the Louvre’s cafe invested a lot of love and effort (and hair product) to get this mullet so symmetrically sculpted. As mullets go, this one almost did belong in the Louvre.

I just loved sculpture by Francois Pompon at the Musee d’Orsay. The simple lines, the smooth perfectly smooth surfaces… It was actually incredibly hard to draw and I don’t think I really did it justice. It really lent itself to the kinds of shapes and lines I usually like to incorporate into my drawings.

Damn, I want to go back to Paris…