Desert Prisms

As part of taking a spiritual/nature retreat in the Arizona desert with my brother, I drew a pair of mandalas on 9-16 and 9-17.
The desert was quite hot but very beautiful. Teeming with life: numerous birds, hummingbirds, bugs, lizards, giant grasshoppers with brilliant colors and coyotes at night.

Tangible Orb Sequence

Recorded work of 9-9-10

Tangible Orb

Drawing from the day of 9-9-10

A drawing done with Estella at the entrance to Golden Gate Park at Haight and Stanyan Streets, hanging out with friends of ours. A warm, beautiful summer day. Took the bus from the Mission, almost directly to the drawing spot.
The spot is an excellent stage to work on, and the symetry of it particulary accentuates a geometrical design.
I crafted a 14 pointed star and have been experimenting with smaller shape templates in the stars. Stella did an excellent job drawing giant hands on either side 'holding' the sphere.
There was a strange moment which struck me. Amongst the different traveling, dreddy types who passed by was one guy who joked with me about the circle being a portal into another dimension. And then he said 'if it really was a portal, I would totally go through it. I'm tired of being a prisoner in my own mind'.
The park has beautiful meadows to relax in on sunny days, a late bit of summer weather. After having some fantastic crepes and finishing the drawing up, we went to an event at a bookstore I had been anticipating. A favorite author of mine, William Gibson, was appearing at Booksmith on Haight. He read from his new book to about 150 people. It was gratifying to see one I consider a literary great.

Seraphim as Astral Form

From the day of 9-3-10.

With a different angle of sunlight I was able to get better photos of the outlines.
Then managed to make decent progress with the coloration of the figure.
Watching the wall of fog spill and billow over the ridges in waves was a compelling sight. Though it was warm and windy with blue skies at the site, as soon as the fog blotted out the sun, it immediately got chilly.

Water Spirit and Heiro-Angel

On the day of 9-2 I had a chance to trek around the area and get some drawing work in. Started a new piece at the 15th and Market site, another Seraphim themed figure. This one I rendered with a fantastical geometric head dress. As usual, that spot was quite windy, even though it was a nice, warm day. At Safeway nearby, workers were smoothing down new sidewalk, and the sight of it struck me somehow.
Late in the afternoon we headed down to 20th and Valencia where the unfinished 'Water Spirit' portrait was. I went with an unusual color blend on the skin tones, and then sharpened the outlines up with white.