A FEW RANDOM SKETCHES

I've been doing a lot of sketching on my iPad Pro using the app Procreate and an Apple Pencil. I feel sort of guilty about not sketching so much on paper but I feel a little freer using the iPad. 

I guess because it isn't so permanent if I make a mistake. A simple double tap and the mistake is erased. It does give me more confidence though when I do sketch with pen and ink.

Pen and ink and watercolor on Stillman and Birn Beta Series A5 sketchbook. This is my first-ever salmon sketch.

To combat the my guilty feelings I have been blending pen and ink with the digital iPad. I'll often draw on paper with my fountain pen then upload it to my iPad for coloring. But then that makes me feel like I'm neglecting my watercolors. I Just can't win.

This is the pen and ink only version. Before watercoloring it I uploaded it to my iPad for a digital copy.

Actually, I'm not even sure why I feel guilty. It's just another form of art medium. Maybe because I can "fix" my mistakes so easily.

I haven't mastered Procreate yet and I'm not happy with my "watercoloring" on he iPad. It still looks way too digital. I've seen others who have it down pretty well and theirs are hard to distinguish between digital and traditional.

This is the digital painting I did on the iPad in Procreate using the Apple Pencil.
I still have the background to complete. I think I still prefer the rawness of the
traditional watercolor version. Although for illustrations for print I like the digital versions.

I've also decided I needed to practice some portraits. Not that I draw portraits but Id like when I draw people in an urban sketch to have a little more realistic detail than they do now.

I can't remember who this guy is. I found his photo on Google and used that for a reference. 

Plus, #Oneweek100people2018 event begins March 5, 2018 so that should give me plenty of people to practice on.

And lastly, our twin grandsons love watching YouTube videos of Plants vs. Zombies so I sketched them their favorites, which they call Cone Zombie and football Running Zombie. Not sure if that is the real names of the characters or not. I then printed out the ink outlines for them to color then decided to do a finished version myself.

Below are the ink outline, what the twins colored and what I ended up with.

The ink outline of Plants vs Zombies with my own characters in the background.

This is the finished version of what our 4-year-old twins ended up coloring.

My version.

Here's some of my art supplies you can find on Amazon.

Apple Pencil: http://amzn.to/2DodFwt

iPad Pro 12.9-inch: http://amzn.to/2DhWfOI

JinHao Pen: http://amzn.to/2m3x2jJ

Lamy Safari fountain pen: http://amzn.to/2Dp91ye

Platinum carbon ink bottle ink black 60cc: http://amzn.to/2D1xFCA

Pentel Aquash Waterbrush: http://amzn.to/2F3ju0l

M. Graham watercolors: http://amzn.to/2Ee1yiA

For my YouTube channel, I do some of my filming with a GoPro Hero 2:  http://amzn.to/2m1LQzC

I am not sponsored by any company or product on this blog or in any of my videos, but I am an Amazon affiliate and do get a small commission from Amazon when you purchase an item through one of the above links at no additional cost to you. 

My YouTube channel is at: https://www.youtube.com/user/rdubinhawaii Please subscribe. Thank you very much. Have a great day. 

CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN ZOMBIES AHEAD ...

It's slow going but I'm up to 12 miles on my long runs and 10k (6.2 miles) on my other running days. I still need to add one more day of running to get it up to 4 days but I just don't know where I'll get the time, especially with winter coming on.

This Sunday I should be up to half marathon distance (13.1 miles). I can't wait to get up to three hour runs but by then it'll be cold and dark and rainy here. I know, I'm a wimp, but after training for years in Hawaii it's hard to get motivated in poor weather.

Karen and I, NJ and the twins are planning on racing zombies on the 25th in Albany. My guess is we'll not make it too far before we are "bitten." But it should be fun anyhow. I've always wanted "The Walking Dead" to do a show on zombie babies, especially zombie twin babies.

Oh, since Ironman World Championship is this Saturday, here's a video of my first world championship finish shot by my friend Giovanni.

This is from 2009. Back then 13 miles seemed like nothing. In fact I remember racing a half marathon a few weeks before where I went out and ran 3 miles as a warm up then ran my fastest half to date just so I could get in my 16 mile run for the day. Dang I miss in that kind of shape.

DEATH BY ZOMBIE

"A zombie film is not fun without a bunch of stupid people running around and observing how they fail to handle the situation." - George A. Romero, director, writer of Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, among other zombie movies

Well I participated in my first-ever zombie run recently. It was a 5k run at Blue Lake Regional Park in Portland Oct. 26.

I managed to make it about halfway before I was consumed by the mindless, brain eating walkers -- who, just for the record did some running to chase me down -- what's up with that?

Oh well, it was fun and even my 19 month old grandson liked seeing all the zombies, who looked pretty good, er, dead.

Here's a few photos from the event for your entertainment. These are all frame grabs taken from video from our GoPro Hero 2 camera. Love that camera.

Here's a link to my flickr account with more photos:
Zombie apocalypse