This is the view from our tent. We always get the same campsite, year to year, with the river just behind the tent. Joan and the kids were there for two weeks. I was there for the last week. A wonderful, relaxing time.
And, just like last year, car trouble! I think this is the last big trip for the venerable ’95 Escort. I did a few sketches, most of them in color, as seems to be my habit of late.
I did this in two sittings over two days: first for the line, next for the color. Thanks to Mattias Adolfsson, I’ve rediscovered my old Pelikan fountain pen. I asked what kind of ink he used, seeing that it appears to be waterproof and yet is coming out of a fountain pen — two things that usually don’t go together. He told me he uses American Eel ink, so I ordered some. Fantastic stuff. That pen has neither written nor drawn better than it does now.
This last evening we went to the Hollywood Bowl as guests of some good friends who had front row seats. I did some watercolor sketching:
This is Sarah Chang. She was amazing. I normally don’t pay too much attention to clothing, but she was wearing a dress that really suited itself well to watercolor.
Violinists in the orchestra right in front of us.
A nice relaxing Fourth Of July at our neighbor’s house. What you don’t see are the ten kids in the pool.
I’ve always admired the ancient oak tree in their yard.
We’ve moved offices off the movie lot. This is the old view from my 3rd floor window — a palm tree growing between buildings. The foreground mess is some air conditioning ducts on top of the offices across the way, the building directly behind the tree is the scoring stage where the musicians play and are recorded for the soundtrack of the movie, the yellow building is an apartment complex across the street from the studio. The move and some impending deadlines have made sketching and posting difficult lately, but most of that has passed (for now).
This one’s hot off the press. We just had dinner together about an hour ago at the Thai restaurant across from the studio (Jack came with me to work today). We were listening to Daniel Johnston‘s Jump/Yip Music, a recent discovery for both of us. Jack was also telling me about his latest obsession, a Japanese manga comic series called Naruto.
Anthony Zierhut 