ritual coffee afternoon

ILLUSTRATION: John and Clare Romano Ross

To end my holiday kick, a last wintery post: beautiful woodcut illustrations by John and Clare Romano Ross. The compositions are phenomenal and really capture the energy of Manhattan. I like that they describe the city quietly—this is a city thick with snow, for walking with umbrellas.

Holiday Highlights

Snapshots from the holidays. The best ones are my sister's, and the first and last were actually the first and last taken. I don't know what this selection describes, but it was a pretty good time all in all.

Holiday Highlight: Alcatraz

Here's some sketches from our family's trip to Alcatraz, a legitimately awesome, scary, very cool place. The audio tour is just stellar, and we got a great guided tour from a park ranger. I think we all really loved this day.




And here they are as originally drawn:

San Francisco Moleskine

I finished a sketchbook on the weekend, hanging out with my friend Ric. As we batted about a story he was working on, I doodled the people around us; here are the drawings:

Holiday Highlights: The Musee Mechanique

One of the few redeeming things about the Fisherman's Wharf is the Musee Mechanique. It's an awesome window into the past, filled with working mechanical arcade devices that show stereoscopic images, perform little dances, play songs, tell fortunes, take photos, test your strength, and allow you to witness the supernatural. These here are poorly taken photos of their Carnival machine; it reminds me of a Bemelmans drawing--I love it!

Holiday Highlights: Yang Sing

The "deem sum" was pretty expensive, not altogether authentic, and really kinda touristy--but still fun. Yang Sing's a pretty popular place, so this was drawn during our 20 minute wait for a table. On the left, you can see half of a cable car ceiling.

The restaurant is half housed in the back atrium of a giant commercial building called the Rincon Center; a beautiful, restored streamline moderne post office, adorned inside by 27 amazing murals by a fellow named Anton Refregier. It's awesome. I'll have to go back and do some sketching sometime.

January 1st, 2007

Happy new year, everyone!