Proportion of Light and Dark Shapes (Block-Ins)

I just completed Week 2's assignment in my Schoolism Essentials of Realism course. The first assignments were to block-in the light and dark shapes of an image, gradually getting more complex in each stage. Sometimes I would work backwards, doing a more complicated one and realizing I can simplify it. It takes a lot of squinting to see these shapes and a lot of thinking to know where and how to indicate them.

The following images are from the second assignment, where I'm no longer tracing over reference, but using comparative measurement to redraw a larger version in several block-in stages.

Learning lots from Jonathan Hardesty in this course and enjoying these challenging visual puzzles!

Thanks for reading,
Anthony

Reflections on the Watts Atelier LIVE Stream Course - Week 3

Ha ha!

As for some consistency in writing... It's 8:00 PM on the Sunday that I'm supposed to have a blog post, because I've decided this, and I'm writing it.

I had some ideas about what to write about. These things will come later. I want to share something else right now and share it fresh, writing it directly right now.

I've started the live stream course with Jeffrey R. Watts, the master draftsman and painter. It's fantastic to watch him draw with a direct over head camera when he does the demos in the San Diego school and his ten minute warm ups with the model. His execution is masterful and so is his consistency in demoing with clarity, fullness of content and love of the arts. I don't know how much I've gotten so far from the course, because there's so much to learn and I can only apply so much of it at once when I'm drawing something. There are many things that will take years of study before I'm saying to myself, "Yes, I'm on the same page as him with this." For now, it's knowing that I'm not there in understanding the technique (Reilly abstractions being a big one) and I am encouraged to trust the practice and teaching that I will be guided there with my own proper efforts and consistent practice. He is so far beyond where I'm at, yet can both touch the state I'm in, encourage it to go further and yet sometimes make a cutting remark of pragmatic nature that sparks the desire to be more skillful, yet also is the kind of 'tough love' stab because it is just so hard to learn how to draw. That is good teaching.

We want to hear where we are at fault, even if it was our best effort at the time. He'll say, "I'm going to tell you when your drawing's lacking. C'mon, you can do a better edge than that. It seems you just phoned it in here and ran out of patience." I'll think to myself, "Damn it, I didn't run out of patience there. I tried to do that well." Yet, it's what I need to hear. The same way that my eye doesn't know how to see proper proportions, edges, values etc. is the same way that I have unconscious patterning of any kind and can't see when I'm in it. Maybe there was impatience there to some degree, but it wasn't conscious. Meaning, when I hear that remark, I think about how I must be as conscious as I can be when drawing and solving the visual problems. And even when I am as conscious as I can be, there will be things that I can not pick up on within myself about how I'm doing the drawing. It's like if you're gripping the pencil too tight and aren't paying attention to that. Eventually your hand hurts, but it's after you've been holding on for so long with that intensity. If someone points it out, you can notice, but in the meantime it will take a lot longer.

(figure master study - NOT done in 20 minutes)

There have been some technical issues with the Watts program so far. It is their first time doing it like this. I also think about the olden days when there was no internet and nobody this good at art who could teach me this way. Even not thinking about the difference between now and how it used to be, the price is just as good as if I were taking a term at the school, which is a very reasonable price for the education, and I am getting a direct overview of his demos and the ability to re-watch them and all the students' critiques who are taking the online course with me. It is really great. Another thing from watching the critiques and all these things is that I am getting an essence of how Jeff Watts looks at art practice. More of an essence than the online school gave me, though it's been a while since I've watched those videos. More than the knowledge he's imparting, or along with it, there is a mood or atmosphere that emanates from the way he approaches the craft. This is probably more instructive than a lot of the things he's saying, in some ways, because the things are repetitive in nature. This essence is a new thing, like creation itself. It's the art of the artist behind the art from the artist. I can't explain it, but it's truly transforming for me.

My practice continues and I realize how far I am from being able to draw my story in any articulate way. Frustration comes in as I try to draw a 20 minute lay-in and it takes me 40 minutes or more to get something that needs a ton of work and has a bunch of visible mistakes before Jeff sends me his critique. I'm also still healing so sometimes doing one lay-in is what I end up with and don't have time to re-draw one and fix my visible mistakes. Then I'm inspired by the words of Jeff that say, "Frustration will make you work harder, or quit." I'm realizing how I should practice more and feeling like I have barely started to do things the right way. I may be wrong or exaggerating that, because I've done a fair amount with my few months of 40 hours a week and whatever else before that. Those few months where I did that much artwork and studying was probably double than I had done in my entire life before that. Of course, I don't really know, but I never practiced with diligence before so it seems it could be close to the truth. So, this is where I'm at currently with my reflections on my practice of learning how to be a good representational artist.

Thanks for reading,
Anthony

Fall Term - 1/3 Months - October 2017

It’s late before the due date of a Sunday blog post. I decided I would post every Sunday, to be consistent with that. So here I am, writing about consistency with practice and sticking to something to cultivate learning with the work. My work is to write and draw, mainly. It is also to live and be healthy and wise. As I had to postpone drawing practice due to injury, I realized a spaciousness and a more relaxed frame of mind with it. In this way, the break I had from drawing was for drawing. It’s added to my practice and is not viewed as a lack of practice, in my experience. Though, here I am, writing tomorrow’s post on the evening before it is due, because I want to.

I want to write this because the accountability is my own doing. I want to write this because the doing of it is helping me to write and be accountable. The accomplishment of this simple blog post is a continuing to develop and be consistent. Yet, I have not always done these Sunday posts. It is a relatively new idea that I’ve suggested to myself. Write something every 5 days is what I decided when I published my last Youtube video. Now I’m doing it once a week. Things change due to what feels right and how we can establish a consistency in our practices. I stopped drawing because I had to, but the understanding of the process and the ‘result’ I’m aiming for has deepened and solidified into a clearer, more self affirming source. I see what I could not see as clearly before, likely due to breaking from the practice and now from starting again with fresh eyes and with a different disposition, necessarily so, because the physical instrument is tuned in a way that can only do so much repetitive motion.

In the same way, the repetitive action of writing a blog post could be detrimental if done too much. That word seems strong for ‘writing a blog post,’ but the truth is that anything without balance inspires a surge of imbalance within a duration of time. How long? That’s on us. It depends on how we are in tune with ourselves, to notice whether or not we are tuning effectively or ineffectively to the circumstances and the processes of life. Our bodies and minds are functioning in processes. How much do we notice these and have the awareness and clarity to align with them instead of acting with an ignorance or disharmony to ourselves? When I intentionally repeat myself, it is something to see. When I write this post to have it done on a Sunday, I am doing something to cultivate a solidified contextual tool of some kind to develop with. As I have started to draw again, I have returned to what current context I would like to clarify in regards to practicing representational art. I have looked at what things I could continue regularly to establish a better understanding of this craft.

As I was doing before, I have divided the year into 3 month terms. The term I’m on is the Fall Term and it will end at the end of December. Conveniently, I am signed up for the Watts Live Stream Critiquing course (Figure Lay-ins with Jeff Watts) that ends on December 30th. The other course I will be doing soon (Jonathan Hardesty’s Essentials of Realism critiquing - Schoolism) will end around the same time. As I had done before, I have chosen ‘classes’ that I will do until January. Two of them are actual courses, as just mentioned. The others are things I will continue to work on along side these courses. This may change as things are always changing, but for now the framework seems like something I would like to stay within in a consistent way. I realized that my previous terms had been a bit ‘full.’ It is hard to select a few courses out of the many different concepts and curriculum I will need to learn over a life time of studying how to draw and paint.

I had 9-11 courses on average in these terms. I am simplifying my Fall Term to much less. This term is as follows. The main things I am studying will stay in these ‘classes.’ I would like to digest the information in these few classes as much as I can before the next term. It was useful in my previous terms to have studied with so much diversity. However, I feel that since I've tasted many angles of learning to draw and paint, it is time to give more attention to a given few 'techniques' and fully internalize them instead of 'biting off more than I can chew.' A good analogy may be that I would rather enjoy a smaller selection of foods and digest them fully than to have a small amount of many foods that would still leave me hungry, or something.

Schoolism: Essentials of Realism. (*Critiques starting mid November til end of term) Watts Atelier: Figure Lay-ins (*Critiques weekly with Jeff Watts til end of term)

(*Above are my weekly necessities) - like a Sunday blog post.

Then I have decided to put Feature Studies - mostly related to Watts Atelier or Realistic Portraits (Schoolism) content - as a daily necessity. Every day I must spend at least 20 minutes doing a study
of a facial feature from photos, life or other art reference.

(A digital study of Johnny Depp's eye.)

Along with that is to do one sketch of something weird, wacky and wonderful from my imagination on a daily basis. The other ideas I have that I am not 100% locked into yet, because it may be too much for me right now, are to include a weekly class of Portrait Lay-ins, as well as doing master studies and then improving on sketches for our illustrated story. As well, doing a weekly or monthly fun image that contains all of the characters from my story. It could be their heads, figures, or just some kind of montage that I can create over a time to have hung up on my wall. Some image I can do again and again and learn to draw the characters in my story, concept design, decorate my studio and see my improvement as I get better and better at creating vignettes and good design for these ‘posters.’

As always, there are some uncertainties with my planning. Things will work out as they should. Included in all this is a monthly Youtube video, which continues to evolve and move into different kinds of videos. We don’t know where all this is taking us and that’s why it’s fun. We just have to enjoy the process and do the work in whatever ‘consistent’ way.

Thanks for stopping by. Joy to you all.

- Anthony

A Shoe Story

In my last Youtube video, I shared some sketches I had done throughout late August and early September. One of the pages had this sketch of a pair of shoes.

As I walked around, I was thinking of Norman Rockwell and how he used to buy people's shoes off of them on the street. An old shoe has a story. It's been walked on, worn, stretched and taken on many adventures. I came across these shoes in the middle of the road, as seen in the picture below.

I sat down on the street cross legged and spent a few minutes sketching them, imagining stories about whose shoes they are, how they ended up here etc. In my mind, I pictured the person who wore them and how they wore them. What was their walk like? What kind of person leaves their shoes like this in the middle of the road? I finished my sketch and began to walk to the other side of the road for another picture of the shoes from the opposite side.

As I lifted my camera to take a photo, a car stopped between me and the shoes, blocking my view. I waited, but when the car left, the shoes were gone. The driver had reached down out of his car and grabbed the shoes, that were likely his that he left there. I was laughing at the situation and for what little I saw of the driver, I think the imagined idea I had of this person who wore these shoes was not far off from the real thing. At least, on some level, my vision held some accuracy to who the owner was. I never got the photo from that other side of the road. Such is the adventure of sketching on location. You never know what will happen to your environment.

- Anthony

My current process to create an illustrated novel

In this post I'm going to share the steps that my brother and I are taking in a streamlined, non-messy fashion. Of course the actual process has many steps and other aspects that are integrated or left out of these several clear steps, but these are the necessary components of how we're getting our ideas onto and into a finished copy to publish, after much exploration and more to come.

Step 1) Writing

Most of the writing is done on paper by hand or on the computer in Libre Office or X Mind. The scratch notes and ideas are then compiled and interlaced into an actual scene that contains characters and flow of conversation, rather than journal notes, incomplete phrases and monologue inquiries. It's passed back and forth through programs, but X Mind has a nice way to organize the actions of the characters or scene on the left, and the colour coded dialogue of the different characters in lines on the right. Then it may be taken from this format and re-placed into Libre Office to print and work on the scene on paper again as needed.

Step 2) Layout

Once the writing is done, the Layout is a simple process of getting a basic, rough idea of where text and images go together on a single page. The layout of this book is likened to something like Dinotopia or a children's book, but with words more spread out than single large paragraphs on each page. Each page has sketches like stick men or worse at this point, and scratchy coloured pencil to mark where the words of the characters will be placed along with the illustrations. We as authors can barely even understand what we're looking at here, but it's a necessary step in the process. When we can draw really good, really fast, this step will be more integrated with the next.

(Words in red coloured pencil. Super rough sketches in pencil.)

Step 3) Better Sketches

The next step is to draw out some images that would be understood if someone were to look at the page. We are taking standard office paper and sketching out each page in a rough, but much clearer form so that we can see where the final piece might end up. This is a big jump from the stick men, pillow head drawings from the Layout phase. This is done without adding any words to the page.

(Just one sketch example - different from the whole page as it's described)

Step 4) Photoshop text

I then scan these preliminary drawings into P.S. and throw them on a fixed template page that will eventually be the final format and file to print and publish. After doing this, I copy and paste the text from our Writing files and place them accordingly within the scanned sketch pages we have pasted and arranged in the document. This may require some adjusting and resizing of the images and words to make them fit together and not overlap. It is still in a rough format, but it is readable with the words and pictures together for the first time.

(Not an official sketch page. More images and words would be there.)

Step 5) Style Guide

The context of our story inspires many types of art. As a way to continue studying artwork in an academic sense, but directing this studying into a streamlined focus on moving the finished pages of the story along, I've started to create Style Guides for each page. In a sense, it's like doing colour thumbnails for a complete book, such as James Gurney did for Dinotopia, or others would do for movies and so on. In my approach, I'm using other people's artwork that I like and would like to emulate as an overlapping template to guide the visualizing of the finished page. The images carry a certain tone or style that symbolizes and emphasizes what I'm feeling from our story in this page, these words and image. After adding the text into Photoshop, I create a folder with many layers of other artwork I've dragged in over top of the sketches. The art is placed over top of the sketches as a guide to see the whole page with a representation of where the art could be in the end.

(The content of the artwork reference pictures won't necessarily match the content of the illustrations needed for the story, but the style and visual reference will influence the final versions.)

Step 6) Studies and Final Page Creation

With the Style Guide in place, I will first do master studies of the artwork I've selected for each page. Then I will draw the images on the page as they need to be in the story. I will carry some essence of my studies into my own artwork by aiming for the greatness that I see in the referenced art and at the same time creating a new piece that is directly framed into the story and the final pages of it. It will be as good as I'm able to do it at this time, and then I will move on to the next page. I may also have to do additional studying before drawing the final image. Say for example I have pasted a certain style over top of an area where I'm going to draw a character's head, but I don't know how to draw the character yet. I will have to draw the character, based off whatever photo reference or ideas I have for them, as well as the style inspiration, then combine the two together. I have to learn to study while I create this story, rather than learning to eventually create it one day far in the future when I'm 'better.' This is the surest way I've come up with to apply my education in art to the actual goal right now, which is the process of bringing this to a complete stage of readability. Thus, after this step, the images are all compiled into the printable Photoshop document to be read and enjoyed with flow and harmony. Then, we are ready to show it to everyone.

(Example: You'll see when it's done.)

What do you think? Share in the comments or on Social Media.

- When Anthony Was

#studies #adventure #sketch
My first plein air excursion in gouache

"...bring out my gouache box, brushes, and paints."
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

BY ANTHONY ROSS

Yesterday I sat on a cold bench at the beach.  It was a cement step, and I opened up my bag of goodies to bring out my gouache box, brushes, and paints.

It was my first outing with gouache paints and with this little box.  It worked pretty well, tight around my waist, with the little easel holding a small illustration board of 2.5 " X 3.5 ".

The sunset was beautiful, and changing all the time, but I was interested in the house complexes near by the water.  This wasn't as vivid as the sunset, but had some appeal.  I lost my smallest brush, so painted with a bit of a thicker brush than I would have liked on this small canvas.

And my finished painting after an hour and a half of sitting.

#context #adventure
Questions That Answer

"My questions lead me to all kinds of discoveries about my own pursuits in art."
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

BY ANTHONY ROSS

This morning I went on James Gurney's blog, 'Gurney Journey.' I watched a video of him painting a tire store in the super moon.  It was inspiring in many ways.  His playful energy and dedication to his craft of painting on such a consistent basis are awesome.  It's nice to have people who exemplify certain qualities through whatever it is they do.  The art, and the blog he posts on on a daily basis is the version of his life that we get to see.  It's a pleasure to have these bits of expression in all kinds of ways through out the internet.  They allow us as curators of content to jump back from the computer into other realms of play and then return to it and share it.  Obviously there's stuff to create on the computer itself, but you get the point.

I thought about what questions I might ask James, since I have the ability to do so.  He answers questions on his blog, and so with the amazing technology, I can connect with James Gurney through virtual space.  I'm able to ask this fantastic artist anything I want and he will likely respond with some kind of answer.  It's tough, when the options are open.  My questions lead me to all kinds of discoveries about my own pursuits in art.  The questions gave me answers before asking, and more questions to answer in the contemplation of them.  I got a lot out of thinking about what I would ask this inspiring artist.

In the end, I did ask a question.  A simple one regarding how long it takes him to do a study.  I had wanted to ask about his beginnings as a painter, but the question isn't formulated yet.  It made me contemplate mine and learn from that, and that was enough for today.  The fact is that there are too many things to say.  This naturally brought me to reflecting on my art training at the Watts Atelier.  A teacher like Jeff Watts or the others there would be able to cover much more of what it is to learn to be a representational artist of a high level, like James Gurney.  Over the internet I can just get a short answer, or even a long short answer.  It's just not the same as a direct connecting and correlating with someone in person.  It's not the same to ask the questions online, so the questions have to be different.  The best part is that it's an option, and that there are amazing people sharing amazing things relating to every topic there is.  It's the wonder of the world that Gurney inspires me to honour in myself.  It's these relationships that you can use to reflect upon for yourself.  It's to ask the question of, "What question would I ask?"  There's your answer.

James Gurney in his studio.

#travel #study
Watts Atelier Boot Camp 2016 - Part 3

"You're a serious dude."
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

BY ANTHONY ROSS

I'm not sure that I've gathered up all that I can say about what it was like to be at the Watts Atelier Boot camp, but I'm ready to write this anyhow. It was definitely a boot camp, with long hours of drawing and painting each day.  The schedule went like this:

So at least six hours of the day was spent on drawing or painting, if you intended the uninstructed model time from 7 pm - 10 pm each night, which I did.  Some days, it was 9 hours of executing artwork, but most days we had a three hour demo where the teacher would paint for us and we could watch, ask questions and take photos of their process.  Here's a process and final image of one of the demos.

I found it most valuable when a teacher would draw on my pad or paint on my canvas directly.  Whether over my previous drawing or not, it was great to watch them articulate their visual language so fluently.  Jeff Watts talks the most out of the teachers and he is fun to listen to because of it.  Though, after simply watching the other instructors draw or paint without verbal speech, I came to realize that when I go back to watching Jeff drawing or painting on the online school, I will be muting it on and off to see it without the verbal.  After all, this is a visual language, and I picked up on so much that isn't able to be said.  I think the talking distracts from my observation of what is happening on the page and all that I can learn from just watching that, which is lots.  Verbalizing it can both give it clarity and confusion.  Good to have both, but nice to be able to have either/or when you like, as the online school gives the option to.

After half the course was over, I could feel the beautiful sensation of excited learning.  It was really great to have these eight days structured with waking up, meditating, doing yoga and sometimes getting some groceries in the morning.  Later, sleeping in.  Then, going to class for 9:30 am or 10:00 am and working til 1:00 pm. Having a good lunch break and talking with others, about art, mostly.  Working from 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm and then having a dinner and break to go back to my hotel, which was a short walk, and coming back to class for drawing at 7:00 pm.  The break time was short and often lead to me doing little errands between them in a stream line manner, like cleaning my hotel room, getting ready for the next class, or eating, checking emails.

The teachers were incredibly kind with their time and energy.  Jeff showed us his personal studio one afternoon and a new book he's working on.  Each teacher took a look through my portfolio, offering all kinds of different advice and things they saw that were good and bad with my work.  It was also really great to be able to walk around to see what the more skilled artists around me were doing on their pictures, and take that understanding back to my work a moment later.  Basically I finished the course with a notepad of notes and all kinds of pointers on what not to do.  For the amount there is to learn, there are certain ways of doing things that will greater benefit me than others.  These are things that I picked up on that I will now be applying to how I train in the arts.

Jeff and I talked about some things like Alan Watts and working on big projects.  He said I have a lot of the right things in place, and it's time to bring them all together into a working combination.  There was a lot of things that I felt I could have asked him that I didn't, before and after the boot camp.  It's an interesting situation when you are with someone for only a short amount of time and they have only so much energy to spread around to the students of the entire workshop, plus all the other things they have going on outside of class.  One of the last things Jeff said to me before I left the Atelier was about how he knew there was a lot more behind everything that we briefly discussed, from meditation to the projects I'm working on.  It's just not possible to cover it all in eight days.  I don't think there's any regret here, or things left unsaid.  It's just the fact that sometimes the questioning is the answer, or the listening.

There would have been no way to go as deep into discussing the important parts of my life, which I take (often too seriously), in such a short amount of time.  Philosophies and ways about things I knew resonated with Jeff from listening to him online and from our short conversations that I would have loved to discuss with him more.  Often I just didn't have the words to ask, or to know how to begin talking about one of these philosophies that are close to my way of life. We related together as determined individuals, trying to find a sense of humor with it all, being too serious about doing good.  Near the end, I mentioned to him how I felt generally pretty serious through out the course and he added to that, mentioning our odd open-ended interactions in and between classes when we would make small talk.  He said, "You're a serious dude."  I laughed.  It was a good enough conclusion to our meeting.  I don't know that I could have gotten anything more from the work shop than I did.  It was a wonderful adventure of art and being around artists.

When I returned home, I continued to do a self-boot camp.  My jobs allow the same kind of schedule of drawing and painting from 10:00 - 1:00 pm and 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm most days.  Even on the extra day before coming home from San Diego, after the workshop ended, I still drew for six hours in my hotel.  I've slowed down for a moment and need to pick up the pace again, I feel.  Though, the intensive work I've done since April is probably something that I need to digest a bit so I can start up the momentum again with a smarter direction.

Now that I'm back I have been studying in ink for #Inktober2016.  It's been fun, but I am not spending time on the key exercises from the Watts program.  I'm looking to organize my time to go through that program, Schoolism classes, and Premium Proko exercises, as well as having the goings on and happenings of life.  Sincere art training is a part of my life that I started in April.  I've felt the grounded strength and thrill it gives me to work diligently on this craft.  I will be continuing and sharing my work in various ways, but I've also witnessed the burn-out of working too hard and not having enough balance with the rest of all that is.  There is also the egotistical building of an image on social networking and such that has distracted me more than helped my training, at times.  This is just another thing to bring into perspective.  To be an artist of life, to have that balance and equanimity with all things, is an art in and of itself.  It's sometimes worth it to put the pencil down, knowing why you're doing so.  Then you pick it up again and the admiration for it is present again.

#travel #study
Watts Atelier Boot Camp 2016 - Part 2

"Enter the dragon ride..."
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

BY ANTHONY ROSS

I arrived in San Diego two days early before starting the Boot Camp at 10:00 am on Monday.  They have one of the most dangerous airports in the world, I was told on the plane ride there. It has a very short run way that's difficult to land and take off from. The planes come in to land in the center of downtown, being as high as a two story building near the end of their descent.  As I shuttled to my hotel, I saw just how close they were.  Nearly as low as a lamp post.  The whole city is built around this airport.

It was really nice arriving this early, because it gave me enough time to see some of San Diego and get settled before the course began.  As you'll see, the Boot Camp aspect of the course was prevalent, and it was a lot of drawing and painting every day, without room for much else. Of course, that's not a complaint.  By the end of these two days before the course started, I was very inspired to start working with my newsprint paper.  More on that later.

On arrival, I did the ordinary things such as get groceries for the week and find the school.  When I walked over to the school, a 5-10 minute walk away, they were starting a class, waiting for the teachers to show up.  At this time, I saw Erik and Meadow teaching drawing and painting, both on each side of the Watts Atelier, which is divided like this.

Easels on one side of the room in a semi circle facing the stage.
Drawing benches on the other side in the same fashion.  Each divided by a short wall that you can walk around to get from one side to the other.  The school was smaller than I imagined, but didn't need to be any bigger than it was.  They used to have another room that you'd access by going out the back of the building, but it was never in much use when they had it anyway.

On the walls were many framed images, which they would circulate out every few months for new ones.  Most of the pictures were pieces done by artists who got to a really high level of proficiency at the school.  Others were by masters of the craft that Jeff had often met personally.  I took pictures of all of these for study reference in the first couple days before the Boot camp.  Here are a few.  Many more of the same caliber can be seen on the Watts Atelier Tumblr site.

I met some of the artists doing the Summer term and some who have been studying there for even longer.  It was nice to connect with them and a change to be around people studying in the same fashion as I had been with the online course.  We went to a movie, restaurant, to get ice cream and walked around the town of Encinitas, talking mostly about art.  Some of them took the Boot Camp with me, but most didn't.

The next day I rented a bike and used it well, going to a local Farmers' Market.  Later, I would find out that I biked passed Jeff's personal studio on the way there.  I also biked to the next town over and visited the gardens of the Self Realization Fellowship, seen below.

The following day I returned the bike and took a bus to Lego Land.  Not having checked out the prices before arriving, I was a little surprised, but payed the $95.00 to visit one of two attractions like this in the world.  Ultimately, I think Lego Land could do a lot better. Lego is an interactive toy, and there was very little interactivity.  Some recommendations would be to incorporate what the rides offer into the walk around areas.  Enter the dragon ride, and you'll see dark caves with goblins and moving dragon Lego heads.  Why not have that same design in an area where you can get more out of seeing it and not pass by it in a few seconds?  The sections with large cities and replicas of real life buildings are well done, but lack the charm that kids would bring if they could play with it.  It reminds me the Lego Movie and how Will Ferrell had DO NOT TOUCH signs everywhere.  The art itself was cool in certain respects, but also could use a touch of diversity in the way it's put together and how it's presented.

Ultimately, there is more to be said here, but I was disappointed. There wasn't even a professional Lego builder building something for people to watch.  It was a large money grab, and mainly for parents to bring their kids, though not made for the kids real interactive soul-enriching play.  After leaving Lego Land, I had a clear understanding of what my trip was for and why I had come all the way here to the Watts Atelier.  The mastery of representational art, as Watts teaches, is not a quick fix.  It is not some high stimulus novelty.  Learning this craft of drawing and painting is work of character, building patience and perseverance as well as earned and substantial rewards, instead of fleeting and less developed ones. Lego Land was a pointer back to the fun stuff that reaches the depths of what life is all about, back to my newsprint paper and charcoal pencils.