some urban sketching

My sketching practice continues:

A random building on Las Olas Blvd, Ft Lauderdale  (watercolor painting, 2nd for #worldwatercolormonth)

On my walk I passed a house with these wonky, beat-up, old birdhouses poking up out of the front hedge......a perfect sketching opportunity! And those angles! Oh my......

The train yard on 4th Ave just south of Costco.....perfect sketching place with a railing to prop my sketchbook!

I went to my 4th monthly urban sketcher get together last weekend. We celebrated the 7th anniversary of the first Seattle USk meeting by gathering at Fisherman's Terminal again, like the first time. There were about 35-40 of us spread over the area. Once again some absolutely beautiful sketches were created. I'm in awe.

Here are my efforts (boats are HARD!), Drawn across the spine in Stillman & Birn Alpha with Platinum pen, carbon ink, watercolors.

After completing the above one, I had a little time so did a couple smaller ones in my 4x6 Pentalic bk.

A sculpture of an eagle (my somewhat sad attempt) and a beautiful tree on the marina walkway.

Hope you're having a creative week!

#world watercolor month

Participating in #worldwatercolormonth, here's a couple recent urban sketches of my neighborhood walk with watercolor added......

Drawn in 4x6 Pentalic sketchbook, platinum fountain pen, carbon ink, watercolors.

A local church that I drive by every morning on the way to work. A front yard swing on my evening walk.

world watercolor month

Join in! Begun by Charlie O'Shields of Doodlewash, he managed to get July officially designated as World Watercolor Month. To sweeten the fun, he's joined by The Dreaming Zebra Foundation, a charity supporting the exploration of art for children.

WWM (world watercolor month) can be found on instagram, twitter, and, of course, facebook.

Everyone is encouraged to experiment, to play, to try out, watercolor. Make one a day for the month of July, or one whenever you can. One or 31, it's up to you. The goal is to encourage people to connect with art and their own creativity.

I love watercolor painting. Sure, it's challenging and doesn't always turn out the way I'd like. That happens with ALL my art! :)  But, I love the way colors move and blend with the water. If you haven't worked in watercolor before, watch a couple you tube videos, buy a few inexpensive colors and give it a try!

Share your art in whatever social media platform you'd like - use #WorldWatercolorMonth so everyone can find you!

Looking forward to seeing your efforts (and I'll share mine here!)

week 2 of vacation

Our second week of vacation found us in Pompano Beach, a small community sandwiched between Boca Raton and Ft Lauderdale. We stayed at a Wyndham resort which was lovely - a beautiful room, gorgeous grounds and lots of on-site activities. We went to the beach once and it looked just like Myrtle Beach (long strand of white sand), so our  relaxing time was spent pool-side. Most of my sketching was done around the resort.......

Kind of practicing on all the variety of palm trees near the pool.....there are an amazing amount of different types of palms. 

This is definitely an example of how sketching helps you focus on your surroundings. In previous years, I would have admired a tree or two and gone back to reading. This time I really LOOKED at the trees, figured out how they were similar or different, attempted to capture them. I love that aspect of embracing sketching. 

Once again I attempted people - we went to see a horse race - trotters - one evening and between  races I tried my hand at capturing these guys..... You can see I gave up on one of the faces; but the bodies are okay....

the everglades

the everglades

he takes his gaming very seriously!

lots of funky trees in FL

It was very hot and muggy in FL - don't think we'll be going back.....we've been there several times and that's enough. There are more places to explore.

where does the time go???

It's been almost a month since I shared here.  Sheesh!  Where DOES the time go? Well, I was on  vacation for a couple weeks, so that might be part of it. And, I took my sketchbooks and pens. I did post a few things here and there on  FB while on the trip, but I'll share a bit more here for those of you interested to follow along.

Week 1 was spent in Myrtle Beach, SC. Our timeshare was on the beach which was good - just a trip down the elevator and walk on the short boardwalk to the beautiful white sand beach. Dan and I walked 3 miles every morning up and down that beach - alternating north one morning, south the next.

All of these sketches are from around our resort area - the beach umbrellas and chairs were set up every morning by the lifeguards about 8-8:30a. You could rent 2 chairs and an umbrella for $35/day. We went and bought 2 low folding chairs for a total of $25 and just left them at the end of the week - a much better use of $$$.

sitting on the beach, looking back to the row of hotels/resorts and umbrellas. Those stupid recliner chairs became the bane of my sketching efforts! Never did really get the figured out.

those stripey shapes going through the bottom right are supposed to be tire tracks from the early morning police check.

dan prefers no color, so I tried one with less color.

there are those stupid recliners again! Obviously need more practice.

Don't laugh.Okay, go ahead and chuckle. We had an hour or so wait between dinner and an  outdoor concert - so I sketched several pages of what I could see, which was mostly people. People are HARD! I kinda get the bodies, kinda sorta, but heads.....not so much. Do people really need to have heads?

We thoroughly enjoyed our relaxing week of sitting on the beach, drinking on the beach, sunning on the beach, talking and walking and relaxing on the beach.

We did take a day trip to the Georgetown area (about 1 hour away) where we visited historic homes and a historical rice plantation house (Hopsewee Plantation) and another half day trip to Brookgreen Gardens & Pawley's Island. The garden is the largest sculpture garden in the US with over 500 sculptures placed throughout a huge garden. Gorgeous!

Kaminski house in Georgetown.

Don't we look relaxed?  Vacation is great!