a little urban sketching

Okay, here's a first. Sketching in public with just Dan (not part of the urban sketcher group).  We went to the Rhododendron Botanical Garden last weekend and I took my sketch stuff though I wasn't sure what there would be to draw.  We absolutely loved the bonsai museum (garden) that adjoins the botanical garden and there was lots to sketch there so I gave it a go......FUN and not so scary after all.

Here are the photos I took after the sketching:

A few days earlier Dan and I went to our fave local beach and I sketched a bit there.....

Added a touch of color at home....

A couple more sketches through the week from travel photos. I'm trying to work on being quick and representative rather than slow and exact.

Montreal, Notre Dame (furthest back bldg)

St Augustine, FL, Flagler College

Hope you enjoy a creative week.

some watercolor practice

No serious sketching this weekend - had a family day with the boys & their girlfriends Saturday but I managed to squeeze a bit of paint playing today.  Rough sketches were just to practice with paint.

Practicing a tree and its shadows.

Different tree & leaves technique (funny little boat shape needs some work :))

It's trying to be spring and I have some tulips on my table, so........makes sense I would try my hand  at a touch of spring.

Have a creative, productive week!

new sketches

Here's what I've been working on the last week or so.  Still sketching - seeing some improvement but mostly just enjoying the process.  I feel a sense of satisfaction when the perspective comes together and I'm loving playing with my watercolors again.  It's been so long since I painted with them, I have to relearn most of the techniques and when I screw up, I think "oh, I remember that now!"

 The last day of my perspective class we went to King's St train station. A challenging venue, but everyone's sketches were so very good and each with a different view (or perspective, if you will :))

A Vermont covered bridge from a few years ago.

 Dan's family farm in Rockfield, IN.  Made another one for his mom who thinks I'm a genius! :)

Ucluelet BC lighthouse.

A street in Arcos, Spain.

Luxembourg Palace & garden, Paris last fall.  I attempted to add a few people and they got kind of blobby.....definitely have to work on that. Tried to use my watercolors more randomly and drop in spots of accent colors on those big wall expanses to mixed results (ha, get it, "mixed")

Some quick 5 minute sketches to see if I can capture the essence of something quickly.  Will practice this more as I think it will be especially helpful when traveling.

A Vermont church drawn in about 10 minutes during my lunch break at work, looking at my photo on the computer screen - proportions are difficult to gauge from that format, but when that's what you have.....

So, as you can see, I've been keeping busy.  I've had a miserable cold for the last 3 weeks and haven't had the energy to venture outside. Hopefully, I'll be well someday and will get back to trying to sketch in person.  It's definitely a different challenge.

I'm back to reading all your blogs and following your creative journeys on FB or Instagram or wherever you are - and lovin' seeing all that wonderful inspiration. Every journey is SO different!

still sketching

Stopped after work last night and sketched my local Mormon church.....a couple of funky angles continue to show up, but it's looking pretty much like a building!

Then I worked on a couple more at home from photos....these were taken on a trip to Victoria Island, BC a couple years ago.  I use chromecast to put the images on our TV so they're nice and big and it's almost like I'm looking out a window at a view.  I get a little more sense of scale and distance than when I'm just looking at a real photo or my laptop.

Water is a bit challenging and will need some work.  

As my notes say, I drew these with pen (no pencil first!) ala Marc Taro Holmes and used his suggestion for adding darks for emphasis. Not entirely successful, but will work on it.  It's interesting to see such different styles between the classes from Stephanie and from Marc. Stephanie uses predominantly pencil and is pretty precise in her perspective representations. Marc draws only with fountain pens and markers and is more casual with his perspective treatments.  However, both are proponents of  "it doesn't have to be perfect, just believeable"!  I like that!

I signed up for Stephanie Bower's perspective workshop next week. I'm excited to go and see if some in-person instruction will help my "seeing"!

sketch from photo

Working on the 'homework' for my Craftsy perspective class by Stephanie Bower - sketch a door or window in elevation....So I went into my photo stash and came up with these:

Top sketch is a door from Montpelier, VT, the lower one is a Paris window.

This next sketch is from Art & Art Magazine on FB. Scrolling through my feed this image caught my eye and since I was in sketch mode, I gave it a try - took about 15 minues maybe.... fun to try some techniques I saw demonstrated on the video.  Dan was car shopping (came home with a new Rav4) and I stayed home sketching from FB.  HMMMMM.....

I feel flashes of understanding as I find my way....... Continuing....