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"!

london bridge

My sketching efforts continue - from photos again this time.  London's Tower Bridge from whatever bridge I was standing on.....

First effort - Found I ended up with some extra space in the horizontal bridge sections - don't like that big white stripe. I do like the loose watercolor treatment. I didn't put any of the horizon detail in, the little buildings and towers etc - will work on that.... Dan didn't like the teal bridge elements.... so I tried again.

Drawn with Platinum carbon pen & filled with watercolors instead of my usual Inktense. It's fun working with watercolors again - another thing the urban sketching group has inspired in me!

Original photo:

This is Dan's birthday weekend and Valentine's Day, so we're kinda busy - but I'm going to take my sketching stuff with me as we go out and I'll see what I can manage to do......

sketching 2

Sketching an elevation view (ala Stephanie Bower) using info from her Craftsy perspective drawing video course (on sale right now). I added color with my inktense pencils & a water brush.

Source photo I took on one of our neighborhood streets:

Stephanie is based here in Seattle, so I'm thinking I might try taking one of her classes in person - could be fun (if I can get over my insecurities!).   Meanwhile I'll continue practicing using the tips in her video course.

branching out - sketching

I've been wondering what my artistic challenge will be for this year - I've done a couple of 365 projects......photos and collages......and thoroughly enjoyed those challenges. I don't think I'm up for that level of commitment, but I feel like I need a direction, a goal.

I found it tonight. I took a free perspective sketching class at Daniel Smith tonight and had the good fortune to sit next to Casey. Casey already understands perspective drawing and was SUCH a help to me - she guided me through the teacher's lesson and patiently answered all my questions.  Thanks Casey!

A couple days ago I bought a perspective sketching class online through Craftsy.com given by an architecture illustrator located here in Seattle. It's 7 video lessons - I've only done one and she begins by having us draw in elevation - standing directly in front of a building and drawing flat. Well, I can do that, sort of, but I was able to use the ration/proportion part of the lesson to good effect.

So, this year's journey is going to be to tackle a long held wish.....that I could sketch. Not picture perfect (I have a camera for that) but to sketch so that the item or scene is recognizable and somewhat follows the rules of perspective and proportion.

Here's my first attempt to draw an elevation from a photo I took of a door in Paris. (I discovered sketches don't scan well, but.....here it is)

Below, the photo:

Watch me as I struggle and try and practice and learn to sketch!

Hope you can make time for a creative, rewarding week!

week 36 for 365/2

Sept 1-7

#244 - As I'm sitting here watching a baseball game, I feel compelled to try my hand at my rusty digital skills.  And I made a simple haiku (my first!)

Here's the original image before textures and adjustments....

#245 - trying my hand at some sketching - the weather was too pretty to spend time in my messy art room so I headed out to the deck.  Inktense pencils for color.....

#246 - still sketching - this time out front, looking at a neighbor's house.  (Dan said it looks like the house but with crooked walls!  I said, it's a sketch not an architectural rendering - good answer, right?? :))

#247 - still layering and working on a couple of mixed media pieces....I added some modeling paste to this (the circles in the lower left and across the top).  I'm keeping progress photos so when it's done, I'll post them all in some sort of order - this is where I am now.

#248 - another mix media piece - this one is kinda a hot mess right now, but I see corners of potential.  The scribble lines are made using fluid acrylic paint in a squirt bottle (learned about it in a Jane Davies video and it's fun to use) (sorry couldn't find the exact video)

The scribble lines were made with this fineline squirt bottle.

Filled this marker with shiny copper - another new tool as recommended by Jane.

#249 - I finally broke down and bought ONE fashion magazine so I could come up with some funky silhouettes so I'm tracing & cutting & you'll see them in my art journal (ala Dina Wakley again....still finding inspiration in her book).

Hope you find time to be creative this week!

week 25 for 365/2 (part 2)

June 16-22

#171 - keeping up with ICAD - here's a couple days of stitched collages made only from scraps on my desk (ICAD #17, 18)

#172 - inspired to do a little sketching - I picked some daisies and mini carnations from the garden and have enjoyed them so much, thought I should attempt a drawing.  Couldn't quite capture the carnations, but.....you get the idea, right?  Love my micron pen and inktense pencils!

#173 - next couple days of ICAD (#19, 20), collage, stamping, washi, etc.

#174 - Documented Life theme for this week (#25) was to fill a page with hearts.

And there you have it - another creative week in the books. How are your projects and challenges coming along? It sure gets harder to stay on track in the summer doesn't it?  I want to be outside more; it seems our weekends fill up with social engagements more.  Just have to make sure I make the time for some art room time! Happy first day of summer!  (unless you're 'down under', of course!)

365 project wk 3

I need a schedule. I need a mental commitment to post my 365 project on a regular basis to keep me focused. So, I'm arbitrarily picking Mondays for my sharing day.  You'll get a taste of what I've been up to and what I've tried during the week.

Week 3:

I've got a sketchbook that I started two (TWO!) years ago that I'm going back to this year.  I played with doodling some different flower styles.

I worked on the round robin journal with my watercolor paints...... (not done yet)

Some mail art for the MMSA horse exchange

Some bird doodles.......

sketching: dogs

Back to my sketching - working from 52 Drawing Labs by Carla Sonheim (my new fun book) and today I worked on exercise #6, drawing an image repetitively on index cards.  I didn't have index cards but do have an abundance of postcard paper.  Her example in the book was of a dog, so I imitated her subject and did a series of quick sketches.  Some look more sheep like than dog like, but the exercise was so NOT intimidating that I totally forgot I was trying to draw a dog and just had fun.

Cute little things, huh?  Except the sheepy ones of course.  Moving forward with sketching...YAY!  I'm sharing my little pups with Creative Every Day and the flickr group Draw, Sketch, Doodle.