END OF MAY SKETCHES AND STUFF

Well happy end of May. Hope everyone had a safe Memorial Day weekend.

A 5 minute rough sketch from a photo of a boat harbor.

I've been thinking about getting a weekly or monthly lunchtime sketchwalk organized at my place of employment but haven't really committed to the idea yet. I started writing up an announcement, queried a few people to see if they'd be interested (they would), and started a list of possible sketching sites we could walk to from work but haven't pursued it beyond that.

A lot of my sketches come from my lunchtime strolls and I thought it might be fun to ask others along but we'll see.

Anyhow here are a few sketches since my last post.

Thanks for taking a look. Have a great week.

 

MAY 17-25 SKETCHES

Here's a  few sketches from the past week or so.

The train trestle near Bryant Park in Albany, Oregon.

and with the actual trestle in the background.

For some reason this is probably my favorite sketch I've done. I even made it my phone's lock screen image. Mostly because it's not only the largest sketch I've done, 8x16 inches, but also I did this one entirely in ink first. I think all my previous building sketches I at least used pencil on some of it before inking it in. I hope going straight to ink is a trend I will follow. 

I love the spontaneity of it and I love having to live with the mistakes. It has a more urban feel to it. It has more "feel' to it altogether that the drawings I do in pencil first seem to lose once I ink them in. 

quick character sketches while watching "13 Reasons Why" on Netflix.

A couple more quick character sketches while watching "Better Call Saul." It's amazing how as soon as I decide to sketch a  character they quit showing him so I only have brief glimpses of them. I refuse to rewind and/or pause the program so that it is more like on location sketching. 

MID-MAY SKETCHES

Like many sketchers, I have several sketchbooks and watercolor sheets and blocks going at once.

A selection of sketchbooks from Dick Blick. 

I have a Moleskine 3.5x5.5 scribbler that I carry with me in my pocket pretty much everywhere I go.

I have my trusty Stillman & Birn Beta A5 hardbound sketchbook. 

I also have a spiral bound  Artist’s Loft sketchbook that I use while watching TV just to practice reportage and likenesses of the characters of the shows I’m watching. I try to do a few pages of each hourlong series I watch each week. I also try to capture a few gestures/likenesses of characters from movies I’m watching.

On the Hong Kong Metro. From a video.

I use the spiral bound sketcher for pretty much everything from trying out new pens, signatures, warm ups such as drawing pages of circles and lines, contours. You name it and I use this book for it.

It’s really the only sketchbook I feel comfortable messing up in. I feel free to try new things, different styles, free association drawing, blind contours, practicing proportions, etc. without worrying that someone else will see them. This is basically my drawing diary that I don’t plan on anyone seeing.

If I happen to have a particular drawing in my spiral that I like a lot I simply tear it out and stick it in my Stillman & Birn.

A church in the Philippines. I posted the ink version of this on my last post.

I'm doing a series on rural life, that I use a Strathmore 400 series 5.5x8.5 that opens to 5.5x17 landscape.

I also started using loose watercolor sheets 9x12 Arches cold press and Fluid water color block 8x16 which I really like. The Arches is 100% cotton and since I don’t use it that often it takes a bit of getting used to compared to other papers. But the colors look great on it.

So here’s a few sketches from the past week or so.

A rough pencil sketch of Novak's Hungarian Restaurant on 2nd Ave. In Albany Oregon

The finished ink sketch of Novak's.

Novak's with watercolor added.

On location.

 They suck, I know. But hey, I've only been sketching/drawing since December so I'll give myself a little slack.

REPORTAGE, SKETCHCRAWL AND MORE

So I did my first reportage sketches last week. there was a May Day protest at the state capitol May 1 so I walked down there on my lunch break and sketched a few scenes. It was my first reportage -- reporting by drawing instead of using a camera. It was pretty fun except I only had a few minutes to sketch before I had to get back to work.

I also had my first unofficial sketchcrawl Sunday, May 7. Unofficial because I'm the only member and I'm not sure if sketchcrawl is a trademark or what. But I had fun walking around downtown Albany, Ore., and sketching, even it it was by myself. Hopefully, since the weather is getting nicer, if there are any other sketchers in town we'll run into each other and actually start meeting up for a group sketchcrawl, which sounds more fun than sketching solo.

I also did the usual Google Street View sketches last week. Street View is about my only means of "travel" these days.

Church in Cauayan City, Isabel, Philippines.

I also did a few misc. sketches. A sketch of the sculpture at the Capital Park with the ODOT building in the background and one of my grandson watching TV (A practice reportage). and a few misc. sketches.

That's not all of them but that's a few of the ones I have photos of on my phone. Thanks and have a great week.

SKETCHES FROM THE END OF APRIL AND MAY DAY PROTEST

Manhattan Bridge in NY. Drawn from a photo.

I love the architecture in Pasadena Calif. This is Castle Green. 

Marines on patrol in Afghanistan. Drawn from a photo.

These were drawn during a May ?Day March at the State Capitol. I walked down there during my lunch break which only left me about 15 minutes to sketch. I managed to get a little more detail on the sketch below before they started their march.

I  did get a lot of video and photos to use as reference shots so I can sketch them out for practice over the next few days.