Visual Journal Collective - Treasured object night

On Monday night the MCBA Visual Journal Collective met with a topic of drawing a treasured object. Each member brought an object to draw and a story about why the object was important to them. It was fun to draw everyone's stuff, although I didn't draw very many objects, time just flew.
I did manage to draw Roz (see above) while everyone on the other side of the table was introducing themselves and telling about their object. She is working to infiltrate as many journals as possible in her lifetime. You can follow the link or click the icon on the sidebar for more information about her project.
Roz brought her toucan model, Hector (a rubber puppet), he was on the table while everyone was discussing their object and I added him in. He was such fun to draw I went to the table to draw him directly during our group drawing time.

Of course because I spent time painting Hector in I didn't have time to do anymore sketches, oh well. It was fun to draw Hector and he caused me to look at some of my daughter's toys, most of which are on the way out of the house, with new eyes. Maybe I need a live in studio "life" model to draw when "there is nothing to draw". I will have to see what I can find.
Our Visual Journal Collective leader, moderator, and champion journaler Roz Stendahl has a free online workshop coming up! Roz's energy is amazing and her ideas are fantastic, I really recommend that all of you take advantage of being her student (for free). The course is being offered through Strathmore, follow the link and sign up. It is a free class, Roz's is the third in a series, and I know it will be great. She is going to talk about choosing paper type and finding materials and how to get going on keeping a visual journal complete with handouts and video lessons. It is a four week class and free, what better way to start the warm months of outdoor sketching than with a few new ideas or a fresh approach?
Happy Sketching!

Sketch night at the Bell Museum - Ducks

Last Thursday night was the monthly sketch night at the Bell Museum in Minneapolis. This month's theme was ducks in honor of the upcoming contest for duck stamp artists. There were about twenty people there sketching and chatting at various locations in the touch and see room.
The wood duck above was my second sketch of the night. I am working in a 7x7 Stonehenge wired sketchbook. I sketched first in sharpie pen and then worked in watercolor to try and capture the great color and iridescence on this duck's face.

The duck above was my first sketch using sharpie pen and watercolor, not sure what type of duck this was (no label), she had very speckled feathers with darker colors and fine stripes on each feather but I wasn't going to spend the time needed to replicate that kind of detail.
Next months theme is mammals.