Creekside Chickens ~ year two

Sketched using a Faber-Castell PITT artist pen in cool grey with a brush tip,
Daniel Smith watercolors, in an India Handmade Hand•Book watercolor journal,  8x16 full spread size

 On Sunday, July 7th the MetroSketchers group met in the backyard of Sophie and Chris near Minnehaha Park to draw their small flock of chickens for a second year.  This year they have new chickens, a flock of six that they got as one day old chicks back in April, one of which was a rooster by mistake, which was being relocated to a small farm after we sketched that afternoon.  It was a typically hot July afternoon and the chickens were not very social, in terms of mingling with sketchers in the yard.  For most of the afternoon they huddled together in a small corner at the back, forcing us to all be grouped in and around said corner at the back to better see the chickens.

Sketched using a Faber-Castell PITT artist pen in cool grey with a brush tip,
Daniel Smith watercolors, drawn over the top with a Faber-Castell calligraphy pen in black,
in an India Handmade Hand•Book watercolor journal,  8x16 full spread size

 I got to the event about a half hour late, after a few quick chicken gestures and seeing that the chickens were staying put in terms of location, I decided to sit on the back steps and sketch a portion of my view.  Chris and Sophie really have a lovely backyard, with hanging baskets, lights, small sculptures, and flower beds.  They also had about twenty or so people in lawn chairs quietly sketching, so even not drawing chickens, there was plenty to draw.
By about two-fifteen most of the sketchers were starting to be hot and restless and Sophie was bringing out some refreshments and the chickens saw this as the perfect time to begin moving through the yard.  I guess after seeing us sit quietly in chairs for over two hours they decided we were safe to mingle with after all.  From my perch at the back steps I was able to finally sketch a trio of the chickens.  I was also able to snap a couple of photos for use as reference later.  It was one of those reference photos that I used to finish the part of a sketch that I got of Horatio, the rooster, later that afternoon at home to finish the spread in my journal.
I am currently working my way through a journal that I impulse bought while waiting for a friend in an art supply store.  I am nearly finished and will post my thoughts on the book, because I have many, in a later post.  For now let's just say that this book has been a frustrating learning experience and just when I thought I had made peace with it and its paper, I turned the page and drew chickens and began to paint and discovered that these next few sheets are completely different from the rest of the book that I am just over halfway through using.
Right now let me just say that two important lessons are already becoming evident as I use this book.  Lesson one: don't ever impulse buy a book because it looks interesting while waiting for a friend.  Lesson two: I make my own books for a very real reason.

MetroSketchers Portrait Party

Anna
Stonehenge paper in handmade journal
Faber-Castell PITT pen size S

On Sunday, January 6th, about twenty artists from the MetroSketchers group met at a like minded couple's home to enjoy each-other's company and have a Portrait Party.    A Portrait Party is simply when a group of people get together and draw one another's portraits.  I managed to draw three of my fellow sketchers in about two hours (we met for three hours but I know I wasn't always sketching).  Part of me looks at these and wishes I had just done a contour line drawing and then added watercolor and another part of me is happy with my simply pen sketches.  Either way it was good practice for the upcoming Visual Journal Collective's Portrait Party on the 21st and lots of fun.

Jajeev
Stonehenge paper in handmade journal
Faber-Castell PITT pen size S

Justin
Stonehenge paper in handmade journal
Faber-Castell PITT pen size S

State Fair Sketch-Out 2012

First page spread - I left this open and returned to it after the rest of the book was filled.
Gopher mascot statue and my collaged in gate ticket.

 This year's Minnesota State Fair sketch-out was a combined effort with sketchers from both the MCBA Visual Journal Collective and the MetroSketchers groups in attendance.  (The link will take you to a nice group shot and more information at Roz Stendahl's blog, complete with more links.)
I arrived at the fair at about 2:30 p.m. with a small (4x5.25) accordion journal made with Strathmore 500 series Mixed Media paper, a Faber-Castell PITT pen size F, and watercolors. Along with a desire to fill the book before I left for home knowing it would be my only trip to the fair this year.

Lunch as well as my first sketch of the day.  

 I had not had lunch when I got to the fair so my first task was to find food and get sketching as quickly as possible being we were meeting as a group at 4:30 and I had gotten to the fair much later than planned.  Both tasks were accomplished after I purchased, ate, and sketched a corn dog.  Of course not being used to the seemingly tiny pages in this book (about 5x8) I drew my corn dog way bigger than planned and it goes so far out of the page that honestly it becomes a bit abstracted and strange due to the limited view.

From my corn dog lunch I move on to the cow barn where cows are being lined up for pre and post judging in an outdoor pen between buildings.  This cow was standing tied to a fence and reasonably still so it made for a good first model.  The laying down cow was done after moving into the actual barn and was added into the space between the cow face and the cow backside (shown below) and is the same cow as the cow backside, which lay down mid sketch.

A couple of cows, the "i draw" button that Marty Harris
gave to all of us at our meeting later that afternoon
and a quickly done horse.

 After the cow laid down, and I drew it's new position and added some paint.  I tried to save the unfinished standing cow by looking at a new standing cow and adding on a neck and face.  I think I drew a tiny bit larger and ran out of room again on the page.  At this point I am discovering that the size I have created this accordion is a little awkwardly small.  It is surprisingly hard to hold and paint in while standing and my sketches keep leaving the page.  I now know that I will go back to the accordion journals that are about 6 inches square as they are still very small and portable but they are easier to manage than this tiny book.
I walked over to the horse barn from the cows, which is usually one of my favorite places to sketch at the fair. I have loved drawing horses since I was a little girl and look forward to seeing some in person every year.  This year there were very few horses in the barn and an overwhelming number of people looking at the handful of horses, a very bad combination for sketching.  I attempted a sketch of a horse tied in a hallway being trimmed thinking it would be standing there for several minutes and was shocked when the trimming involved only it's nose hair and was finished with the horse was being led away in under a minute.  I had no sketch time to waste being pushed into by strollers and fighting crowds so I left the horse barn and moved on to the pigs.

The pig barn is nearly empty of people which is a pleasant change from the horse barn and due in large part to people being afraid they will get sick from the animals.  I was able to draw a sleeping pig and stick around long enough to add some paint and I had only one person even pass down the aisle I was in.  While I was in the barn in a pen across the way they were judging pigs and the judge was making commentary on the status of each pig as it passed him.  I have to say the commentary was very interesting and included things such as "I love the way this animal is set on it's hocks"  "this hog carries its weight well".  

Next, I wandered down to the poultry barn knowing that it was nearing the time for our meeting and the poultry barn is en route to our meeting location.  I draw one warm-up chicken with just my pen and then find a pillar to lean against and paint the next chicken, choosing one with interesting black and white patterned feathers.  Drawing the chickens is always a bit of a challenge because they are never very still even with their limited space to move in the cage and in order to get a full sketch you have to wait for the bird to move back to the position you started from to complete the drawing.  

This book is the first book I have used with the 500 series Mixed Media paper, and I am starting to notice that it takes the watercolor a tiny bit longer to dry than I am used to, so I am walking from place to place with an open sketch before shutting my book.  Which isn't a problem but it is something to be aware of while working on a page spread.  I like that the paper texture is smooth and easy to draw on and that it is not buckling from wet work at all, which makes it nice to work on and I will not have to worry about the long accordion getting out of whack because of paper buckle issues.  The paper is also holding up well in this accordion structure, even with my continued folding back and forth around the book cover to complete drawings that go beyond the expected page spread the folds are not cracking and they do not seem to be weakening either which is good.

At this point our meeting time is close enough that I must leave the barns behind and walk across the fair grounds to the plaza between the food and agriculture buildings to see what the rest of my sketching friends have been up to all day.  I get to the meeting place a bit early and decide to try and sketch some fair goers while I wait for the group to gather.  While I sketch the man on the left I realize that someone is watching me, I ignore them and continue to sketch.  As I work they move in closer and at one point stand between me and the man I am sketching while exclaiming to the world at large that he knows who I am sketching and challenging other fair goers nearby to find the guy I am sketching too.  At this point I realize that this man is quite drunk and he continues to stand directly in front of me, so I have to lean and look around him to finish my drawing.  This drunken man is very excited that my sketch looks just like the man eating his lunch and decides that he would like to purchase my sketch to give to him as a gift.  As he announces this intention to me he tries to take my book with one hand and give me ten dollars with the other.  Needless to say I am not happy with this turn of events and I am glad of two things, one that I completed my sketch before things got weird and two that he backs off as I stand up and announce that I am flattered but my book is not for sale (and worth more than ten dollars empty) and that I have to go.  I have to say that this encounter is my strangest sketch in public moment ever.

I meet up with our group of sketchers at this point and we chat and compare scenes sketched, which is always the best part because everyone does such different stuff and it is always exciting to see all the variety in subject matter and style.  Ken Avidor has posted many images of sketches by group members taken that day as we chatted over on the Urban Sketchers Twin Cities blog.  If you follow the link you can check them out.  

We also had a special guest at our meeting from WCCO, Amy Rea.  She was in the process of writing an article on interesting things to see at the fair that might be unexpected and did a little blurb on our sketching group that day.

As our meeting is breaking up and we are discussing whether or not we are leaving or continuing to sketch I quickly sketched the couple seated at a table nearby to try and get one more sketch into my book as it has come to my attention that I have only three spreads to go and then my book is full.  I decide that I cannot leave until I fill my book so I say goodbye and wander back toward the barns.

The decision to continue to sketch seems like a mistake as I sit down and try to draw the green tea slushy I was drinking but I continue on to the sheep and add in a lamb resting against the back wall of it's pen and then finish my book with a brown goose.
Over all I had a reasonably good day sketching at the fair.  There are a few awkward sketches but they do not take away from the overall effect of the completed book and I feel that it is a great record of my day at the fair.  Looking back at my sketches, I do think that next year I may try to draw more people at the fair as I think that those were my favorite sketches from this year and it is not something I usually sketch while I am there.  Although next year is a long way off and there is no real way to tell what will catch my eye at next year's sketch-out.

The full accordion book as a continuous image.  My day at the fair in one long sheet.
5x82 inches, Strathmore 500 series Mixed Media paper, Grumbacher watercolor, Faber-Castell pitt pen size F

Sketching Backyard Chickens

Sunday afternoon I went on a sketch-out with the MetroSketchers group to a private residence in Minneapolis to sketch in the backyard.  The great thing about this particular backyard is that they have six chickens which is what we were all there to sketch.

Handmade journal with Nideggen paper

open spread 7x15 inches

Faber-Castel PITT pen size F

Funny thing about chickens  - they move - a lot.  This facet of their personality makes them quite a challenge to draw.  I started out with a handful of gesture sketches.  Seeing the page now I wish I had switched to my brush pen rather than the PITT pen I used to get a stronger line quality, but oh well.  The first two I did are the ones that try for more detail and are more awkward (they are on the left diagonally across the page).  Once I loosened up and let go of detail and aimed for just the shape my sketches got better and look more like chickens with less line.

Handmade journal with Nideggen paper

open spread 7x15 inches

Sketch with PITT pen size F

Watercolor and gouache

I was frustrated with the movement at this point and opted to sketch the chicken coop instead.  I was originally thinking that I would start with the coop on the right and add chickens in the yard after but as often happens, my sketch of the coop ended up a bit bigger than it should have and I did not quite get to the ground level.  I decided to add a chicken sketch to the left anyway, it was why we were there in the first place and I did not want to leave a blank page.  For this sketch I tried to stay patient about the chicken moving around and just continued to work even after the chicken had changed position.  I had also taken a quick reference shot with my cell phone as soon as I started the sketch so I had one still shot to look back at if I got stuck or if the chicken walked away across the yard.  I was lucky and Louise stayed nearby for most of my sketch and she only moved too far away to see as I was finishing up with my paint.
While I was there I also took a few extra shots with my camera to use as reference to draw from at home.

Handmade journal with Nideggen paper

open spread 7x15 inches

Sketch with PITT pen size C (right)

Watercolor and gouache (left)

I also had access to some preview chicken images before I went to sketch.  The color portrait of Louise was done from a preview image to practice a chicken, although a chicken from a photo is not really practice for chickens from life.  The line drawings were done after the sketch-out from images I took on my cell phone.  I used a pen with a heavier nib and drew quickly but not as fast as a gesture sketch from a moving chicken would require.
Sketching chickens was fun and challenging.  I recommend stretching your sketching skills and drawing from a moving subject sometime soon.  It causes you to make different decisions than you do while sketching from a stationary object and it forces you to use your visual memory while you draw.  Both good skills to work on especially since summer is full of moving subjects to choose from and the State Fair sketch-out is so close.

A Trip to Como Zoo with MetroSketchers

My opening sketches of the puffins and a couple of penguins

Accordion sketchbook about 6" tall

and each page section about 5 1/4" wide

made with Canson Edition paper, 

Sharpie pen, and Grumbacher watercolors

 On Sunday March 4th, the Twin Cities MetroSketchers met at Como Zoo to sketch.  I went along and brought my new accordion style journal, thinking that I needed to see how well this style of journal works out when actually sketching on location.  The MetroSketchers are a group of sketchers started by Liz Carlson and Tim Jennen, that meets the first Sunday of the month from 12-3 to sketch together in and around the metro area.  If you are in the Twin Cities metro and interested in joining the group you can find them on Facebook at MetroSketchers Group or send an email MetroSketchers@yahoo.com and ask to be put on the email list for notification of the next event location as it changes from month to month.

Bear and Bison sketches done 

outside their respective enclosures

Canson Edition paper, Sharpie pen, 

Grumbacher watercolor 

 It is a fun group of people to sketch with and I feel fortunate that my schedule finally allowed me to join them on an outing.  I think they had about twenty people show up on Sunday which was the group's one year anniversary.  There was no shortage of people to sketch with and artists of all descriptions to talk with about supplies and sketching which is always fun.

A few sketches of the lion, who was pacing

when we first got to the cat building and 

hard to sketch until she settled down to rest.

 I had a great day with Roz Stendahl and Miss T, the three of us stayed together and sketched in a group as we looped through the zoo enjoying the relatively warm weather and each others company while recording our day with the animals in pen and paint.

Lions, giraffe , and the beginning of the orangutan page

Canson Edition paper, Sharpie pen, 

Grumbacher watercolor

 I have to say I had one of those rare sketching days that does not come along often and it seemed that every drawing I did came out reasonably well.  The lion was by far the most challenging subject because she was agitated when we first got to sketching her, so my first two attempts are just eyes mostly.  Then she settled down and stayed stationary for a while and I was able to finish a sketch of all of her rather than just her eyes.
From the lions we moved to the giraffes and I have to say they are strange to sketch because they are such strange animals when you really get to looking at them.  They are huge and have unusual proportions with the long thin neck and legs but overly large cow type body that is hard to capture on the page.  I did the pen sketch of the entire giraffe at the zoo and added the up close face with watercolor from a photo taken at the zoo after I got home.

Amanda the orangutan 

Canson Edition paper, Sharpie pen, 

Grumbacher watercolor

 Our last sketching stop was to the ape house which was very crowded and busy.  The apes and monkeys seemed to be enjoying the attention and were busy looking at the crowds looking at them.  We found a relatively clear spot to sketch the orangutan who was down the glass from where we stood and sketched.  She seemed to know that we were watching her differently than the other zoo visitors and after a few minutes she came to where we stood at the glass and sat at our feet.  I got down a quick outline of this closer view before having too many children launched in front of me and then I stepped back to paint my sketch.  After finishing our drawings it was time go meet the rest of the sketchers.  Roz had found out that the orangutan's name is Amanda and that she paints, so before leaving we all showed her our work at the glass where she sat.  She looked from one page to the next and signed something to us. Of course not one of us knows sign language so we do not know what she said but we do know that she seemed to understand that we had made drawings and she acknowledged our work.  Whether or not she recognized herself is hard to say.

Chocolate Chocolate Cake from Cafe Latte

Canson Edition paper, Sharpie pen, 

Grumbacher watercolor

 After a brief meeting of many of the sketchers that were at the zoo that day and a discussion about paper and supplies and comparison of pages completed.  Some of us went to a nearby cafe to enjoy some cake in honor of the anniversary and to continue to enjoy each other's company and sketch some more.  I had Chocolate Chocolate cake, which was delicious and of course I sketched my piece of cake before I ate it.  Once I got home I only had one small section of paper left in this small sketchbook so I saw some peeps on the table and added them in as the last spread, completing this entire journal mostly in one day.

Peeps and edging at the end of the book

Canson Edition paper, Sharpie pen, 

Grumbacher watercolor

One additional thing I did as I finished the peeps was to add an outlined edge to the entire journal along with some splashes of color from my paints that went along with the edge and with the sketch on the page.  I got this idea from the first video lesson at the Strathmore Online Workshop on watercolor sketching with artist Cathy Johnson.  I like the effect that the edging and splatter gave the book as a whole, it really helps tie together all the different sketches and unifies the long format as one finished piece of work.
I have only worked previously in this style of journal as an exchange between multiple artists or with my students.  This was the first time I had used an accordion as a stand alone sketch journal.  I found that I liked working along the accordion and it was particularly nice to work in this small size when going out and sketching at a particular location.  The journal itself was made from one single sheet of paper and is roughly 6 inches square when closed.  It was also fillable in an afternoon which was great. I left the photos long and so of redundant so you can see the way each image links to the next creating a long story of the day.
It got me thinking about potentially taking small accordions like this with me when I go to Europe later this year as I know we will be in multiple cities and having a finished journal for each city might be nice.  I could then build a case to hold all of my finished journals once I got home from my trip.