Early Morning Squash

Was awake too early one day last week and painted an acorn squash that has been on my counter at 5:30 in the morning, which is when I normally wake up. I am not going to make a habit of being up two hours earlier than normal but at least I had fun painting before I left for work.

Strathmore 500 series mixed Media paper in a handmade journal, Kuretake pen, Grumbacher watercolor

Peek at Paris

Faber-Castell PITT pen size F, Grumbacher watercolors,
 Rives BFK in a handmade accordion style journal

This last June I traveled to France and Italy with a group of students.  The trip was crazy busy and had limited time for sketching.  I sketched this at St. Michael's Square in Paris, France while the students in my group had about 45 minutes of free time.  It is a section of an accordion fold journal I had with me on the trip.

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

Stop and Draw the Flowers

A page from my current journal drawn on my front patio from a potted cone flower plant that is patiently waiting to be planted in my garden.
Hand made journal using Nideggen paper, Faber Castell Pitt pen size F, Grumbacher watercolors.  Full spread 7.5 x 16 or so.

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.

View from the Porch

Fabriano-Venzia sketchbook

12x18 inches, FaberCastell Pitt pen size F, 

Grumbacher and Daniel Smith watercolor

At the beginning of June, after the school year was finished, my husband and I went on a vacation with some dear friends to Madeline Island, Wisconsin.  We stayed in a house on the northern side of the island that overlooked Lake Superior 98 steps up above the lake.  This is the view from the screen porch as recorded in my sketchbook from our first morning.  It was an amazing and relaxing few days and I do believe that Madeline Island is a place that we will return to again.

Paintout at Home

Fabriano Venezia Sketchbook - open spread 12x18, 

Faber Castell Pitt pen size F, Grumbacher watercolors 

Sometimes the best place to go on a paintout is in your own yard.  You can have a chair, use the bathroom and take a break if needed, plus you are finding the beauty in what you are surrounded with everyday.
I came home from work yesterday and my first two poppies had bloomed and were just screaming to be painted so I grabbed my big book, my paints, and a chair and spent a couple of hours out in the yard sketching the poppies
Go grab your gear and paintout at home today!