Virtual Paintout - San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

Tonight while hanging with my family and watching some TV, I finally got around to completing another Virtual Paintout. I always find shots, I almost always start, I rarely finish lately.

Today, I spent about an hour on this in my sketchbook. It was fun to draw curled up on the couch, with my laptop beside me and the book on my lap.

The drawing was done in a sharpie pen, watercolor was added (with my Niji brush and a travel pan set), and then I finished up with more pen over the top of the color washes.

I am using an AquaBee Super Deluxe 9x9 inch spiral bound sketchbook right now, the one with heavyweight(150 gsm) paper. As far as watercolors, I am using an old pan set from Marabu, that I got at an estate sale. I just checked their website and they don't even make watercolors anymore. Lots of other cool looking paints and supplies, no watercolors.

Busy Fall

As a teacher, fall is always busy with setting up a classroom and getting back into the swing after the summer, but wow, get a new job at a new school and that is magnified many times over. I have been so overwhelmed. I realized a couple of weeks ago that I haven't been taking time to make any work for myself, not even sketching, only class examples and demonstrations. So, last week despite being sick and having conferences I forced myself to draw for the first time since the state fair really.

It being autumn I have a small collection of gourds and squash that are in a platter on my table and they have served as my subject matter for the last week as I get back in the groove of daily drawing again.

I have been on a roll with my goal to draw everyday again and intend to keep at it, as it always feels good to sit and take a sketch break.
I am also trying to finish up the Aquabee sketchbook I have been working in so I can begin to test and use the two new sketchbooks I have been given to try out. Both books are spiral bound and new to the journal market this fall. One is made by Strathmore and the other by Legion, both companies are trying to move into the art journal market with new products and the visual journaling group I belong to received samples to test run. I am looking forward to fun journal experiments.

Minnesota State Fair Sketch-OUT (part three)

I know, I know, I have already talked about this sketching trip to the state fair, but I still have a couple of great sketches to show. One of a chicken, a rooster really, that started at the fair as a pen sketch like the rest of my work from that day and got altered later that evening at home by some paint.

I have had a hard time balancing sketching and painting in the field. I want to add color, I add color often when I sketch at home, but for some reason when I am out, especially somewhere busy, it just seems more streamlined to only use pen. I did not particularly like this sketch, before the paint. Chickens are never still, they bob and wiggle, and are just generally in motion and I found it hard to sketch them with any detail. When I was going through my sketches from the fair at home and talking with my husband about our respective days, I grabbed my watercolors and Niji brush and decided to experiment with remembered color. I have to say the chicken is now a bright patch in the middle of my fair drawings and I resolve to try and add more paint while sketching in the future.

The last sketches I have from that day are of our leader, Roz Stendahl. She has a bit of a personal challenge going on right now to infiltrate as many journals as possible in the next year. It is a contest as well, with the possibility of winning a beautiful journal made by Roz herself (follow the link in Roz's name for full contest details).

While we met at the end of the day Roz was talking to Tom, a new sketcher joining us, I was chatting with other fellow sketchers and I decided I had the perfect view to sketch Roz and join in on infiltration project fun. Of course when you sketch someone, they move sometimes and you cannot finish the sketch, as is the case with my first drawing. Roz turned to profile and never twisted back to the three-quarter view that I had started, oh well.

I did add a small profile sketch at the bottom, but I like the larger three-quarter view better.

That is my last fair sketch, I promise. But it was fun and I highly recommend getting out to sketch. You can check out other sketcher's work from our fair trip at Urban Sketchers Twin Cities and Roz Wound Up.

Make the pigs fly!

Just was just checking my blog list and reading some new posts and I run into Rice Freeman-Zachary's post today on creating your life. Not just any life, but you know the life you want, the life you live in your dreams. And no I am not talking about the one where you have all the money in the world, but the one where you create, live creatively, and have an all art lifestyle and are really happy. The one where you never care what someone else thinks of you.
I have to say I am getting better at embracing that life and living it, it makes me a happier me. But it is always good to have it affirmed and spread the word.

Happiness is a decision we make not an emotion we feel. Choose to be happy.

Minnesota State Fair Sketch-OUT (part two)

On Saturday I went sketching with the MCBA Visual Journaling Collective at the Minnesota State Fair. I have to say I had a great time. It was hot (a drawback, but it is summer) and crowded (to be expected really), but it was interesting and fun. I found that I focused on the animals at the fair for my drawing subjects, not that there was a shortage of people or great things to look at. I figured can draw people nearly anywhere, as well as great scenes, but livestock is not as easy to come by especially up-close, and the cows never ask you why you have made them look fat, or think you suck if you get their face a bit lopsided. Animals just seemed like the less stressful choice for drawing.

This was also my first "big" location to draw in public at and I was unprepared for becoming a part of the fair exhibit as I drew.

My first stop was to the horse barn, and I found that as I stood in the aisle drawing this percheron named Dream, I attracted a crowd of around ten people watching me draw the horse. I had not experienced this before and it was a little unnerving. I was actually grateful that I am a teacher and used to people watching me draw and asking questions, so I was able to continue my sketch without thinking about the people looking over my shoulder.

These horses were beautiful, and the owners were excited by my work, so I went back again later in the afternoon to draw more of them but I did not have much luck.

The photo of my sketchbook shows my attempts at further horse drawings that day. The front on horse face had potential to be a great drawing. The horse was staring me down as I drew, we were face to face and he was not moving anytime soon, or so I thought. A man walked up with his young son to show him the horse, and the little boy had a bag of corn chips. One sniff and my perfect model was at the other side of his stall hoping for a chip. Drawing over.

The next sketch the problem was all me, I started drawing too big. I love the back section of this horse resting in the stall, the sense of shifted weight, but then we move toward the spiral binding and I run out of room and try to compensate for the gap in the page and it is out of whack and over.

I decided at this point (there is one more but trust me its worse than these) that I was out of "horse juice" for the day and needed a break and some water.

I went in search of fellow sketchers thinking to check in early (we were meeting as a group again at 4 and it was about 20 after 3), talk about drawing as we wandered toward our meeting place across the fair from the barns. I found no one and after having some water and watching people I decided I could wander to the cows and look for someone there, or maybe draw one more sketch, although I was certain I was done for the day.

While in the barn I came one a row of cows resting that happened to have a bench across the aisle to sit on, so with little hope of success I pulled out my book for one more quick one before our meeting.

I am so happy that I decided to go look at cows and was really happy I did not let the fact that I was getting tired get in the way of me trying one more drawing, because I got this sketch of Lola from the bench in before my meeting. I also took a photo of this cow and the two others laying next to her that I am hoping to create a watercolor from later.

Just shows that pushing for just one sketch more pays off, sometimes.

Minnesota State Fair Sketch Out

On Saturday I went to the Minnesota State Fair to sketch with the MCBA Visual Journal Collective run by Roz Stendahl. There were about fifteen or so sketchers who joined the group for two meetings at one and four in the afternoon. In the mean time we were all at the Fair with the purpose of sketching, and boy are there things to sketch at the Fair - people, animals, exhibits, rides, and food.

Needless to say, I had a great time, met some new sketchers, and will make a full report in a couple of days. For now I have posted a sheep drawn while at the fair, a handful more sketches to follow in the next couple days.

Virtual Paintout - Prince Edward Island

Every month I start a Virtual Paintout submission, and for the last three months I have either not finished or in the case of last month, not submitted my work. Sometimes this happens because I am not thrilled with the location (Hawaii); other times I just get busy with other things and start but never finish (San Francisco); or finish and forget to submit (Hong Kong). This month the location is Prince Edward Island, Canada and I have found a couple of great locations that I want to paint so, this morning I was determined.

I made myself sit at the desk, in front of a view I liked and paint, with my sketchbook, just like I was there, except I got to do laundry while I worked. Guess what? I finished.

And working directly from the computer really helped. I usually print a picture and bring it to my studio, cut some nice paper, draw, paint - whatever - begin, but it gets lost in the shuffle and not completed. Or an image gets tucked into my sketchbook to draw from while at an appointment or something and forgotten about. Working right from the screen was immediate. I could pretend I was on location and just work. Granted, I was able to take a bit longer than I would have if I was standing in this field, and I did take breaks for laundry and lunch, but still the process was the same as if I was there.

This means I will do another view from this month's location. I even have a view picked out that will be great as a double spread across the spiral in my sketchbook.