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!

PPB Pen Fun

Ok so a PPB pen is a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen.  It is just like a regular pen but at the tip is a small paint brush giving you the artist the feeling of drawing with a paint brush rather than with a pen.  Roz Stendahl started a PPBpen challenge a few Friday's ago (now up to four Friday's worth) and I have a sketchbook I made that I have been using to play around with this very fun pen.

During week one Roz recommended just getting used the the brush and the type of marks it was capable of on the page.  I chose to doodle a bit to get used to the pen and remind myself of the types of marks it made.  The book is an accordion structure made with Rives BFK that when closed is about 6 inches square.  Creating an open page spread that is 6 x12 inches.

 Quick gesture sketches are great with the PPB pen!  I sat drinking coffee and sketching my cat Izzy as she discovered and watched birds in our back yard from the window.

Playing with some lettering styles here along with sketching my breakfast sandwich.  Lettering and words in general seems to be when the PPB pen gives me the most trouble.

This one is my favorite so far and several drawings into my exploration of the PPB pen.  I just grabbed the bananas off the counter and drew.  I really was also playing around with using it as a shading tool and not getting the strong black mark but toying until I got the pressure right to get a blotchy mark that reads as grey.

Another quick one of my cat Zoe, she often lays belly up in the sun on the living room floor in the afternoon.  It's the perfect time to grab a sketch as she is still.  You can also see the corner of another sketch of the random objects on the coffee table, so that is a nail clipper.
I am having fun playing around with this pen again as it is not one I had been carrying with me recently.  It has been hard to avoid adding color but on the other hand the pages all have a certain simplicity to them.  Just the black line used to describe enough of the object and nothing extra to get in the way.

Upcoming Talk with the Collective and Upcoming Class

Next week, on Monday night, I will be presenting at the MCBA Visual Journal Collective from 7-9 pm.  My presentation will be about my experience as a part of the moly-X sketchbook exchange project, my frustrations working with the Moleskine books and the paper that is in them, (which pushed me to create my own accordion "molys"), my experience with taking the exchange into my classroom in a high school, and some of my discoveries about journaling on a topic in my own accordion style books.
You can explore the moly-x project sketchbook exchange, started by Marty Harris, on the project's Flickr site.  There are links to all the different project blogs and photos of work done as a part of the many exchanges past and present.  The exchange that I am a part of is Moly_X 81.  I am one of four artists in the exchange and we are about to send our books around for the second time through the cycle.
As a part of my talk I will have many different books with me including my moly test book and in process moly_x books and images of books, along with finished exchange books and my own version of the Moleskine accordion book both empty and full.

I am also going to be teaching a class this spring at MCBA that was created as a result of the sketchbook exchange project and all the fun I have been having with the idea of exchanging sketchbooks or collaboratively journaling on a topic.  It is a combination of a book binding class, a journal/sketching technique class, and a collaborative project between the participants.  The class is called "Hardcover Accordion Visual Journal: Collaborative Chain Journaling", you can register by following this link to the MCBA course list for spring or by calling the Shop.  It begins on Sunday, May 8 from 10-3 with a book binding day where we will make an accordion journal (see above photo) with a hardcover and high quality artist paper suitable for both wet and dry media, which will be followed with five follow-up meetings on Thursday evenings from 7-8:30 where there will be a brief demonstration on a journal technique or tips as well as time for participants to share and exchange their books for the following week.  By the end of the class participants will learn how to bind an accordion style journal and they will have an accordion book filled with multiple entries created on a single topic or theme of their choosing.
It should be loads of fun!

Virtual Paintout - St. Petersburg, Russia

Fabriano Venezia sketchbook - 12x18

Faber-Castell Pitt pen size F

Grumbacher watercolor

The March location for the Virtual Paintout with Bill Guffy is St. Petersburg Russia.  I had grand plans of practicing my architecture drawing skills in preparation for my June trip to Europe but instead I found this view from the Kronshtadtskoye Shosse, which is the main freeway, on an island in the Baltic off the coast of St. Petersburg.
I wanted to challenge myself to achieve the deep shadows in the tree cover while still maintaining the white of the fence. I was originally drawn to the view by the birch trees, they are one of my favorites.  I am also challenging myself to continue to use this sketchbook, a 9x12 Fabriano Venezia, which feels gigantic especially when working across the spread (12x18 total page size).
Painting around those tiny fence pieces was a challenge, especially trying to get the color to transition smoothly.
The crazy thing is this could be a view from the street right here in Minnesota, rather than a view from a Google camera half a world away.  Small world.

Inspired to go Big!

Full 12x18 inch page spread in my 

Fabriano Venezia sketchbook, drawing done in 

Sharpie pen with Grumbacher watercolor

On Monday's meeting of the MCBA Visual Journal Collective  we had nature and travel journal keeper Pat Beaubien in the studio showing us her fantastic journals and talking about her journaling/art habits and how they have changed or grown over the years as a part of keeping a journal.  I have to say I was so inspired by her work.  She keeps these large journals, both handmade with watercolor paper and Fabriano Venezia more recently, all between 8x10 and 9x12 in size and she fills them with absolutely fantastic watercolor and ink drawings.  She also talked about the challenge to create art while teaching (she was an elementary school art teacher) rather than just in the summer and how her art habits have evolved since retiring.
Funny thing is, I have a Fabriano Venezia sketchbook right now and have been hating it. Because it was so big, 9x12 closed size, it had gotten banished to my coffee table as a Saturday book.
Having this beautiful journal as my Saturday book was not really a bad thing, it is just that I had sort of given up on it as something to use more frequently and fill up in a timely fashion and was looking at it more as a spare time kind of thing (which is never good for your art by the way).  Well, after seeing Pat's beautiful work on Monday night I was totally inspired to haul this large book around with me for a bit and fill it up - no excuses or complaining.
Last night I began by hauling it to my lap while I watched TV and drew a pair of shoes from my entryway.  I forced myself to fill both pages and to work across the spread with one subject.  I began with Sharpie pen for my contour line sketch and then used watercolor to complete the image.  After I was done  painting, I accented a few spots with some more ink lines and added the text "frame" around the whole thing.  I spent about an hour and a half altogether and was watching Chopped on TV at the same time.

9x12 Fabriano Venezia sketchbook (verso page)

Faber-Castell Pitt calligraphy pen with Grumbacher watercolor

I hauled it a bit farther today.  Luckily the book fits in my backpack and I take my backpack to work with me, so into my bag it went, and over the course of the afternoon I drew the view out my classroom window.  I spent about a maximum of an hour on this image in ten and fifteen minute bursts as I had a few moments to spare between classes and during a study hall I supervise.
I do notice that this larger page takes me a bit longer to completely cover in paint than the journals I typically have been using (around 7 inch square).  And of course it fits in no bag other than my backpack.  But it does have lovely, heavy, smooth paper that takes watercolor well and is a pleasure to write on with pen, especially with the Faber-Castell Pitt calligraphy pen for some reason.  Realistically of course it is also great to stretch myself and work differently than I normally would.
So suddenly rather than dreading this book and wondering how I am ever going to fill it up, I am excited and looking at my environment with curious eyes, searching for the next subject to place on the once seemingly over large pages.