Sketchbook
Small snippets from my sketchbook
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Sons of Pitches 2
After I gifted this sketch to the performers I’d drawn, they reached out to ask for another drawing to use on future bills. Without the band performing in front of me, I grabbed stills from a YouTube video of their performance, which you can watch here: First, of course, the sketch: Then linework, where I…
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Solo performer
Walked into town and enjoyed a solo performance while sketching. Musicians are nice subjects because they stay sort of in place for a while 🙂 It feels a little silly to carry such a large array of materials with me when I only use a couple after all. But you never know which materials the…
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Race weekend sketching
I took a sketchbook (of course!) to an amateur race this past weekend, and happened to snag a seat in the pit with a near-perfect angle on a beautiful custom-built hillclimb car! Media: Noodler’s “Bulletproof” black ink in TWSBI Eco pen with F nib; Leuchtturm sketchbook paper. My view was slightly obstructed by tanks of…
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Outdoor musicians
I was inspired by a friend’s musician-filled sketchbook, and I wanted to practice with this neat mini-palette I picked up recently. Luckily, this very groovy five-piece band was playing right by the square downtown. 🙂 While I was painting, a little girl sitting nearby was fascinated by my portable paints. I gave her mom an…
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Street corner from the coffee shop
It’s amazing how time flies when sketching. This ink-and-watercolor sketch took up the full two hours that I spent with the city’s urban sketching group. Much of the time was spent color-mixing, a skill I’m practicing more thoughtfully lately. Mixing a full array of colors in advance allowed me to avoid color gradients, keeping the…
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View from the watch tower
We spent a night in a nearby city and I found a few opportunities to sketch outside. First, a beautiful vista from the top of a fire watch tower. It was very windy up there, so I rushed to scribble out a memory before I lost my sketchbook or my hat. And later, sitting in…
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Walking bridge
Despite frigid winds, the quality of light today was too beautiful not to spend some time painting outside. I struggled to hold onto my sketchbook and palette through the wind while painting the walking bridge over the river. But I’m glad I got a snapshot of the beautiful day. One of the qualities I love…
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Sushi shop sketching
Kanagawa in Mechanicsburg has got to be one of the cutest sushi shops! I love the colors in here (though I didn’t have time to add them to my sketch). Sketched with a Traveller’s Company brass fountain pen.
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Urban sketching in Midtown
This was a very enjoyable morning, sketching the outside of the bookstore in Midtown, chatting with my fellow urban sketching enthusiasts. The abundance of lines, parallels and overlaps had me feeling a bit overwhelmed as I got deeper into this sketch. But in the end I somehow managed to keep all those lines in order!…
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View from an afternoon hike
Every time I walk this trail, I’m enamored by the sudden appearance of the blue ridge in the distance when the trail breaks onto this field. And every time I’m disappointed by the inability of a phone camera to capture anywhere near the beauty of the scene. This time I tried to capture it with…
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Art museum clock
Our urban sketching meetup was held in the local art museum on this rainy day. This clock caught my eye with its sculptural ornament and soft green highlights. Lines: Lamy Safari fountain pen with F nib and Noodler’s Bulletproof Black ink Colors: Prismacolor colored pencils; ink wash with Noodler’s Bulletproof Black ink in Pentel Aquash…
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Riverside garden
This ridgeline over the river is one of my favorite sketching subjects.
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Ren Faire market
A doodle while waiting for some friends to arrive at the Renaissance Faire. It was challenging and fun to capture the moving crowd.
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Cemetery light
Gouache practice again! This time I tried starting with a very limited palette. It seemed to actually make color-matching easier? I aimed for a palette with the following hues:
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Myrtle Beach shoreline
Sketched from the Surfside pier on a frighteningly windy day. I had to grip my sketchbook hard to keep the wind from taking it. Lines: Noodler’s Bulletproof Black ink in Traveller’s Co. brass fountain pen Canvas: Traveller’s Co. sketchbook paper
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Rail bridge in summer
I’m learning to paint with gouache in the hopes of improving my eye for color, and my color-mixing ability. Today’s piece didn’t hit quite all the shades of brown I was aiming for, but I learned a good bit and had some good discussions with friends along the way. 🙂
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