Celebrating 10 Years of Urban Sketching

This weekend, I met up with my local Urban Sketchers SF Bay Area group to participate in the Urban Sketchers Global 24 Hour Sketchwalk to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Urban Sketchers group.

We met up in the park near the Apple store in Union Square and sketched for about 90 minutes before meeting inside. It was chilly, so we needed to get inside to thaw out our hands. Here is my sketch from the park looking towards the Ruth Asawa fountain. You can see our leader, Laurie Wigham sketching in front of me.

There were about 40 of us sketchers there that day.

Here are a few of my favorite sketches from that day.

by Oliver Hoeller - his style reminds me of Felix Scheinberger

Love this piece Uma created on her iPad Pro with her Apple Pencil -so inspiring!

This piece by Judy W. looks like a beautiful postcard. I love how she indicated the ice skaters with so few marks!

After the sketch walk, I joined a few sketchers for lunch in Chinatown at the Far East Cafe. I loved discussing art techniques, supplies, and urban sketching with some like minded individuals! Here's my quick sketch - largely done before our food arrived.

Every time I meet up with other urban sketchers, I get inspired to do more on location sketching. I am going to make more of an effort to get out there and sketch!

Did you participate in the 24 Hour Global Sketch Walk? I would love to hear about your experience and see your sketches!!

Getting Back to Sktchy and Exploring Different Media

After coming back home from the Urban Sketcher's Symposium in Chicago - which was hugely inspiring - I had recommitted myself to getting outside and sketching. But, now that I've been back home for over a month and the kids are back in school, I've decided to get back into sketching some portraits from Sktchy and trying some different styles and media.

Here are some recent pieces inspired by the Sktchy app using watercolor with no underdrawing (for the most part):

I've been enjoying going straight to watercolor with no underdrawing, but I wondered if I shouldn't abandon my older style of drawing first in ink and then adding watercolor. So, I decided to attempt the same portrait in my old style.

Which do you prefer? I've gotten mixed responses on Instagram - with a few more likes for this one with watercolor and ink.

Inspired by James Gurney, I decided to try out using the casein paint set that I picked up at the Urban Sketcher's Symposium in Chicago.

Casein in a milk based paint that used to be very popular with illustrators and designers in the 1930s. It is opaque, yet can also be used watered down like watercolors. It is similar to gouache, yet when it dries, it can be painted over without reactivating the older layers. James Gurney has almost single-handedly brought casein back into modern popularity, so when I saw this 12 color set offered in a wooden box on sale at USK Chicago (at a reduced price from when you can get it for on Amazon), I had to get it!

I struggled a lot with this portrait, but in the end, I quite like it. Another example of needing to quiet my inner critic (monkey).

Next, I tried a technique that James Gurney uses quite often - starting with a casein underpainting and using gouache on top.

I feel like I have so much to learn from all of these different types of media! I definitely love using watercolor, but it is nice to mix it up and use ink with watercolor, or an opaque media like gouache or casein.

What do you think? Do you stick with one primary media? If so, which one? If not, what do you like to use and when/why? I'd love to hear!

Stephanie Bower's Watery Reflections Demo

During the Urban Sketcher's Symposium this year in Chicago, I was lucky enough to see Stephanie Bower's Watery Reflection demonstration at the Crown Fountain in Millennium Park.

Designed by Designed by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa, the Crown Fountain in Millennium Park is a major addition to the city's world-renowned public art collection. The fountain consists of two 50-foot glass block towers at each end of a sha… — Designed by Designed by Spanish artist **Jaume Plensa**, the **Crown Fountain in Millennium Park** is a major addition to the city's world-renowned public art collection.

The fountain consists of two 50-foot glass block towers at each end of a shallow reflecting pool. The towers project video images from a broad social spectrum of Chicago citizens, a reference to the traditional use of gargoyles in fountains, where faces of mythological beings were sculpted with open mouths to allow water, a symbol of life, to flow out.

Plensa adapted this practice by having faces of Chicago citizens projected on LED screens and having water flow through an outlet in the screen to give the illusion of water spouting from their mouths. The collection of faces, Plensa's tribute to Chicagoans, was taken from a cross-section of 1,000 residents.

The fountain’s water features operate during the year between mid-spring and mid-fall, while the images remain on view year-round.

Despite its name, Stephanie's workshop focused on reflections, not just in water - but, also in metals, mirrors, windows, shiny floors, and streets (wet or not). Stephanie passed out a handout that describes how reflections work and different aspects of reflections. With regard to how reflections work, she states that a simple reflection on a smooth surface reflects an image that is the same size and height as the object being reflected and is reflected straight down. She also reminded us that the vanishing point is always at your eye level line - even for the reflected image.

Stephanie showed us some amazing examples of her own work with reflections.

Stephanie's sketch with reflections on a shiny indoor floor

But, the best part of this demonstration, was, of course, watching Stephanie sketch the scene in front of us. She started with a quick value thumbnail sketch.

Though Stephanie says she doesn't usually take the time to always make a value thumbnail, it was helpful for me to watch her do it and remember to concentrate on values!

Stephanie then moved on to demonstrate her sketching method with reflections and reminded us to reserve a lot of white space - which she says is always the hardest thing to do! Unfortunately, I didn't get a great video of her process. Here was her sketch:

It was an amazing demo to watch - and I'm so grateful for Stephanie to take extra time in continuing her sketch for us. I can't wait to add in more reflections in my work. Recently, I thought of Stephanie's teachings when sketching at the Lafayette Reservoir.

My sketch of the Lafayette Reservoir - I think the reflections really does add to the whole sketch

I really enjoyed Stephanie's demo and intend to add more reflections in a lot of my sketches - and not just ones involving water! Stay tuned for my upcoming blog post on the last workshop I took at USK Chicago - Liz Steel's Lost and Found Structures!

Revisiting Marion Rivolier's USK Chicago Symposium Workshop: How to Reach the Sky?

Attending the Urban Sketcher's Symposium in Chicago last month was so inspiring! I learned so much from the other sketchers I met and, of course, from the instructors of my workshops. Now, that I've been home - I decided to revisit each of the workshops I took (with Marc Taro Holmes , LK Bing, Marion Rivolier, and Liz Steel) and the demonstration I attended (with Stephanie Bower) to remember what I was taught and practice!

Today, I am revisiting Marion Rivolier's How to Reach the Sky workshop, which I took on Friday afternoon of the Symposium. I have been following Marion on Instagram for a while now and have always admired her watercolors and urban sketches. I love her use of watercolors without a preliminary drawing, the colors she uses, and the landscape format she so often uses - so, I was very excited for the chance to learn from her in this workshop.

Marion started out the workshop explaining that she wanted to show us the intimate relationship between the sky, the lights, the movement of the clouds, the buildings and the architecture, which are revealed by the sky. She said that we will observe how the sky reveals the colors of the city. First, however, she wanted to check our materials - our sketchbooks and our watercolors as we will be painting in watercolors directly for this workshop without any preliminary underdrawing.

Marion had us practice mixing dark colors in various warm and cool mixtures. Here are my dark mixtures using Daniel Smith's Ultramarine Blue and Transparent Pyrrol Orange; Ultramarine Blue and Pyrrol Crimson; and Indanthrone Blue and Pyrrol Crimson - with varying amounts of each color. Marion reviewed our colors to make sure we could make sufficiently dark colors. She recommended that we make color charts of our watercolors to understand what colors are possible with our sets.

Next, we took the Chicago skyline, our subject, and focused on the sky alone in sketching the sky or negative space around the buildings in a single, dark color. Marion warned us at the outset of the workshop that we may not create any "pretty" pieces of art today as we are going to be more concerned about experimenting and learning today.

using a single cool, dark color to paint the sky / the negative shapes of the buildings

Next, we played with warm and cool values as Marion says that warm and cool values are the key to understanding volume as they allow us to create contrasts that accentuate depth and volumel. We were to choose a dark cool color and add in a warm color for clouds (which we had to invent as the sky was clear at that moment).

negative drawing with a dark, cool sky and warm clouds

Next, we painted the negative shapes of the buildings to indicate the sky and added a warm color for highlights on the buildings and a cool light color for reflections of the sky on the buildings.

warm highlights and cool sky reflections on the buildings

In our next exercise, we ignored the sky and just used a warm color to indicate highlights on the buildings and a cool light cool to indicate reflections of the sky on the buildings.

Next, we took this exercise one step further and added cool and warm dark colors to indicate warm and cool shadows on the buildings after indicating the warm highlights and cool sky reflections on the buildings.

combining warm highlights, cool sky reflections on the buildings with cool and warm dark shadows

In the end, we combined all of these concepts into a final sketch (that I admittedly ran out of time to complete.

Final sketch utilizing all of the concepts from Marion's workshop

Marion showing us her sketch utilizing the concepts she taught us

In summary, I found the concepts of warm and cool color contrasts to be a bit hard to get my head around. In theory, I understand the concept, but it's a whole other matter in practice! I don't think I've trained my eyes enough to see and differentiate between cool and dark shadows, etc. Also, in the beginning of the workshop, Marion kept asking us to give more room for the sky in our composition. I think this tip will be the easiest for me me to implement right away, but I will keep working on trying to see and utilize warm and cool value contrasts.

Today, prior to the partial solar eclipse that turned out not to be viewable where I was in Berkeley, I tried to keep Marion's workshop in mind and sketched the sky with a bit of my view from the Claremont Resort Hotel.

As a side note - I love Marion's use of rich watercolors and coveted her Indigo Blue that she demonstrated in the workshop to make a cool, dark color - so I asked her what brand of watercolors she uses. She said that she uses White Nights watercolors primarily because they are fairly cheap (about 2 euros for a half pan) and she goes through a lot of watercolors. I love my Daniel Smith watercolors, but I was tempted to try Marion's watercolors and bought some White Nights watercolors on Amazon. I've been using them since them and enjoy having a limited palette of warm and cool colors with a couple of convenience colors added in. Here is Marion's palette - which I have some of the colors - but not all of them based on my own preferences.

In conclusion, I have much to learn and practice from Marion's workshop still. But, I have resolved to view her own work on Instagram with a more knowledgeable eye based on the concepts she explained to us.

Thanks for reading this! Stay tuned for my blog posts on Liz Steel's workshop and Stephanie Bower's demonstration.

Art Challenges

I love a daily art challenge because it helps me overcome the issue of finding inspiration on a daily basis - especially when I use the Sktchy app and its many, many inspiration photos. I just finished the Sktchy30 challenge which involved a daily emailed prompt for each day in April. The Sktchy30 challenges were a bit ambiguous, but it was fun to see how other Sktchy artists responded to them.

And from the beginning of the year onwards, I have kept up with Sketchbook Skool's #SBSaDrawingaDay challenge here - which I love, because its one word prompts leave plenty of room for my own personal interpretations. Here is my latest piece from the challenge prompt RANDOM (using a random landscape inspiration photo from Sktchy).

Not long ago, I completed the #oneweek100people2017 challenge that was the brain child of Marc Taro Holmes and Liz Steel, two artists who I really admire. That challenge really stretched me to get all those people drawn in just one week!

Now, while I continue with Sketchbook Skool's SBSaDrawingaDay challenge, I am actively trying to improve my watercolor techniques, so I thought I would try to participate in the World Watercolor Group textures challenge for the month of May.

For Day 1 of the World Watercolor Group texture challenge was GLOSSY. Here's my attempt at some glossy lips.

What do you use for periodic inspiration? Do you participate in art challenges? If so, do you have any you would recommend? I'd love to hear about them!

Day 5 of the One Week 100 People 2017 Challenge

For my last day of the One Week 100 People 2017 Challenge, I started with a portrait inspired by the Sktchy app in gouache.

No. 80 - a Sktchy-inspired portrait in gouache

Then, it was off to the tennis tournament - where I sketched a lot of the players and ended up reaching my 100 by sketching the crowd watching the tennis in front of me.

Nos. 81 & 82 - Rafa Nadal & Caroline Wozniacki practicing

Nos. 83 & 84 - Rafa Nadal and Marin Cilic practicing their serves

Nos. 85 & 86 - Jo-Wilfred Tsonga and David Goffin practicing

Nos. 87 - 89 - Todd watching, Kevin Anderson, and a security guard

Nos. 90 & 91 - Kayla Day & Mariana Lucic-Baroni

And I made it to 100 people in 5 days! It was a great challenge that really made me focus on drawing people from life - and from photo references. I thoroughly enjoyed the practice and can't wait to do it again next year! How did the challenge go for you? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Day 4 of the One Week 100 People 2017 Challenge

Continuing this challenge is easier while at the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament in Indian Wells - there are so many people everywhere to sketch!

I started the day at the practice courts watching one of my tennis idols, Venus Williams. I sketched her in brush pen and watercolors - though, I admit that I did not get her likeness. Also, I now realized that I messed up my numbering and overlapped nos. 54 - 56! Oh, well - I can always use the extra practice.

Nos. 55 & 56 - Karolina Pliskova and her coach on the practice courts

Nos. 57 & 58 - Feliciano Lopez practicing and Bjorn Fratangelo playing Tomic

No. 59 - Bernard Tomic playing Bjorn Fratangelo

Nos. 62 - 74 - Reilly Opelka and the crowd

Nos. 75 - 77 - Barbora Strycova, Sania Mirza, and Jelena Ostapenko

Nos. 78 & 79 - Eugenie Bouchard & Annika Beck

I didn't quite make it to my 80th person on Day 3 - but I started a Sktchy-inspired gouache portrait that I will finish on Day 4. Stay tuned! I would love to hear your comments on my sketches and yours for this challenge!

Day 3 of the One Week 100 People 2017 Challenge

Day 3 of the #oneweek100people2017 challenge happened for fall on International Women's Day. So, I decided to do a watercolor sketch of three lovely ladies in their pussy hats to celebrate. They are my nos. 41 - 43 for the challenge.

For the next several people, I decided to sketch people on the airplane from San Francisco to Palm Springs on our way to see the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.

I didn't get in my 20 for today, but with our travel, I decided to not sweat it and just add in more people to my goal for tomorrow at the tennis tournament. Are you participating in this challenge? If so, how is it going for you?

A New Art Challenge - #OneWeek100People2017

Two of my favorite online urban sketchers and art instructors, Liz Steel and Marc Holmes, recently decided to start a new art challenge - drawing 100 people in one week (really, in 5 days). As Marc puts it:

So – what is this #OneWeek100People2017 all about?

Is it a race? A stunt? A kind of monastic self-flagellation? Or just an excuse to get out and have fun drawing?

Well, why not all of the above!

I love a new art challenge - anything to make me accountable for turning out more art and practicing my skills - like capturing lots and lots of people. So, yesterday, March 6th, I went out to a cafe to start the challenge.

I went to my favorite local cafe, The Coffee Shop, and intended to draw with my Pilot Vanishing Point fountain pen and/or sketch with my watercolor Pocket Palette 20 people before I would go home. This took me longer than I thought it would - about 2 hours, but I'm pleased with the results.

Nos. 1 - 10 across a 2 page spread of my 7" x 7"  watercolor sketchbook — Nos. 1 - 10 across a 2 page spread of my 7" x 7" watercolor sketchbook

For no. 20, I decided to take more time to do a Sktchy-inspired portrait in gouache

Today, I plan to take a trip to my local library to get my 20 people done. What about you? Have you decided to take the plunge and join in? I'm hoping my quick capture skills will improve over the week. We are going to see the BNP Paribas Indian Wells tennis event on Thursday and Friday of this week - so, expect to see a lot of tennis spectators in my sketches soon!

5 Minute Continuous Line Drawings

My favorite app right now for improving my artwork and sharing it with a supportive community is Sktchy. The app allows people to post photos for inspiration for artists, who upload their artwork for all to see, with a swipe right to see the underlying inspiration image. An endless source of inspiration!

Sktchy has recently been starting some weekly challenges with a Monday Muse, a Tuesday QuickDraw, and a WIP Wednesday, to name a few - as well as their Weekend Art Extravaganzas. I have been particularly enjoying the Tuesday QuickDraws since they force me to loosen up and just go with whatever comes up in the allotted quick draw time frame (usually 5 minutes or so).

This week, Sktchy asked us to attempt some 5 minute continuous line drawings - which I LOVED! I took the time to add some watercolor afterward - but I did use a timer to limit myself to just 5 minutes for the continuous line drawing (no lifting allowed!). Here's what I came up with:

Have you tried quick draws? Or continuous line drawings? What are your thoughts on either?

Christmas Portraits

I've been busy creating portraits for Christmas presents - like I'm sure most artists do at this time of the year. I finally finished a portrait one for some friends who recently took a trip to Japan. They sent me this photo from their trip.

I did these two tonal studies to try to identifying the lights and darks in the photo - apart from all those beautiful fall colors.

I thought about getting a closer view of the family in this next tonal study

To decide between the two versions, I decided to do some watercolor thumbnails to factor in the colorful background.

After taking an informal poll of my kids and husband, and based on these thumbnails, I decided to paint the portrait with the family further away and more of the Japanese scenery/background showing. Here's the final version.

I forgot to scan this before giving them the portrait framed (ignore the flash reflection)

And I also painted this portrait of my friend's dog, Tori, who passed away at a few days ago.

And, after many tonal studies, I completed this portrait of my girls for my mother-in-law.

And, finally, a portrait of my brother's dog, Butters, who passed away at Thanksgiving.

Have you also been busy creating artwork for Christmas presents?

New Portable Watercolor Palette

Inspired by Stephanie Bower's brilliant homemade palette that she showcased in her Craftsy classes: Perspective for Sketchers & The Essentials for Sketching Architecture, I decided to make one of my own.

To make it, you need a piece of corrugated plastic (I got it from my art supply store, but Stephanie says you can get it from hardware stores as well); a prescription pill bottle, and a binder clip to hold your palette. Just cut two circles in a piece of corrugated plastic cut to size (mine is 8" x 7.75"). Add tape to protect your thumb against the cut edges of the plastic. Put down some scrap watercolor paper to test your colors, clip on your palette, add water to your pill bottle, and hold some paper towel or tissue in your hand underneath the palette and you're ready to go!

I can't wait to try this out in the field!

Do you have your own portable palette solution? I'd love to hear about it!

UPDATE: I added a couple of holes to the palette to hold some paint brushes.

The 50 Day Project Continues (#21 - 41)

I've been neglecting to post updates to my 50 day project of 50 figures in 50 days lately. Here are my entries from nos. 21 - 41. I'm almost done!

Quick trip to the coast

We love staying at Steep Ravine - a coastal area near Stinson Beach that is part of California's Mount Tamalpais State Park. Steep Ravine is so wonderful that you need to book either the campsites or the cabins six months prior to your stay and at exactly 8am PT on the first of the month.

We were lucky enough to reserve a cabin for Monday to Wednesday this week and pulled the kids out of school for the trip. Even though we left Tuesday night so the girls could go to school all day on Wednesday, I still got a lot of sketching in. Here are my finished sketches from the trip.

Chloe and Todd built this wooden shelter on the beach

The beach with sun rays peaking out from the clouds

Our view of the cabins in front of cabin #5

Jade reading in her bed in the main cabin room

A hermit crab with a beautiful iridescent shell

Learning from Cathy Johnson

After taking Cathy Johnson's Sketchbook Skool Seeing klass, I picked up a couple of Cathy Johnson's books from the library: Creating Nature in Watercolor an Artist's Guide and Watercolor Pencil Magic. I loved both of these books so much, I purchased Cathy Johnson's Artist's Sketchbook - Exercises and Techniques for Sketching on the Spot from Amazon.

I can't recommend these books more. Cathy is so inspirational and shows that there are an infinite subjects to sketch! Here are some of my recent sketches inspired by Cathy's teachings.

Trailing lantana from my yard and fountain grass from a Broadway Plaza

A recently purchased air plant in watercolor and ink

#11 - 20 of the 50 Day Project

I am really enjoying my latest project. Drawing people from a distance is surprisingly difficult. I'm finding that I need to be very purposeful with every mark as so few marks are used to convey a person from a distance. Here are my latest entries for my 50 day project of 50 figures in 50 days.

What do you think are the challenges of portraying figures as opposed to portraits or other subjects?

Practicing Painting Skies and Local Color Palettes with Views from my Balcony

I've been inspired by Mimi Robinson's excellent book, Local Color - Seeing Place Through Watercolor - and have been challenged with paining cloudy skies. Also, I wanted to partciipate in Liz Steel's #fivedaysketchchallenge to draw/paint the same subject for five days. Here are my attempts.

Have you tried drawing the same subject for five days in a row? At different times? Or made any local color palettes? Here, I made the palettes first for Monday and Tuesday, and then on Wednesday, I did the landscape first then, the palette; and finally, on Thursday and Friday, I painted the landscapes and the palettes simultaneously. Which do you prefer?

Seeing the Strandbeests in Person

Today, my husband and I celebrated our 19th anniversary by visiting the Exploratorium in San Francisco (with our 10 year old who still hasn't started school this year yet) to see Theo Jansen's Strandbeests ("beach machines" in Dutch). These amazing "living" machines are pieces of moving art that will be leaving San Francisco on September 5th!

Here is a sketch I did of one of the Strandbeests, Animaris Adulari (2012).

And another quick sketch I did in water soluble brush pen of during a walking demonstration of the Animaris Suspendisse.

Here is a short video of my daughter pushing a Strandbeest.

And finally, a quick sketch of our view at lunch outside of the Exploratorium.

If you can't come view these amazing creatures in person, check out this video:

If you've seen them, what were your thoughts?

Portraits 93 - 97 for the 100 Day Project

Here are my most recent portraits.

Portrait 95/100 (wrong no. on the artwork!)

Portrait 96/100 (wrong no. on the artwork!)

Sketching People in Motion

I've been enjoying Marc Taro Holmes's Craftsy class, Sketching People in Motion, but I don't often get a chance to practice his techniques. I do, however, love to play tennis and watch A LOT of professional tennis players on tv and in tournaments in person, when I get the chance.

Today, I was watching the Citi Open on Tennis Channel and decided to get out my scribbler (3 x 5" homemade sketchbook) and test out my new water soluble Lamy black ink (in my Lamy Joy fountain pen) and my newest watercolor brushes from Rosemary & Co. and Escoda. Here are my attempts.

Monfils serving with Zverev hitting a 2 handed backhand behind him

Davis & Pegula hitting serves in watercolor

Pegula hitting a forehand in watercolor; Davis lining up a forehand in watersoluble ink

I find that what is key to drawing people in motion is to develop my visual short term memory as the pose I want to capture lasts for only a split second and is repeated every 30 seconds or so per game. I will need to keep practicing - but, lucky for me, it's the U.S. summer hard court season with lots of tournaments culminating in the U.S. Open AND including the Olympics this year!

How do you practice sketching people in motion?