Sketch Bag

Brenda Swenson has been one of my favorite watercolor instructors, ever since I found her through Sketchbook Skool’s online Seeing class. She also teaches on the west coast, in North Carolina (at Cheap Joe’s),  and in Europe.

In the video above, Brenda introduces her sketching supplies, which include a canvas rigger bag from Harbor Freight Tools. I bought a bag like hers, when I started a Strathmore Mixed Media sketchbook that didn’t fit into my purse. It turned out to be so convenient for rotating different sketching materials through, and finding them on the spur of the moment, that I’ve stuck with it since. I’m on my third one, and have even given one (packed with basic sketching gear) as a gift. They are sturdy, but the heavy canvas becomes difficult to clean after a few years.
(I see Amazon also offers them, but charges almost twice as much as our local Harbor Freight.)

Further reading: Brenda’s blog
Video: Finding my creative voice

Avocado egg rolls

I tried an experiment--painting quick and loose, adding ink after the watercolor—then shading with a little colored pencil. Sketched from memory, unlike most of my illustrated journal entries.

Bridge Park, April 2018

City planners either (1) have not read the work of Christopher Alexander, or (2) have read it and disregarded it.
I was eager to sketch the stages of this development early on. As it took form, my interest waned. Could not the investment have purchased a bit of beauty?

Wish List: Roger Scruton’s The Aesthetics of Architecture.
Update: How to Build A Skyline at Human Scale, by Roger Scruton.

Amigos

On this day, the sunny hues, friendly staff, and comfort food of Amigos provided a welcome refuge from the snow flurries of winter's long goodby.
(Colored pencil, and watercolor pencil, over ink and wash.)

Sign of the times

Toys’R’us, April 2018

Four years ago today, I tried watercolor for the first time since high school. I sketched the ToysRus across the road from a local Starbucks.

This week, I sat in the same space (now a Bibibop) and tried again, adding a little colored pencil to the ink and wash, later. The Starbucks has since moved next door, to a building with a drive-thru window; the ToysRus is going out of business.

I found the building lists to the left, on the page, like a ship going down, when I tried to level it in the photograph.

Toys’R’us, April 2014

Children of my parents’ generation read books and played with tools, fabric, and wooden toys; many children of mine settled for television and plastic imitations (“disposable” but not biodegradable). The next has gone virtual, ordering and streaming bits and bytes.

Footnote: I still remember my dismay when the car in the center of the lower drawing left, half way through my sketch of it.

Good Friday (facing West)

...a Saint at twilight, when the lights are low....*

This elderly gentleman was seated across the room, engaged in conversation with friends. An aureole of thinning, curly white hair surrounded his head like a halo, silhouetted against the lowering sun, coming in through the blinds. I only had time for the quick contour drawing.

*Allusion to Love’s Old Sweet Song

Holy Wednesday (facing East)

Breaking bread with a friend