Sketching the Holidays

In a few weeks we'll be thinking about 2016 and what we want to change or how we want to improve our sketching practice in the next year. But right now, it can feel like the worst time of the year for sketching.

Here are a few tips to help you reconsider your reasons for not sketching this Holiday season.

"I'm going to be traveling a lot…"

Perfect! 

Sketch of girl waiting at Midway Airport

Airports are famously good places for the Urban Sketcher to capture scenes. Whether you sketch other passengers waiting to board, people running past your boarding area to their own flights, your in-flight snack, or something else you spy, air plane travel is a great time to sketch.

collage of faces from a looong car ride

If you're traveling by bus or riding in the car, you're also in luck. This can be a great time to practice quickly capturing people. One year on our long drive home I filled a notebook page with faces of the drivers and passengers of the cars around us. Or if people aren't your cup of tea, why not make thumbnails of the landscapes whizzing past? (Please don't try to draw while driving. I know it is tempting, but it's not worth it!)

"I'll just be sitting around with family or something…"

Lovely!

If you'll be seated around a table for hours, why not use paper place mats? Less washing for the household, and great opportunities to sketch those around you. As an added bonus, other folks around the table might want to make their own renderings of the company!

When we celebrate holidays with my husband's family things go back and forth between wild, when all twenty-something folks are in a single room, and quiet in the evenings or mornings while folks are sitting around talking. If you're at similar events, take advantage of those times: try gesture drawings of the full moments and more thoughtful sketches when things quiet down.

Sketch of Grandpop in between stories

"I don't feel comfortable just drawing people I'm in the room with…"

I was just studying shoes, but the dog stole the show!

Well, part of being an Urban Sketcher is overcoming your fear of sketching in public. But, if you need some extra help this year, why not try having a theme? Maybe make this a time to practice drawing the folds in clothing, or maybe more specifically the way pants fold near the shoe. If you have a hard time with hair, sketch everyone's hair. You won't have to worry about trying faces or hands (unless that's what you want to focus on!) but you'll be helping yourself feel more comfortable with drawing people in the future.



Ok, so you really, really can't draw anything on anyone this year? Urban Sketching isn't just about people, so why not try another approach. Instead of sketching the people in the room, why not sketch the room. Just remember, when we sketch, we're telling a story about the place. So, leave in the crumpled wrapping paper or even the dirty dishes on the table.

Do you have a plan for sketching the Holidays? If so, I'd love to hear it & either way, I'm looking forward to seeing glimpses of what your Holidays look like over in our Facebook group, or on Instagram.

Mixing Peachy Flesh Tones

Portrait by Charles Reid

Last year shortly before the first Sketch Seminar, I first came across the beautiful watercolor portraits by Charles Reid. If you haven't seen his portraits before do yourself a favor and go remedy that at once!

Photos provided by "Watercolour Fanatic"

Until that point I'd been using a water soluble crayon in something like a peach tone for my sketches. There is is just something about the way Reid's colors melt into one another that made me feel like I had to try his method.

After a little digging in search engine results I came upon a video clip where he shares his color recipe. You can watch it here.

washes of this recipe in various intensities

Reid's basic recipe:
2 parts cadimum red
1 part cadimum yellow
dot cerulean blue (worked out)

Now I haven't been working with watercolors very long so there are some colors that just baffle me! Yes, that is to say that I don't own cerulean blue. Instead I subbed my cheap phthalo blue. I think it worked well – when I remembered to work out the pigment before adding it to the mix!

Photo taken from Gurney's Blog Post

I really enjoy using this mix of colors in combination with this guide for color points I found on James Gurney's blog. (Another artist worth investigating!) Of course there is a way to use this guide that looks suspiciously like a clown, but with moderation and enough water things tend to level out. Below is a study I did with Reid's color mix and Gurney's hints.

Even though I still over work my paint relatively often I greatly prefer this method for peachy tones to my crayon. Why? Well, with a dash of yellow ochre or raw sienna can really shake up the tone. Mixing these tones instead of using a pre-made color brick is also great because it gives a gradient between colors that really shows off the benefits of watercolors.

What about you, do you prefer premixed colors or mixing your own? Why? Do you have a favorite peachy recipe? How about other skin tones?

One Requirement for a Successful Art Workshop Experience

Tuesday Tips and Tricks:

Sketchbook Skool Klass with Jonathan Twingley.

It’s that time of year when art workshops and seminars abound. We’re less than a month away from the USk-Chicago Sketch Seminar 2015! There are some great things planned and we’re putting the finishing touches on the details to help you to get the most out of your workshop experience. 

How about you? Are you getting ready for a workshop? Whether it’s an online class, a local workshop, one that involves travel or even if you’re working you way through a self-study book there are certain things that will help you get the most out the experience. Over the years I’ve given workshops and taken many classes both on-site and online.  I’ve found my mindset is the most important factor in what I take away from the class.

• SET A GOAL – Why am I taking this class? What do I hope to learn?

• KEEP AN OPEN MIND – Pay attention and follow directions. It’s easy to fall into the attitudes of “that isn’t the way I do it” or “that isn’t the way so-and-so does it” but leave those notions behind at least for the duration of the workshop.

• THINK PROCESS NOT PRODUCT  (I know, I say that all the time) –  It takes practice to learn new techniques and methods.

• ASK QUESTIONS – Your instructor wants you get the most out of your time in the class.

Last week, Wes gave us excellent advice about what to bring and what to wear. Remember, whether your a novice or a working pro, there is another thing you need for a successful workshop experience, that’s a positive and open workshop-state-of-mind.

The opening sketch of this post is an assignment from a Sketchbook Skool Klass with Jonathan Twingley. The goal was to draw not think.  At the end of a week we cut up the sketches made a mixed media collage to surprising results! 

What's your "must have" for a successful workshop experience?

Links
Richard E. Scott
David Becker 
Veronica Lawlor
Sketchbook Skool

Off the Grid – Designing a Page

Tuesday Tips and Tricks

Many Urban Sketchers use sketchbooks as a journal of their daily lives and travels. We add titles, text, and occasionally ephemera to some of our pages. It’s a natural to want the composition of those pages to enhance our sketches rather than distract from them. One way I design a page is by using the grid method.

A grid is a plan made up of a series of intersecting straight (vertical, horizontal, and angular) lines, similar to graph paper. It provides the skeleton of a page. It supports the elements on the page and makes them work in relation to each other.

Years of working in print production designing layouts for magazines, promo pieces, etc. has given me a lot of practice designing to the grid. It's second nature to me and a sketchy version of aligning on a grid is my go-to method for designing pages in my sketchbook. In graphic design the grid comes first. In my sketchbooks it can show up at anytime. It can be the before or after guide for a loose alignment of page elements. I want to emphasize it’s a loose alignment. The casual use of the grid is in keeping with the spirit and look of sketching.

Where, How, When?

Applying a grid before the sketch 

When I’m  traveling I sometimes choose a theme for a few spreads. On this trip to San Francisco one theme I was exploring was the trees. I drew the four frames freehand before I did any sketching and added the sketches over a few days. To keep the layout from being too static I left a section open for a possible surprise. Note the top and bottoms of the frames align, the bottom of the surprise pine cone and the baseline of the lower text align. The title on the left balances the lower right text.

Applying a grid after the sketch 

These sketches were quick observations at the ice rink in Millennium Park in Chicago. The frames were hand drawn to unify the spread after the sketches were done . The frames are lined up on either the vertical, the top, or centered on another frame. The skater on the left escapes the frame for a little surprise and aligns with the frame around the coffee drinker on the right. 

When the muse strikes

If you use a ruler on the examples above you’ll find the alignments aren't labored over but are guesstimates. When I’m sketching it’s about the fun and joy of sketching and I go with the flow. I don’t always stick to the pre-drawn plan as you can see in the sketch below. Take note where the text is placed. Can you tell why I placed it where I did?

When disaster strikes

This is a series of doodles done at Starbucks in our local Target. One disappointing scribble after another provides the perfect challenge for the my grid theory.

Creating a loose alignment on the (or near) grid lines can strengthen your sketches and the composition of the page. The sketch below is a demo I did for the Urban Sketching for Beginners workshop at last summer's USk-Chicago's sketch seminar. Look at the line up of the added frames and the added text. They add organization to the page. If you want to give the post-sketching grid a try without committing use a piece to tracing paper to work out your plan.

One More Tip

I almost forgot the most important thing – no matter what the Tuesday tip or trick, be brave and have fun!