Frisbee Golf at Kit Carson Park in Escondido

Frisbee Golf at Kit Carson Park in Escondido

Frisbee Golf at Kit Carson Park in Escondido

I went to the San Diego Watercolor Society Paint Out in Escondido this morning for a demonstration by an inspiring landscape artist, Shuang Li . Afterwards we painted in her style along the duck pond and I was near two artists who really captured the feeling of the spring morning. Unfortunately, the feeling of my painting did not match theirs, probably because I need practice with these techniques.

In the last minutes of the morning I rotated 180 degrees from my muddy landscape and began to sketch some of the nearby frisbee golfers. I like this sketch better because the shapes are simple, the colors are strong and the people are in motion.

This is a pastel and gouache sketch in a black Moleskine album.

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Final Day of the ‘One Week 100 People’ Challenge

I set off for the zoo today to draw people, not animals, and while there got to my 100th person for the One Week 100 People  challenge, hooray! Most of the sketches of people at the zoo are actually composite people, drawn from the head of one person, the shoulders of a second and so on, because my subjects kept moving. In the evening when I drew two more sketches of dinner guests, none of which are composite people, I appreciated how much easier it is to draw stationary individuals.

The biggest challenge of drawing 100 people in 5 days was finding the time to do it, which I did by not being too fussy. Most of my 100 people are done in ink because its permanency saves me from the kind of perfectionism that pencil and erasure brings out in me. I did add some minimal context to most of the sketches, even though it takes longer, because the context helps tell the story of what I was seeing.

My biggest learning was realizing that I can see and draw shapes now in addition to drawing lines. For instance, instead of drawing a line showing a profile, I draw a head shape that includes the profile, instead of the edge of someone’s shoulder, I draw a shirt shape and so on. This is a big step forward for me and is helpful for capturing movement, gestures and posture.

There is so much inspiring art from the other participants. If you do a search using the hash tag #OneWeek100People2017 you can see some awesome work in a wide variety of media, including  paint, markers, and charcoal. Seeing these examples makes me think that learning to draw with paint and brush will be a good stretch goal for me.

 

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Day 4 of ‘One Week 100 People’

 

I began the day sitting in the waiting room of a car dealership while my car got its 80,000 mile maintenance. While not as delightful an experience as yesterday’s live sketching at the opera, it was a great way to start in on my sketches for the ‘OneWeek 100 People‘ challenge. Five sketches and eleven people made for a good start to the day.

It was my car’s day for pampering and I next took it to the car wash for a proper cleaning. As I waited I drew three sketches and seven more people.

My husband falling asleep at his computer was my final sketch of the day. This sketch gets me to 81 people for the first four days of this week. Tomorrow I head to the zoo where I will work on capturing 19 more people.

These sketches are made using pen, watercolor and gouache.

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Day 3 of ‘One Week 100 People’

The San Diego Opera welcomed artists this evening to its working rehearsal for ‘The Tragedy of Carmen‘, which opens this Friday. It was wonderful to live sketch while listening to the music and was a delightful way to get my daily sketches for the ‘OneWeek 100 People‘ challenge.

Here are 6 sketches from this evening, not in chronological order. I began with a quick sketch of my fellow sketchers before the rehearsal got underway. The second sketch was started before the performers came on stage and shows a few of the working opera staff in the audience as well. The last four sketches are of the performers only.

These are pastel, pen, watercolor and gouache sketches.

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Day Two of One Week 100 People

Today is the second day of the #ONE WEEK 100 PEOPLE 2017 challenge. I began the day with my landscape class in Old Town and sketched two pairs of people while working on preliminary sketches for a painting.

The whole day got away from me and before I knew it, it was dark and I still needed some 15 more people if I wanted to keep up with the challenge. So I walked up to the college and drew people in the dining areas and bowling alley. All of this got me to 42 sketches of people so far.

 

 

 

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OneWeek 100 People 2017!

Today begins the#ONE WEEK 100 PEOPLE 2017I am participating for the first time. The goal is to draw 100 people between Monday and Friday and I am off to a good start with 21. I got two people at my figure painting class this morning and another 11 on the way home when I stopped for a taco.

I have been receiving beautiful pictures of my newest relative and drew some of these for my remaining 7 sketches.

These sketches are done with different media, including watercolor, pen, conte crayon, and pastel.

 

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Sketching Urban Sketchers at the Farm Stand

Sketching the Urban Sketchers at the Farm Stand

Sketching the Urban Sketchers at the Farm Stand

This morning I sketched with the Urban Sketchers at the West Farm Stand in Escondido. I liked the diagonal that the row of sketchers formed against the horizon of the field. The semi rural setting was full of new spring color and I used simple flat washes to suggest that spring has begun.

This is a pen and watercolor sketch.

 

 

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