Entrance to a Parking Lot
This is a pencil and pastel sketch on watercolor paper.
Anna Now and Then
Once when I was young enough to ask my grandmother blunt questions, I asked her what it was like to be so old. I’m glad I did not know any better than to ask that question because my grandmother’s answer has stayed with me all these years. She said that one of the best parts was knowing so many people and getting to find out how their stories unfolded across their lives.
This is certainly true as I can attest to anyone blunt enough to ask this same question. And I feel so lucky on this October 26 birthday of my daughter to see the deep, compassionate, astute, hard working, loving person that she has become. You will notice in the two sketches above, one from this summer and the other from the year she turned three, that she now fills up a chair when she sits in it. Similarly, her drive to make a difference and her ability to take action with this goal in mind now fills her life. She is truly an amazing person. I look forward to many more years of watching her story unfold. Happy Birthday Anna!
The sketch from 1983 is pencil and watercolor on watercolor paper; the 2016 sketch is pen and watercolor on multimedia paper.
An Artist at Torrey Pines State Park
There is something beautiful about the intensity of an artist as they paint.
This morning at Torrey Pines I looked over and saw an artist in the distance. She was engrossed in the place and in her painting. I noticed her posture, tilted head, placement of her feet, the way she held her palette and how these elements worked together to signal her focus and state of flow.
This is a pencil and watercolor sketch on watercolor paper.
Man Sitting at Old Town State Park, San Diego
Our figure drawing class met at Old Town State Park today in San Diego. We worked with charcoals and our goal was to show the roundness or three dimensionality of the model by varying the amount of charcoal we placed on the newsprint. There were two models but I drew this man the whole morning because I loved the way his hands were draped over his guitar and the angle that his arms made as they crossed his belly.
This is a charcoal sketch on newsprint.
View from Mount Soledad
The San Diego Urban Sketchers met this morning at Mount Soledad above the La Jolla coastline. It was overcast with some sprinkles and terrific weather for sketching in sunlight.
It is wonderful to sketch with a group and so helpful to see the work and techniques of the other artists. There is an Urban Sketchers guideline, “We draw on location, indoors or out, capturing what we see from direct observation.” But I had to break it by working further on this sketch this evening, because I wanted to make my colors stronger with clearer edges, similar to what Lydia Velarde, our San Diego group leader does. I think it helped convey distance and plan to work on colors again Tuesday when I go back to Torrey Pines.
This is a soluble pencil, watercolor pencil and watercolor sketch on watercolor paper.
Torrey Pines Vista
Our watercolor class returned to Torrey Pines State Reserve and I worked to capture the view through the coastal scrub out towards the ocean.
This is a soluble pencil, watercolor pencil and watercolor sketch on multimedia paper.
Thinking at a Workshop
I attended an amazing conference over the past week and had very little time to sketch. In fact, this is the only sketch I did the whole time. I had taken my eyes off the speaker and become diverted by noticing the uniform body language of the other participants. It looked like the body language of learning when a whole class is in sync. It was exciting to see and I had to do my best to capture it.
Teachers work hard preparing and delivering their lessons for just this kind of moment, the moment of impact. The presenter shows he knows he has the learners in his hands and does everything he can to not distract their attention from the idea. He stands quietly and smiles gently to encourage the learners to think. His arms are up in an open arc as though he is handing off something important, thereby priming the participants to consider the big idea.
The stillness of the learners sends back the message to the teacher and to each other that they understand that they have received a significant idea worthy of deep consideration. They look inward or at the speaker and some hands are touching heads in a classic sign of thinking. Their somewhat flat facial expressions strengthen the message that they are thinking by indicating that no one wants to speak or compete with the idea. The idea has captivated all.
This was a line sketch in my notebook and some of the page also had my notes on it. I took a picture of it and used Procreate to erase my notes and to add some color. I also used Snapseed to enhance the paper’s texture.
Deliberate Sketching 