Where Our Bathroom Used to Be

Posted on July 31, 2016 by Sarah Sullivan
Where Our Bathroom Used to Be

Where Our Bathroom Used to Be

We had some water damage while we were away for six months. A slow leak in an upstairs bathroom caused the ceiling in the downstairs bathroom to cave in. The soggy old wallboard and fixtures have now been removed, leaving the wooden frames and a light.

Since our return I have been reading and doing exercises from an awesome book about perspective, Drawing Perspective, How to See It and How to Apply It, by Matthew Brehm. Today I suddenly realized that the exposed frames, the tile floor and existing walls present a perfect opportunity to practice what I am learning.

I see that I did not get the perspective quite right in this sketch. I did not notice as I started to draw that the horizon line was not perpendicular to the vertical lines and then I had trouble with the cast shadows and light beams from the light bulb. But even so I like this sketch.

This is a pencil and Procreate sketch.

 

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A Model Poses for the Drawing Group

Posted on July 30, 2016 by Sarah Sullivan
A Model Poses for the Drawing Group

A Model Poses for the Drawing Group

This sketch is from a series I did yesterday at a drawing group. I had trouble drawing the model as he was missing many of the usual features that help define people. He was very pale, had a shaven head, small eyes, faint brows, and no lashes that I could see from the second row. I struggled to capture him in my sketches. Although I finally settled in on emphasizing his form by using a few colors and exaggerating them, I never did make a sketch that captured his looks or spirit.

This is a soluble pencil and watercolor sketch.

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Sketching the Sketchers

Posted on July 28, 2016 by Sarah Sullivan
Sketching the Sketchers

Sketching the Sketchers

This morning I sketched with a drawing group in San Diego. I have not yet built back my stamina and toward the end of the morning needed a break. Instead of sketching the last 20-minute pose by the model, I turned and sketched some of the artists, which was much easier. As you can see, the artists are quite focused on their work and I did manage to catch a bit of their intensity in this sketch.

This is a pen, pencil and watercolor sketch.

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Lookout at Torrey Pines State Reserve

Posted on July 27, 2016 by Sarah Sullivan
Lookout at Torrey Pines State Reserve

Lookout at Torrey Pines State Reserve

This morning I sketched at Torrey Pines Reserve in San Diego before it got too hot to be outside. I guess the lookout in the distance is about 300 feet above the beach. There are mounds of vegetation interspersed among the sand dunes and boulders. The light was bright even though the morning fog was keeping the sky from showing a strong blue and I left whites on the page to show this.

This is a pencil and watercolor sketch

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Figuring It Out

Posted on July 26, 2016 by Sarah Sullivan
Figuring It Out

Figuring It Out

We sat at the table, working side by side and enjoying the moment. I liked the way the light defined the shapes in his arms and shirt and worked to capture the light and shadows in this sketch. Even more, I liked the evaluative facial expression that he made as he read. It was almost as though he was signaling to the computer that he was puzzled a bit by claims it was making.  I tried to capture this expression as well.

This is a Procreate sketch.

 

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Sunday at Fletcher Cove Park

Posted on July 25, 2016 by Sarah Sullivan
Sunday at Fletcher Cove Park

Sunday at Fletcher Cove Park

It was wonderful to sketch today with the San Diego Urban Sketchers, especially after two weeks of staying home while repairs were being made to our house. We met at Fletcher Cove Park in Solana Beach with its lively sea and strong light, which I tried to convey by leaving an abundance of white space.

This is a pen and watercolor sketch.

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Resting

Posted on July 22, 2016 by Sarah Sullivan

Sketch of a woman resting by Sarah Sullivan

Resting


I took an overworked sketch from yesterday’s session with the North Park drawing group and used it as a reference for this sketch. Although my tendency is to completely fill a page with color, I now want to learn to use the white of the paper as a compositional element. So I let the white space of the paper define some of the woman’s features and used it as well to show how the light reflects on her face, arm and hair. 

This is a marker and watercolor sketch. 

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