Don't Mind the Arrow

Another One From the Ranch

 

One morning when Morgan was in town, I sat out on the porch at the ranch and drew. It was just me and the various wildlife. The only sounds were the chickens, hummingbirds, and various rustles from lizards or rodents through the plants. The dog was quiet and pretty disinterested in what I was doing, luckily, because it would be hard to draw with her licking my leg the whole time.

From Sketchbook

It was a surprisingly challenging scene to draw; there were a number of different perspectives going on. I don't think I was entirely successful with a couple of things, but it doesn't really matter. I often tell Morgan, "well, that drawing just veered off from reality," but he usually just shrugs, and he's right. If I wanted an exact copy, I'd take a photo (or do a much more studied drawing). The point of a sketch is to capture the essence of the scene, and I think this manages to do it.

Plants Galore

My husband and I spent the last week in California. We were too busy for me to have time to sketch while we were out and about, but I did manage a couple of drawings at his parents' ranch. I'm filing this drawing under "Urban Sketching" even though it's pretty far from urban.

The first one is with a finer pen and a little tighter than I've been trying to be recently. But I'm pretty pleased with it. Drawn with a brown Pitt pen in my sketchbook.

From Sketchbook

Plants aren't really my favorite things to draw - I just find them really challenging. I had to give it a shot though because Morgan's mom has plenty of plants! I was sitting out ther during the hottest part of the day, too, so that provided incentive to capture the scene as quickly as possible.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

I was going to do this in reverse order, starting with the bad and the ugly. You know, the same way that when you have some good news and some bad news, most people want to start with the bad news. Finish strong. Instead, I'm going to start with the good and maybe you'll have lost interest by the time I get to the bad and ugly.

The Good

Sunday night, Morgan and I headed out to the Adams County Fair. Free admission! (Although they neglected to mention the $5 fee for parking.) We went near sunset so we could try to get some good photos of the rides. After we'd walked around for a bit, we sat on some rocks near the pony ride and I sketched the rides area. It was just a quick 5 or 10 minute sketch, but I'm pretty happy with how it captured the salient points. I got some good digital photos of the fair, too, and hopefully some interesting ones on film as well.

The Bad and the Ugly

I decided to try another watercolor, using a picture on Paint My Photo (thanks for the heads-up about this site, I'm looking forward to using more references from there and submitting some photos, too!). I'm trying to learn to loosen up with watercolors. Because "loose" is not my usual style in any media, I expect it will take some real effort to make it happen, if it can happen at all.

I'm not happy with this at all. Well, actually, there are a couple of things I like about it, but many, many more that I don't. I just remind myself that it wouldn't be practice if I were already good at it. I like the lamp, some of the shadows, and the sky is all right. Everything else, well - the less I say about it, the better.

Dragon Boats

Last weekend was the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival here in Denver. Morgan and I have always meant to get out and see it, but hadn't gotten around to it until this year. It was a scorching day out there, but I guess that's better weather than they've had the last couple of years, when I understand it was raining.

We wandered around, answered trivia questions to get entered into a drawing for an iPad (didn't win), and just generally soaked up the atmosphere. I also took some photos and found a shady spot to sit and draw.

From Sketchbook

It was fun, and although the food vendors were very tempting, we managed to keep to our budget. We also managed to only come home slightly sunburned in spite of forgetting the sunscreen. The sun in Colorado is pretty strong, and I feel lucky we didn't end up burnt to a crisp!

I've been feeling sort of uninspired recently. Hopefully I can kick myself out of this rut soon.

One From the Sketchbook

Last Sunday, we found ourselves in a coffee shop yet again. This time it was to wait for a friend of my daughter's that she was meeting. The place was a combination coffee shop/used bookstore, which I thought was pretty cool. While we were waiting, I sketched a woman working at one of the other tables. She was so intent on whatever she was doing that I don't think she even noticed I was drawing her.

Drawn with a Pitt brush pen.

I Do All My Drawing in Coffee Shops

Not really, but sometimes it feels like it. Lately, we've been suffering through a weather pattern that includes violent thunderstorms every afternoon and evening, sometimes stretching far into the night. So there haven't been many opportunities to get out and draw. Enough complaining, though - we're supposedly going to get a break from the rain and temperatures up to 100 degrees in the next couple of days.

The last time it wasn't raining, Morgan and I went out to a cafe and soaked up some sun.

Generally, I like this, but I wish my uncertainty about how to tackle the overlapping chairs didn't show so much in my lines. I may go back and add some color later. 

I didn't get any work done on my Virtual Paintout drawing today, but I'm planning/hoping to finish it tomorrow. 

Germany, Jersey, and G+

The next page of my Germany sketch journal is here:

For a week of our time in Germany, Morgan and I were at a math conference in Irsee. Well, he was at a math conference. I hung out with the mathematicians at meals, snack times, and in the pubs. Anyhow, the conference was hosted at a converted cloister. In the evenings, dinner was in the cellar and that's where this suit of armor was. I drew it while Morgan mingled with the other mathematicians and then colored it while we were at the pub later that night.

Currently, I've been working on my drawing for this month's Virtual Paintout. The location this month is the island of Jersey. I just took a quick photograph of my drawing instead of scanning it, so the paper is less bright-white than it should be.

I'm hoping to finish it over the course of the next day or so. I'm working on it a little at a time, not rushing it.

Finally, I've joined Google+ and I'm excited about its possibilities for finding and sharing with different communities of people, including artists. If I add you to my circles, that's why - just a way to facilitate sharing things to an appropriate audience.

Marienplatz and Hofbraeuhaus

One morning, Morgan and I sat in Marienplatz having breakfast, and I started a sketch of the square. Trying to decide how and where to simplify, along with trying to eat breakfast, meant that I didn't get much done before we decided to leave and get on with our day. (We went to the Deutsches Museum that morning.) I intended to finish the sketch another day, and we did indeed eat at Marienplatz again, but it was rainy that morning and I didn't get out the sketchbook. Ah well, as it turns out I sort of like the unfinished look of it.

The same night, we headed to the famous Hofbräuhaus for beer. At first, we sat out in the courtyard area. Eventually though, it started raining, so we went into the beer hall and found a spot at a table with some other people (young German guys who, when we asked if we could share their table, looked us up and down for a long moment then sighed and said, "Ja ... okay."). It was a great scene inside there - a band playing, people singing and clanking their giant beer glasses together. I got out the sketchbook and made a quick drawing of it.

More of the Germany Sketchbook

Isartor is one of the four main gates into Munich from medieval times, and the only one that still has its main tower. It was apparently originally constructed in 1337 and restored in 1835. For the sketch, I didn't want to really focus entirely on the tower, but instead on it looming over ordinary buildings.

And this was the view out our hotel window in the Lehel part of Munich, very close to the city center. The city had so much amazing, complicated architecture that it was a task to capture the concept and yet simplify it in drawings.

Also, you should stop over at Vicki's blog if you'd like to see the postcard I drew and sent her from my trip!

I Have Returned

Morgan and I got back from Germany late Tuesday night. I've been sick pretty much ever since - sore throat, cough, congestion. It's kept me from doing much but laying around and staring at the computer or tv screen. 

Yesterday I managed to scan some of my sketch journal from Germany, though, so I figured I'd start posting it. 

This was the first drawing I did. In spite of the caption on it, it's actually a drawing from the Denver airport. There was no time to draw in the other airports on the way out (Minneapolis and Amsterdam). I think I must have finished coloring it on the Minneapolis-Amsterdam flight and mislabeled it then, but it's all sort of a blur.

After we missed our flight in Amsterdam, we had a couple of hours to hang out in Schiphol airport, but I was too tired at the time to draw. So the next drawing is from dinner in Munich that evening.

I stood on the corner across the street from our restaurant and sketched it a little. I only did a little of it because the area was very crowded and it wasn't that easy to stand and sketch without getting bumped by passersby. The logo was drawn off our beer glasses inside the restaurant.