Small Town ...

Another Friday night sketch of the Garden Lounge. I fear I've become predictable, and that I've drawn this space too many times. But it's a very small town that I live in, with precious few options for the required Friday evening beverage. So I'll continue to sketch this place, at least until I leave for Rome (in about a month), and a whole new set of sketching opportunities will be mine.

22nd Worldwide SketchCrawl

The 22nd Worldwide SketchCrawl was today ... unfortunately we had bad weather this morning - rainy and cold. I don't mind sketching indoors, but since it's spring, and since we'd had nice weather all week, I was itching to do some outdoor sketching. So I managed to do one exterior of the building that houses The Garden (which I've sketched indoors several times already), and another drawing of the interior of Sister's Brew, a relatively new and very good coffeeshop on Main Street. A few of my students made it out to draw as well, and their sketches can be seen on the SketchCrawl website.

Italy Sketches from 2008

I uploaded some more sketches from last summer to my Flickr page this morning. I'm getting more excited about heading back to Rome for another summer of teaching and drawing. I'm considering a sketch project of some sort ... probably a Moleskine watercolor book filled with daily sketches using a variety of media and recording a variety of subject types - plans, sections, diagrams, representational sketches, notes, etc.

This drawing was from Atrani, on the Amalfi Coast. Just made hotel reservations for the group yesterday ... we'll be there the weekend of June 12 ... can't wait.

Figure Drawing

I finally made it to the Saturday figure drawing session that's been happening all semester ... part of me was reluctant to go, because it's been about six years since I've drawn the figure, and I remembered very well how difficult it is to do. But it was a good, mellow group of folks, and after I got some jitters out it was a lot of fun and a great challenge. This was the last drawing I did, after several shorter poses, and this was the very first time I ever attempted a figure drawing in watercolor.

Another Friday Night

A different view of The Garden this time. I was there to meet the dean of our college for a beer, and felt like sitting within view of the entrance for a change. The weather is finally feeling like spring ... hopefully it stays this way through next weekend for the 22nd Worldwide SketchCrawl.

Like Water Off a Duck's Back

I did a little experiment yesterday during the studio portion of my Architectural Graphics course. It was a quick sketch (probably too quick), and I tried my new water brush in the pocket Moleskine. I wasn't happy with the results, but it's not the fault of the water brush. That Moleskine paper just ain't made for watercolor - the water beads up unless you sorta scrub the paper with the brush. The result is a splotchy quality that I don't care for in my own drawings. I know of several people who regularly make watercolor work in these books with wonderful results ... but every time I've tried it, it feels like I'm fighting the paper too much. In using watercolor, I've always felt that the brush simply moves the water, and the water distributes the pigment - I expect the wash to lay down smooth and clean with minimal effort.

So ... I've ordered a couple new Moleskine watercolor books and can't wait to give them a try.