Shop/Crit

Faculty meetings these days are rough ... like most folks in higher ed, we're being forced to deal with major budget issues that will have serious consequences. There are no billion-dollar bailouts and "golden parachutes" for public universities, that's for sure. Anyway, this is where we usually meet - called the "Shop/Crit" space, which derives from the fact that the room next door houses our wood/technical shop where students fabricate architectural models, and that we use this space for design critiques, or "crits." The projection screen on the left had some unhappy stuff on it ... the big tree outside seemed more optimistic, with spring just around the corner.

Renfrew Hall

Nice sunny day today, so I got out the old U of Idaho campus sketchbook and headed outside at lunchtime. The last time I drew in this book, devoted exclusively to scenes on this campus, was in August 2007. So it was long overdue. Had a little trouble finding a suitable place to sit, as there's still plenty of old, dirty snow around, and had to settle for a spot in the shade. That's why this was only a 20-minute sketch - my hands were freezing by the end. This is the building where I lecture every Tuesday in the spring as part of the Architectural Graphics course I teach ... so I spoke to about 140 students here in the morning, and drew the outside in the early afternoon.

Público Newspaper

Gabi Campanario of Urban Sketchers just posted an image of the Público newspaper in Portugal with an article about the Urban Sketchers blog and network, dated January 9. Lo and behold, the image in the right column, second from the top, is one I had posted on flickr. I had also blogged about this sketch here a few weeks ago. It just happened to be an old sketch I felt like putting online ... and a couple days after that it was in print in Portugal. Crazy!

3rd-Year Design Studio

I had given my 3rd-year architectural design students a 'charette' project to work on in studio yesterday. This gave me an opportunity to do a quick sketch of the studio space. I've thought about adding some color, if only to try out the "water brush" thing I bought a couple days ago ... but I'm not sure what the color would add in this case. Only one way to find out, I suppose.

From a Few Years Ago ...

Digging back a little further, here's another one from a couple years ago ... actually two years and eleven months to the day from last week's visit to the Garden, my local watering hole. I was using a different pen back then - must have been a felt-tip, with a thicker line and a propensity to dry out. These days, I've been happy with the Copic Multiliners, at least for use in a moleskine - they have a nice crisp line, they don't smear, and they don't seem to dry out. I suppose this could be considered another in the "Waiting ..." series. I seem to recall I was waiting for my wife to meet me after handing the kids off to the babysitter.

From a Couple Years Ago ...

I was doing a few tests with various media in the back of the moleskine this morning, and stumbled across this sketch from a field trip to Seattle in 2006. I distinctly recall being unsatisfied with this sketch at the time, but now I'm feeling more forgiving. Adding some color would have been a good idea ... the light/color in this space is subtle and peaceful, while the black ink here is a bit harsh in comparison. It's good to reacquaint myself with past sketches on occasion, and this was a pleasant surprise.

Waiting on a Friend

A quick sketch while waiting for my friend/colleague to show up for beers at the end of the work week. I enjoyed the Escher-esque quality of the sketch within a sketch within a sketch. The Garden Lounge is our standard venue, Mac & Jack's African Amber Ale my drink of choice. I've sketched the interior once or twice before, perhaps I'll find those drawings and post them at some point. This sketch is also an homage to a couple influential bloggers and their recent themes: Gabi Campanario at Urban Sketchers and Seattle Sketcher, who has blogged a couple times regarding the varieties of coffee he's been drinking, and Stephen Gardner, whose Sketch of the Day blog has some truly stunning drawings of classic bars in NYC such as one of my favorites - McSorley's (also here and here).

Meeting Sketch

Haven't done any sketching in a while ... the new semester's got me busy. But I gave the sketching-my-colleagues-in-a-faculty-meeting thing another go. Not sure whether this is an improvement over my previous effort, or if I just took a step back. Part of me thinks I should just stick to buildings and such ... my comfort-zone. But the bigger part of me knows not to listen to that kind of nonsense, and keep plugging away.

Meeting Sketch

I'm just not very skilled at drawing people. But I recognize that drawing anything is a matter of practice rather than 'talent,' so I did a little people-drawing practice yesterday. It was our first faculty meeting of the new semester ... hopefully these three colleagues will either a) not see these sketches, or b) forgive me for my clumsy attempts at capturing their likenesses.

Practice, practice, practice.

SketchCrawl, a day late ...

So I made it out of the house today ... had to spend a few hours at the office getting ready for classes to start this week. I'm still not "ready" but it felt good to get back in the swing of things. On my way I stopped for a quick lunch at the local natural food store and did a make-up sketch, since my output yesterday was almost non-existent. Not sure whether this is kosher with the SketchCrawl overlords ... heh heh ... kidding, of course. I must say, it's been a revelation to encounter so many generous, supportive people online who are so seriously into sketching. I only wish I'd gone looking for this community sooner.