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.

DCA Conference

Had a great few days in Marietta, GA, at the end of last week - attending the Design Communication Association Conference at Southern Poly. This is far and away my favorite academic conference ... topics that are very interesting to me and discussion that is both challenging and supportive. I did this sketch during a lecture by Lars Spuybroek. It was fun to draw while listening and occasionally looking at the images.






Also at the conference is a juried drawing exhibit, and I received the Shari Park-Gates Juror's Award for the print seen here. It's a collection of the sketches I made last summer in Italy, arranged along a timeline. There were 90+ entries submitted to the exhibition, of which 45 were selected for display and 5 received awards - so I was thrilled by the honor.

St. Patrick's Day, Vernal Equinox

It's the first day of Spring ... the temperature is supposed to be rising into the low 60s later today, though there are still significant traces of snow here and there. This sketch is from a few days ago, when I had lunch at The Breakfast Club - I know that doesn't sound quite right, but it's a good restaurant, especially for breakfast, and they do a good lunch, too. So good, in fact, that my wife and I often remark how we wish it was open for dinner ... but it's not. Since it was St. Patrick's Day, they were serving corned beef for lunch, but I went for a Reuben instead - not terribly Irish, but it just sounded good to me that day. The view from my window seat was across the street to the Prichard Gallery, which is run by the College of Art and Architecture here at the University of Idaho, and where I've shown my work each year since 2004 in the annual faculty show. The green ink seemed appropriate for the holiday and the coming of spring.

Boise Visit

I was in Boise, ID, at the end of last week, leading a field trip for our third-year architectural design studio. Boise is a nice little town that obviously thinks of itself as a reasonably large city. Nothing wrong with that, of course (Eugene, OR, is another example of this phenomenon, and I lived there for 11 years). Most of the downtown feels to me like a transitional neighborhood in a city like Chicago, or - worse - like a slightly over grown suburb. Yet there are some views of Boise that give the appropriate impression of a grand state capitol. I tried for that in this sketch (15 minutes, 2B pencil), from a high vantage point on the bridge along South Capitol Boulevard. I had higher hopes to do several sketches, as the weather was beautiful, but I got caught up in the art museum - they had a temporary exhibit of Ansel Adams' early work, which was fascinating.

Lecture Sketch

Another catch-up blog post, from a couple weeks ago. Lectures about architecture can be hit or miss affairs, and this one managed to be both. The design work shown was generally very interesting, some of the ideas discussed were thought-provoking, and the speaker is a well-regarded writer, but his public speaking skills were decidedly lacking. Perhaps some folks in the first few rows were entranced by the conversational nature of the talk. But, as one sees from the sketch, it was a fairly large lecture hall, which I think suggests a more dynamic and engaging approach. It never ceases to amaze me just how many people in academia - often those with long and distinguished careers - regularly fail to employ even the most basic techniques for reaching an audience. Oh well ... it was fun to sketch.