Worldwide Sketch Day

I pondered what to draw to connect on common ground with each of you where ever you may live. We ALL need nourishment.  I opened up the refrigerator and started to draw.  How bountiful the land; look not far to help others...

Saturday January 21st at the Geology Museum and Women's March

Chris

Salvor

Gretchen

We had a good time sketching various rocks, bones and other visitors at the UW Geology Museum.  It was well attended but not crowded.   We went to the Women's March after along with 75,000 to 100,000 other people!   I heard a policeman laughing and telling someone they had only expected around 10,000 marchers.  My sketches below were done from my photos after the fact as I felt a bit overwhelmed to sketch on the spot.  I have been enrolled this month in Veronica Lawlor's "A Drawing a Day" online class at Sketchbook Skool and the past week focused on working with colored crayons.  One assignment was to make our own coloring book page with black ink lines so that is what I did for these sketches.  I enjoyed the class and it helped me get the new year off to a regular drawing start.

Downtown at the Women's March

I naively headed to the bus stop near my house to make  my way downtown on Saturday. The bus went by fully packed. Everyone was headed to the Capitol for Saturday's festivities. This was such an interesting event, one that was a challenge for me to sketch as it was so packed. I opted for quick sketches of some of the people around me on the right side and a view of the Capitol from a phone pic that you see on the left. Pink hats and signs were the patterns of the day!

Madison, Wisconsin 2017 Women's March

Sketching at the Chocolaterian Jan. 8th

Louise, Ruth, Pat, Gretchen & Mike - what concentration!

Linda, Ruth, Mary & Gretchen

Mike & Salvor look at the day's work

Some of today's sketches

My finished sketch

It was another cold day but warm and cozy at Chocolaterian with coffee and Parisian Hot Cocoa to keep us warm.  Ten sketchers came out and did some excellent work.  Next sketching date is January 21st in the morning at the UW Geology Museum.  Mike was glad to hear they have dinosaurs!!

"Plein Air" Sketching in Winter

Today was bright and sunny and a perfect day for sketching. Renowned Urban Sketcher Shari Blaukopf has a great blog featuring her wonderful watercolor sketches,  http://www.blaukopfwatercolours.com/  She said she often sketches from her car, especially in winter which in her home city of Montreal is even colder than Madison.  Here's one of her blog articles discussing how she paints watercolor sketches from the front seat of her car:  https://shariblaukopf.com/2016/09/24/the-car-studio/  The palette she is using is the Mijello Fusion Airtight Watercolor Palette which is available from Dick Blick for around $15.  (I use mine for gouache along with Masterson's Sta-Wet Painter's Pal sponge and paper combo which is easy to custom fit to this palette. It keeps gouache from drying out even on hot summer days.) And here's a link for helpful hints for winter sketching from Shari and some other Urban Sketcher correspondents:  http://www.urbansketchers.org/2016/12/cold-weather-urban-sketching-tips-from.html

Today I stopped off at Brittingham Boat House on the way home from downtown for a couple quick sketches.  The temp was in the 30's but the wind off the Monona Bay felt pretty chilly.  I managed to find a place out of the wind long enough to do 2 sketches and then retreated to my car to finish them with watercolor.  My new Paintbox works great for in car painting. It was handmade by Craig Young in the UK and I love it!  Solid brash with a dark green high gloss finish.  It is a pleasure to use.  There is a thumb ring on the back and it balances perfectly on my hand if I want to stand up and paint at an easel in the field.

Ice Fishing on Monona Bay

I'd love to see some more sketchers post some plein air work this month, too.   Sketching from the car definitely counts as plein air in our winter climate!  Hope to see you next Sunday at the Chocolaterian.  Happy New Year to USK Madison!!