November 2020

 It has certainly been an historic month already.  And stressful!  All the more reason to get outside while the weather is warm and do some sketching.  I did this one in Belleville Community Park on the 1st on my way home from buying the last locally grown Honeycrisp apples I could find.

Here's the link for this month's Drawing Attention the monthly online magazine from Urban Sketchers. Lots of inspiration in here:  http://www.urbansketchers.org/2020/11/drawing-attention-november-2020.html

With the current new stay at home advisory from the governor we won't be scheduling any events.  But sketching from your car is pretty darn safe (assuming you aren't actually driving at the time!) so think about using your car as a mini studio when the weather gets colder. 

Sketching is a great stress reducer, too!  Stay safe and keep sketching!  Pat

 

Ink and watercolor in Stillman & Birn 7x7 soft cover Alpha Series

UW Arboretum - October 11th

 For our last scheduled sketching date for 2020 we had a beautiful day at the arboretum.  Gorgeous colors.  Lots of people but still plenty of room to spread out.  

 In the coming months I will schedule meet ups weather permitting since it won't be safe indoors at least for this winter. But I encourage everyone to keep drawing, painting, and urban sketching when you can.  Remember your car makes a nice warm studio when it's too chilly to sit outside.  Maybe we could have an in car sketching event.  Not a bad idea.  

Please sign up to Follow by Email so you never miss a post.  If I do schedule a date I will make a post beforehand so if you Follow by Email you will be notified.  And feel free to post any sort of urban sketch or anything urban sketching related on our blog or Face Book.  You can send photos to me and I can post them or I can explain how to do it. It really is pretty easy on Google Blogger and even easier on our Facebook page.  Take care and stay safe!  

Tsela, Ruth, Deborah, Virgil & Cyndy in front of McKay center UW Arboretum

My sketch of birch trees & asters

My Inktober sketches: Arboretum porta potty (yuck!) and muddy path

Some of the day's sketches

Co-op, WORT & Salmo Pond

 I had to park illegally to sketch the radio station so it was a quick one.  Salmo Pond is a couple miles west of Cross Plains.  A great county park with lots of area for sketching.  I'd seen the groundhog last week.  He looked pretty fat which I would guess they need to be prior to winter when there will be less to eat.  

October 1 & 2

 The first 2 sketches for Inktober and the tools.  The sketchbook is a Hannemuhle Nostalgie Sketchbook 11 & 1/2 x 8 inches.  It comes in 3 sizes in both portrait and landscape formats.  It is smooth like hot press watercolor paper and is especially great for drawing with ink. I used a Uniball Vision fine with black ink in the first sketch and the Sailor Fude De Mannen - Stroke Style Calligraphy Fountain Pen - Bamboo Green - Nib Angle 55 Degrees with Noodlers Lexington Grey ink for the other and the text for both.  Both are inexpensive and great pens for sketching.  I like the way I can get a varied line with the Sailor pen and Lexington Grey is my favorite ink for sketching.  It is a warm grey, more subtle than black and has nice shading.  Shading happens when the ink pools in different spots making the line darker in some places than others.  I think that can add interest.  Shading is more apparent with larger pen nibs especially with calligraphy type nibs.  Only 29 more sketches to go for Inktober!

Inktober 2020 - Sketching Challenge

 This is a fun way to work on sketching skills and a extra challenge if you can use the prompt in an urban sketch.  I prefer sketching in ink because there is less of a temptation to mess around trying to fix it and be a perfectionist which I have a tendency to be.  Perfectionism is not helpful for sketching an urban scene with people moving around.  I encourage you to check out the link and do whatever you have time for.  I am committing to a sketch a day and marrying the prompt with an urban sketch.  There, now I've said it I have to do it!!  Pat    https://inktober.com/rules