Spiral Sketching

I've been taking a Sketchbook Skool (yes, it's spelled that way) class and last week's instructor was Urban Sketcher, Miguel Herranz. One of his suggestions was to start a drawing in the center and then spiral out from that instead of doing a layout first. One advantage to this kind of sketching is that you can stop at almost any time and you have a fairly complete looking sketch. Somehow, I haven't found it very easy to stop, though.

I started the Jamison Square sketch yesterday and went back to finish it today. I had drawn the birch trees with white gel pen and they looked like ghost trees. Today, Deb informed me that they are infected with Birch Boar and are indeed dying. That's too bad. I've been drawing these trees over several years and it will be sad to see them go.

This next sketch was drawn from inside at the always welcoming Ovation Coffee Shop, bordering the Fields. A few of us sketched inside, waiting for the drizzle to end. Again, Deb helped me out by giving me an Urban Sketcher sticker to cover up the partially drawn dog that I didn't have time to finish before it walked away.

The toned paper seemed appropriate for the cloudy days we had today and yesterday, but here's a bit of color from a sunnier day last weekend.