Virtual sketcrawl #6 - your favorite green space.

At first, I'd read this as 'your favorite park'.  And I spent some time in trying to figure out which park was my favorite.  Well, no, there's no debate at all, it's Forest Park.  But I'm not heading up the narrow trails anymore, and don't feel safe lingering in one spot, even on Leif Erickson.  Then I re-read the post, and realized that it said 'your favorite green space'.  And my favorite is, hands down, my own yard, where I often hang out with a cat or a dog.  And lately, my favorite activity has been the daily berry hunt. 

So I sat down in my backyard and sketched some of my cane raspberries (almost done), strawberries (only the ever-bearing ones are left, coming ripe in ones and twos) and blueberries (about a week into the season)

There are others that I didn't get to.  Thimbleberries are tiny and hardly worth picking, but they're pretty.  My creeping raspberries were planted as a ground cover.  But I found that I liked the fruit.  My huckleberries are likewise small and hardly worth picking.  Moreover, I don't think they're ready yet.  The salal is full of seeds and not very sweet, so I usually leave it for the birds.  And, finally, my oregon grape got wiped out by the oak tree.  It's coming back up from the roots though, so I'll have it again.  I found one stalk that somehow survived the desolation, and produced a half a dozen berries.

Challenge #6- your favorite park or green space

Couch Park is near my apartment.  It is a park that I have walked by and through while doing errands etc. (more so in pre Covid times)

I like the new play area just recently completed and the rolling grassy hills with many big trees. People hang out there...resting, watching their kids, picnicking and walking or playing with their dogs.

Virtual Sketchcrawl #6- July 18, 2020

Virtual Sketchcrawl #6- Sketching in your favorite green space - Saturday, July 18, 2020

For the time being we are back to our regular sketchcrawls of once a month.

Please join us for our sixth virtual sketchcrawl on Saturday,July 18th!

Since we are still limited to sketching in safe places and with the weather being more conducive to outdoor sketching, why not do some sketching in your favorite green space. It could be a park, or parking strip, or your own yard. You choose whatever space feels comfortable to you.

This could work nicely with Rita's 10x10 workshop on July 11th- drawing trees. Details at http://www.portlandsketcher.com/p/workshops.html

this is a sketch I did at Laurelhurst Park, but since it is not in my neighborhood, I will probably choose someplace closer to home for sketching this time- deb

As always, this challenge is optional, and you can be as strict to the subject or as loose as you like. Your participation is welcome whether you choose this challenge or not-- just make sure to work from life and to include contextual information (You could even say a bit about why you like this green space on your sketch), so it stays in the realm of "urban sketching"!

We will start at 10am.  At noon, which is when we would normally be meeting up for lunch to share sketchbooks, we'd love to see your sketches online in whichever forum feels comfortable for you:

(1) posting to this blog
(2) emailing to our mailing list
(3) posting in our Facebook group

See you there!

Virtual sketchcrawl #5- Change your process

I haven't really done work on toned paper since charcoal drawing in art school but I have admired the work of some of our Portland sketchers who have used it in their drawings.
For this challenge I painted a couple of pages in watercolor sketchbooks with a medium gray that I mixed up in Gouache.
Each of these sketches has used various mediums foe mark making and I have identified them in the captions below each.

It was fun to experiment and I found a couple of tools that I will be using again!

Various graphite, General's Carbon Sketch 595, and Stablio Aquarelle White

Various graphite, General's Carbon Sketch 595, Multi colored pencil, and Stablio Aquarelle White

Various graphite, General's Carbon Sketch 595, Stablio Aquarelle White, and Multi colored pencil

Pentel Pocket Brush, Uni-POSCA White marker, and General's Carbon Sketch 595

Virtual sketchcrawl #5- Change your process

I used my 2018  Hobonichi Techo Calendar book. It was full of my illegible dates, notes and times of when I took medicines. The paper is thin but there was no bleed through.  I drew with a pen in each hand, one water-soluble ink, one waterproof.  I added a bit of watercolor and a few swipes with a water brush. They are many more pages to experiment with.

Virtual sketchcrawl - change up your process

I decided to do random color, with marker pen and airbrush. 

And it came out virtually unrecognizable.  That's my TV, surrounded by piles of books and DVDs that are waiting to go back to the library, streaming a virtual version of this year's Bach Festival in Leipzig.  

Some performances are still happening in Leipzig, while the groups that intended to come taped performances and sent them in to be broadcast.

The different groups used different ways to record their pieces.  Some did solo works.  Some had all the musicians record themselves at home, and stitched the parts together.  One used a church, with the string section on one side, all wearing masks, and the soprano way over across on the other side.  In Germany, things seemed to be the loosest, with an actual live audience (albeit 2 meters apart and masked).  The musicians were unmasked, and keeping a 2 meter separation.  Even the singers.  Which was a bit unnerving.  (At Trinity Cathedral, singers must keep a 15' separation.)

And this is my (gray) cat, who came to sit on my lap.

Challenge #5: Changing my process

I usually always start with white paper. The idea of starting with a strong color has always intimidated me so that meant I had to at least give it a try. I actually prepared six boxes of color, yellow, orange, red, violet, blue, and green. Only got to the first two. I used FW Acrylic inks and sometimes had pens and brushes in both hands. I got lost. It kind of looks like night and day but it was just a cloudy morning with occasional sprinkles.

Virtual Sketchcrawl

Today, I decided to sketch on a a grid of colored backgrounds. (I was inspired by Virginia Hein's sketches this week.) I thought I'd do thumbnails, but that's not quite what happened. Lately, I've been sketching a lot of botanicals, but today I stayed in the same room and tried to draw different things that I saw from that contained space. I listened to 'Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me' to try to fill in for some of the social aspect that I miss with our virtual sketch crawls. It's not the same, but there were a few laughs. Thanks for another fun challenge.

Virtual Sketchcrawl Challenge #5 Change your process Saturday June 13

Join us for our Fifth Virtual Sketch crawl on
Saturday June 13

Habits are a blessing and a curse. It keeps good routines going but can also put you into a bit of a rut. There is wisdom in the saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” On the other had, as Chris Bianco, a brilliant pizza maker and fine baker, said “I can tell you, you learn things when you burn things.”

So let’s throw caution to the winds and try our best to work outside our comfort zone by changing up our process.

If you normally work very slowing and detailed, try working very fast. loose and more abstractly with big shapes.

Same with the reverse, if you start with a quick gesture  and build up a loose drawing from there, then go immediately to great detail drawn slowly and then spiral the drawing out from where you started.

If you normally work on white paper then start with a colored ground, and instead of the usual grey or black, try a bright bold color as the base of your drawing. Monochrome or loads of color?  Do the opposite.

Work small? Try big. Right handed? Use your left, left handed use your right. Use both. You get the idea.

We invite you to experiment some more in and around your homes during our stay safe isolation.

As always, this challenge is optional and you can be a strict or as loose as you like, including ignoring us completely. Just make sure to work from life and include your surroundings to give your focus context.

We will start at 10:00am. At noon, which is when we normally meet up to share our drawings, please post your sketches so we can all see them on whatever platform you are comfortable with:

Posting to this blog

Emailing to our mailing list

Posting on our Facebook page

Looking forward to seeing what you all do with this one! We want to see both brilliant successes and total train wrecks!!!

Embody the Art You Love - Art Nouveau

Inspired by Art Nouveau, Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh: Queen of Spades. This may not quite be considered Urban Sketching. It is my mom's face from a zoom call, and roses sketched on location. Acrylic paint. Next I want to get some sparkly metallic gold and silver paint.
Spending a lot of time on zoom calls, I see my own face and I judge it harshly. I realize I am comparing myself to older female relatives. I want to give love to them and to myself. It's sad not to see the beauty in my older relatives and it's sad not to see my own beauty. We are all beautiful. I accept and love all of you - you all look gorgeous to me. This is my beautiful mom, the queen of spades, doing her best, creating a sustainable home, garden, business, life, and legacy.