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This craze is sweeping the Urban Sketchers online, and I have completely fallen for it. I made my first tiny watercolor tin in a mini-sized Altoids tin, and I have used it incessantly ever since. When I was in Amsterdam this spring, I was delighted to find that one of the huge items for the Dutch tourism industry is tiny mint tins. I bought several at different museums. At 1.75 x 2.25" they are slightly larger than the Altoid tin, but about a quarter of an inch. Six empty half pans (which I ordered in bulk from Cheap Joe's) fit inside, as oppsoed to five in the Altoid tin, but I have the same number of colors. I just put the ultramarine blue in the bottom right directly into the corner of a tin instead of in its own half pan.
I can get almost my full regular palette into the tin, missing only yellow ochre and viridian green. I don't have as much mixing space as my full one, which I still get out to do finished, stand alone watercolors, but this is delightfully easy to use with a water brush (a pen-like contraption with water in the barrel that you squeeze gently as you use the brush) for quick sketches. It's perfect also when you're standing up or working in your lap at the theater and don't have space to set out cups of water for dipping.
Here are the colors I squeeze into my tiny kit. The first one I made didn't have the lemon yellow, and I missed it, so I've got three colors in that section. Everywhere else only has two. The purple fits along the side in the Altoid tin and at the bottom in these new ones. I usually use Windsor and Newton professional grade watercolors.
Here are the colors I squeeze into my tiny kit. The first one I made didn't have the lemon yellow, and I missed it, so I've got three colors in that section. Everywhere else only has two. The purple fits along the side in the Altoid tin and at the bottom in these new ones. I usually use Windsor and Newton professional grade watercolors.
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I had a sketching dinner with Elizabeth Alley last night. Every once in a while we go out to sketch together, talk about our travels, talk about materials, techniques, teaching, and whatever else. I usually sketch solo at places, so it's fun to have a meal with someone else who's doing the same thing.
We ate at Schweinehaus on the patio there. We got seats at the counter facing directly out on the now bustling Overton Square and had fun watching the people go by.
I picked Elizabeth's brains about ways to get a new group of sketchers going and confident in a workshop, thinking ahead to working with students at Memphis Theological Seminary. You can see my notes at the right of the page.
Elizabeth snapped a photo of our sketches together at the end. I love the way she can collage on the page and put different scenes together. I tend to spread out and cover everything immediately.
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Website maintenance is not the sexy side of being an artist, but it can nonetheless be both satisfying and a little compulsive. I'm working on a new print at the moment that is not yet photogenic, but I also scanned in my entire Amsterdam sketchbook to put on my website. In the process, I realized that sketching is increasingly an important part of my work, and that there is not a dedicated area of my website for it.
I do so many different kinds of work that it's tricky to keep the website tidy and also display all the various facets of my art. I don't want to spill off the toolbar at the top of the website and have some categories not visible, so periodically I rethink my entire organization. This time I removed the "Commissions" section, to put under other areas, and gave "Sketches" their own section. They'd been hiding under the "Watercolor" section before. I also moved "Prints" up to the first spot on the toolbar. I do so little oil painting now that prints deserve the pride of place. They're where my heart is at this point, though I still work in oils occasionally.
Check out my sketches and see what I've been up to lately. I'll be adding a few more sections there as I get more scanned in.
I do so many different kinds of work that it's tricky to keep the website tidy and also display all the various facets of my art. I don't want to spill off the toolbar at the top of the website and have some categories not visible, so periodically I rethink my entire organization. This time I removed the "Commissions" section, to put under other areas, and gave "Sketches" their own section. They'd been hiding under the "Watercolor" section before. I also moved "Prints" up to the first spot on the toolbar. I do so little oil painting now that prints deserve the pride of place. They're where my heart is at this point, though I still work in oils occasionally.
Check out my sketches and see what I've been up to lately. I'll be adding a few more sections there as I get more scanned in.
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The Memphis Urban Sketchers met downtown at the Greenbelt Park today.
I took Mr. Darcy since it's a quiet park and he'd been so good at our forest outing. I had a little trouble keeping his butt out of my paints (he stained it sap green on one recent foray by lying directly in my paint box), but otherwise he's excellent company on a sketching trip.
I took Mr. Darcy since it's a quiet park and he'd been so good at our forest outing. I had a little trouble keeping his butt out of my paints (he stained it sap green on one recent foray by lying directly in my paint box), but otherwise he's excellent company on a sketching trip.
It's been a while since I painted at the river, and it felt good to get back there again.
Printmaking all afternoon, and then I rewarded myself for a long week's work by going over to the Latino festival in Overton Park. I got a taco with chorizo for dinner and a paleta for dessert. It was a perfect evening to sit out and eat and enjoy the park.
I couldn't help sketching my favorite tree again when I was done. It's just so lovely.
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I started a new print last night while I listened to the baseball game. Good to be back home and working. And yes, it's my same tree I can't stop drawing. I did this sketch back in January and had no real plan for it. I just saw the moon and wanted to draw. I'm grateful to the Memphis Urban Sketchers for getting me more in the habit of ongoing drawing. It's nice to have that much material to leaf back through and be inspired by.
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I got to show off one of my favorite places on Saturday. I led the Memphis Urban Sketchers into the heart of the Old Forest in Overton Park my wildflower glade that was blazing with wood poppies, trillium, phlox, and mayapples. I'm continuing my love affair with mayapples this spring. I'm planning a possible three part print of them (I'll do one first to see how it looks), so I sketched some more closer up to give me a bit more information to work from.
Even some long time Memphians didn't know the beauty we have hidden in the forest. It took me years to find it myself. People didn't much go into the center of the forest when I was growing up, but I have loved finding it. I always say that I have the best of all possible worlds. I live in the heart of the city and walk in a forest every day. It was fun to share the magic.
Even some long time Memphians didn't know the beauty we have hidden in the forest. It took me years to find it myself. People didn't much go into the center of the forest when I was growing up, but I have loved finding it. I always say that I have the best of all possible worlds. I live in the heart of the city and walk in a forest every day. It was fun to share the magic.
Before diving into the forest we met up by my favorite tree. Elizabeth laughed at me for sketching it yet again.
Of course Mr. Darcy went with us. I don't go the park without him.
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The weather has been largely gorgeous lately, and the wildflowers are popping out. It's my favorite season in the Old Forest of the park by my house. I've been going out sketching in between deadlines and another dance weekend. Above are Mayapples, which have got me thinking about a print. Below are trillium, first budding and then fully open.
I've been running around meeting a few deadlines and turning in a show, but when I'm lucky, this is what my office looks like for the afternoon.
I'm excited to get to lead the Memphis Urban Sketchers in the Old Forest this Saturday. Come join us and draw. We'll meet at Veterans' Plaza in Overton Park at 10 am. I'd suggest long pants for poison ivy, which is just starting to come back up, and something dry to sit on. But it's been lovely to take my sketch pad and journal and hang out in the woods the last week.
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The Memphis Urban Sketchers met at the Cleveland Street Flea Market on Saturday. It's a funny little indoor flea market, right in my neighborhood, that has its own community inside. There are not only booths with regulars manning (or, more often, womaning) them, but a cafe and a barber shop tucked in the back also. One of our urban sketchers works there part-time and made us very welcome, with drinks and snacks laid on. It's an almost overwhelming place visually. I did all three sketches from one chair, near a window, instead of wandering around too much and having too many options.
I was playing with minimal color choices that morning. I liked my sketch above with just the sky colored in. (Watercolor and a Stabilo grey fine liner.) My second one I tried to pick out mostly the blue and yellow in the hat display, but I wasn't happy with the watercolor splashes in that one.
I was playing with minimal color choices that morning. I liked my sketch above with just the sky colored in. (Watercolor and a Stabilo grey fine liner.) My second one I tried to pick out mostly the blue and yellow in the hat display, but I wasn't happy with the watercolor splashes in that one.
I switched over to Faber Castell markers, also with a Stabilo fine liner, for the last sketch. I've had better luck with them in the streamlined color sketches. Also I've been working a lot in watercolor lately, and I find I lose my touch with the markers if I don't use them regularly. This seemed like a good opportunity to play with them again.
Both this sketch and the scene itself reminded me of a brocante (French for antique/flea market) I sketched in my neighborhood in Paris, so I scanned it in for comparison. It was one of the sketches from that trip I was really happy with.
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It was absurdly cold on Saturday morning, so the Memphis Urban Sketchers met indoors at the Arcade. Usually we scatter to paint, so it was fun to sit in a group, look at each others' sketch books, and (because I have to when I go there) eat sweet potato pancakes.
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Opera Memphis continues to do opera outside the box under director Ned Canty. I think this is the third year they've done "30 Days of Opera,' popping up and doing free bits of opera at the dog park, along the parkway during rush hour, at an arts fair, really just about anywhere. Today they were out at WKNO, our local public radio station. They did an hour's worth of opera on the patio at lunch hour, broadcast on the radio, of course, and invited folks to show up with their lunches to listen. I love sketching at music events, and I've been working hard to put together my 2015 calendars and prep for fall shows, so I decided I was due just a fun sketching break and went out. Plus I love seeing all the 'KNO folks as well as Ned. I got a ton of hugs, did some fun sketching, and enjoyed breaking away from my computer for a while. Thanks to both organizations for a neat event!
