Life Drawing

I've begun going to Monday night Life Drawing. We had a wonderful red-haired model this week. I did all these in pen and watercolor on card stock. I also did more finished 20-minute drawings on watercolor paper, but I like these 2-minute warmups the best. Extra time is generally not my friend.

This is my favorite of the longer poses, but it was also done on card stock. I loved discovering the wonderful colors in the light and shadows on the model's skin.

Dreaming in color. And polka dots?

People at the Gates

I found myself with plenty of time to sketch at four different airports on a recent trip to Boston. Here are some of my favorite people at the gates.

This is Paul. I'm putting him first because I liked him so much and I loved his story. And I want to make it easy for his wife back in Tacoma to find this sketch if she checks the blog. Paul was sitting directly across from me at the gate - in conversation with another passenger. When I finished my sketch, I showed it to him and his reaction was priceless. He was flustered, embarrassed and flattered to be the subject of a sketch. I found out he was in Atlanta in order to clean up the cemetery where his parents were buried. He had just spent days mowing and clearing brush. What a sweetheart.

He thought he "looked like a white man" in the sketch and asked me to give him some pigment - so I did! I gave him the blog address so he could see the sketch online. He said his wife would have to do that - not an internet kind of guy, I guess. He was still smiling and shaking his head as he boarded the plane.

A guy reading a book at the gate at SeaTac . . . or was it Detroit?

Tall Girl and Cool Guy. These two were a couple of favorites at the Boston Logan gate. She had great curly hair that I was anxious to sketch. And then Mr. Cool came along and introduced himself and started chatting her up. He did me a big favor - they stood there for a long time - long enough to get these two sketches. The only snippet of conversation I overheard was about her height - she was tall. 5' 11.

Belt Guy. This older gentlemen took a few moments when he arrived at the gate to put his belt back on. I assume he had removed it for the security screening. And on the right, the same guy sitting down, properly belted.

Lady in Red at Boston Logan. This was a tough one. I was on the phone with Dan when I saw this adorable lady in a red hat and full length red dress coming my way. I was SO excited, hoping she would sit down near me. But she sat down next to me - too close - just a couple seats away on my right. So I had a hard time sketching her without turning to face her and being too obvious about staring at her. I tried to be sneaky and worked on something else every time she looked my way. Not a great drawing, but a great character.

Kudos to Faye

Whidbey Island Sketcher, Faye Castle, had 2 pieces accepted in the recent "Unclad" show at Gallery By the Bay in Stanwood. Even better, one of them sold. Congratulations, Faye!

SOLD
'Gesture II'
Faye Castle
Nupastel, 12 x 16

'Reclining'

Faye Castle
Nupastel, 14 x 22, $350



Both pieces are gorgeous.

Faye also has several framed sketches of Whidbey Island landscapes for sale at Brackenwood Gallery in Langley.

Gordy's Sketches from The Goose

I just got Gordy Edberg's sketches from our session at The Goose a few weeks ago. They've been only recently rescued from my spam filter where they've been held hostage for the past two weeks.

The lovely and talented Kris Wiltse sketching.

Great capture of a Goose employee at work. Looks like a department manager.

I think this must be me.

Customer at the pastry counter.

Truman sketching.

.

Virginia sketching.

Gordy must be the fastest sketcher around - he got all seven drawings done in a couple of hours - maybe three hours tops. And they're wonderful. I'm in awe. Maybe this is what's possible when you get to work and skip the eating, coffee drinking and yakking. Hmmm . . .

Eating, Drinking and Sketching at Miriam's

It turns out our scheduled sketch venue, Mosquito Fleet Chili in Coupeville, doesn't open until noon on Wednesdays. So we ended up at Miriam's instead. I really loved sketching there. Great light, great energy, lots of people and lots of interesting architectural details to draw. And of course, great food and coffee, too!

Tried out colored pencils for the first time and was a little tenative with them. I'll experiment more.

I got a bunch of quick sketches of this woman waiting in line and then waiting for her order to come up. Good practice for working fast.

My favorite sketch of the day. It shows the iconic stove and wall sconces that say "Miriam's."  So far, this is my preferred way of working with watercolor: lay down some paint where the big shapes appear to be and then add ink to give definition. And then don't worry if you layed down the color in the wrong places - it just makes for a more interesting sketch. Thanks Kris, for showing me how to do this.

Faye's Sketches at The Goose

Faye Castle got some great sketches of customers at the Goose on Wednesday!

Virginia getting coffee at The Goose's cafe/bakery.

Folks passing by The Goose bakery.

Adventures at The Goose: The Lady in Red

We started out sketching in the Goose's bakery/cafe . . .

Then I moved to the front where I had a view of the checkout lines and got a good start on a sketch . . .

. . . when I spotted this lady in a great hat and red cape at the checkout counter looking like a character from a spy novel . . . a truly colorful character. Sketcher's panic attack! I had to sketch fast - but I wasn't fast enough. She was picking up her grocery bag and preparing to leave! I made my move . . . I walked over and smiled and asked her to sit for the sketchers. I gotta lotta nerve.

She said yes! She put down her groceries and her purse and picked up a book. The sketchers went nuts!

Thank-you, Ona! You were an incredible model. (This sketch was from a photo Sherryl took - great angle - had to sketch it. Note to self - sit on the floor and look up next time you have a willing model.)

Prima Sketching

A few more sketches. One is from Prima looking down on First St., Langley. The other two are from figure drawing. Lovely model and her 10 month old baby. Great day of drawing.

And thanks everyone for all the Happy B-day wishes. They all came true!

Sherryl's Sketches at Local Grown

Picked up a new set of Faber-Castle brush pens that I used with the watercolors today.

Faye's Sketches at Local Grown

Whidbey Island Sketchers at work!


William Bell, proprietor of Local Grown was very gracious about having seven raucous sketchers working in the cafe today.

Drawing Kris

These were all done from photos. Kris needed a sketch of herself for an online magazine interview. None of my cafe sketches of her were much good, so I said I would try to do one from a photo. Good practice for me and lots of fun.

Mukilteo Coffee Pajama Breakfast

We passed on the Polar Bear Dip and instead went to Mukilteo Coffee for their New Years Day Pajama Breakfast. We went in our jammies. Some others did too. We walked out with a half pound of coffee for doing it. Nice! Thank you Mukilteo Coffee!

Here's some sketches. No pajamas, though.

Useless Bay Sketches

A few sketches of locals from Useless Bay Coffee.