Tour of Concertina Sketchbook no. 36

I created my first concertina sketchbook inspired by Lynne Chapman from her Sketchbook Skool Exploring klass. I made this using one full sheet of Saunders Waterford 140lb. cold press watercolor paper.

Here is a narrated tour of the sketchbook followed by a quick tour.

Your comments are appreciated and welcome! Thanks for watching!

Here's how I make a concertina sketchbook from a full sheet of Fabriano Artistico 140 lb. cold-pressed watercolor paper. 1. Fold and tear the sheet into their DS lengthwise; 2. Connect the sections together by folding the ends with a 1/4" overlap and glue together with Modge Podge suitable for paper; 3. While waiting for the glue to dry, tape the ends together with Washington tape that can be removed after the glue is dried; 4. I cut covers from the backing of a watercolor pad and used a cute Daiso panda envelope to cover the covers; 5. Glue the first and last pages to the covers; 6. Put heavy books on top to set - done!

Tour of Sketchbook no. 35

This is my first Stillman & Birn sketchbook with their Beta series paper. I liked it very much - but I think I prefer using my favorite Fabriano Artistico watercolor papers in the size and format of my choosing when I bind my own sketchbooks. But, it was fun trying a new sketchbook.

Here is the slow tour of the sketchbook followed by a quick tour.

Thanks for watching! I'd love to hear your comments.

Tours of Sketchbook No. 25

I just finished sketchbook no. 25! Here is a quick tour followed by a longer view.

A slower tour.

Sketching on our Road Trip

Yesterday, we started our road trip to North Hollywood to go to Universal Studios for my youngest's birthday. We left at 8:30am and lucky for me, my husband drove the whole way while I got to sketch!

Before we left, I got my new Pocket Palette in the mail and prepared it with some hot glue to further divide some palettes and I also made a new small sketchbook.

I am a bit behind on my homework for Sketchbook Skool's Seeing klass with Koosje Koene. We were to draw a selfie a day for a week. I have done 5. Here is my 6th.

Here is a still life of a pear on my door arm rest. I was practicing my watercolor mixing from my Craftsy class on Luminous Watercolor Mixes and using my new Pocket Palette!

Next, I did a quick watercolor sketch while we drove over the Grapevine before descending into the Greater Los Angeles area.

We made it to our hotel, The Garland, after only 5 hours! We had brunch at The Front Yard. And I did a quick still life from our table before I dug into my eggs Benedict. I used what I learned in Brenda Swenson's Seeing klass - employing a soluble Tombow marker before adding watercolor and a format around my objects.

Finally, we ended the day at the pool and I got this urban sketch in using my soluble market again.

Tomorrow, we are spending the entire day at Universal Studios mostly in the Harry Potter Wizarding World. I will post my sketches from the day later.

Sketching at Broadway Plaza

I had planned to sketch an urban scene in downtown Wlanut Creek yesterday while out with my husband. But, it was so hot - all we did was marvel at how The recent construction and changes at Broadway Plaza are making Walnut Creek look like an outdoor Southern California shopping mall.

We had almost given up finding a good vantage point, when I spotted this fountain and, more importantly, a shading bench from which to sketch it. So, I took about 15 minutes to sketch it.

Here is the actual fountain. I decided not to put the striking workers in behind it.

2 Very Different Urban Sketches

This morning, I had several hours in Point Richmond while waiting for my daughter's class to end. Since I wasn't able to do a detailed interior sketch yesterday at Tender Greens, I decided to make that a priority today and went to Kaleidoscope Coffee.

This independent cafe is a major improvement over the Starbucks up the road! Here were my choices for possible views to draw.

Looking from the back towards the front of the cafe

So many great choices! I ended up choosing the view looking towards the back as I had already unpacked a lot of my art supplies on a table in the window in the front (if I finished quickly, I could sketch my view outside the window). Also, this view captures the great kaleidoscope-like artwork on the wall and ceiling.

I practiced using Steven Reddy's techniques from his Craftsy class, Sketching Interiors: Structure, Detail & Play. First, you need to consider several vantage points from which to sketch, then, make a thumbnail compositional sketch - identifying the foreground, middle ground, and background. Next, you block in the major shapes of your sketch in pencil and then, do a contour drawing of all the tangible edges in your sketch. After that, you apply a series of ink washes (1) a 25% India ink solution over all areas that are not white in your sketch, (2) a second application of the 25% solution over areas that you wish to darken from your first pass, (3) a final application of a 75% India ink solution on the darkest areas of your sketch.

Here is my sketch after following all of the above steps:

Steven often stops at this stage, but I continued with his two final steps: (1) adding a limited palette of watercolor glazes (which I added to because I don't really like the limited palette effect), and (2) adding hatching for darkest and texture. Here is my final version.

Final version with watercolor and hatching added.

I had about 15 minutes left before I needed to pick up Chloe, so I went outside and did a quick urban sketch using my waterproof Kuretake sable brush pen and my watercolors. This took me about 20 minutes from start to finish and yes, the girls complained when I picked them up 10 minutes late!

Long Line Lunchtime Sketches

After practicing my landscape sketches this morning, my plan was to get some lunch and practice sketching interiors using Steven Reddy's techniques from his Craftsy class at Tender Greens. But, when I got to the restaurant, it was packed and the line for ordering and getting the food was long! I took advantage of this opportunity to quickly sketch the workers behind the counter as they made the food.

Food prep counter, dessert case & back counter

Patrons in line, cash registers, and coffee machines

I sketched using my Kuretake brush pen in line, which helped me sketch fast and loose. Once I got back to my table, I added water with a paint brush for the tone. In the end, it was too chaotic in there to do the detailed interior sketch I had planned, but I was grateful for the figure sketching practice!

Grizzly Peak Landscape Sketches

I am really enjoying Shari Blauskopf's Craftsy course on Sketching Landscapes. I went out today to Grizzly Peak in Berkeley to sketch the amazing views from up there. I suspect it's my small brushes (small squirrel mop and size 10 Kolinsky sable) are to blame for my skies not coming out quite right (too many blooms), but I will be getting an Escoda Versatil size 16 and a Rosemary & Co. squirrel mop in size 6 in the next few days. I will tell you if they make a big difference when I get them.

My second sketch in a slightly different location

Any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated!!

Urban Sketching on the Richmond Shoreline

Today, I decided to go through that inviting tunnel I sketched last week in Point Richmond to get to the Richmond shoreline. There was so much to sketch there!

I just started taking Shari Blaukopf's Sketching Landscapes in Pen, Ink & Watercolor Craftsy class and wanted to try out some of her excellent techniques -- especially painting skies and drawing the horizon line.

Here are the sketches I did while my daughter was at ATDP this morning.

Shari advises us to take photos as you never know what can happen. The sky and clouds changed a lot during my sketches - so it was a good idea.

Do you enjoy drawing/painting landscapes?

Urban sketching in Point Richmond & San Francisco

After driving my daughter and her friend out to Point Richmond for their summer school program, I tried some "real" urban sketching - setting up my lawn chair and sketching The Plunge (Richmond Municipal Natatorium) and the tunnel leading to Ferry Point. But, the wind coming through the tunnel chilled me to the bone! And after an hour or so, I had to retreat into Starbucks to finish painting my drawing.

This building is commonly known as The Plunge. It was built in 1925 by John Nicholl, who unsuccessfully drilled for oil on this lot but donated the land to the city for a swimming pool after drilling to a depth of 1,232 feet and finding nothing but water. Today, it is powered by a solar heating system, with 200 operable Windows to dehumidify and circulate air and water cleaned by UV light rather than chemicals and uses salt water.

Here is the drawing with a photo.

After warming up, I found a sunny spot to sketch and tried using Marc Taro Holmes's single line sketching technique (not lifting my Platinum Preppy extra fine fountain pen), adding brush pen and then watercolors.

This little building housed a coal, wood, hay, and grain delivery business starting in 1903 and became the Richmond Supply Co. in 1911. It now houses the Point Richmond History Museum.

Next, I had 15 minutes before I needed to pick the kids. So, I tried a speedy drawing using my Pentel brush pen and watercolors.

This is the old Bank of Richmond building built in 1902. It now houses a realty office.

Yesterday, I tried an urban sketch sitting in Patricia's Green in Hayes Valley, San Francisco after getting my husband a new pair of glasses at Warby Parker. Even though I tried to sketch fast with my Kuretake sable brush pen, I decided to attempt a panorama view across my sketchbook (6" x 18").

I was able to add some, but not all of my watercolors on site.

I will be doing more urban sketches soon. Have you tried any?

Paris Terrace View

Here is the view from one of our terraces at our Paris apartment.

Urban Sketches

Here are some urban sketches that I've done recently around town.

At Claremont Resort waiting for my tennis clinic - about 15 minutes

At the Lafayette Public Library - about 20 minutes

I will be driving my youngest to UC Berkeley's Academic Talent Development Program (ATDP) in Point Richmond over the next three weeks. Usually, I spend the few hours in Starbucks while I wait - but I will be out and about sketching in downtown Piint Richmond. So, stay tuned! 😉

Finished Travel Sketchbook!

I finally completed the travel sketchbook I made for my trip to Paris, London & Barcelona. I really enjoyed sketching on the trip and even drawing from my photos once I got home. It really let me relive my trip again!

Here is a quick tour of my sketchbook and a more leisurely one below that.

A slower sketchbook tour.

Final Pages of my Travel Sketchbook

This summer, my 9 year old is attending "Camp Mom" - which means I am entertaining her most days while Chloe completes a year's worth of math with her teacher's tutoring. After math today, we worked on using Marc Taro Holmes's continuous single line sketching for some of our urban travel sketches.

We used a timer and drew all 4 of these sketches within 20 minutes. We added brush pen and watercolors afterwards.

Chloe did great with her own sketches but soon got tired. I finished my travel sketchbook with this last view out of the airplane before landing at SFO.

I'm a little sad to be done with this travel sketchbook. But on to the next!

Barcelona Travel Sketches

We were only in Barcelona for 4 days - and there was so much to draw. I did my best in completing sketches while there, but there was not enough time to draw all that I wanted. So, I took lots of photos.

Here are some sketches I recently completed and added to my travel sketchbook.

Él Born Cultural Center - about a block from our apartment

Sketching with Miguel Herranz and Lapin near the Cultural Center

Stay tuned for more!

Devour Barcelona Food Tour

On our recent trip to Europe, we took two lovely food tours. One in Paris's Latin Quarter with Sidewalk Tours and one in Él Born in Barcelona and Barceloneta with Devour Barcelona Food Tours. They were both wonderful!

Here are the pages from my travel sketchbook detailing our Devour Barcelona Food Tour.

Casa Gispert, Pasteleria Hofmann & Bodega Fermin

Have you taken any food tours while on vacation?

Urban Sketching Commissions

Before my trip to Europe, I was lucky enough to get a commission for four art pieces of my choosing from an art lover on Instagram. Although I completed these two pieces while on my trip - stupid me left them on our plane from Barcelona to Paris! 😩

So, armed with my many photos from the trip, I put these four pieces together since coming home.

I'm so happy that my client loves them.

Completing Travel Sketches

These two sketches were started opinion Barcelona and finished here in California. Some day, I hope to get quicker with my urban sketches so that I can finish more on site! Always looking to improve!

Church of Santa Maria del Mar in Born, Barcelona

Our last meal in Barcelona - tapas at Artesans in El Born

Have you tried urban sketching on a vacation?

Travel Sketches

I just got back from a family vacation to Paris, London, and Barcelona. I tried to do some urban sketching while on the trip and made a sketchbook just for my travel,sketches. It was pretty fpdifficult to find time to sketch while on the move with my family, so I ended up taking a ton of reference photos for sketches that I will do in my studio on my return. The artwork below were done on the trip. As well as portraits for my 100 day portrait project, but I will post those separately.

The view from our apartment terrace in the Latin Quarter.

The view from the terrace in the bedroom of our Latin Quarter apartment.

Our dinner the first night in Creperie Oroyana on Rue Mouffetard

On the metro to catch the Eurostar to London from Gare du Nord

A quick sketch done on a cruise on the Thames

A sketch of the Louvre with just a brush pen on toned watercolor paper

On our food tour in El Born in Barcelona

On the food tour in Santa Caterina market

The view from a terrace of our apartment in Barcelona

The sketch was started in SFO and I finished it in the Barcelona airport

Our last breakfast in Paris on Boulevard Saint Michel

I drew this on the airplane home - it was one of our favorite dishes - octopus in black truffle

Urban sketching on Vacation

We are on vacation in Paris, London, and Barcelona this week. Here are some of my sketches so far.

More to follow . . .