Capturing a Scene

This was started at the Claremont Club & Spa while I was waiting for my tennis clinic to begin. I had to finish it at home based on photos though because I was only 15 minutes early for clinic and those minutes raced by!

This was drawn for homework for Miguel Herranz's Stretching klass for Sketchbook Skool. Our assignment was to capture a scene using graphic shots like this instead of drawing one large scene.

What do you think?

Sketch of one of my favorite Instagrammers

I love Karen's posts. She does amazing portraits with Coptic markers. Check out her posts.

What do you think?

Happy Easter

A quick drawing to celebrate Easter.

Sktchy #WAXStory

Sktchy has something called a Weekend Art Extravaganza or WAX with a theme. This weekend's is story - tell an inspiration photo's story. Here is my take of this inspiration photo.

What she really wanted was to be a cowboy.

What do you think?

Another portrait of Megan (and Julia)

There is something about their light features that have been hard for me to capture. So, I tried using toned (kraft) paper after being inspired by my Sketchbook Skool teacher this week, Miguel Herranz. I think it went better this time.

What do you think?

Making use of down time

I had some free time waiting at my tennis club today and decided to try out Miguel Herranz's spiral drawing method from my Stretching Sketchbook Skool klass this week. With the spiral method, Miguel picks an object in the center of what he wants to draw and then draws around and outward from that object and whatever fits into the frame, fits!

i loved using this technique. I started with the light in the center and drew outfield there.

Have you ever tried spiral drawing?

Figure Drawing

I went to my first figure drawing session at the Lafayette Studio after more than 20 years when I took a figure drawing class at Carnegie Hall in New York City. It was almost like riding a bike - though I didn't use my charcoal vines as I forgot to bring a roll of paper towels and thought my hands would get filthy.

It felt great though to get back to figure drawing. Here are my sketches.

The result of the longer 20 minute poses

Another Sktchy Portrait

This Sktchy app is a great way for me to practice my portrait drawing! Choose a photo with the viewpoint you want to practice, here - profile - and go!

And my inspiration photo

Have you tried Sktchy?

Sktchy Portrait

I'm finding a lot of great inspiration in using the Sktchy app - allowing me to get some great portrait drawing practice in!

Have you heard of Sktchy? What do you think of it?

New Art Book!

I got a new art book the other day! Sketching People by Lynne Chapman - it was recommended by my Sketchbook Skool teacher, France Belleville van Stone.

I haven't read the entire book yet, but I've gotten through about 2/3 of it and I have been loving it! Lynne gives some great tips on capturing people while urban sketching and some ideas of interesting tools like Koh-I-Noor's Magic pencils. Very fun and helpful!

Portrait of my sister

We celebrated some family birthdays today and I got a chance to draw my sister, Debby, who is taking the Sketchbook Skool Stretching klass with me!

Thanks for being a good sport, Deb!

Child's Play Sketchbook Skool Homework

One of our Sketchbook Skool Stretching klass' homework assignments for Fabio Consoli is to ask a child to draw in your sketchbook whatever they wish and then to take the drawing from there.

i asked my 9 year old daughter Chloe to help me with this assignment. Here is my sketch of her drawing.

She did an amazing drawing of what was in front of her. I told her it was too good! So, she did some doodles for me. I added watercolor to her first drawin here.

Chloe's line drawing and my watercolors.

And worked with her doodles here.

What do you think?

Trying out the Sktchy App

I noticed that one of my favorite artists, France Belleville van Stone, has been using the Sktchy app on iOS. Basically, people upload photos of themselves mostly and then artists make art based on the inspiration. It's like Instagram, but you swipe right and see the inspiration photo. The community does not seem to be as active as Instagrams, but it's m interesting concept.

Another for St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I did a couple of drawings to celebrate St. Patrick's Day today. This first was while waiting to play tennis and I noticed the green of the surrounding hills.

The second was my take on a photo posted on the Sktchy app.

Hope you had a great day!

Making Art on my iPad

My instructor for Sketchbook Skool's Stretching klass this week is France Belleville van Stone, who loves cross-hatching and using the 53's Paper app to make art on her iPad.

Like any good student, I've been practicing making art on my iPad using Paper - which is a very user-friendly app, and with which I love using 53's Pencil stylus.

Here are some quick sketches from today.

Have you tried making art on a tablet? What did you think?

Sketching at the Oscar de la Renta Exhibit at the de Young Museum

Yesterday, I spent the morning with my husband at the Oscar de la Renta exhibit at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. I loved sketching so many of the clothes - I was in heaven. There is something about sketching fashion that really loosens up my hand and makes the lines just flow! I was using my watercolor watch and alternatively, my Sennelier metal travel box - but was told by a guard about halfway through that I couldn't use any paints in the museum - especially not in this exhibit. So, I used my tiny color pencil set from Japantown and added some watercolors when I got home yesterday.

What do you think? For a complete description of each garment, visit Sketchbook 10.

Here are some of my Instagram posts where you can see both my sketches and the actual garments.

Trying out iPad art with Paper

This week's Sketchbook Skool's Stretching klass is being taught by France Belleville Van Stone, whose book, Sketch!: The Non-Artist's Guide to Inspiration, Technique, and Drawing Daily Life, started my drawing habit. France is an expert in cross-hatching and she also loves using the Paper app on the iPad. I have been reluctant to fully embrace digital art, much preferring my fountain pens and water colors, but France has convinced me to keep giving Paper and the Pencil by 53, which I love, more of a chance.

I did a few iPad sketches with Paper on my recent trip to Indian Wells and will continue to keep trying to improve with it. Here's a sketch from today.

What do you think about digital art?

Last Indian Wells Sketch

Today, I finally finished a sketch I started in Indian Wells on our first day there - March 10th. We had stopped to watch some great doubles points on the practice courts. i got most of the line drawing done, but needed to add in the watercolors and some of the background when I got home. I finished it today.