This past Saturday I had the chance to have the entire day to myself, which I spent in Northampton, MA. I have a lot of good memories from there, and it has a lot of creative energy.
I only made one sketch all day, but I did have a good time and I got a lot of inspiration from it. I also did a lot of driving, up and down route 5 & 10, and up 116 through Sunderland and Deerfield. I wish I could have taken photos from the car because there were some amazing skies, especially when the sun was setting.
I’ve started to keep a small sketchbook in my car so I can make sketches before work, and when I am out and about. I haven’t branched out into color yet though.
I spent some time at the Franklin County Relay for Life this past weekend. I would have loved to do even more sketching, but there was so much going on that I couldn’t manage.
My husband’s family gets really involved in the Relay every year, so I hope to sketch some more next year. Above I sketched a pile of firewood and the trash barrel at the edge of our campsite. Below I sketched the trees in the distance. The sun was starting to set when I was drawing these.
I made this quirky drawing while in the Jury Pool waiting room (it was too big to scan at once so I had to stitch two scans together). I had only been called in for Jury Duty one other time, and not in this particular courthouse. By the time I drove into the city, found the courthouse, figured out how the parking garage worked, went through security, and found the waiting room, I was feeling quite out of sorts. I had a lot of energy in the beginning of the day and worked on this sketch from 8:00 until about 10:30. Then my arm began to ache so I settled into my chair and did…nothing. Well, I did watch a few game shows and then some soaps. I also eavesdropped on a conversation between two public school teachers bellyaching about their benefits packages. They ended up sending everybody home and never used a single one of us for a jury, but it was not a wasted day for me. In my opinion, I got an interesting spread in my sketchbook and some time off to think.
Here is a blog post by Roz about her jury duty sketching experience. New Englanders aren’t always the friendliest people so I didn’t want to run the risk of drawing anybody while in an enclosed space, but it would have been interesting for sure.
Northampton Garden, ink and wash in 10 x 7 watercolor sketchbook, 5/24/09 Mall Starbucks, ballpoint and marker in moleskine, 5/25/09
I went to Northampton on Sunday and made the top drawing of the garden while sitting outside the back entrance to Thorne’s Market. I wish I had done more actual sketching but I got really into this. By the time I spent an hour and a half on it, I wasn’t in the mood for more and I just wanted to do some shopping.
Some people came up to me while I was drawing this, including a crowd of children who sort of gasped and then started watching. They were all standing around and one of the older girls said “That is really good.” and then started yelling at the younger kids for blocking my view. It cracked me up. There was also this Asian man who looked over my shoulder when I was just beginning and then he came by again after some time and said “Your composition has changed!” He said this like it was a big surprise, but I just told him that I wasn’t done yet.
I didn’t do the watercolor until I was at home because I didn’t feel like lugging around more stuff with me. I have never painted while out and about and I definitely want to try it sometime this summer. I think that I would definitely have to plan it out though, to make sure that I have all necessary items with me but not too much stuff to be bulky.
On Monday I went to the mall and drew the bottom sketch at Starbucks. No one was sitting there long enough for me to make a good sketch, but I got a couple of people down pretty quickly. I also did some more shopping and got some new tops that are pretty extravagent for my tastes, as well as a lime green patent leather purse which holds my moleskine perfectly. The purse is on my “things to sketch list” so you can be expecting a drawing of it within the next couple of weeks. I must have been in an adventurous mood that day. Then I came home completely exhausted and made my new header image. I had one of my first wonderful weekends in a long time and the extra day was so nice.
I am now working on a pretty detailed pen and ink drawing of a woodland scene which I must finish this weekend for a looming deadline on Monday morning. If I don’t have it all done by my regular Saturday post, I will show you a WIP photo at least.
These are some sketches that I’ve done at Panera, on different occasions. I am going to have to find another weekend sketching spot pretty soon. The staff is starting to recognize me and I need to change things up. However, there are no independently run coffee shops, only chain stores like Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts or McDonald’s. I’m considering my options, and which places have the most comfortable chairs.
At the Radio Station, ballpoint and tombow marker, 4/10/09
Coffee, ballpoint and tombow marker, 4/10/09
I had Good Friday off from work, which was a welcome break. It gave me a chance to volunteer to answer phones for the Spring Pledge Drive of the Q 99.7. They are a listener supported station and stay on the air through donations. It felt good to lend my talents and help out. I met some cool people and got a chance to get out of my comfort zone a little bit. I did this from 6-9 am (I am a morning person!) and made a few sketches while I was there. I used a black ball point pen and a gray Tombow marker.
After my radio station experience, I drove around and did some exploring in and around Suffield, CT. I got a LOT of good ideas for future landscapes that I want to do. Suffield is a picture perfect New England small town. I didn’t do any sketching though because I had to drive to my parent’s house for the weekend. I had planned on participating in the 22nd Worldwide SketchCrawl, but I forgot that it was Easter Weekend. No offense to the sketchcrawl, but Easter is way more important! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter as well.
This is one of my favorite Scripture passages relating to Easter and what it means for us today:
When you were baptized, you were buried together with him. You were raised to life together with him by believing in God’s power. God raised Jesus from the dead. At one time you were dead in your sins. Your sinful nature was not circumcised. But God gave you new life together with Christ. He forgave us all of our sins. He wiped out the written Law with its rules. The Law was against us. It opposed us. He took it away and nailed it to the cross. He took away the weapons of the powers and authorities. He made a public show of them. He won the battle over them by dying on the cross.
-Colossians 2:12-15
Sketching at the Jiffy Lube, ballpoint and tombow N95 in Moleskine, 3/28/09
I had to get my oil changed and it is usually the busiest on Saturday mornings because that it when a lot of people have spare time to take care of mundane things (like oil changes). They told me it was going to be a bit of a wait, but I was okay with that because I had my moleskine with me. I drew the shoes of the other customers and it was an interesting people watching/sketching experience. No one noticed or blinked an eye at the fact that I was shamelessly drawing them. I think it was because I was looking down, instead of at their faces!
The first one was a girl who was wearing flip flops. I still think it is too cold out for flip flops so this choice of footwear would not have been my first choice. She was driving a Honda Accord. The second person was a man with very grungy shoes. The shoes would have been very interesting to draw, but the guy himself used a lot of profanity and he kept fidgeting and stomping his feet. He was driving an Acura and (sorry to generalize about people, but) I have had some bad experiences with aggressive Acura drivers in the past! The next person was a woman wearing pink and grey Adidas sandals with socks. I am not the most fashionable person out there, but she needed a fashion intervention. I was then about to move onto the next shoe (of an Indian man wearing nice brown suede sneakers) but then they were finished with my car. I thought to myself that I wished that they had taken a little longer with my car because I wanted to finish my page!
Sketching at Panera, sepia Pitt pen and pencil in moleskine, 3/21/09
I went to Panera Bread and sat in the corner, near the entrance. I was actually quite a bold move, as there was a window behind me and quite a lot of people stopped to observe. I got a few approving glances and smiles from some old ladies.
I’ve been numbering my sketches lately so as to show the progression. You can see how I loosened up as I kept drawing. Here is how it went:
1) He had was sitting on one side of the booth and his friend and girlfriend were on the other side. I didn’t mind drawing him, except for the fact that his buddy kept staring at me. Extended periods of eye contact with complete strangers makes me nervous!
2) I should have left number one in pencil, but only inked it because this girl was also looking at me draw her and I was sort of glancing at her out of the corner of my eye. When I didn’t have a clear view, I resorted to the dots that formed #1′s hair. She was sort of hippie chic as my friend Theo would say. She was wearing a pinkish coral shirt and an orange scarf which is one of my all time favorite color combinations.
3) At first I thought this man was very stern and serious, but then I saw him playing the staring game with his small daughter and it was a touching father/daughter moment. He also had a very nice nose!
4) This woman was the wife/girlfriend of #3. She was chewing and wagging her head around quite a bit, but I had fun drawing her messy ponytail.
5) He was completely oblivious to me drawing him – he was there before me and was still there when I left. I’m not sure what he was working on, but he was sitting there typing away ferociously.
I had grand plans for today but ended up sleeping in and frittering away the whole morning. But I redeemed myself with public sketching! This sort of thing is excellent practice and I don’t do it nearly as often as I would like.
Drinks, sepia Pitt pen in 5 x 7 sketchbook, 1/30/09
Chicken Wing Remnants, sepia Pitt pen in 5 x 7 sketchbook, 1/31/09
Yesterday I went out for happy hour with some coworkers. I took along my sketchbook which was a breakthrough for me because I would normally be embarrassed to do such a thing. It turned out pretty well, considering that I was drinking (not a lot). I was also talking to people and I had to draw at the same speed that people were drinking (fast). I actually had to tell the waitress not to take away the chicken wings because I was drawing them. Everyone was shocked that I would think to draw such a thing!
