A Don Colley Workshop and #Inktober!

Sunday I attended a workshop with Chicago artist, and Urban Sketcher Don Colley. I have admired his lush, textural drawings for years, and never miss an opportunity to see his work in person. It was under his influence that I first started sketching with the Faber Castell Pitt Markers, although my techniques evolved in a more minimalist direction. If you are interested in a detailed description of the workshop, check out Sketcher Tina's post.

It is also #inktober2017 #inktober and I am counting this as my first ink drawing of the month. Only 30 to go. Actually, it is the scanning/posting that I fall behind on (I am on track for drawing), so I will probably post in 2 or 3 batches for the month.

Markers - how I use them

With a class coming up this weekend on sketching with markers, I thought I would show a few examples of how I use markers when I sketch on location.


Just three markers - a light, medium and dark - can be really effective. I start sketching with the lightest marker and then fill in shadows and tones with the middle and dark marker. Your markers don't need to be traditional gray for this, either!



Often, I mix markers with a variety of media. In this case I used them with ink, white gouache and gray-toned paper. (This is "Whale Tail Park", in West Seattle.)



By far my favorite way uses just one medium value color marker with a pen and ink line drawing. This is a simple way to do location sketches quickly with a very small, light kit.

Markers are such a useful addition to a sketcher's kit. If you are interested in the class I am teaching next Saturday, call the Daniel Smith Seattle store to register: 206-223-9599.

May Sketches

King Street Station with Urban Sketchers.



Went to New York City. Ate at the Pastrami Queen TWICE.



Hello, contour line drawing.

Marker Sketches from Costa Rica

Aagh! When I checked my poor, neglected blog, I realized how far behind I was in posting sketches. I never even finished up the ones from Costa Rica that I did in January!! So this is IT for Costa Rica. Moving on. If you want to see the rest of them, you will need to get yourself over to Flickr where I have every last little scribble that I did there. Hint: there is a handy button on the sidebar that will take you right to my photostream.

Tropical Ferries

Taking a ferry trip in a tropical climate is not the same experience as getting on a ferry in the chilly Pacific Northwest. It's hot! Everyone is crowding into the shade! Except the tourists from the chilly Pacific Northwest.

Getting Around in Costa Rica

I know it has been more than a month since my last post and my only excuse is I have been too busy sketching to blog. Three weeks in Costa Rica, sketching every day. So now I am playing catch-up. I will start with a few of the many modes of transportation we used while traveling around this beautiful country.





All sketches done with my new TWSBI Eco Fountain Pen and Faber Castell Pitt Artist Markers. In an effort to keep my supplies light, I only brought 5 colors on this trip. They served me pretty well, although I was getting a little tired of them by the last sketch.

Grayscale Marker Sketch

Starting a new sketchbook often prompts me to switch out my drawing tools. In this case, I am using broad brush tip markers in a Moleskine Sketch. The water based markers like Tombow and Faber Castell Pitt work well on this paper and do not bleed through. In fact, the surface coating of the Moleskine Sketch paper keeps these markers from absorbing instantly and gives you some time to blend, blot or smudge the color. I think I have a little preference for the pigment based ink in the Pitt Big Brush markers.

Top Pot Donuts on Alki!

One of my favorite things is settling into a cafe, pulling out my sketchbook, and unobtrusively drawing some of the characters around me.

Marker Sketch of Yosemite Sequoia

I also did some marker sketches in my Strathmore Toned Journal with the Faber Castell brush markers during our roadtrip. The markers work very well on this paper, although I am still working out the technique. It is quite different from sketching on white paper. I need to think about adding some white to each drawing, or they seem dull.

This drawing is done with Faber Castell Pitt Markers in a Strathmore Gray Toned hardbound journal. I have been using the markers for a while now, and I have used Strathmore Tan Toned journals before, too. I like both very much. But this is the first time using the two together, and I have found it quite a challenge to get a good scan of these drawings. The transparent marker colors look quite vibrant on the gray paper, but turn dull in the scanned images. I have resorted to tweaking the Contrast and Hue Saturation in paint.net to get them to appear anything like the original.

More Sketches from Olympic National Park

I had the most fun with the sketch of Madison Falls. Started with my lightest marker and kept building up darker and darker layers.

Tree Sketches

I have more or less got it down to 3 markers. Now if I could just convince myself to leave the rest of them at home!

Cedars at Alki Elementary playfields by Sue Heston

I walked down through Schmitz Park to Alki this morning and caught some great shadows to sketch.

Path through Schmitz Park, Sue Heston

Kabota Gardens with Seattle USk

Kubota Gardens, Heart Bridge (I think!) by Sue Heston

Another place I had never been until the Seattle Urban Sketchers met there last week. The gardens are beautiful, free, and accessible by Metro bus (106) from downtown Seattle (they are actually in Renton). They seem completely un-urban, yet they are practically next door to Boeing Field.

Another Sketch from Spray Park

Spray Park, Mount Rainier National Park

Spray Park has to be one of the most popular hikes in Mount Rainier National Park, if not all of Washington State. And it's popularity is pretty well justified by the beauty of the park. I knocked out three sketches on Sunday just drawing what I could see from the spot where we ate lunch.

This one is also done with Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pens. About 6-8 greens and blues made a portable and lightweight sketch kit. While finishing this one up, I discovered that it is possible to quickly blot some of the color before it dries on the paper. That helped me to get the lighter values in the foreground. The clouds got finished up at home.