Where Did June Go?

Well, I went camping - and the van did not break down.



I drank coffee, and I sketched my fellow caffeine addicts. And I went sketching with Seattle Urban Sketchers at Fisherman's Terminal. I have been dabbling with collage in this gray Strathmore sketchbook, and I used that in the sketch I did there.

May Sketches

King Street Station with Urban Sketchers.



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



Hello, contour line drawing.

Sketches from April

Went camping.



Drank coffee.



Oh, yeah. Florida.



Drew trees.

For anyone in the area who may be interested, I will be teaching 2 drawing classes at the Daniel Smith store on June 11 and June 18. The classes are part of a series offered by Daniel Smith this summer. For information on the classes visit the Daniel Smith Events page and click the "June" tab. http://seattledanielsmithevents.blogspot.com/

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.

Learning about Notan with Mitch Albala

Well, I have been a blogging slacker! But, in my defense, I have been pretty busy since getting back from Costa Rica. I have been taking classes and teaching classes, and trying to keep caught up with everything in between.
In February, I took a two day workshop with landscape painter Mitch Albala. The focus was on exploring composition through the Japanese principles of notan. We did lots and lots of composition studies in simple black marker, worked up to gray scale marker sketches and finally did a small value study in acrylic. I noticed that my best sketches looked very abstract - I had to stop thinking about the "what" that I was drawing.



Drawing notans is somewhat addictive, but MUCH harder when you don't have a master peering over your shoulder and suggesting you crop that shape a little more, or make this one a little bigger. I will be posting more of them soon, but anyone who finds this intriguing should get their hands on a copy of Mitch's book, Landcape Painting. The section on notan is short, but once you get it, you can clearly see how it works in all his paintings.

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.