Pushing the Envelope

 

1/4/21 Through our bedroom's French doors.

I’m nothing if not efficient.

To encourage members to keep sketching during these bleakest of weather months ahead, USk Seattle has begun issuing prompts for our monthly “hold-ups” on Zoom. For January, the prompts are to either sketch street furniture (hydrants, lamps, utility poles, mail boxes and such) or use media that are not intended as art materials. (Alternatively, sketchers are always welcome to sketch anything they want as guided by the Urban Sketchers manifesto.)

Scanned image

Thinking about the two prompts for a while, I had intended to sketch the utility pole that dominates our bedroom view using non-art materials: a bright pink envelope that I had pulled out of our recycle bin and grease pencils. (I know that some artists do use them to draw with, but the intended purpose of grease pencils is for writing on glass, metal and other non-porous surfaces, so I decided they would qualify for this challenge.) Then a few days ago, Rob Sketcherman resumed his video series, USk Talks, and featured USk Paris. The group’s challenge to the community was to sketch a window view and include the window’s frame in the composition.

Done: I hit three prompts with one sketch.

(The image above was made with my phone. My scanner [at right] seems to have a problem capturing colors against the bright pink color. The pink is accurate, but the black grease pencil came out weird. I have the same issue when I try to scan the neon orange pages of my colored sketchbook.)