‘A Robust Attitude’

5/3/25 Maple Leaf playground

“The enjoyment of sketching derives from the experience of recording the world around you, and your materials shouldn’t hinder that enjoyment.”

-        James Gurney and Thomas Kinkade, The Artist’s Guide to Sketching

Isn’t that exactly what I was just saying in my post about how to downsize your kit?

5/6/25 Green Lake

I’m currently reading the recently republished edition of the classic that probably qualifies as the OG guide to urban sketching. Originally published in 1982 and long out of print, the book includes remastered illustrations by two modern masters (well, many would argue that Kinkade wasn’t a master, but he’s certainly well known). Many consider it one of the bibles of on-location drawing.

I’ll be writing a full review when I’ve finished reading, but for now, I just wanted to mention how tickled I am that their approach and philosophy toward sketching aligns so closely with my own. As my kit keeps getting simpler and smaller, it was reassuring to learn that these two then-young men would have nodded with approval. To go with these sketches from my fitness walks, I’ll leave you with these words from Gurney and Kinkade:

“A robust attitude toward working on the spot will ensure your enjoyment of sketching far more than does your drawing ability. You will find that much of the reason that you go sketching will be for the fun of the outing itself, of being outside, discovering new things, and meeting new people.”

If that’s not the core of urban sketching, I don’t know what is.

5/6/25 Maple Leaf

5/23/25 Cloud City Coffee, Maple Leaf

6/8/25 Mt. Rainier from Maple Leaf Park

6/4/25 Maple Leaf

7/16/25 Maple Leaf

How to Keep a Sketch Journal

5/22/25 Some time to kill captured in my sketch journal

10/29/24 A special celebration captured from a selfie

It has been a year and a half since I restarted (yet again) a daily sketch journal habit – something I had tried to develop many times over the last decade. In hindsight, this process has been especially interesting to me because it parallels my overall process of drawing and learning to draw: Many starts and stops until finally it stuck (and has stuck for going on 14 years). Why is one attempt at making a creative habit finally successful after many faulty starts? From a process perspective, that question fascinates me.

Trying to answer that question for myself, I analyzed my sketch journal process about a year in. Now that I’ve kept it up consistently for a year and a half, I finally feel confident enough to write this post as a general how-to based on what I’ve learned.

Perhaps the title “how to keep a sketch journal” isn’t quite right; it’s really about how I keep a sketch journal. A journaling process will always be unique and personal. I’m hoping, though, that my tips and experiences might be helpful to someone who is trying to develop their own unique sketch journal habit. Let me know if you are and what ideas you’ve used to stay engaged. I’m endlessly fascinated!

• 

  A6-size, daily-carry Uglybooks are
  still my sketch journal format of choice.

  Choose a sketchbook format that’s small and light and therefore easily portable. This
  might not fit well with everyone’s lifestyle, but I do believe it’s imperative for a sketch journal to be a daily-carry for it to stick as a regular habit. Sketchwaiting and other unplanned, spontaneous opportunities for sketching happen all the time. In fact, I am convinced that they happen more often when you are prepared to capture them because you are more open to seeing those opportunities.

• Incorporate sketch journaling with some other routine you already have. Maybe you commute by bus or train – that’s a prime opportunity for a daily sketch. Or you walk your dog. If your dog wouldn’t cooperatively wait while you sketch (I know of only one dog who is that patient), snap a photo from wherever you are when he/she stops for a pee or a sniff. Then sketch later from that photo. For me, it’s fitness walking: That’s another daily habit, so the two reinforce each other.
• Don’t decide ahead of time what you want your sketch journal to be; in other words, don’t make rules. Leave space and time for your process to evolve organically into one that fits you best. Early in my sketching life, I wanted every sketch in my journal to be from life. If I hadn’t sketched anything by the end of the day, I would sketch any random object in front of me, and that would be a frustrating and meaningless exercise. Another time I tried a large-page format so that I could include multiple vignettes from the whole day. I couldn’t carry the large book with me, so I had to work in it only at home. That didn’t last long. Neither did the time I decided all sketches would be from imagination or memory. My current sketch journal – mostly from life but also some sketches from photos, memory and even comics – has stuck because it’s flexible.

• 

  7/13/25 The most common sketch journal content
  comes from my daily fitness walks. I enjoy recording
  the date, time and weather conditions and capturing
  the seasons.

  Be cautious if one of your motivations for keeping a sketch journal is so that you’ll have something to share regularly on social media. Like a written diary, a sketch journal can be totally private, or not. But if you make each entry with the intention of sharing, it may hold you back from authenticity.

• What should be the subject matter of the sketches? One way to answer that is to ask yourself, What would be enjoyable to look back on years from now? What might prompt a memory of a place or incident I had forgotten about? Or which would be more meaningful – a sketch of my new shoes, or a sketch of a random face from the Internet?

• What about writing? As a lifelong journal keeper, I have a separate written journal, so I don’t write much in my sketch journal except the date, time and weather (I like the diary-like feeling of those facts). But if you don’t keep a separate written journal, you may enjoy jotting notes about the sketch you just made or some unrelated thoughts. Be open to it if it happens, but again, no rules.

• 

  3/26/25 A sketchwaiting opportunity at my
  optometrist's office. This page also documents when
  I got a new pair of glasses.

  Ultimately, sketch journaling should be something you look forward to doing each day, not a burden that gives you anxiety when you’ve fallen behind. If you allow the process to tell you what you want your sketch journal to be instead of the other way around, I think it will be a pleasure, not an annoyance. 

7/15/25 I had snapped a photo of this carpet cleaning
service vehicle parked in front of a neighbor's house to
reference the phone number and website. Later, I 
realized it would make a good sketch to document
a potential step in Phase 3 of my downsizing project.

7/12/25 This page spread didn't fill out as much as I had intended, but Natalie and I chatted more than we sketched during lunch, and that's a good thing to document, too, by way of omission.

A Little Color Before Shopping

 

7/14/25 Bryant neighborhood

When I’m short on time on a grocery day, but I want to sketch (like there’s ever a time when I don’t want to sketch?), I go to Metro Market. Before shopping, I walk just a few steps to a tiny pocket park next to the Burke-Gilman Trail. Tall trees keep the few benches and tables shady but let narrow streams of light in from the trail side. A few minutes with my Caran d’Ache Neocolor II crayons, and I’m ready to hit the food shelves.

Pups on Parade

 

7/12/25 Pups on Parade, Cromwell Park, Shoreline

The day we unexpectedly ended up sketching at Richmond Beach, Natalie had serendipitously spotted a flier about Pups on Parade. Although neither of us has dogs, we both love them, and it sounded like a fun, dog-centered event at Shoreline’s Cromwell Park.

A benefit for Old Dog Haven, which supports and fosters senior dogs, Pups on Parade has been going on for many years, yet it was off my radar until a few weeks ago. This small, neighborhood-centric event is exactly the kind I like: Not too crowded, low-key, and full of people and their dogs to sketch. Natalie and I were in heaven!

The highlights of Pups on Parade were competitions such as best costumed dogs and dog/human lookalikes, “lick art” made by dogs, and a kissing booth featuring rotating dogs offering kisses. A fund-raising auction supports services to more than 300 senior dogs who have been permanently adopted to foster homes. Some pup parents had fostered more than 10 dogs each. (I was so moved by the organization’s mission and the dog stories I heard that I’ve decided to give Old Dog Haven ongoing support through my pet portraits.)

My only regret is that I was having so much fun sketching that I hardly took any photos of dogs, especially the costumed ones! Shown below are some contestants in the dog/human lookalike contest. Other than matching hair color, I’m not seeing much resemblance in these pairs, but I enjoyed their enthusiasm.

I’ve often said that the Greenwood Car Show is my favorite annual summer event, but doggoneit, Pups on Parade is now a strong contender for that title!

This pair won the lookalike contest. Though I'm not 
seeing much resemblance other than color, I think this elderly
pup simply stole the judges' hearts. 

In the background is Martina, winner of the costume contest, in a pink and purple tutu that matches her human's.

Maggie

 

7/11/25 Maggie (reference photo by Katelyn This)

Here’s Maggie, whose life had to end prematurely and very tragically. When I hear each pet’s story from the clients who commission the drawings, I am always moved. It helps me to feel a connection with the animal as I draw. Even if I’ve never met the dog (or the associated human, for that matter), and even if the result shows no difference, it’s somehow a very different experience from drawing a random Internet photo of a dog.

Material notes: Hmmm, I was troubled by this one, specifically the ArtGraf water-soluble graphite that I decided to use in front. As mentioned in my post about Dixie Sue, the last pet portrait I made, I was uneasy about using ArtGraf on Derwent Lightfast paper, which is not intended for wet media, so I skipped it that time. Before using it on Maggie, I practiced on some scrap paper to figure out the water balance I needed, but I don’t like the effect as much as I do on the Stonehenge Lenox Cotton paper that I usually use. It’s also not intended for wet media, but it takes ArtGraf in a mottled way that I like.

The easy solution would be to go back to Lenox Cotton, but Dixie Sue, Maggie and three more dogs I have yet to draw will all go to the same owner, and I don’t want to change the paper in case they will be displayed together: Lightfast has a much warmer tone than Lenox Cotton.

Argh. These are the types of issues I never have to think about with plain ol’ urban sketching in my sketchbook (and why I’m grateful that I don’t make this kind of portrait for a living).

Color Temperature at Volunteer Park

 

On location at Volunteer Park

In February I took an online class with Sarah Bixler on a topic that has intrigued me ever since I took two workshops with her several years ago: color temperature. In all cases, although she didn’t necessarily describe her classes as having color temperature as the focus, her personal approach to color is so strongly centered that way that it became the focus, regardless of subject matter.

I wasn’t necessarily interested in portraiture or figure drawing, but I tried to learn and understand the concepts so that I could apply them on location. Along the way, I’ve made attempts to do this on my own, but I haven’t feel confident doing it. That’s why I was thrilled when she offered several plein air workshops this summer. I couldn’t sign up fast enough!

Our subject: tree limbs turned into a jungle gym

Meeting at Volunteer Park on a thoroughly overcast afternoon, we lucked out on a comfortable temperature, but the flat lighting seemed less than ideal. Sarah pointed out, though, that while we lacked strong shadows, we had the benefit of seeing local colors more easily without the glare of direct sunlight.

The subject she chose for her demo were the remains of multiple trees that had been arranged in a sculptural-like effect (and used frequently by kids as a jungle gym). Hearing her talk through her thinking process continually as she sketched was highly informative and also gave us opportunities to interrupt with questions. Although her near-abstract approach was identical to how she approaches figures or portraits, seeing subject matter on location somehow felt more “real” and natural to me than even live studio models.

Choosing a relatively muted secondary triad (yellow-green, blue-violet, burnt ochre) that was very different from the palette she used, I sketched the same subject she had demo’d. Although I could have chosen a different subject, I thought it would be a good challenge for myself to think about the interpretations and analysis she had talked through while using my own color choices.

My sketch completed during the workshop. The blending triangle at lower left shows the palette I used. Value thumbnail at lower right.

After focusing on color temperature for my main color application, I tried something on my own: Despite keeping it somewhat abstract, I felt like the tree “sculpture” was unclear as a three-dimensional object, which I might have rendered more fully if I had been using my natural, more descriptive approach. To bring the front-facing branches forward, I added yellow to the palette and applied it sparingly to those branches as well as to the foreground grass. At the same time, I made the background cooler than it appeared to push it back. When Sarah pointed out that the background trees could be a darker value, she suggested Payne’s Grey as a neutral cool, and she was right that it made the background darker without affecting my palette choices.

Due to her approach and technique, my result is more abstract than I am used to making, so it doesn’t feel like my own (though I must say that it was a relief to focus on large shapes and not worry about drawing all those tree limbs accurately). But I’m very happy with the optical blending I achieved with dry colored pencils; I really like the “pixelated” effect on this toothy Canson XL mixed media paper I used. And I especially appreciated the opportunity to finally apply her approach to color in the field with her feedback.

Pencil notes: From my previous experience in Sarah’s classes, I knew she recommended Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils. But to make the process my own as I would use it on location, I had to use watercolor pencils, even in their dry state, because my favorite Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelles (extremely soft) blend very differently than Polychromos (extremely hard). This was probably the largest (5-by-7 inches or so) sketch I’ve done with Museum Aquarelles completely dry, and it was delightful to really push their softness to cover the entire composition (which I rarely do even with small sketches). I’m thinking that Caran d’Ache Neocolor II water-soluble crayons would also lend themselves well to this technique and approach.

After scanning the image as completed in the workshop (above), I applied a tiny bit of water to the darkest areas of the background to bring the foreground object further forward (below). It was hard being so restrained with water activation, but I didn’t want to lose the optical blending effect that appeals to me so much with this approach. (See captions for more notes.)

7/9/25 Volunteer Park (After I got home, I added a very restrained amount of water only to the darkest areas of the background to further help push the focal point forward in the composition.)

Warm palette. Instead of using Sarah's recommended Polychromos pencils, I picked out pencils from the Museum Aquarelle palette to match her color suggestions as closely as possible. It's fairly close to my typical daily-carry palette.

Cool palette 

I couldn't resist snapping this pic of Sarah's disorganized, grubby and well-used pencils! I love seeing pencils that look hard-working, while my own look lazy and pristine in their tidy case (above). I can't help being tidy, but a part of me wishes I weren't.

Kora Music

 

7/10/25 Kora busker at Lake City Farmers Market

Walking among the tents of organic berries, colorful bouquets and jarred kimchi, I heard gentle, meditative music in the distance. It was a man playing a stringed instrument I had never seen before, nor the way he was strumming it: Facing the long fretboard.

When I finished my sketch, I put money in his basket and learned that the instrument is called a kora, played by Chet Corpt. It was a lovely soundtrack for a beautiful summer afternoon at the Lake City Farmers Market.

Ahhhh... this is what summer is made of!