Skyping with the Editorial Board

Marcia, Gabi and me Skyping in Gabi's diningroom.

Writing and editing Drawing Attention, the monthly newsletter of the Urban Sketchers organization, the past two years has given me wider exposure to the USk regional chapters and their activities, which I thoroughly enjoy. Although I’m still continuing to edit the newsletter, for a while now I’ve been wanting to get even more involved with the USk organization. Last fall the USk Editorial Board put out a call for new members, and I saw an ideal opportunity to use my communications and editorial background to help serve the organization.

I joined the Editorial Board in December, and I’m very proud and happy to be part of such a hard-working, creative team. (Led by Gabi Campanario, the members are Murray Dewhurst, James Hobbs, Marcia Milner-Brage, Suhita Shirodkar and me.) Our main responsibilities are managing guest blog posts submitted to the global Urban Sketchers blog (more than 75 were published in 2015) and communicating with all of its regular correspondents. In addition, we take on some special projects, such as redesigning the global blog.

On a wall in Gabi's family room is one of the enlarged sketches
from his "Drawn to Seattle" exhibit a couple years
ago at the Museum of History and Industry.

While we normally conduct our day-to-day business by e-mail only, Gabi called a Skype meeting for yesterday afternoon to hammer out the final details of the blog redesign. Though not everyone was available to attend, it was fun to finally meet Marcia. (I think you’re going to like the changes in the blog! Coming soon!)

(I arrived at Gabi’s house a little early for the meeting, so I stopped to sketch this tree in his neighborhood.)

1/16/16 inks, colored pencil

Real-Life Life Drawing at Top Pot

1/15/16 Zebra brush pen, colored pencils

Sketching at Top Pot Doughnuts in West Seattle last Friday was so much fun that I was reminded of the one in Wedgwood, which is the neighborhood just east of my own ‘hood. It had been a long time since I’d sketched there, and I couldn’t remember anymore why I had rejected it as a regular sketching spot – was it too dark? Too small? Not enough “victims”? Another wet and cold January day was dawning – time to check out the Wedgwood Top Pot.

You already know how much fun I’ve been having with brush pens at life drawing sessions. I wanted to see if I could have just as much fun with them during real-life life drawing – and I did! Today I used the smaller end of my non-hairy Zebra double-sided brush pen (I’ve been using mostly the wider end for figure drawing), which allows me a little more detail on faces when I want them. In fact, I was surprised by how fine a line I can get when I hold the pen nearly vertically to use its very tip (my Sailor fudes are good training for that). I can’t get the level of detail I can with a fountain pen, of course, but the brush pen makes up for that in speed: The little girl eating a chocolate-frosted donut bigger than her head didn’t sit still for long. (Maybe the equivalent of a one-minute pose?)

1/15/16 Zebra brush pen, colored pencils

How does this Top Pot rate as a sketching spot? Its lighting is excellent, and the café space, though not too large, is lined with wall-to-wall bookshelves filled with old books. I had my choice of several backlit window tables (which are my preference), and by 9 a.m., a variety of victims of all ages had crossed my view. Bonus: Delicious scones are offered along with all the doughnuts! I think I’ve found my new regular sketching place.

And how’s this for a woo-woo moment? As I searched through this blog to put the links into this post, I got curious about when it was that I had last sketched at the Wedgwood Top Pot: It was Jan. 15, 2013 – exactly three years ago to the date! What a weird coincidence. (Want to see what it looks like from the outside? I sketched that around the same time, too.)

1/15/16 Zebra brush pen, colored pencils

Throwaways are Keepers

1/14/16 Sailor Nagomi brush pen (20-min. pose)

Usually I think of the one-minute life-drawing poses as throwaways, like the first pancake (or in this case, the first 20): They’re intended as warm-ups only. This morning’s model had such dynamic and expressive poses, though, that the one minutes were among my favorite drawings today (bottom of post).

I’m in a groove with my favorite brush pen duo: a non-hairy Zebra and a hairy Sailor fude Nagomi (see Tuesday’s post for the details). They give me just enough fluidity for speed while being thick enough to keep me from getting fiddly with details. The water-soluble ink is a bonus for fast shading.

To mix it up, I brought along a Strathmore toned sketchbook to use with a colored pencil and a white pencil. Although I enjoy being able to put in highlights as well as shading on toned paper, using dry media on 10-minute poses felt sluggish; I couldn’t seem to get the leads to move fast enough. I switched back to a brush pen for the last 20-minute pose (top of page), and it felt just right again. Maybe next time I’ll save the toned sketchbook for a 20-minute pose.

1/14/16 Graphitint and white pencils (10-min. pose)

The best news of the day was that Gage just scheduled short poses on Monday mornings this quarter, which means I can attend regularly for a while! Being able to go three times since last Thursday reminded me how much I enjoy life-drawing practice – and how much I had missed it (my punch card showed that I only managed to get there twice last year).

(If you’re not a fan of my life drawings, don’t worry – I only do this during the bad-weather months. As soon as it’s warm and dry enough to sketch outdoors, you can bet I’ll be back on the streets again.)

1/14/16 Sailor Nagomi brush pen (10-min. poses)

1/14/16 Zebra double-sided brush pen (1-min. pose)

1/14/16 Zebra double-sided brush pen (1-min. pose)

1/14/16 Zebra double-sided brush pen (1-min. pose)

1/14/16 Zebra double-sided brush pen (1-min. pose)

Warming Up

1/12/16 Winsor Newton watercolor marker (1-min. poses)

By a stroke of luck (a cancelled meeting this morning), today was the second of what I hope will be three times in two weeks that I’ll be able to make it to life drawing at Gage – exactly what I need on these cold, wet, gloomy days. Compared to last Thursday, which was the first time I’d been to life drawing in months, today I felt a lot less creaky. It’s especially apparent in the one-minute poses: Look at these from today (at left) compared to the ones from last week (at right, below) – my hand and arm seemed to move much more easily.

Like last week, I used a non-hairy Zebra double-sided brush pen for the shorter poses

1/7/16 Zebra double-sided brush pen (1-min. poses)

(five minutes or less) and a Sailor fude Nagomi hairy brush pen for the 10- and 20-minute poses. Today I also pulled out a Winsor Newton watercolor marker for the one-minute poses. (It has a tapered, non-hairy, compressed-fiber tip similar to the various Japanese brush pens I reviewed, except it’s a bit firmer. One of these days I might review it, although I use it only as a marker and not as a blendable watercolor applicator as it is designed to be, so I’m not taking full advantage of its qualities.)

I’m really enjoying the combo of these two types of brush pens for life drawing. The compressed-fiber tips move quickly, which is essential for short poses. And for the longer poses, I can linger a while with the hairy Nagomi, which imparts a surprisingly fine, nearly hair-width line at its very tip (see the detail sketches I made of the model’s hands, below).

“Lingering a while,” by the way, is a relative term at life drawing. After warming up on 20 one-minute poses, every longer pose after that feels leisurely. Ten minutes is downright languid, and 20 minutes is almost too long – I sometimes finish early and have time left over to make additional small detail sketches. 

1/12/16 Zebra brush pen (2-min. poses)

Although drawing nude models doesn’t seem like applicable practice for urban sketching (unless you’re planning to sketch at a nude beach; if I ever do, I’ll be ready), I do find the speed practice very useful. When I know I have only one minute (or two or five or even 10) to capture a pose, I have to decide quickly which lines to focus on and leave most of the details alone. That’s not a bad skill to practice, no matter the subject matter, for sketching on location. Even with a building or other stationary object, you never know when it might start raining or a truck will park in front of you. As for people, the main difference between sketching at life drawing and sketching in a coffee shop is that you aren’t told whether the guy sipping his latte will leave in one minute or 30.

1/12/16 Sailor Nagomi brush pen (10-min. pose)

1/12/16 Sailor Nagomi brush pen (20-min. pose)

1/12/16 Sailor Nagomi brush pen (20-min. pose)

The Sun at My Back

1/10/16 inks, colored pencil

After weeks of temps in the 30s and 40s, my phone weather app reported that it was currently 49 degrees in Maple Leaf – downright balmy! Walking up the shady side of the street on Roosevelt Way Northeast, I stopped at a spot between buildings so I could sketch with the sun at my back. 

Peeking Through

1/9/16 inks, watercolor, colored pencils

By noon, this morning’s thick fog layer had finally burned off, though more slowly than usual. In its place, clouds started drifting in, but I was happy to see blue sky peeking through. (Wish I could have finished sketching the mail truck in the foreground before the mail carrier came back from her route and drove off.)

Happy Birthday, Elvis!

1/8/16 brush pen, colored pencil

If the Friday sketchers hadn’t met at Top Pot Doughnuts this morning, I probably would have gone through the day unaware that today is Elvis’s birthday. But thankfully we did meet at the shop’s West Seattle location on Alki Avenue, where the “hand-forged” doughnut company was recognizing what would have been the King’s 81^st birthday. I decided to pass on the King’s Rings (maple-frosted doughnuts encrusted with thick squares of bacon), but there was plenty else to sketch in the large yet cozy space.

During a typical 2.5 hour sketch outing, I tend to do two or three sketches. Today I felt like doing a series of small sketches. I even ventured outside the store for one sketch of the street, but that didn’t last long (my phone weather app said it was 37 F).

The last time I sketched Elvis was three years ago at Drawing Jam. Thinking that the King’s Rings might prompt an appearance, I was ready, but no Elvis was sighted. Maybe next year.

1/8/16 ink, colored pencil, sticker

1/8/16 brush pen, colored pencil

1/8/16 ink, brush pen, colored pencil

1/8/16 ink, colored pencil