The Last Class Assignment

I can't believe how 6 weeks has gone by so quickly in our drawing class. It was a sad and quiet meeting last night as our teacher gave us our final work assignment, working with pastels! That was a first for me. And in our 45 minutes I got as far as I got below before turning in the colorful pieces of pastels  (funny how the camera couldn't clearly focus on the fuzzy board). Now I need to add more things to my art stuff...pastels....it's very different than sketching or working with water colors. But it was fun working from the dark to the lighter shades and seeing the form appear on the board. I'm hooked.

On another note, I was able to get a few people from the class signed up to continue to do some sketching meet ups. Who knows, maybe we'll get a Urban Sketchers group formed in the future. Now that would be exciting!

Ocean Beach, CA

 I spent an extra long weekend at Ocean Beach to do nothing but taking walks on the beach, relaxing, sketching, walking some more, reading and napping.

 This is a sketch of the room and it was done after a very long walk on the beach. Harley is getting her first nap in of the weekend. My brother gave me money for supplies a while ago so I stopped in at Blicks in San Diego to look around and of course pick up some new things. This was done in my Moleskine with a new red ink pen a long with a set of Derwent Inktesnse pencils. Maybe I'm not using the pencils correctly,  I'll have to check to see if there are any instructions on utube.

This bus wasn't exactly what I had in mind that I'd be painting this weekend. I found it parked along side the beach parking lot and decided to give it a whirl. I'm glad I did because the following day it was gone to its next destination.  Ink and watercolors in my 6x8 Stillman&Birn Alpha (which is becoming my favorite journal book)

 

 This is the sketch I started sitting at the dog beach. I still have to finish it, add more dogs and people then color. My two dogs were needing my attention at the time. They loved the beach. Harley had been there before so she was a pro at beach walking and getting her feet wet in the ocean. Ziggy was a little apprehensive at first but with the help of Harley, he was soon zooming around the beach, digging for gold and just being a happy beach dog. I told my partner that we're going to begin taking a monthly day trip to this beach. It was great watching the dogs have so much fun.

A Short Sketch in the Forest

There must of been a new hatching of some little bug going on by the stream. Little black flying insects were happening on Sunday; I'm surprised one didn't get incorporated (smashed) onto the page I was sketching.  The problems of being close to water. I'll probably add more details to this one on the next trip but for now......

In the Works

 I'm enjoying working in my 6X9 spiral book. The size is just right for me right now. I also picked up a two pack, fine Sharpie black pens. The shade was slightly lighter than the Microns that I have been using so I'm testing them out with these two sketches. (they passed the water pre-test).  I'll be adding the water colors at some point but for now, I'm enjoying this stage.