All Posts On: Travel Sketching

Austin Skyline, from Town Lake Park (larger)

Saturday October 25th was SketchCrawl #20. I flew to Austin the night before to meet up with Lisa who drove down from the Dallas area. She got the word out and six local sketchers joined us for the event. What a great day! The weather was perfect and we were able to walk around central Austin and sketch a bunch of great subjects.

At Whole Foods World Headquarters (larger)

Texas Capital Dome (larger)

In the Driskill Hotel (larger)

Stevie Ray Vaughan
Statue (larger)

I had never been to Austin before. We picked the city as our destination because it was easy for both of us to get to and we wanted to spend time there. What a cool place! Here are some photos from the day:

Me, Sketching Stevie

Me, Studying the Dome
(not George 🙂 )

Nancy, Lisa and Anna

Ed and Janet

The date for SketchCrawl #21 has been set: Saturday January 10, 2009. Where will you be sketching?

See Also:

Posted in Austin, Food, Interiors, Landscapes, SketchCrawl, Still Life, Travel Sketching | Leave a Comment » | View 17 Comments »

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Santa Fe 2008 Sketchbook November 24th, 2008

Here are the rest of the sketches from my recent trip to Santa Fe. Fellow sketchblogger Lisa was on the same trip and did some really great sketches too.

I love Santa Fe and try to go every year or two. The light, spaces, color and food are amazing!

Sena Plaza (larger)

Canyon Road Shop (larger)

Cafe at Garcia Street Books (larger)

House Where We Stayed (larger)

Canyon Road Gate (larger)

At the Plaza (larger)

Jazz at Chispa (larger)

Bar at Chispa (larger)

See Also:

And Don’t Miss:

Lisa’s Santa Fe Sketches

Posted in Interiors, Landscapes, New Mexico, Travel Sketching | Leave a Comment » | View 9 Comments »

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Santa Fe 2008 Sketch Grids October 18th, 2008

Canyon Road Grid (larger)

Last month I went on a lively trip to Santa Fe with book club friends. There we met up with former member and fellow sketchblogger Lisa Reed and had a fabulous time exploring, eating, sketching and laughing.

I have a bunch of sketches from the trip to share, and thought I’d start off with the grid pages.

The top one is inspired by pages Lisa and I did this spring on a SketchCrawl in San Francisco. These are very fun to do! I draw out the boxes first, and then find little subjects to fill them.

Daily Grid (larger)

The second grid is similar to one I did this summer on a cabin trip, and chronicles each day. This is a great way to capture the often forgotten moments of a trip.

And hey: to all the many of you who have inquired about my whereabouts and well being lately – thank you! I have indeed been busy, but am still here and have much to share. Stay tuned for plenty more sketch-stuff. In fact, next weekend Lisa and I are meeting up in Austin to celebrate the 20th World Wide Sketchcrawl. Care to join us?

Continued:

Santa Fe 2008 Sketchbook

See Also:

And Don’t Miss:

Lisa’s Santa Fe Sketches

Posted in Food, Landscapes, New Mexico, Still Life, Travel Daily Grids, Travel Sketching | Leave a Comment » | View 13 Comments »

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Sierra Sketches August 11th, 2008

Horsetail Falls (larger)

Sierra Cabin (larger)

On our recent cabin trip I had plenty of time to seek out sketching subjects. For some reason though I always have trouble finding things to sketch there.

The forest is teeming with detail; it can be overwhelming. There are not a lot of large shapes or distinct value patterns either.

Or maybe they are there and I just can’t see them? I’d like to be able to sketch more of the natural areas, but it seems I can’t see the forest for the trees!

At any rate, these were fun to do and I intend to go back soon and sketch some more.

Old Garage (larger)

On the Deck (larger)

Pyramid Creek (larger)

Posted in California, Landscapes, Travel Daily Grids, Travel Sketching | Leave a Comment » | View 22 Comments »

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Cabin Daze August 5th, 2008

Five Days at the Cabin (larger)

We recently spent five days with good friends at our cabin in the Sierra mountains, eating, relaxing and inventing cocktails. Inspired by Amanda Kavanagh’s wonderful travel pages, I decided to make a chart of our grand adventures.

This was was a blast to do, especially adding the watercolor. I laid out the page the first day, then filled in a new column each evening. I really like how it came out.

Coming up next, sketches from the trip!

Posted in California, Food, Travel Sketching | Leave a Comment » | View 9 Comments »

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International Moleskine Exchange May 27th, 2008

The Moly_x_20 Project

moly_x_20 Book, Napa Sketch (larger)

This is my first contribution to the popular International Moleskine Exchange (aka moly_x) mail-based art exchange project. The idea is that artists work in small groups filling accordion-style Pocket Moleskine notebooks that are mailed, round robin fashion, around the group. Thus far there are 29 groups formed: I am in group 20 (aka moly_x_20). Each group has an individual blog to track partipation and communications, and all projects post images to the unified Flickr group: a great place to monitor the progress of the project at large.

For my own book I decided to do a variation of a sketch I did recently in Napa. I’d never really reprised a sketch before but found it a lot of fun to figure out what to change and add to make it work in the new format. The paper in these Moleskine books has a waxy finish which is resistant to watercolors (which is why I rebind Moleskines for my own use), so I also had to do some experimentation to find a similar way to add color.

I discovered that watercolor pencils work fairly well in both wet and dry form. The pencils I used are Caran d’Ache Supracolor II, of which I happened to have a few assorted colors on hand. I think it’s time to go out and round out my collection of colors, in anticipation of this project!

Update:
Lisa (rightside) has done a beautiful next entry in my book.
Check it out!

More Entries in this Project:
My Moly_x Drawings

For More Online Information:
     Moly_x Explained [requires Flickr login]
     Moly_x Image Pool
     Moly_x_20 Project Blog

Posted in California, Landscapes, Projects, Travel Sketching | Leave a Comment » | View 9 Comments »

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New York Sketchbook, 2008, Part Three May 18th, 2008

Continued from: New York Sketchbook 2008, Part Two

Madison Avenue Shop Window (larger)

After I got back from my New York trip I decided to try making some additional sketches from photographs. Here are the results. I like these sketches, although they are not as loose as those I did on site.

The shop window is an Italian children’s clothing stop on Madison Avenue. It was the low key color palette that attracted my eye.

Whitney Museum, Biennial (larger)

W. 58th Street Firehouse (larger)

The Whitney Museum is having their well known contemporary art exhibition, the Biennial, and I happened by as the line was forming for an evening event.

This year one of the art pieces is on the outside of the museum: a giant Eagle’s Nest, by Fritz Haeg, perched above the entryway.

The firehouse is on 58th Street, and is the home of Engine Company 23. I walked right by the front if it, did a double take, and knew I had to record it!

More Sketches from New York
More Sketches of Shop Windows

Posted in Figures, Landscapes, New York, Travel Sketching | Leave a Comment » | View 14 Comments »

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New York Sketchbook, 2008, Part Two May 15th, 2008

Continued from: New York Sketchbook 2008, Part One

Koons Balloon Dog at the Met (larger)

Continuing on with my recent New York Trip, I had a great day walking through Central Park and visiting one of my (well, everyone’s) favorite museums, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This summer’s rooftop sculpture exhibit features three Jeff Koons sculptures including this one: Balloon Dog, Yellow. The day was rather chilly, yet with only a cappuccino to sustain me I braved the elements to get my sketch. Suffering for art, you know!

Because of the cold weather I generally did more indoor sketching in New York than planned. Here are a couple of favorite cafes, and a quick sketch of the Lincoln Center.

Le Pain Quotidien, 65th Street (larger)

Payard on Lexington Avenue (larger)

Lincoln Center (larger)

I also attended the New York City Ballet at the Lincoln Center, a program featuring Jerome Robbins choreography and Leonard Bernstein music. As I often do, I tried to sketch blind, in the dark. Here is a montage of some of the more readable scribbles done during the three dances: Fancy Free, Dybbuk, and West Side Story.

At the NYCB (larger)

More Sketches from New York

Posted in Figures, Interiors, Landscapes, New York, Travel Sketching | Leave a Comment » | View 12 Comments »

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New York Sketchbook, 2008, Part One May 5th, 2008

Christie’s Spring Auction Preview (larger)

I’ve just returned from a short trip to Manhattan for a couple of days of sketchcrawling. The highlight of my trip was getting to meet fellow sketchblogger Shirley and her husband. We spent a lovely day making and looking at art.

We visited the Spring Previews for upcoming Impressionist and Modern auctions at Christie’s and Sotheby’s, where we saw quite a few memorable pieces on their way from one private collection to another. Shirley and I sketched details of some of our favorites. We had a lovely lunch too, and ended the day with a glass of wine and sketch talk while finishing up our pages.

Shirley has quite a number of completed sketchbooks filled with wonderful work. Looking through them was a pure delight and so inspiring! Isn’t it fun to peer into the sketchbooks of other artists?

Sotheby’s Spring Auction Preview (larger)

More Sketches from New York

Posted in Figures, New York, Still Life, Travel Sketching | Leave a Comment » | View 6 Comments »

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Napa Sketchbook: In Search of Bubbles April 13th, 2008

Sketching and Champagne in Napa Valley

Domaine Carneros (larger)

At Domaine Carneros

True to the “Crawl” part of SketchCrawl, Lisa and I recently spent a day in Napa sketching and visiting champagne wineries. We had a great time! We started at Domaine Carneros, where it was sunny and the views spectacular. Quite sketchable, and the champagne is divine!

Tulips in the Napa Valley (larger)

We moved on the Mumm Winery and on the way stumbled upon an estate filled with thousands of tulips. It was absolutely stunning and we went back later for pictures and further investigation. By then it was raining, so we did our tulip sketches later from photographs.

Domaine Chandon (larger)

We finished up at Domaine Chandon, tired but determined to sketch!

It was a wonderful, adventure-filled day. The weather was dramatic and the bubbles divine. It was Lisa’s idea to make the trek, and I must say it was inspired! She is moving to Texas now, in fact she’s on the road today, so our sketching adventures are on curtailed for now.

I will miss you Lisa!

Posted in California, Landscapes, Travel Sketching | Leave a Comment » | View 16 Comments »

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Monterey Sketchbook, Part Three March 12th, 2008

Out and About

Continued from: Monterey Sketchbook, Part Two

Pacific Grove, Coast (larger)

I finished up the Monterey/Pacific Grove trip on a brisk day with a couple of outdoor sketches. There is a fantastic walking path along the coast with inspiring views at every turn. I took a refreshing walk from Pacific Grove to Monterey and back, and did a sketch at each end of the route.

Monterey Aquarium (larger)

Monterey Sketchbook, Part Two March 9th, 2008

Sketching at the Aquarium

Continued from: Monterey Sketchbook, Part One

Kelp Forest (larger)

Giant Tree Frog (larger)

Sea Otters (larger)

Our sketching adventures continued with more exotic subjects at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. You can’t miss the aquarium’s signature 28 foot tall Kelp Forest tank. And we found these frogs that looked exactly like they were made out of vinyl, except that they moved, so they’re not. The adorable and comical Sea Otters are a favorite of mine, and of everyone else’s too: the exhibit was packed all day.

I was most intrigued by the Giant Octopus, glued to the glass of his aquarium: he seemed to know that was his most impressive view. I was able to get a photo of him and ink in a sketch as well, which I painted later that day. It came out rather abstractly, but I like it.