Hay Fever

It's been a while since I posted. That's 'cause it's been cold up here and I spend the winter skiing. Well, it's finally warming up, the boat's in the water, and I finally felt like getting out and working with the sketch pad.

This is a sketch of a tree that's in our front yard. It has lots of twists and turns and is interesting to draw. It was also a bit of a hazard since I have spring hay fever. Oh well' finished the drawing and am thanking Zyrtec for keeping the sneezing under control.

Coffee shop sketches: trying out new tools

By Marcia Milner-Brage in Cedar Falls, Iowa

I purchased a set of Derwent Inktense pencils recently. I've never been too enamored with a set of Caran d'Ache watercolor pencils I inherited from my daughter who got them as a birthday present 12 years ago. So I took my new toys to Cup of Joe coffee shop here in Cedar Falls, Iowa, to give them a test-drive.

When I'm not traveling out of town, I'm a real homebody; I rarely go to coffee shops or restaurants. So even though on home turf, I was exploring new terrain.

Cup of Joe is on the corner of Main and First Street. Trying to establish more about the venue, I put in the afternoon traffic on First Street, as seen through the front window. Aha, another for my Inside/Outside Series!

I started with a line drawing using a calligraphy pen. Oops....the ink was water soluble...adding watercolor pencils maybe not the best combination. The guy on the right got kind of mucked up. I do like the irregular line the pen makes, though. I'll have to see about loading it with permanent ink cartridges.  These two men seemed to be really enjoying each others company. Coffee shops are sure a great place to people watch!

mannequin with white sunglasses

I probably spent more time on this drawing than it was worth. Cup of Joe has a funky mid-century vibe. Mannequins with vintage clothes, formica tables, Fiestaware, and green and blue lampshades, which impart interesting colors onto people's faces. 

The juries still out on my new Derwent pencils. I do like their vibrant color, reminiscent of my wax pastels that I have used a lot for years now. I think less is more (like the first sketch versus the last).

Any thoughts?

Alsace and Bourgogne: A Sense of Place

“I’m not interested in the stereotype of a place, but in the essence of it as seen through one’s own experience.”

In my mind, one of the greatest of travel distractions is the snapshot. Please note that I didn’t say “camera,” but “snapshot.” Nothing lessens my enjoyment of a place faster and more surely than a carload of bedraggled tourists piling out, clicking away, chattering in frenzied excitement – yet paying almost no attention to the place at all, because they’ve made their snapshot. They’ve documentary proof of their visit to the place. And then they pile back into the vehicle, and it’s off again to the next place.

Snapshots aren’t inherently bad, but I prefer to experience a place slowly, which is why I have a tendency to do so on foot or by bicycle, unrushed. Exploring, sketchbook in hand, also tends to encourage a certain investigation of the essence of place rather than a more facile stereotype or caricature. My purpose is to communicate that essence as it is seen through my own experience, and in doing so to hopefully also communicate some overlooked truth. I will always leave out details or elements in my sketches that might divert attention; too much detail can, strangely enough, create a drawing that distorts or misrepresents the experience of one’s journey.

And yet, sometimes I find that by focusing on details rather than on the big picture, one can create a worthwhile visual conversation about a small, charming element.

Normally I will only use graphite to rough in quick gestural marks and then rely upon my Lamy Safari pen to lay down the important lines. But on occasion, as in the example above, I discover I’ve forgotten to refill the reservoir and I’m entirely without ink!

Personally, I find more satisfaction keeping the line work simple and gestural rather than going into great detail with rendering. I've heard this described as Zen-like. Perhaps. I rather enjoy the challenge of communicating a certain "believability" with a minimum of lines.

One nice thing about buildings in the French villages we visited is their distinctive architectural look and shape. Once one has identified the key forms, keeping the calligraphy of the lines simple and believable comes more naturally. It makes me happy to reach the state where the sketch isn’t “trying too hard” – it just is.

Introduction, sketching, and general silliness.

I've been asked to introduce myself to the group, and I'm relatively certain the folks doing the asking had no idea what they were getting themselves into. I'm a generally silly person, and when I dug around for a photograph of myself to include, the image below was the most serious image I could find.

My name is Mark Anderson and I've made my living as an artist, designer, and visual art educator for over thirty-five years. My students and patrons often ask me where ideas "come from." I can't speak for anyone else, but I like to believe I'm a student of the world around me; I unconsciously doodle on any scrap of paper that happens to be at hand and I seldom feel obliged to make a "photographic" representation; rather I enjoy trying to sketch the mood or quality of the moment. With few exceptions, I use a Lamy Safari medium nib pen loaded with Noodler's; I also carry a small travel kit of watercolors. In general, I will try to keep my sketches fresh by putting pen to paper without the "safety net" of a pencil sketch.

I'm also a lot more interested in the process of drawing than in the final "finished" product. Drawing is fun, thumbing through a sketchbook is interesting, but I don't choose to dwell on my finished work. I share it and move on to something new. Because I'm interested in the process, though, I'll often capture the stages of development as I've done in the illustration above.

I enjoy simplicity and I enjoy travel - seeing the world, meeting the people who populate the world. My journeys - and thus, my sketches - are often made while I'm walking or bicycling. I find that those folks who zoom by a place in their car, maybe hopping out occasionally to snap a photograph, are missing the essence of the place. Slow exploration often yields intriguing details lost to the traveler in a hurry. 

This past weekend, for instance, I decided to explore an often overlooked - or even avoided - part of Kansas City. I love areas like this, where the signage seems to date back decades.

I'll often draw buildings or trees, but people really interest me. I seldom miss an opportunity to create likenesses of those around me, and I often will simply fill page after page with ten to fifteen second gesture sketches of people, scurrying around in the everyday hustle and bustle. The sketch above was made yesterday at Ophelia's in Independence. Restaurants are a marvelous place to draw - your subject is often relatively stationary unlike people out on the street!

I've committed to contributing at least ten posts a year, and I appreciate being asked to do so. You may see a flurry of sketches from me at some point in the year, and then things on my end my go quiet for a while as life catches up. I'm pretty active on Flickr, and manage several blogs as well - of particular interest to this group might be Just Sketching. If you are a cycling enthusiast, you may also know me as The Early Morning Cyclist, where I frequently share the results of my bike sketch outings.

OK, enough about me. Let's get out there and draw!

Not in the Water Yet

This sketch was done for Saturday's virtual sketch crawl. The drawing is of boats that are stacked 'round the edges of the parking lot of our marina...Crosswinds in Whitehall, Michigan. Whitehall Landing is another marina next door.

The boats aren't quite ready to be dropped in the water for the summer. Their owners are busy, and in some cases not so busy, getting their boat ready for launch. Unfortunately, on a busy Memorial Day weekend, the boats crowd cars in competition for space. Next week more will be in the water. The cars will win their battle.

Some coffeeshop time in Pre-Xmas Salina

I had the good fortune of having time on my hands while Wilma attended an activity of her own. That gave me the chance to find a neat little independent coffeeshop in Salina. Had some sketch time while I took in the local scene.

Junked Truck, Still There

Junked Truck and Goldenrod

Diagonally across the street from my house is a vacant lot where junked or little used vehicles are stored by the owner of the lot. Theoretically, not allowed by city ordinance in residential neighborhoods, this truck has been there for several years. The seasons change around it. Today, I stood on the edge of the lot to paint this.

Here, in winter, I drew looking down on the lot from my second floor bedroom window. Then the truck was joined by a school bus.

School Bus in Vacant Lot

Sketching Kansas City

Our May Sketchcrawl was on the grounds of the historic Elms Hotel in Excelsior Springs

The ladies in pink are bridesmaids, wrapped in towels by the pool!

As usual, I spend my time in the parking lot sketching while Joseph shops!

Nice lunch...

I'm not a shopper, so I always enjoy the chance to sketch, especially when I can find a great spot like the one in the Half Price bookstore in Kansas City.  Not only a chair to ssit in, but a table to use...

This was my bent-nib Hero pen, which makes wonderfully varied lines.

Kansas City - Looking East from 19th & Broadway.

I work just around the corner from a community garden that is a wonderful oasis in the city.  I sat on a bench in the garden to draw this scene.  The garden is on a hillside that slopes down from where I sat.  I was looking over the tops of some of the plants for this view.  Actually drawn over a few days with watercolor added later at home.  I had fun with this one!