Otherlands Coffee Shop & Sketchbooks, PART 2

12" x  9" Canson Sketchbook        Lamy pen, water soluble ink, water brush 

In 2013, I was planning to sketch while traveling and was looking for ways to complete sketches more quickly.  Blending water soluble ink with the water brush was much quicker than cross hatching. The water brush, though, required me to use thicker paper, so I started trying out different types of sketch books.

7" x 10" Strathmore Watercolor Sketchbook        Lamy pen, water soluble ink, water brush 

I was missing strong lines, so I experimented with a combination of techniques.

8.25" x 5,5 Pen & Ink sketchbook         black Prismacolor chisel tip pen,
 Lamy pen with water soluble ink, water brush

When the paper was too thin to take water, I tried using gray markers.

8.25" x 5.5" Handbook sketchbook         black chisel tip Prismacolor pen and
gray Faber-Castell Pitt artist pen

8.25" x 5.5" Pentalic sketchbook         black Pentel brush pen and
gray Pentel Color Brush

I started with lines and here I am playing more with tones and colors.

5.5" x 8.25" Moleskin sketchbook               Tombo Dual Brush Pens, Lamy pen and water brush

8" x 6" Stillman Birn Epsilpn Series           Faber-Castell Pitt artist pens

12" x 9" Stillman Birn Beta Series sketchbook         Tombo Dual Brush pens, water brush

August Sketch Group

Next sketch group

Saturday, August 2

Memphis Brooks Museum of Art 

10:00 AM

Meet in the lobby and please remember pencil only in the museum! (That includes colored pencils.)

Please comment here or on our Facebook page if you plan to attend. 

Sketch Group and 44th World Wide SketchCrawl at Peabody Hotel

We met at the Peabody Hotel rooftop for the July sketch group, and most of us huddled in the shade to sketch.

After watching the Peabody Ducks make their grand entrance to the lobby fountain, we sketched around the lobby and mezzanine.

 Here are my sketches...

I am hooked on this yellow, but it does sort of represent the heat of the mid-July day.

Watching the ducks from the mezzanine.

 Lobby

Most of us went to the Flying Fish for lunch and talked and sketched.

Otherlands Coffee Shop & Sketchbooks, PART 1

7" x 10" unnamed-brand sketchbook     ink pen

I have spent many weekend mornings sketching at Otherlands Coffee Shop while Margaret drinks her coffee. Almost every sketchbook filled over the past 15 years contains some Otherlands sketches. While scanning 25 sketchbooks last week, I noticed that several changes have occurred since I started sketching with the Urban Sketchers. First, for a long time I used the same size and type of sketchbook and drew with an ink pen.The top sketch is from 2003, the second is from 2005 then 2010, 2011 and 2012. Each sketch is from a different sketchbook. 

            12" x 9" unnamed-brand sketchbook       ink pen

12"x 9" unnamed-brand sketchbook     ink pen

12.5" x 9" Cachet Sketchbook          ink pen

7" x 7" Stillman & Birn Sketchbook      Lamy Pen with black & blue
 water soluble ink & a water brush

After I started meeting with Urban Sketchers, things started to change. I found out about water brushes that allow one to blend water soluble ink. Next week, I will show Otherlands sketches from five more sketchbooks. 

Three visits to Crosstown PART 2

sears crosstown

In August of 2013, we visited  the Crosstown area again. This time I drew the Sears tower
 before it got too hot.When the temperature became unbearable, Mary Jo Kaemnia arranged for us to cool
 off and draw in the Cleveland Street Flea Market across the street.

view of the parking garage

 
Crosstown Tower in the background

stuff

a surreal arrangement of objects

Three visits to Crosstown PART 1

waiting on the loading dock

 The Memphis Urban Sketchers get to go to all sorts of unusual places. On March 3, 2011, we went

inside the Crosstown Sears Building,which has been in the news lately because of recent renovation plans.

Tthis building was built to last.

view of the parking garage

near the kitchen

the kitchen

                We went again on a very cold March day in 2013

the former dining room

signs of former life

remnants of the past

across the street

Three visits to the Peabody Hotel

Last Saturday, I met several urban sketchers on the roof of the Peabody Hotel. We drew all morning. It was the third time I have sketched at the Peabody. The first time I used only an ink pen. The second time I used an ink pen and some gray Faber-Castell artist pens. Last week I experimented with brown and blue Stabilo point 88 pens and a water brush that I got at the Art Center. I have been drawing in sketch books for over 40 years. I found out about the Memphis Urban Sketchers 3 years ago. Since then I have filled 20 more sketch books and gone to the Urban Sketchers Symposium in Barcelona. Today, I am going to become a real urban sketcher because I am posting some of my drawings on the internet for the first time. This is a big step for me because it is the first time I am connected to the internet. According to my son, this is due to my belief that the internet would damage my artistic soul, killing my desire to do anything but surf the web.  My son hopes I've overcome my fear and finally stepped into the 21st century.

where I entered the hotel

where the taxis wait

the lobby

drinking in the lobby

working in the lobby

meeting in the lobby

waiting for the ducks

looking up to the mezzanine

one half of the fountain

the other half of the fountain

looking down at the ducks from the mezzanine

on the roof looking toward Arkansas

on the roof looking toward the bridge