Saturday, April 19, 2014

Waiting

A good portion of my sketching happens while I'm waiting for something else to happen.
Waiting in the car for Jesse to come out from his office so we can go to lunch.

Waiting at Jiffy Lube for an oil change.

The night before a huge snowstorm and I had to hit the grocery store for basics.  The lines were crazy and the atmosphere was stressful.  So waiting in line, I sketched the contents of my basket and felt more relaxed.

At the Parkville Nature Sanctuary. I want to let the kids explore and play, but I get bored :)  So sketching helps me wait them out so they can have the outdoor time they need.

A dead tree.  Loved the patterns and textures.  Smooth and cleared of bark.

The appetizer arrived and Jesse went off to wash his hands.  Waiting for him to come back to start eating.

Waiting at the Living Room for the play to begin.  I began drawing the crazy pattern on the sofa, but then Jesse wanted to snuggle, so I drew him with my left hand.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Faces

A few watercolor faces.  My watercolor technique may never be by-the-book, but it's fun to play.
Jesse

Toby

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Pinball

My boys and my husband have found a new hobby playing pinball in bars.  I like to play a bit, but there are only so many quarters I can drop in a machine before it feels to weird to me, so I've been drawing a lot of pinball players and people in bars lately.



Wednesday, April 09, 2014

Playing with Watercolor

I've got a large sketch book that I use to work out painting ideas - but I also have been doing some quick all-in-one-go-no-we-won't-wait-for-things-to-dry watercolor paintings in there.  I find these infinitely fun.  I love playing and not worrying if the end product will be crap.  I'm going to do more of these for sure.  I usually just have a magazine photo or black and white computer print out that I use as a reference photo.
Owls are always fun.  After I did this one this guy popped up later in an acrylic painting that I made.



The oldest tree in the world.  This is also coming around into a larger painting.  I'll post links when those are completed.

Saturday, April 05, 2014

Sketch Catch-up

A month has passed - and I have not updated!  All my ZERO regular readers must be so terribly disappointed!  But really, I find if I don't dump images here often, my sketching practice suffers.  I need a bit of pressure to keep up producing.  If it's just going to live in a book forever and have no hope of ever being seen by *anybody* I just don't do it.
Which is why I have a separate blog from my "real" art (stephtothkates.com) and I can dump the practice stuff here and keep on practicing :)

But why the long delay?  My camera broke.  My camera I have had for forever.  And my ancient phone takes crap photos.  I kept thinking I'd borrow my husbands iPhone eventually, but he's always got it :)  So I finally decided to just use our (also ancient) iPod, which takes pretty bad photos - but really, how great do photos of sketch books need to be?  Onward!
Jesse Reading

A Variety of Jonas.  

I always start drawing with eyes or noses, and often don't even get to mouths before someone has moved and I can't finish the sketch, so I was feeling like I needed some extra practice with mouths.  We were are the children's museum at the water table, so I drew a bunch of different kids - mouths only.

Jonas in pencil at the train table.  I like pencil so much more than fine-point sharpie.  But it's so much easier to carry the pen.  I need to find a better carry solution for art supplies so I can use what I want.
Toby practicing violin