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One Week 100 people

3/12/2023

 
A fun drawing challenge! Once again this year, took part in the "One Week 100 People" challenge. The goal this year was to draw all 100 people from life, with no photo reference. That can be a challenge, as you have to find indoor places to sketch or freeze outside! Here in London, ON, Canada, Tuesday, March 7 was -2 feels like -9 degrees Celsius.
 
"Taking inspiration from online challenges such as 
#Inktober, urban sketchers Marc Taro Holmes (Montreal, CA) and Liz Steel (Sydney, AUS) invite the world to join in with #OneWeek100People – every year in the first week of March!"

Monday - Day 1: Tim Hortons on my way home from work for coffee and sketching (first 10 people)
Tuesday, Day 2:  Covent Garden Market was the destination for sketching (27 people)
Wednesday, Day 3: Cherryhill Village Mall, with fellow urban sketcher was the destination (22 people)
Thursday, Day 4: Just a few out my front window
Friday, Day 5: Back to the Covent Garden Market for the rest of the sketches
​Challenge Complete: Total was 105!

Something new is brewing...

1/25/2023

 
It's been a long time since the release of the books "Barhopping into History, London Ontario" and "Hopping into History, London's Old East Village" by my author friend Kym Wolfe, and myself. It has to be the right project. There are so many craft breweries here in London ON and they each have history and character and awesome craft beer. We are systematically making our way to all of them: testing, talking, observing, taking photos, and interviewing owners and brewmasters. 
Picture

Christmas Golf

12/31/2022

 
Played a little golf over the Christmas break. A long drive to South Carolina, but missed the nasty weather here in Ontario, CA. Colder than normal temperatures in Myrtle Beach, but played 5 rounds of golf.  The course I liked the best was World Tour Golf Links. After the round, while enjoying a Yuengling Traditional Lager, I sketched the 18  holes in my sketchbook with Micron pen and graphite. 

"Good Boy" good read

2/27/2022

 
Winter is a great time to curl up with a good book, and I have read quite a few good ones this winter. This autobiography was a very interesting way to tell a life story. Combing dogs, humour, and interesting personal stories. The author's life was sort of divided into 3 parts: boyhood, manhood, and womanhood. A very good read!
This book makes me think about the stages of my life. The three parts include: growing up on the farm, my working/career life, and the next chapter, which involves the creative focus on my art. Your history and experiences are what make you who you are today. The good, the bad, and the ugly all contribute. The negative things have a way of turning into positive things. You accept, you learn and you move on. I am looking forward to not working, but working at home on my artwork. I have the inspiration for a piece of artwork, the perspiration part to come. Just do it!
Picture
Sketchbook page showing the book "Good Boy"

Urban Sketching and NON Urban Sketching

1/25/2022

 
December Urban Sketching on December 12, 2021
A warm day for a sketch out with #uskldnont in downtown London, but the wind picked up and it was so cold! Found a protected spot to sketch a couple of the beautiful buildings on Richmond Street between King and York.
​Outside and on location, its an urban sketch.
January (NON) Urban Sketching on January 23, 2022
A very cold Sunday (feels like -15°C), so no outdoor sketching for me. I finished up the hemming, and patching so on to sketching of my new-for-me sewing machine, which was purchased used a couple of years ago.
​It's a still life, not an urban sketch.
Picture
Urban Sketching London Ontario, December 2021.
Picture
NON Urban Sketch, January 2022

Sketch Arva

10/16/2021

 
Its October, so it's fitting to go sketching at a cemetery. Urban Sketchers at St. John's Anglican Church in Arva. This cute little yellow brick church was built in 1875. The first sketch was of the cemetery at the back of the property, a unique heart shaped head stone caught my attention. It was a little windy and cool back there, so moved to the front of the church. Went across the street to sketch an elevation view of the church, warmer with no wind. Micron Pen and water brush filled with india ink/distilled water mixture for gray tones... I spent about 45 minutes on each sketch. 

Sketch with Homemade Charcoal

10/11/2021

 
Picture
Greenhills Hole No 7 Sketch
This small sketch of hole number 7 was created using a micron pen, charcoal made from the willow trees on the 18 hole at the course and white pencil crayon, on a grey toned pastel paper. ​The sketch was based on photos and some quick sketches done while playing golf at Greenhills Golf Course over the summer.
The "willow" charcoal is a quite messy, and therefore requires a fixative being sprayed immediately upon finishing the sketch. That does make the sketch a little darker.
This image size is about 5 inches tall and 4 inches wide.
See more golf art here.

Practice with homemade charcoal

9/5/2021

 
I am still working on my "sketch every day" challenge. When I play golf, which is usually 2, sometimes 3 times a week during golf season, that is where my daily sketch is completed. Since I made charcoal from willow sticks that I collected at Greenhills Golf Course, it is where I have been sketching with the charcoal. It is a challenge, as the charcoal is bigger chunks than I am used to working with. I am most comfortable with fine detail and working small. This is forcing me to work a little larger, and I think that is a good thing!
First 2 sketches below are from Saturday and Sunday last weekend. Last drawing was created yesterday morning at home using a photo as reference. I like the first 2 quick and free sketches better than the tight and controlled last one.  I had too much time to "think" about it, work at it, and worry about ruining good paper. FYI - 140lb watercolour costs $10 to $15 per sheet.
I think (or rather... I know)  I have more work and practice ahead of me, to be able to create the picture I am expecting to create.
Sketch using charcoal, completed at Greenhills Golf Course
Sketch using charcoal, completed at Greenhills Golf Course

Making Charcoal

8/29/2021

 
My process starts by picking up sticks, found near the willow trees on No. 18 at Greenhills Golf Course. Next you have to peel all the bark off the sticks. Cut the sticks to fit in the small tin can to be used as a kiln, which is just an old tea container. Visit friends to have a beverage, conversation, and fire the kiln. Wait until the next morning, when it’s cool enough to open and voila charcoal! Success, first attempt making charcoal! Then off to the golf course and test the charcoal our with a few quick sketches.

Charcoal is one of the oldest drawing media, appearing in cave paintings dating back 28,000 years. The medium has been refined, bound with wax or gum into sticks and pencils, and can be easily purchases at an art supply store. But making charcoal from sticks picked up on the course and then creating artwork of that course seemed like a fun process.

Charcoal can be used to produce either a soft or strong line. It can be erased without difficulty. It can be smudged to produce a different effect. Now to sketch and practice some more using the freshly made charcoal!
Sketchbook pages showing process of making charcoal
Kiln (or tea tin) of charcoal opened the morning after firing.
First sketches using the new charcoal from trees on the golf course.

Urban Sketchers - now an official chapter

8/14/2021

 
This AM the Urban Sketchers London had it's first event as an official chapter of Urban Sketchers International. Met downtown, the artists went where they wanted to and them met up at a coffee shop for the throw down. Some sketchers from Waterloo Region US made the trip. Probably our largest gathering of sketchers to date.
I have drawn/illustrated the (former) Kingsmill's Department Store building a couple of times before, but always from photographs.  Now it's home to Fanshawe College: School of Tourism, Hospitality and Culinary Arts. And this time it's a sketch completed on location. I would not say the building was "saved", but at least we still have the original facade for the Dundas streetscape. I think, when you only keep the front wall, and completely rebuild the rest, you loose spirit of the building and have not really saved it. But this is better than loosing it completely!
New sketchbook started August 1 and this time a little bigger. First 2 were 6 x 6 inches, this one is 10 x 8 inches. Still working on sketching everyday.... still only missed one day since April 8.
Picture
Urban Sketchers London - Dundas Street (micron pen, waterbrush with india ink in 10 x 8 inch sketchbook)
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