Sunday, October 25, 2009

Day 2 of the WSBJ Workshop at the PAG



Today was the 2nd half of my workshop at the Penticton Art Gallery. We went over the successes and challenges of their sketchbook experiences of the week, and then we set loose in and around the gallery. The current exhibit in the main gallery was perfect for sketching - very textural 3 dimensional work in a variety of materials. Between this and the Japanese garden behind the gallery, there was no shortage of complex subject matter! I really enjoyed this whole workshop experience. The group was fun and very keen. Some really great sketches have emerged already, and I think there’s some real interest to keep some kind of sketch group going. Stay tuned!

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Eduardo Salavisa talks about sketchbooks

I love what he says about sketchbooks being different from individual drawings. I'm going to show this at my Sketchbook Journaling Workshop today - then head outside, because it's BEAUTIFUL out there today. Drawings to come!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Hey, I can see our house from here!


I asked the people in my workshop to keep a sketchbook this week, and I suppose I can’t be the exception! It’s good - it’s reminding me to take a moment out in the middle of a busy time and fill up my creative cup. Side benefit - you can’t think about profit margins when you’re trying to figure out what colour a clump of leaves are. That thing that looks like a giant peach in the left foreground really IS a giant peach. It’s the concession stand at the beach in front of our house.

Monday, October 19, 2009

The Virtues of Foot Sketches

As this page reads, I spent a fair amount of time in the workshop talking about the virtues of sketching ones own feet. They are handy subjects: always available, interesting without being too complicated. The view out the window was spectacular, but quickly became overwhelming. I showed them Danny Gregory’s book, and how he started with a line drawing of his medicine cabinet. Keep it simple Shweetheart ;-).

Workshop at the Penticton Art Gallery

After a month of being consumed by business, it was a real pleasure to put it all aside and go teach a workshop at the Penticton Art Gallery on Watercolour Sketchbook Journaling. We had a great group; 8 eager future sketchbook addicts. It was a bit gloomy outside, so we stayed in the tearoom at the gallery, which has no shortage of interesting things to sketch. Lots of people tried sketching the view out the window, which was very complex. I started talking about how to approach simplifying a complex scene, and since there was a sketchbook nearby, it ended up as a little demo. The garden just outside the tearoom is phenomenal. This sketch was about 5-10 minutes. I could spend 5-10 weeks sketching in that garden.