Sketchcrawl - City Market

After coffee and lunch I wandered over to the north side of Churchill Square. I had been planning to sketch some sheep that were in a paddock in the ice rink/wading pool area, but I had forgotten to bring a hat and gloves. It was much to chilly to hang around outside. Instead I went into City Hall to check out the City Farmer's Market.

I sketched a vegetable booth and had a very short chat with a face painter who had a little table below me. She got some customers while I was there, which was nice to see. I bought a bag of Spartan apples, dark red and covered in powdery yeast and went home to roast some pork for a party we were hosting later in the evening.

Sketchcrawl - Downtown Library

Went out with the local Urban Sketchers again. This time we met at the Stanley A. Milner Library downtown and scattered to sketch around Churchill Square.

Here are some snow-covered basketball nets on the south side of the library:

I liked how lonely they looked.

Whyte Watercolour

Since Sunday was rainy I didn't bother bringing the acrylics.  I didn't think I was going to do a lot of painting anyway.  But standing in the rain twirling your umbrella for four hours is boring, so eventually I taped it to the easel and did some painting with the little watercolour kit.

This is the same side of the street as the previous painting, just from a different angle.  I think this picture worked out better than the previous one, barring a few issues with straight lines and perspective.  Occasionally I see a flash of real progress or a nice passage in a painting and that keeps me going.  This one has several areas I really like, while the previous one... not so much.

So I might have to do some more work with watercolours.  They go nicely with pencil crayons and ink as well, so eventually I might be able to combine the three in one interesting whole.  I'll probably do at least some watercolour sketches on vacation in August because the kit is so small and convenient to carry, and I can work very quickly with them.  Actually now I'm rather sad that I didn't spend any time in Barcelona doing watercolours -- if I'd known how convenient the Niji water brush was to use I'd have a whole week's worth of colour sketches from vacation.

Tokyo Noodle Shop

One of the rules (suggestions?) for Art Walk is that you have to spend at least some time working on art while you're there. Since there was a large van or truck parked behind me most of the time, this was the more interesting of the two views I had available.

The old St. Joseph's Auxiliary Hospital building, now condos. Tokyo Noodle is not one of my favourite sushi restaurants in town but it's not bad at all (unlike some others I could name).

And it got more and more attractive as the weekend wore on. Next time I'm going to have to get a spot where I can't smell the tempura cooking. :P

Palace of Science and Culture

Digital painting from this lovely stock photo.

I needed to practice some architecture and this caught my eye partly because the colours are so great and partly because I saw the building myself a few years ago when I was in Warsaw. The locals think it's an eyesore (it was a "gift" from the Soviet Union) but I kinda like it. :)

Aboyt 2.5 hours in Photoshop.

Sketchbook Page

Here's something I've been meaning to post for a few months:





Two halves of a two-page spread from my old journal sketchbook. You can see the whole spread here, in my DeviantArt gallery. I'm also planning to erase the join sometime, when I'm a little less busy. Still, it's been about half a year since I drew this, and it's about time it saw the light of day.

I'd been meaning to work on more scenery and backgrounds. At the time, I had quit Kung Fu and was in the process of quitting World of Warcraft. One night while my husband went to Kung Fu class, I decided to get a ride to the University campus with him and sketch while he practiced. I had been intending to do some outdoor sketching, but by the time we arrived on campus it was raining and quite cold. I was looking for a vending machine that sold hot chocolate, and I ended up in the Central Academic Building, staring down at this little nook.

The area is surrounded by buildings and is always in shadow, so hardly anyone uses it. Sometimes people sit on the bench and smoke. But in the summer, there is hardly anyone at the University -- especially in the evenings. I think I might have been the only person in the building.

It was almost dark by the time I finished sketching. I got all the shapes down but didn't get the reflections from the wet sidewalks. When I came back the next day to take a photo so that I could finish the picture, much of the water had dried up. The dark blob beneath the bench is the last great puddle.

I haven't really done anything this complex since. I finally quit WoW, but I'm back in Kung Fu and it takes up a significant amount of time per week. Plus, I end up with shaky arms when I've overworked them. Still, it's better than sitting at home playing videogames all night. I hope to do more sketching this summer, when I switch from Kung Fu to cycling while the weather is good. The nice thing about cycling is that it takes you to new and interesting places, you can take a break there and draw something, and if you feel tired it's your legs that shake.