Hate Your Handwriting? Let’s Look at Lettering!

Vistra Framing & Gallery, Eugene, OR

There was enough interest in looking at different lettering/font forms, that we set aside a whole meeting to explore.

Penny, Ken, Lona, Marsha, Katie, Bev, Marnie, & Barb Sh.   Jane was behind the camera, Erik had to leave early, & Lealan came late.

      Jane and Katie brought handouts of lettering styles, and Jane had a bunch of felt-tip calligraphy pens people were eager to try.

          Barb Sh started out exploring  Italic Cursive, then tried different embellishments, too. She’s going to have a lot of fun with this.

        Marnie marks off pen widths for making guidelines (5 pen widths for italic). She was a great example of how people got into the task!

      Katie demonstrated good lettering style – paper straight in from of her, model sheet to refer to, light lettering in pencil, then ink.

     Marsha immediately applied the lesson to her sketchbook.

Ken took a tip from the have fun idea of adding embellishments.

      Lona put in her typical vivid background, & shared her sketchbook she’s sending to the sketchbook library (wow!) with Penny.

     Barb Sh catches Lealan up on the lettering process – a great friend.

       Jane had taken calligraphy classes before, so she tried doing a new script, first with brush pen (oops, the slant was SO inconsistent!), then pencil, and finally with a small calligraphy pen with red ink.

        It was easy to see that Bev has had prior training and lots of practice, because look at how she applied all the options in her lettering!

Sketching Urban and Otherwise

Hideaway Bakery, Eugene, OR

        There’s a reason why we don’t qualify as official “Urban Sketchers.”  Part of their credo is to sketch from direct observation, not photos.

        I’ve totally forgotten where Barb Sh took this photo, but the modern art depicted was too tempting for her to pass up!

        Lona fell in love with this photo of tropical fish, and demonstrated her special technique to replicate coral at the bottom of the tank.

      Even Barb So used her photo as a resource for her sketch.

       Katie, too, used a photo of amaryllis blooms for her sketch (along with a font guide – more on that next week!).

     Helga had a photo of persimmons and passion flowers for sketching.

      Marnie continued her industrial sketching – yes, from photos.

     Hugh wondered why he took on the challenge of sketching this photo of an elaborate knotted cord. Wow.

      Finally! Daisy, Danita, and Jane sketched what was in front of them!

        Bev elaborated with her observations of people and things.

      What’s Sandy doing? Sketches of the group, of course!

        Marsha took a pre-stamped page and did a sketch of Lona.

         Lealan was busy sketching some of the group, when Danita brought over a demonstration of how to use dry wall tape – WHAT?!?!?

          Cut a page size strip, put it sticky side down, then with a pencil go across one of the line, skip down and repeat – voila! dotted lines.

        Danita generously demonstrated for others, and then they were off! Lona used watercolor, and Bev made all kinds of patterns with tools.

Stick with us – we’ll lead you astray (with sketching).

A Whole Lot of Sketching Going On!

5th St. Market, Eugene, OR

   Lynda, Katie, Penny & Barb So behind her, Erik, Hugh, Sandy, Marsha (& Jane). Marnie, Bev, Helga, Barb Sh.  Lealan came in a bit later.

Barb Sh caught us up on her recently finalized sketch pages.

      Katie was finishing up some pages in her sketchbook – lovely!

        Jane didn’t stop with one little sketch for once, but inspired by some of the other sketchers, she completed a whole page!

       Barb So sketched her muffin, while Penny added color to her bird.

       Lynda chose a city scape; Lealan chose an inside scape.

        Here you can see Erik’s technique of using layers of color to build up a landscape. Then he was on to a new sketch – check back to see this.

     Hugh did a record time sketch of his Danish so he could eat it, then moved on to his current favorite – wax crayons on black – so vivid!

      Marsha likes using colored pencil on a paper with some tooth, because it allows her to do a build up of color. Nicely done.

        Marnie was intrigued by an industrial photo, doing a line sketch first.

        Bev’s eye was caught by the display of colorful clothing, then she went on to work on the view Lealan did above.

    Helga was adding a lichen covered tree to her sketchbook.

Meanwhile, Barb Sh was sketching  yard art on a fence from a photo.

Have Your Cake and Sketch It, Too

5th St. Market, Eugene, OR

    Ken operates on the fabulous cake, while the birthday girl, Lealan, supervises. She brought her own cake, too – what a great idea!

Seventeen of us showed up! Was it the promise of the cake? Or…

        The celebration didn’t interfere with Lealan’s sketching, either!

    Judy Densky, our sketch friend from New York whom we met in Italy way back when, was in town for the event, too.

    Katie captured the moment, and went on to design.

     And speaking of design, here’s Lona leading the pack!

    Danita had a photo to inspire her sketching today – layers & layers.

      Bev summed it up  – “Today’s group is better than any party!”

      Daisy did a great sketch of the cake, then of her tools.

    Penny picked up on Lona’s design, then was awed at looking at the travel sketchbook Barb Sh did of her Baltic cruise – it was a doozy!

      Here’s Ken appreciating Barb Sh’s book (it has a folding cover, then accordions out, sketches on one side, text on the other). Then she went on today to sketch some of our fellow sketchers.

    Marnie was sitting next to Ken, and got a quick review of his last sketch trip to Italy. Then she was back adding color to her sketch.

     Ken did a master quick sketch of a slice of Lealan’s cake – yummy.

      Hugh did a terrific job of sketching the challenging architecture.

        Marsha showed us how she utilized one of her pre-designed pages. Her sketch today was of cake, coffee, and Hugh. Nicely done.

      Erik has a thing about trees and crows – you can hear those birds!

      Barb So had fun sketching over some watercolor washes – the tree outside, the people inside – which made for  lively sketches.

      Jane sketched the tree outside, too, while Heidi sketched her coffee cup and the cake (of course)!  Full circle – and here we are:

New Tools and Tricks Workshop

1st Annual Top Drawers Workshop, Eugene, OR

We started the new year out with a lot of enthusiasm, new sketchbooks and blank pages to do pre-sketching preparation (which was new to a lot of us). What sketches will come of this?

   Sketchers eagerly gathered around tables to explore tools and techniques – blocks of watercolor wash, rubber stamping for borders, airbrush colored backgrounds, and spray using stencils. We had SO much fun, we decided it should be an annual event.

      Barb So started with a watercolor wash on a blank page, Marsha used tape to form a edge for hers, and Tricia snuck a stamp into her watercolor sketch of our feet!

      Daisy got us right into using rubber stamps to form page borders and to title our sketchbooks. Lealan loved the stamp variety.

      Lona and Marnie used a  stamp repeatedly to form a pattern, and Jane used a torn stick-it note stencil to spray her first page & added a stamp, then wrote the number of this sketchbook (35!).

      And speaking of using sprays, here are examples using a stencil, and using stick-it notes to create white spaces.  Another effect was created by re-spritzing. Hugh stencil was so juicy he used it to stamp it onto another page.

      Ken was the master teacher in how to use the airbrush setup with Copic Markers to give background to the page, and then do a sketch on top of it (even if you hadn’t planned what you were going to do).

       He had a very attentive group who were then eager to try it out.

      OK, here goes! Penny did airbrush on top of rubber stamps, Sandy made a border with hers much to Ken’s approval.

     Airbrush on top of rubber stamp, using a stencil, and finally using watercolor on top of the airbrushed background. Zow.

We had a blast!