Friendly St. Market, Eugene, OR

     Here we are gathered together for another exchange of ideas and inspiration – Sandy, Jan, Erik, Barb Sh. & Heidi (with Penelope somewhere, and Jane behind the camera).  Barb Shirk showed us the last addition to her frog fountain page – a Frog with presence!

     Heidi had a question for Erik in working with wax crayons – how do you get the fine tree detail. Erik promptly loaned her his tiny bladed knife to scratch out where the trees will go.

    Meanwhile, Penelope (I told you she was here) was perusing the Maurice Sendak books Barb brought along to share his sketch style.

    Heidi has a lot of projects going – here, working on negative space to reveal the leaves, wondering about using watercolor later – Barb talks to her about getting fine watercolor pencil lines in the veins.

      Barb shows her how she did that on a leaf. Jan uses a different approach with marker & water brush. So Heidi gamely begins.

      Suddenly it’s quiet at the table. Here’s what Barb is up to – adding a quirky dog misbehavior to her earlier sketch of the little “oh-oh” girl.

     Sandy’s up to the usual – sketching the table inhabitants (including Erik), and Erik is doing the same in sketching Sandy, and Jan is sketching Barb Shirk (in the middle).

      Penelope takes a page she started while waiting in a line at the Post Office (a sketcher is never bored), and adds pieces of people and art tools from the table right now! (See Barb’s shirt at the table end?)

     Jane adds a value wash and watercolor to a sketch she did at home, and then does a sketch of what’s in front of her with a wash. (Can you tell she’s taking a class from Steven Reddy?)

Friendly St. Market, Eugene, OR

The prediction (which was wrong) was for rain, so we headed to a warm shelter in the Friendly St. Market – Penelope, Barb Shirk, Erik, Sandy, Barb A (& Jane behind the camera).

     Barb Shirk showed us her finished “dark” sketch from last week, then she and Penelope got down to new sketching business.

Penelope & Sandy had a laugh about the idea of “are you drawing me while I’m drawing you?”

     And sure enough, Penelope was drawing Sandy (& Erik, & a scone), but Sandy was sketching people at the table beyond us.

     Meanwhile, Barb Shirk captured the sweet moment she observed.

   Barb Aten liberated a model because of it’s interesting label.

    Erik quickly brought an old memory into a lovely colored sketch.

    And Jane spent the whole time exploring the effect of using different pens (& discovering back home that, yes,  paper matters!)

Jane’s Backyard, Eugene, Oregon

It all started out in the light – a lovely sunny day in the backyard, with Barb Shirk, Ken, Erik, Heidi, Barb A, Tricia, Patti McNutt, Sandy, Jan, Barb Sommers (& Jane behind the camera, of course).

Then Ken got out the free tools – what’s that, what’s that, how does that work – oh my gosh! Patti, Tricia, Barb A, & Sandy gather around Ken who’s sharing his bounty.

     And then the sketching began – Ken sketching with a purple ink pen because that’s what he had; Heidi with wax crayons, Barb A with watercolor, and Patti with pastel pencils (like Conté).

    Jan caught our hostess Jane & Qi in a quiet moment; Jane actually did manage to do a quick sketch of the pink strawberry blossom.

   After Ken took a look at his own work, he started circulating, and that ‘s when things started going dark.  Well, darker. Here with Barb Sommers, encouraging her to get darker values.

    He gave Tricia the extra tip of working other colors into the darker values to give more integration & life to the sketch – OH! she said.

    Barb Shirk gets darker line definition going, while Barb Aten & Patti add darker values to their sketches.

    Barb Sommers and Jan also added darker values into their work.

      Sandy, Erik, and Heidi getting serious – Erik’s sketch of Barb Shirk.

      Then it was time for the sketch sprawl – spread out your sketchbook, Ken said, and we did. After we all got a chance to look and make comments (see below), Ken said, this doesn’t mean you’re done. And he grabbed up a damp cloth someone had used with their watercolor and dabbed it on his own sketch, adding darker values around his original sketch. Ken’s ever the teacher, and we appreciate it!

Jane Harrison’s, Eugene, OR

Sitting on the back deck in Jane’s yard, slightly stunned by the lovely spring morning.

      Erik & Barb Shirk looking, looking; Sandy & Barb Aten focusing;
Tricia getting right into it, of course!

   And Erik is off!  Off on a memory of him & his Dad eating ice cream back in 1987.  What a great memory!

    Barb Shirk finished her sketch of the shooting star wild flowers, and added a stylized version from a book Heidi brought last week.  Then she started sketching a pine cone from Jane’s yard.

        Sandy and Barb Aten focused on the frog in the fountain, from slightly different angles but you could almost hear him croaking!

     Jane was intrigued with a montage format used by Ros Jenke (one of the Artist’s Journal Workshop artists on Facebook), so she printed out Ros’ sketch, and started playing around with the same style.    It was fun to see how the approach presented her back yard!

        Tricia had her own vignette montage twist with images in the yard.

Coffee Plant Roasters, Eugene, OR

We always enjoy picking up tips from one another – a chilly day, so it was good to be inside with good coffee, too! Sandy, Ken, Barb Shirk (with her back to us) Jan, & Barb Sommers (Jane behind camera).

      Sandy was busy replicating noted paintings from the calendar she got from Barb Shirk (a lot be learned in that activity!), while Heidi and Jan exchanged ideas about architecture & building projects.

      Barb Shirk had her finished snail to show, as well as her keep busy sketch from her day on jury duty.  Well, waiting to be on jury duty…

      When Jane took the picture of Barb sketching a wildflower in her sketchbook, she realized that she kept getting just slices of Barb’s face in photos, so here she is laughing – more than just a nose!

       Heidi was just testing out a new art tool, she said (the colored pencils by Staedler), turning out a lovely landscape in the process.

       Here’s what we were seeing out the window.  Sandy & Heidi were interested in the watercolor loaded brush pen Ken was using.

      Here’s the way Ken’s sketch of the tree started to develop.

      And here’s how Jan’s sketch of the tree developed.

      When Ken & Jan started comparing their approaches to sketching the tree, Ken said he’d been inspired by Jan’s sketch last week. Then Jan looked at her current sketch and was baffled about what to do to complete it.  Add a car, Ken said! So she did, and so did he: