All posts by Marsha McCloskey

Sketching People, Places, & Things

Friendly St. Market, Eugene, OR

       

Here we are in the covered patio, having a great time sketching!

    

           Marsha was intently sketching the subject across the table – Bev!

   Bev was sketching anybody who popped up – fun loose style here!

     Barb So was continuing her travel journal, while Barb Sh started a new sketch & then showed us one she did at home – great umbrella!

       Sandy & Hugh were in the corner, doing mystery sketches. Hmmm…

     Bill and Jim were completing some sketches they’d already started.

          Bitty grabbed the moment in the sun outside to sketch – delightful!

      Daisy & Jude were inside sketching inside, and having a great time.

        Ellen & Katie exchanged ideas – Ellen is doing a photo of an ancestor.

      Katie was catching up with her travel sketches, and one here, too!

     Jane is still enjoying using Katie’s frame template for little sketches.

      Then Bev and Lealan borrowed the template and went wild with an abstract application.  Wow, who knew that template could do this!

Sketching Outdoors Under Cover

Friendly St. Market, Eugene, OR

   There were a total of twenty of us sketching today, despite the rain.

      Some didn’t make it outside – Jude & Bitty started sketching inside, were joined by Ken who then had a mini-conference with Lona.

      Jude was fascinated with what she saw in the cafe windows.

      Bitty chose to focus more on the people in the cafe context – great!

     Outside, Sandy brought flowers to share and didn’t she do a nice job!

      Danita chose to focus just on the currant blossoms – delightful!

      Jane was still playing with frames, changing parameters to fit what she wanted to sketch from the images around her – what fun.

      Lona – accustomed to loose, intense, and splashy – was trying out her travel palette thinking ahead to her upcoming sketch trip to Italy.

      Laura utilized her calligraphy skills to head her page, then did a sweet colored pencil sketch of the flowers on the table.

        Rounding out the table efforts, Penny did a close-up sketch of the daffodils and a hint of the current blooms behind. Nice touch, Penny.

      At the next table, Barb Sh was pondering her sketchbook use for a travel memoir and general miscellaneous sketches – hmm..snails…

      Bev looked to the next table for her flower sketch, then got intrigued by Barb Sh’s snails, so she added them with some whimsey, too.

      Marsha was also looking at the next table, but she was sketching the sketchers! They certainly look intent. Nice use of marking pens.

      Hugh was in anther world (far, far away). Thanks to his photos, he gets to revisit travels and enjoy bringing them back. Great shadows.

      Daisy did the obligatory sketch of her treats (interesting treatment of the table top – see Jane’s too), then turned and sketched Hugh!

      Ellen is moving from black and white to color, using colored pencils. Jane stopped by to admire her progression. Nice landscape choice.

      Liz brought a favorite photo from her travels, trying to capture in her sketch the interesting weaver sitting on the ground. Great character.

      Bill has had a long time fascination with sketching people, here moving into gestural studies, using ink, colored pencils, watercolor.

      Jim was sketching a photo from the Chinese Garden (oh! that roof!), then finished with a collection of images around him at the market.

      Look who snuck in the back door – Lealan and Katie! Katie brought a little pot of Spanish lavender. Here’s her beginning sketch of it.

        Lealan really has the watercolor markers figured out – look what she did in such a short time. Lovely sketch with shadows & textures, too.

Back at the Cornucopia patio

Cornucopia @ 17th St, Eugene, OR

    Oh, how the group grows as the morning goes on! Great gathering.

         Barb Sh adds whimsy to her sketch of the elephant sculpture.

         Barb So gets her tools ready for her signature delicate sketches.

      Bev sketched flowers in front of her, then on to bamboo – lovely!

     Bill gets into gestural drawing & takes on (gasp!) hands! Well done.

       Bitty is definitely into it. She added frog statues behind her pansies.

      Daisy started with a vine, then onto darker negative space – nice!

      Ellen took on the challenge of sketching a copper wind sculpture!

      Erik is on an “artist’s card” project using watercolor – well done!

      Hugh lays out an ink sketch before taking water brush to pigment.

          Jane’s having a blast playing with a frames format – keep on going!

          Jim goes back to a page done previously & adds todays scene.

      Katie is enjoying playing with frames, too – nice watercolors!

      Ken spied a bamboo plant across the room – “go darker” we said.

      Laura got a thumbs up on her daphne sketch with dark blue behind.

      Marsha went from doing a portrait to curves chairs & table – wow!

      Penny sketched the flowers in the glass in front of her – sweet!

      Sandy brought the flowers, and enjoyed sketching them, too.

A New Place to Sketch!

Cornucopia @ 17th & Lincoln, Eugene, OR

  Under cover & under heat panels (!) but outside – sweet! Danita, Jim, Ellen, Barb So, Barb Sh, Penny, Daisy, Bev, Ken, Lona, Liz, Bitty, Katy, Marsha, Bill (& Jane behind the camera, with Satoko yet to come).

      Danita brought “artist’s cards” to share but people were too side tracked by the wonderful sculptures in the garden to even look.

      Here’s Danita’s sketch today – notice how she treated the fence, because you’ll see other fence versions by other artists today.

      Jim often divides his pages into thirds, which he did here. His focus was on the patio wall & door, which he left black & white – perfect!

   Ellen’s attention was caught by the large potted plant & how to get the dimpled texture in the pot – well done, I’d say!

   The Barbs discuss how to approach sketching the statue of St. Francis – here’s Barb So’s version, so sweetly done.

     Barb Sh uses a close up photo as detail reference. She includes the statue sketch in an ongoing page. Finished sketch from last week.

      Penny put an ink sketch of the little temple light into a colored stamp page, a perfect context; the fence is a simple line backdrop here.

      Daisy was into the variation in color, in the fence as well as in the bamboo. Both are very lively sketches.

      Ken started with brush pen marker in a loose left hand, added more detail, thought he lost it but followed “go darker!” and WOW!

      Bev kept to a mostly tone on tone approach, but look how the occasional color makes things pop – kind of a halo aura around them.

      Lona started with a light pencil sketch, then started with a watercolor line, then more color, and look at that vibrant fence!

      Liz brought her own pictorial challenge – an Asian woman under a hat. How to do the teeth without them predominating? Erase!

      This was Bitty’s first time with us. She sure had fun doing a collage of images around her, using water soluble ink and watercolor. Nice.

          Katie, just back from vacationing in the sun in Mexico, pondered what to do, then worked on a couple of pages using a frame format.

      Marcia decided to use Katie’s frame approach, too, but kept her approach flexible and light with the markers. Delightful!

      Bill gets a lot captured in his small travel sketchbook, this time people as well as commentary. What a special keepsake this will be.

       Satoko has to join us late, so she doesn’t waste time getting her sketch going – what a lovely line drawing of vines on the fence.

     And Jane? She was so busy with breakfast and taking photos, she finished her sketch home using ink, ink brush, & colored pencils.

People and Places Predominate

5th Street Market, Eugene, OR

Jim, Daisy, Laura, Ellen, Satoko, Bev, Barb Sh, Barb So, Marsha, Lealan, Lona, & Jane behind the camera glad to be back from AZ.

        Now you can see what Jim is so intent on sketching – great job!

      Laura sketched the sketchers, as well as the ramen restaurant front.

        Ellen got started on one sketch – too many lines! – on on to the next.

         You might suspect that Satoko has done this kind of thing before!

     Bev did an impression sketch of men at a table, then a more detailed sketch capturing the ramen place as well as the window & booth.

      Barb Sh has a clever way of getting her models to hold still – take a photo, quick! She’s created the wonderful ambience of the place.

       Barb So had time for a quick pencil sketch, and Lona got out her big palette – she said she got frustrated traveling with a small one!

      Marsha is getting bolder in her use of the brush pen – nicely done.

      Jane boldly went directly to ink on paper – she says it was fun after she forgot to hyperventilate.

   Lealan did a black on white sketch using her Tombow marker – what a wonderful impression, brick wall and all!