Marché Café, Jordan Schnitzer Art Museum, UO Campus

Even though the red umbrellas cast a ruddy color on our paper, we were grateful for the shade in the sunny courtyard, as well as for Henry the Pug, who cheerfully posed for us:

 Sandy and Erik look on as Henry’s owner enjoys his morning coffee.

    Sandy does several preliminary sketches of the dog, then gives herself a break by sketching Erik, and then Henry comes to life!

    Anne Teigen found another dog in the courtyard to draw, and Satoko Motouji started sketching people as well as the dog Henry.

     Anne said she was looking for painting inspiration in her sketch; Jane was just happy to get that curly tail and pug nose captured.

     Tricia starts with the dog owner, and then sketches Henry in several doggy poses – he is a cutie, for sure!

       Penelope shows Satoko her new sketchbook – but will the ink bleed? NO! Oh boy, another sketching tool to add to the collection!

       Penelope shows the sketch she did in a colorful garden, and Jane shows her “completed” sketch page from last week at Barry’s.

   Penelope shared information about the upcoming class she’s teaching at Oregon Art Supply – yay for encouraging sketching!

      Meanwhile, what are Erik & Jane’s grandson Alex up to? Erik is fascinated by the sculpture across the courtyard in the bamboo, and Alex is fascinated by doing Erik’s name in calligraphy!

Barry’s, Eugene, OR

Despite the unusual cloud cover (we’ve gotten spoiled by the sun!), eight of us gathered to sketch together in the courtyard at Barry’s – Barbara Sommers, Barbara Shirk, Jan, Penelope, Erik, Sandy, Tricia (& Jane behind the camera).

      Here are the early birds, fast at it: Jan, the two Barbs, & Erik – on the right you see how quickly Erik develops his sketch in layers.

       Jan had her eye on the Black-eyed Susans – check back to see more.

        Barb Sommers used a frame (left) to chose her images, and on the right you see how the sketch came to life.

      Barb Shirk had her eye on a couple across the courtyard, and here’s how that sketch took on additional depth & color.

      We love it when we’re somewhere that allows us to pull up another table to accommodate more sketchers – here’s Sandy, Tricia, and Penelope, with Sandy’s emerging sketch of the Black-eyed Susans.

       Tricia is working on adding value to a previous sketch, and Penelope added her morning quiche to a sketch of a prior jazz performance.

        Jane’s page became a series of vignettes – across the street way above people’s heads in the photo on the left is the wiring graphic, and on the right is Sandy’s fabulous Bike Friday bike.

Later that night, Jane made a presentation at the Emerald Art Center about her book “A Year of Daily Gratitude Sketches.” She’s holding her original sketch pages, with a PowerPoint on screen.

Barry’s, Eugene, OR

   Hanna Yoshimura is back with us from Japan, and Penelope got a kick out of showing her the bird & map she drew from her trip to HI.

Meanwhile, Sharon Heinz & Barb Shirk have a chat about tools.

   Hanna got right into the swing of things, sketching her breakfast treat, and then adding on to her sketch journal page.

    Penelope followed suite, adding today’s treat to one from last week.

        Barbara had us baffled, but slowly her mother’s fountain emerged.

      Sharon was working on sketches from her weekend trip to the coast, where Hanna will be next week for the annual Sandgren paint out.

       Erik was busy layering his colors – zow! It’s Barbara!

     So here’s how the table was laid out in the courtyard, missing… Hanna sitting on the wall’s edge to add more to her sketch, and…
    Jane, chuckling with Erik, while she adds strange designs and applies an even stranger sticker she liberated from the side of the building.

San Francisco, CA

While the rest of us were all caught up in dealing with the heat, family and visitors, and all kinds of projects, our  teacher, mentor, and friend Ken O’Connell was busy sketching while out of town.

What a treat (& incentive!) to have him share! Thanks! We’ll be back at it next week.

New Day Bakery courtyard, Eugene, OR

Hard to believe we’re looking for a shady spot, but suddenly it’s hot in Eugene! We were happy to welcome newcomer Anne Tiegen, too.

     Barb Sommers starts sketching while Barb Shirk shows Anne and Sharon Heinz her typical sketchbook pages, in which one image leads to another. Wonder how her rabbit page will develop!

   Barb started adding a sketch of Barb Sommers underneath the clematis arbor, then took up the challenge of using the brush pen.

   Here’s Barb Sommers with first a pencil outline, & how it looks inked.

      Anne, a dedicated painter, gamely launched into sketching folks at the table, then got inspired for a possible design for a painting.

    Jan was tempted by the clematis over the courtyard entry, then went on to include the brilliant colored balcony across the street!

      Jane first ignored the courtyard flowers, and focused on the hose hanging on the wall between Anne & Sharon; then the flowers.

    Sharon started out with graphite pencil, then added colored pencil.

    Then Tricia and Erik showed up – here’s Erik’s sketch.

    Trisha began her sketch with ink, then added watercolor.

   Meanwhile, a report from the road – here are sketchers Joby (with husband Jim), Sandy & Hugh taking a break from their bicycling outing up the valley, along with the sketch Joby managed to sneak in from their stop at Thompson Flour Mill near Halsey.