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:

At Barbara Sommers’ in Eugene, OR

   Barbara Sommers invited us to her home, and quite a crowd showed up! Sandy, Jan, Barb Sommers, Penelope, Barb Shirk, Jane, Erik; Ken, Barb Sommers & Barb Aten. She supplied home cooked biscotti!

   Barb Sommers showed us her version of the clothing store with ribbons from last week (remember Tricia’s?), and Penelope showed us her journal entries from her gardening & doctor visit last week.

     Barb Shirk had finished the lawn ornament she started, and then began to sketch from a photo of a wonderful snail – wonder how this will all work together…keep coming back to see!

        Erik had been talking about putting together the perfect combination of spring blooming plants in an imaginary yard:

      Jan was looking out the dining room window, and slowly the arbor-vitae appeared, and then the cars (which she said became Fiats!).

      Jane was enchanted with the images on her coffee cup – done first with pen, then markers, then water soluble ink.

       
Sandy started sketching Ken’s biscotti, then his sketch of the same.So then Ken drew a replica of his sketch in the space she’d blocked out for it on her page.

    Now, how to draw the hand drawing while holding the pen… Ta dah!

           Penelope drew both Ken & Sandy drawing the biscotti.  Barb Sommers drew not only the biscotti, but also the art tools.

      Meanwhile, folks couldn’t resist trying the various white pens Jane had brought – Penelope tried the Signo Uni-Ball, Barb Shirk the Sharpie oil based, and Jan the Sharpie water based.  Have to wait to see the results of using the Faber-Castell Pitt white pen, & the Bistro Chalk Marker by Marvy Uchida in our unending search for the perfect white for the perfect occasion.

5th St. Market, Eugene, OR

First, the catching up….

       Remember Erik’s from the last session? Here’s where the trial went!

      Ken had a perfectly good sketch, but gave in to water brush effects.

      Jane couldn’t resist playing with Jan’s tree model from last week.

       Here’s what Erik & Tricia did since last meeting.

Ken shared photos of charming sculptures done by his high school art teacher, Larry Goldade. Watch for a show at Watershed soon!

       Barb Shirk showed us her long hair dachshund sketch, and then the secret of her watercolor pencils – licking her water brush!

     Ken’s concentration on steadying his watercolor brush quickly got trumped by being able to share breakfast with Erik & Amy Gibson.

     Jan found her sketch models across from us – look what she chose to include and what to exclude, then check out Barb Sommers’ below:

     Sandy started with sketching people, but got distracted by a postcard Ken brought with a Geisha – how enchanting is that!

     Meanwhile, Tricia’s eye was caught by the colorful clothes outside the window, but what to do with all the space on the page? So she selected a portion of the ribbon display, and let some ends loose.

5th St. Market, Eugene, OR

Barb Sommers, Jan, Heidi, & Sandy ponder art materials – here the book Ken brought along regarding classic Roman lettering, and the pot of bright red ranunculi Jane brought to share.

     Ken interrupted Erik’s wax crayon sketch with a chuckle over the sketch his granddaughter Fiona did in his sketchbook.  Jan shows Heidi the difficulty she had with smudging with white wax crayon.

Then Erik made it even more complicated by talking about techniques for using Caran d’Ache water soluble wax crayons, which got Ken trying them immediately (while Barb Shirk pours over the book on lettering, and Barb Sommers & Jan get busy sketching).

     
Ken admires the layers of dark color Erik got on a previous sketch, & Erik launches into a new one (come back to see the finish of it!).

      Ken looks at his initial sketch, then tries a wax pencil that Sandy shared, with the results at the right – nice definition & depth!

     Sandy starts out with an ink line drawing, then begins adding color with the Caran d’Ache wax pencils (different from the crayons).

    She adds layers of color shade until she’s satisfied – well, yeah!

     Heidi uses the wax crayons creating a memory – a Bavarian meadow!

      Barbara Shirk gets a critique from Ken on one of her sketchbook pages, then (ignoring the wax crayons!) starts a new one, featuring one of her daughter’s dogs (a long-haired dachshund).

     Looking out the window we see Jan’s view, then back on her page is her sketch using Tombo brush pens. That yellow sings!

     Barb Sommers couldn’t resist sketching the flowers, using ink along with her usual deftness with a soft watercolor.

      Jane’s always complaining about being too tight & detailed – here’s her initial ink sketch, and the watercolor treatment she gave it when she got home.  Is that loosening up??? Uh….

Hideaway Bakery, Eugene, OR

It was a chilly overcast day, so we opted to be sketching inside across from the fireplace (the warmth was welcome!).

Here’s Jane’s sketch of the gal totally immersed in her laptop computer, sitting in front of the fire.

   Tricia said she was trying sketching directly with color, not using an ink pen (which is her usual go-to sketch tool), then  going back in to add detail and contrast.  Looks successful to me!

    It’s St. Patrick’s Day!  Even though Ken’s granddaughter Fiona reportedly thought it was an opportunity to pinch everybody willy-nilly, we gladly took one of the stick-on shamrocks Jane brought. Here’s Barbara Sommers sketching cups and shamrocks.

     Erik was working on two small vignettes – how does he get such sharp thin lines? A fortuitous break of a crayon!

Sandy interrupts her sketch of a cookie to respond to a query on her phone from the guy building her pottery table. What you can’t see here is that when she got back to her sketch, the model was gone! Now who could be the culprit…..