Allan Bros. on 5th St, Eugene, OR

The early gatherers – Barb Shirk, Heidi Sachet, Sandy Larkin, & Jane behind the camera.  Looked like serious sketching going on!

Then we got a look at Sandy’s shirt! Cracked everybody up!

Back to work – sitting in the middle of the room at the coffee shop gave everyone a view of people to draw in all directions.

Jane chose Penelope’s view above, but did it at an angle on the page (her approach to keeping it simple); Sandy did the girl across from us.

Heidi says the thing about your “model” leaving is that you get to finish it the way you want. She goes onto a design definition, and Penelope to adding color.

Sandy tries a Betty Edward’s suggestion – draw the sketch upside down! Did it work? (Book courtesy of Barb Shirk, from an earlier visit to a fascinating show at the Schnitzer Museum.)

Here’s a view of Barb’s “models” and here’s how she added values.

New Day Bakery, Eugene, OR

Barb Shirk always finds the most interesting things – this time, a watercolor calendar with a twist! There’s a sample, then a faint outline of the work with watercolor tips. What fun.

Penelope falls back on the old trick of sketching your tools.

Barb Shirk brought along a companion for Woodlo, which Jane enjoyed sketching – isn’t he a character?

Erik did do some sketching, but mostly, let’s admit it, we talked!

New Day Bakery/World Cafe, Eugene, OR

Here we are again, Jane behind the camera, Barb Shirk, Sandy, Penelope, Barb Sommers & Erik. Happily surrounded by people.

Jane and Barb Shirk get right down to it.

At first it looked like Erik had figured out a way to focus on architecture and plants, but a person in a booth snuck in.

Sandy went beyond the head to get the whole profile, but what’s that that Penelope is doing across the table?

Aha! The classic sketch-it-before-you-eat-it ploy!

Barb Shirk’s sketch just keeps getting more peopled!

And we even got to talk about Matisse, thanks to Erik.

“World Sketches” show at The Gallery at the Watershed, 321 Mill Street, December 16 – January 17, 2015.

All the participants who were in town & not under the weather came to a “sneak preview” – Front: Mike Maszk, Barb Shirk, Manda Severin; back: Jan Brown, Barb Aten, Jane Harrison, Ken O’Connell, Jo Palmer, Tricia Clark-McDowell, Erik Johnson, Satoko Motuoji.  We were all thrilled to see the show hung.

    Erik, Jan & Barb A view one of the walls, while Trish samples the treats, and Mike, Amy & Ken take a look at another wall.

And then came the official opening & holiday party on Friday:

      It was pretty much a happy mob scene all night!

    Amy stood up to give the welcome and introduce some of the players. Ken, surrounded by Lucy Hart (who first introduced him to LaRomita), Erik Johnson (a long time colleague & sketch friend), and Satoko Motouji (who introduced Ken to Italy) then spoke about the unique nature of sketchbooks and the quality of the giclée prints.

     Ken even showed off a sample sketch book by one of his former students at LaRomita, Vicki Abbott, who came down for the show. Then the meet and greet and view (if you can) began in earnest. Here’s Tricia with (the) Robert Gamblin & Jane.

     Lynn Pfeiffer & Jim Patterson.  Anneke (Ken’s daughter) with daughter Fiona, her husband, and Satoko.

       Mike and proud wife Ann Wein; Mike & Barb A share a chuckle. The discussions got pretty lively and intense as the evening went on.

I think it’s fair to say that everyone had a great time! (And some sketch art even got purchased! Hooray!)

Starbucks on Willamette St., Eugene, OR

Jane just received the latest book by Urban Sketchers originator Gabriel Campanario – “People and Motion.” So she brought it to the sketch group today, along with a wooden mannequin:

And we immediately started to apply his suggestions, and sketch:

Here’s Barb Sommers, JoAnn Palmer and sister Barb Shirk, and Sandy, with Jane at the camera.

Tricia joined us, too, and you can see that we were having fun.

Jane had an unfortunate accident when she tried to arrange the little guy’s leg, and it popped right off.  But Barb Sommers took the opportunity to turn it into positive as she got a closer leg look! Jan joined us but went right into sketching real people.

Jane started writing the story of the mannequin; when she read it to the group, saying “Will it become a poster child for folks with disabilities?” she was imagining a take off on “Where’s Waldo?” and said we needed a name for the little guy.  Barb Shirk promptly dubbed him “Woodlo,” and had him already incorporated in her sketch of the people at Starbucks this morning!

Where will he show up next???