Natural Grocers, Eugene, OR

Here we are, checking out a new space – nice wood tables, large windows and bright light, free coffee, and a friendly welcome. NICE!

       Patti McNutt starts a sketch of the inside building structure, while Barb Shirk focuses on the wood wall sculpture.

      The assistant manager welcomes us, including newcomers Connie & Susan, a neighbor and a cousin of Barbara Shirk.  Then the fellow responsible for scheduling cooking demos shows the calendar.

      Barb shows Sandy her new Lamy pen loaded with water soluble brown ink (pic shows it over Copic Marker), and Erik took a closeup of Patti’s rediscovered tiny pen point Pentel Hybrid Technica pen.

      Connie tries out the paints a friend sent her from France (very dense), & Barb Sommers shows us a sketch from out her window.

      Connie laughs about her sketch of Erik with his signature hat, and Erik shows his emerging sketch of Heidi.

      Barb Sommers starts a pencil sketch of the green pepper and red onion on the table, and Patti goes straight to ink!

      Jan Brown starts with Stylo colored ink pens, and Sandy adds colored pencil to her ink drawing of the same subject.

      Heidi does some colored pencil overlay, and Jan adds water soluble Tombo markers.

      Jane added watercolor to her ink sketch on toned paper, and Sandy adds some commentary to fill out her sketch page.

      Patti posts her sketch of the inside of the store on their bulletin board, as Jan, Heidi, and Sandy finish their sketches.

Allan Bros., 5th St, Eugene, OR

As we frequently do when we sketch in a café, Erik chose something to nibble on as his sketch focus, and dutifully laid down line & color.

Turned out to  be a quickly completed sketch, and the model was indeed good enough to eat!

Meanwhile, Sandy admired Barb Shirk’s sketches from last week, and then claimed she just wasn’t inspired today, maybe next time.

Barb got caught up in sketching people in the line for goodies.

Heidi found the addition of cayenne pepper to her hot chocolate to be worthy of a sketch, but she sure didn’t wait before she consumed.

And Jane just messed about with brush pen and water-soluble pen.

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.