i sat in my car by the railroad tracks and sketched with the windows down.
i used every single ounce of brain power i had to figure this out. it would have been easier for me to pick up the cars and move them rather than try and draw them. but i decided to save my strength for the telephone poles and the long winding road and the fence and the distant building on the hill that doesn't look like it's on a hill in my picture.
these are serious matters. for the novice urban sketcher. i endeavor to study and practice.
the telephone poles really confounded me with their wires and clamps and bolts and lines going this way and that. also i think squirrels are zip-lining down that droopy line at night and making it sag. otherwise why would it be so droopy?
those of you in my TICKET TO VENICE class might remember the day i returned to the apartment and showed you this enormous chart from the 1930's that i had found. i decided i would cover my umbrian sketchbook with it.
sure it's of the persian gulf but who cares about that silly detail? so far i've put together 3 signatures, but might add a 4th. also i may just carry the sewn individual signatures and stitch them into the book cover when i get home. it will be easy to just throw one of the signatures in my bag for that day's sketching & writing. we'll see. this is all a big experiment.
and i a crafty mad scientist.
I’m reading your blog like a book today. I’m down for the count today because I didn’t listen to my knee yesterday. The sunshine told me it was a perfect day for treasure hunting. I found the treasure. Today I hurt. So I am soaking up your sketches and adventures. Today’s colors are delicious!
The chart makes a wonderful cover. You don’t shy away from choosing really complex things to draw, do you! You have made those power lines look fab and I love your Pedxing art. I think your drawing is fabulous.xx
Your drawings are getting so good! Please don’t get them too perfect, it will take years to get back to this point where you’re so lovely loose and free!
I wondered how you would use that fabulous chart – the cover is perfect.
Are you taking paints with you when you sketch outdoors or are you adding color later? I discovered by accident the pleasure of taking unbound signatures for travel journaling. Several years ago I didn’t have time to bind the journal I was making for my trip and I just didn’t get around to it while on the trip so I’d just take a signature with me for my day tripping. It was a fabulous accident!
I’m loving these urban sketchings! The one drawn in your car with the nice colors, cars, flowers…just delightful. You must tell us what you’re using for tools…water color brush? which paints? take a pix of what you’re taking with you in your travel kit. We love to see what other artists use. We’re basically nosey. Oh yes, and what paper are you using? HA If you’re using a pen, tell us brand and nib whatever…this has got to be a joyous time for you. It shows in your sketches.
Have you checked out any Brenda Swenson workshops? She’s right in your neck of the woods…near Pasadena. Google her website. She’s urban sketched all around the area where she lives. Watercolor artist. How about any local Urban Sketcher groups in your area? This is a world wide organization, lots of groups participate.
Don’t be so hard on yourself. This is like learning any new skill, baby steps before you run. Have so much fun in your new adventures. Can’t wait to hear all about Yosemite, one of my favorite places. But of all the Nat’l Parks I’ve visited, Yellowstone is the most awesome. Bryce Canyon in UT literally took my breath away!
Love, love, love your telephone poles Mary Ann as over the course of about the last month or so I’ve become smitten with them, all those glorious lines stretched to and fro, dissecting the horizon this way and that, placing things at different angles in a most delightful way. So of course when I seen these I absolutely giggled with glee.
Yes!!! Sometimes you just want to reach into the view, move things around, eliminate others, tilt the hill just a tad this way and get rid of that garbage can…..I almost always do that (mentally) when I plein air sketch. I love your telephone poles. You imbued them with personality. How’d you do that?!? Way cool!
Finished my MAM-style journal for my trip to Africa in the autumn. I love it and thank you most sincerely for showing me now to do it. You have broadened my horizons and given me skills I never thought would be mine. You are a great teacher. (But you knew that!)
It’s a beautiful sketchbook and your drawings get better and better.
Good idea about the separate signatures. Everything is coming together.
Mary Ann, I’ve decided to take unbound signatures with me on my trip to France. I recently worked in signatures and found it so easy – lays flat, light weight, easier to work in. Plus I don’t have to predetermine how many pages I’ll actually use. Then the signatures get put together and voila!
You have to stop this… Using that gorgeous paper on a new book. Now I want to make another one also… Your drawings are lovely to look at, never mind perspective and such. As long as you and your groupies like it you are OK. The first time I came to America in 2001 I had no idea what Xing meant… I had to ask my husband. For the longest time I said nothing and just read exsing…
When you drink coffee at 8 p.m…..you end up here at 10:30 p.m….lol! But as long as I was up I figured I would stop here first! Taking just the signatures is such a good idea. Lighten the load, and your new beautiful book will be excited to see you when you arrive home to fill it up! That chart looks right at home covering your new sketchbook adventures in Umbria. Perfect choice.
Fabulous sketching…so full of life and excitement. Love the diagonal telephone pole and all its parts. Funny about the squirrel, I would totally believe that’s the reason for the sagging wire. Our squirrels here in FL run over the roof like a herd of elephants and run around on the screens chasing each other. Mischievous furry things they are…
Your shading looks really great – makes all the difference!
I want that book you made. Start selling stuff lady. lol
Mary Ann thank you for sharing this. It’s so inspiring to me because I’m trying to get more confident in my sketching of whatever I see. Practice is the key….and just jumping in!
Do you sketch in pen rather than pencil? I love the looseness of your sketching and I read somewhere that if you use pen, since you can’t erase, it takes some of the “fear” out of sketching.