Quick Parking Lot, Quick Cups

The Day in Pencil

 At my other office

 At my office office

 In between the two

Happy Birthday to Me!

My birthday was three weeks ago, so it's still sort of my birthday, right?

Toby took me to Brother Juniper's for breakfast - best breakfast in town!

Then my co-workers took me to lunch at Las Delicias. It was delicias.

I left work early and did a little shopping, then went to this cute new place called Low Arts Tea Haven, in Collierville.

While I was there my sister called and her kids sang Happy Birthday to me! It was so cute!

After that Toby and I met at Benihana for dinner because it's across the street from the movie theater and all I wanted to do for my birthday was see a movie at the Ridgeway Four. The dinner was really fun though!

Then we saw Moonrise Kingdom! It was a pretty perfect day.

Truuuuuuuck

Cars and Signs and the Invisible Woman

At Home, then Out and About

At home.

Then out and about.

(click on sketch for more detail)

Singing Kid

My friends Blaine and Jodie have five-year-old twins Jack and Ella. Ella is going to be a singer - really she already is one. She totally takes over when her dad's band gets together to practice!

More from Soul Fish

More from my sketching dinner with Martha, and squeezing a sketch in the next day. Click on the sketches for more details.

East Memphis, Downtown, Midtown

Here is another errand sketch, of the fire station next door to my grocery store.

The next day I drove downtown during lunch to pick up a tiny painting from the Cotton Museum. My friend and former teacher Greely Myatt had an "intervention" show at the Cotton Museum, and I was one of several artists who included a small piece of work to display on the stands where cotton-related products are usually displayed.

This is my tiny painting. I call it My Mimi K, because that's who that is, Mimi K. The cotton tie-in is that she worked at a cotton company for years and years. And when I say tiny, I mean it's 3 inches square. Tiny!

Then I had a minute so I sketched the view east from Union and Front as quickly as I could!

After work I met my friend Martha Kelly for dinner at Soul Fish in midtown. She had just returned from a sketching trip in Greece and Turkey, and I had just returned from the Urban Sketchers Symposium in Santo Domingo, so we just nerded out, sketching and talking about sketching.

Same Parking Lot, Different Angle

I accidentally took a long lunch by staying in my car to do this sketch after I came back from lunch. I was really happy with it until I put that neutral color in the middle for the parking lot. Ugh. It needed something, but not that.

Monday Monday

Couple of sketches from a plain ol' Monday in July.

Sketchbook Testing

For the first time in a long time I am using a sketchbook other than a Moleskine for my everyday sketchbook. This is the Stillman & Birn sketchbook from the Symposium. I was just feeling it out by making a little pencil sketch of the mess on my drawing table.

At Poplar Perk'n Coffee Shop

Stopped in for a quick coffee and a sketch. There was a guy sitting outside under that umbrella and I had created a little story about him because he was with a woman, then he walked her to her car and after she left he sat back down and called someone. So I was imagining that he was calling another girl to meet him for coffee. I'm glad I didn't sketch him and write that all down, though, because he asked to see my sketches! I could've said no (but you know I like showing off) but luckily I didn't need to.

Watercolor Pencil Lunch Sketch

Sketch Group Today

Went to Idlewild Presbyterian Church today with Memphis Urban Sketchers. It was a good place for indoor (summertime) sketching. At first it was very quiet, with only the hum of the lawnmower outside and the occasional clatter of a dropped pencil. Then the organ player came in to practice. That woke us right up!

Here is a quick thumbnail on the left to help me get started.

This is actually a pretty big sketch for me - it's about 8" x 10" and is in a Canson inspiration sketchbook. I tried out all of the stuff I learned at the Urban Sketching Symposium: working with shapes and mass, using thumbnails, some sexy line, layering, using a variety of materials in one sketch, and sketching architecture! All there in one sketch.

Click on it for more detail.

Then I wandered around and sketched some chairs. Go to the Memphis Urban Sketchers blog for more sketches from the day.

Post-Symposium Sketches!

I say that like it is some sort of magical demarcation line, but for me it kind of is. I needed a change, and here it is. Thank you, Symposium instructors!

Out and About

The last of the pre-Symposium sketches.

I was working on getting ready for the Symposium at my "other office" (where I hand out at lunch and work on non-work work).

Mmmmm.... guacamole!

What I did on July 3rd and 4th:
•Bought two hats - if you've seen pictures of my from the Symposium you know which one I like better.
•Finished that painting - yay! It is currently residing at Harrington Brown Gallery. I drew this from memory - not something I'm very good at, but that's how well I know this painting.
•Finished Cutting for Stone. Cried my eyes out.
•Saw an adolescent raccoon in my backyard. Toby shoo'd it away to make sure it wouldn't die in our basement (because yes, that is a worry).
•Ate a hot dog! It was Fourth of July!

Around My House

These are a few pre-Symposium sketches.

The quote on the left is from Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse, by a painter was thinking about her painting. I wrote it down because I was hoping it was the secret I needed to help with a painting I was stuck on. I think it helped a little.

This is my stove. I usually don't sketch in my kitchen, which is weird because I spend so much time in there. I really love my kitchen. Maybe I'll draw it for you more.

My backyard and a list.

USK Symposium - Going Home

Did you think I was finished? Ha!

The morning we left, I ate breakfast with the two sketchers I ate breakfast with on the first morning, so that was fun. Then I hung out with Lynne, Benjamin and Scott before it was time to check out. I had to keep sketching because Lynne was sketching me sketching.

We all ended up going to the airport together, and Scott was even on our flight. I sketched these in the airport, again with the Lynne-influenced colored pencils.

This new format that I started doing during the SketchCrawl is a really good way for me to quickly sketch little stuff, instead of having it all on the paper willy nilly. Put it in a line! Of course! But I've been using it more and more and I really like the technique.

And here is my final sketch of the trip, the airplane sketch.

Since my return I'm sketching the same amount as always, which is pretty much every day, but I'm thinking about it in a different way - thinking about composition a lot more, about perspective and about layers and sexy line and mass, and using a variety of materials. I spend a lot more time thinking about sketching, and about everything I learned and all of the wonderful people that I met.