Happy New Year from All the Birds in my Yard!

Around this time last year we discovered that our yard is a very popular stop for migrating robins. When I came home from work today (early! woohoo!) I quickly realized it is that time of year again, and set to sketching the birds in our backyard.

Happy New Year from all of us :)

A Few of My Favorite Things

Coffee, this guy, our anniversary, and sketching are all a few of my favorite things. This is a sketch from our anniversary in October - my other favorite holiday.

I hope wherever you are in the world, and however you are spending your day, that you enjoy a few of your favorite things.

Merry Christmas :)

Happy Christmas Eve

Wishing you a happy Christmas Eve with sketches from my other favorite holiday, Thanksgiving. Toby and I spent the day at home, but we still had all our family favorites.

First, sausage pinwheels. Mmmmm.

Later, at cocktail hour, drinks and snacks. Mmmmm.

Later in the evening I put our ravioli together. It can't be Thanksgiving without ravioli!

It was just the two of us, and it was a really lovely day. Hope yours was good, and that your Christmas is good, too.

Poetry Reading

From a poetry reading last month at Crosstown Arts story booth.

More Cute

One more of this cutie. I've been making tiny paintings of him as gifts, so he is just sitting here on my drawing table staring at me. His name is Brownie. We've been friends most of my life.

What I Talk About When I Talk About Sketching

I was invited to give a talk about sketching to art students at Arlington High School. I just love to talk about sketching, and show examples, and demonstrate materials, so that is what I did today.

Each of the students received either a black Faber Castell Pitt artist pen (fine), or a black Pigma Micron 05, and a grey Faber Castell Pitt artist pen (brush). I went to the Art Center and tested them all out, then bought them out of grey pens.

Studio night, playing with the pens.

Grey in front, black in back, for a change.

This morning my makeup and jewelry made a nice tableau.

I took half of today off, and finished putting my presentation together at lunch. I could have continued to tweak it and add images FOREVER. I talked about myself and my (long) history with sketching, and then gave them some things to think about while sketching (like layers and mark-making), and showed examples from so many of the great sketchers out there.

I had to get to the school early, because apparently there is really bad traffic when school lets out (this was an after-school event). So while I was waiting, of course I sketched!

After my presentation the students asked tons of great questions, then we all looked through my sketchbooks, and I demonstrated some of my sketching materials. After we handed out the pens, most of them sat down and started working in their sketchbooks. Success!

President Elizabeth

You know I have, like, four jobs, right? I'm a technical writer, artist, art teacher, and one of the hardworking members of the all-volunteer board/staff of Urban Sketchers. For the next year I'll be an even-slightly-harder-working board member of USk, since I'll be serving as president.

I don't know what it is about USk, but I love it, and I love the actual work. It's one of my top three favorite current jobs.

I am excited about this position, and hope to be able to make a bit of a difference in my own inherent-project-manager sort of way. We have a great group and great plans.

So, if you need me any time soon, I'll probably be working!

Sketching with Pencil in a Museum

I'm so hooked on pens now I forget how fun it can be to work in pencil. See more about visiting the Rodin exhibit at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens with the Memphis Urban Sketchers here.

Friday Night Fun

Know what I looove to do on a Friday night? Get a pizza from Little Italy on Union, put on my house pants, read a magazine or catch up on shows, and generally just hang out with my husband. Either that or art openings, but any night is better with a Little Italy pizza.

Fountain Pen and Waterbrush Pen

Some of my fellow sketchers like using the Kuretake waterbrush pen with a fountain pen or other water-soluble pen to soften lines and get a lighter value out of the ink. It works great! I need to work on the technique more to make it my own.

Studio Night Last Night: Now With Less Angst

After a few weeks of frustration in the studio, I finally had a normal night of painting. It happens. And I know it happens, so I just stayed there and tried to paint until I could paint. It worked!

This angsty sketch is from last week's Studio Night.