Fort Worth Sketchcrawl!

Fantastic weather and a great turnout for our Saturday sketch outing in the historic Fort Worth Stockyards.  Thanks to everyone who came out!

A great time sketching with Texas Tech Landscape Architecture students!

Last week I was privileged to conduct a two day sketching workshop with a group of landscape architecture students at Texas Tech University.  These are a few of the exercises and demos that we did.  The two days culminated in a location sketching session on campus.  What a great group of students!  Thanks to Instructors Christine Casanova and Katherine Nelson for recognizing the importance of sketching in the creative process and for giving me the opportunity to share a few of the things that I have learned over the years!

We enjoyed a short session of location sketching to wind up the 2 day event.

Pen and Ink w/ watercolor added later-Moleskine 5x8" watercolor sketchbook

Next Sketch Outing in Fort Worth February 22

The weather is looking good for our SketchCrawl next Saturday, February 22.  Let’s meet at our regular time of 2:30pm in front of the Livestock Exchange Building, 131 E. Exchange Avenue in the heart of the Stockyards.  As usual, we will meet briefly, then draw until 4:30, and then gather to share sketchbooks and a group photo.  The Stockyards are a “target-rich environment” with a wealth of interesting subject matter for sketchers, so it ought to be a grand time.  You may want to linger afterwards for happy hour or dinner with old and/or new friends.

I have a new fountain pen I need to break in, so I’m ready to go.  If you have questions let me know…looking forward to seeing you there! -Jim@townscape.com

Signage and Inspiration

I haven't been sketching in quite a while and I'm afraid it shows. But this morning there was a post by Suhita Shirodkar that got me thinking. She's been drawing the old neon signs in her town. I have a great example just blocks from my house. The Admiral isn't so much a motel as a "motor court"...or it was once. Back before I-10 crossed the country, North Main, Airline and Old Katy Road were the main roads out of town and The Admiral sat at a crossroads. Now, sadly, it's a rent-by-the-week place, but they still light up the old neon at night. For a while I kept hoping someone would buy it and do something wonderful. Now I suspect when the land is valuable enough it will just go away.

Free Sketching Workshops

discussing a shot during location filming for Lesson 3

Urban Sketchers - Texas is a relatively new group and we regularly extend invitations for other Lone Star sketchers to join our growing ranks. There are also a lot of folks out there who are intrigued by sketching but lack the skills (or the confidence) to draw in such a public way. But USK-TX hasn't reached a point where it can offer its own workshops (yet). Fortunately, the folks at the Strathmore Artist Paper company are offering a series of FREE online workshops that focus expressly on developing and sharpening basic drawing skills!

in one of the "bonus" videos we'll be adding watercolor to this pen & ink piece from Lesson 3 

I'll be teaching the first four lessons (beginning March 10 and running through the next three weeks). And we'll be covering everything from line and shape drawing, to tone and volume, to perspective, to portraiture -- with a look at a variety of media and technique options, and a variety of papers, along the way.

testing out one of the papers for Lesson 1

So, if you or someone you know has been intrigued by urban sketching but has held back because of weak skills, I'd like to invite you to join the free workshop (we already have over 600 participants from 6 continents signed up, so you'll have plenty of company)... and then consider joining USK-Texas for an upcoming sketch crawls.

discussing composition in Lesson 1

For more information about the free workshops please visit http://www.strathmoreartist.com/artist-studio/about/ or visit my blog for a behind-the-scenes look at what we'll be covering.

a Line & Shape demonstration for the Lesson 1 Instruction Sheet