Plumbago

The "common" pencil. Common as -- well, perhaps not common as dirt. But certainly common as a No. 2 yellow school pencil, right?

Pen and ink are experiencing a well-deserved resurgence among sketchers and visual journalists, and the lowly pencil has taken a back seat. But it certainly wasn't always that way.

In the latest article in my "Tools of the Trade" series, I explore the history (and adventures) of the unpretentious pencil. And, if you'd like to know more about it's connection to Napoleon, or it's role in exploring the American West please feel free to give it a read. Tools of the Trade #2 - Plumbago, Napoleon and a No. 2 Pencil

Fordson Tractor, Stehekin, WA, USA

Oh, and as to where the "common" No. 2 yellow school pencil originated -- it was originated in the late 19th century by the Koh-I-Noor Hardtmuth company of Czechoslovakia to distinguish their use of the finest premium grade of graphite in the world, which was imported at great expense from China. (Yellow was an imperial color in Mandarin China.)

So, is the pencil "under-appreciated"? Yes. "Unassuming"? I'll go along with that. "Common"? I don't think so. How about you?

Street Scene, Bellagio, Italy

Departure 4pm, 7pm, 8pm...sketch

As you already know Santo Domingo was a huge success and loads of fun. Getting out of town...not so much. The upside of delayed flights is sketching in the departure area. The lady in this sketch on the left with the droopy hair had a friend who arrived after this sketch. Her friend pulled a pint of rum and some chocolates out of her purse and they quietly had a nice visit and a few shots using the cap of the bottle for a shot glass. You see all kinds of things when you sit and observe.
Sketchbook is Strathmore Toned Grey 400 Series, white Conté pencil, ebony pencil - thank you Strathmore for the book.

Another great Urban Sketchers Symposium!

Urban Sketchers Texas had 5 representatives at the 3rd International Urban Sketchers Symposium in Santo Domingo...that's got to be some kind of record.  The schedule was grueling, but had plenty of opportunities for exploring and socializing.  The workshops consistently pushed us beyond our limits to new heights.  As an example, compare my sketch of the Parque Colon made before the symposium, and the one made during the "Improvising with Lines and Colors" workshop by Inma Serrano and Orling Dominguez.  I think the results speak for themselves.

Parque Colon, drawn before the beginning of the symposium.

Parque Colon, after inspired guidance by Inma and Orling.

Memories from Santo Domingo

Texas Team : Judith, James, Kay, Alisa ans myself

Kay and Judith at Workshop with Lynne Chapman

Jim at Catedral de Santa Maria

With Liz Steel



Judith and myself by Lampin



James by Lampin

Sketchcrawl in the Heights

Yesterday was the first little bit of dry weather we've had in days, but with my sketching friends away in Santo Domingo I was on my own. This little Victorian cottage has always intrigued me and it's only a short distance from my house.

the bonfires of Sant John. Alacant. Spain

My last sketches in Spain.

One of the many monumets who are called Bonfires (Hogueras or Fogueres). They made of wood, cardboard, mud, paintings and nowadays of cork and polyurethane too. Burned in a very beautiful and emotive act called "La crema" (The burning), marks the end of the festival.



Concatedral de San Nicolas-Alacant-Spain.




























Next stage Santo Domingo.

Back from South America

Patti and I have just returned from our 3-week tour of Brazil and Peru, visiting world class cities, cultural sites and iconic works of landscape architecture.  It was a unforgettable experience; I'll be posting images over the next few weeks.

The Kombi vans, featuring all manner of refreshments, are a ubiquitous site across southeastern Brazil.  I was particularly taken by the happy coconut drinks atop this one.

This was drawn from my hotel window in Petropolis, Brazil, in the mountain highlands north of Rio de Janeiro.

Lively street life near Kennedy Park in Lima, Peru.

Texas sketcher in España

D and I recently returned from our 20th anniversary trip to Spain. Thanks to Thomas (fellow TX sketcher and Madrileños) for getting a little sketch group together in Madrid. A couple of days after we arrived it was off to sketch. What a great way to start off a trip with local "friends". Thomas even arranged for me to join a group in Barcelona the next week. I'll post more images as time permits but I do have to catch up on the work I missed while traveling.  Luckily the light mist (the rain in Spain) didn't last long and we sketched from a park across from the cathedral.

With Judith in Madrid

Visit of Judith and her husband  David to Spain. During his stay in Madrid, we shared with them a few hours sitting on a terrace in Las Vistillas, with a beautiful view of the Almudena Cathedral. 

María,Judith,Ursula, me and Joaquín.

My document

Old Gold

For the past two days I've been stuck at my local Apple Store with an uncooperative laptop. Fortunately, the folks at the Genius Bar were both very knowledgeable AND helpful, and I am once again "on the grid." (Best of all, they got me up and running without charging me a penny. Thanks again fellas!)

To celebrate I'm launching a new series entitled "Old Gold" on my blog. (Installment #1 is "Roma") And this series will run in alternating installments with a series on technical issues and product reviews, and regular posts "from the field." If you'd care to join me for a stroll down memory lane, click on the link below and, afterward, please let me know what you think.

http://earnestward.blogspot.com/

The Skate Park

One of the nice things about living in a big city is discovering new places that you never knew existed. The city has been trying to upgrade Buffalo Bayou by putting in walking trails and paved bike paths and shelters and little pockets of interest all along both the north and south bank. Today I rounded the corner onto the Sabine Street bridge and lo and behold there was a brand new skate park. Didn't take the skaters any time at all to find this. The place was jammed even in the heat.

Texans in South America

Our 3-week sketch/study trip in South America with my old friend Professor Max Conrad and many of the usual suspects begins Saturday.  Patti and I will fly from Fort Worth to Miami, then on to Belo Horizonte in Brazil.  We'll make our way along the southeastern coast through Ocuro Preto, Petropolis, Rio de Janeiro, Paratay, Ilhabela and Sao Paulo.  While in Sao Paulo we will stay with my old friend and fellow LSU lanscape architect Sergio Santana.  Then off to Peru to experience Lima, an ecotourism lodge at the Reserva Amazonica, Machu Picchu and Cuzco before heading back to Texas. My goal is to produce between 40 and 50 watercolors during the trip.
We've visited 36 countries since 1999, but this is our first trip to South America to see what they know. It's overdue, and we're really jazzed.  High adventure indeed!

Introducing Earnest Ward

Hi! When I heard that Texas was getting its own USK chapter a few months ago I was thrilled -- after all, there are hundreds of sketching enthusiasts scattered across our great state and USK is a fantastic way for us to meet and share our mutual interest. And then when I was asked to become a contributing correspondent I was honored. For those of you who don't already know me tho', a brief introduction might be in order.

I was born into a family of intrepid travelers. Every summer, growing up, my folks would pack us into the car and we would camp our way across whichever continent we were living on at the time. And, by the time I graduated from high school I'd lived in Britain (twice), Germany, and Taiwan, and visited numerous other countries. Along the way I discovered a passion for recording the world about me in drawings, paintings, and printmaking -- but most of all in sketchbooks and journals.

Along the way I met and married my soulmate and fellow adventurer. And when our two beautiful children came along it seemed perfectly natural to us to continue the family tradition with them -- including regular voyages of discovery here in Texas and across the U.S., a two-month "slow travel" sketch crawl across Europe and, most recently a stint as Artists-in-Residence at North Cascades National Park.

My personal motivation for sketching is to "see" more of the world around me. (Nothing goes into a sketch that the artist hasn't first consciously perceived. The same can't always be said of photography or video.) And my personal focus tends to be the natural and cultural history -- past AND present -- of the places I visit.

So, I'd like to thank Jim for inviting me to join ya'll and I look forward to, hopefully, meeting each of you in upcoming sketch crawls. In the meantime, "Happy sketching!"

Puerta Grande - Madrid

To be carried high on the shoulders of aficionados out through the Grand and Moorish Puerta de Madrid, is the ultimate dream of any torero (bullfighher).

Puerta Grande o Puerta de Madrid.

The Plaza de Toros de las Ventas ( Often known as las Ventas) is a classic example of the Neo-Mudejar stile, it was opened in 1931, and hosted its first corrida (bullfight) three years later.
25.000 spectators, evoke more sense os a theatre than a sports stadium : it also hosts concerts.
The area where the Plaza de Toros is located os known as Las Ventas because , in times gone by, several wayside taverns (ventas) along with houses of ill repute, were to be found there.

Ducros House, Thibodeaux LA

This weekend found me road-tripping from Fort Worth to Houston to Thibodeaux, Louisiana and back.  I sketched this amazing Greek Revival house on the edge of Thibodeaux while my daughter attended a friend's wedding festivities there.  I later found out it's the Ducros plantation house, built between 1830 and 1850.  It's on the National Register and is currently undergoing restoration to see new life as a bed and breakfast.  I loved the fact that the road sign across from the house said, "Devil's Swamp Road;" sounds like something from a screenplay.

Formal Application

These drawings come with a little story. It's been a busy month and try as I might, the closest I've come to location sketching is my own backyard. There is a little black-and-white cat who was adopted by my neighbor but she spends most of her time in my yard. She naps on my porch and my deck and drives my indoor cats crazy. She also hunts in my garden. Lately I've been finding little gifts waiting for me on the doormat. Earlier this week it was a mouse. I decided that this offering was a little crispy and rank to bring inside for sketching. The Katydid and the Monarch carcass, however, were perfect. I've started to joke that she is "formally applying" to be my cat. I'm almost afraid to see what I come home to next and she ramps up her campaign.

Live - Dead Music Capital Band

A recent weekend trip to the live music capital of Texas, Austin, to visit Mini Maker Faire.  The Maker Faire is a gathering of makers, everything from weaving, robotics, hackers, crafts, soldering projects, basically anything that you might find someone tinkering with in their shop. I liked the   large, adult-size rocking horses, that were styled more like the 4 horses of the Apocolyps, made by a woman that one day decided she wanted her own rocking horse. Then she made another, and then started to sell them. Of course we had to climb up and have a ride. I don't know why I didn't sketch them. This band marched into the faire and played for a good long while, the Dead Music Capital Band. They were scrungy, pale, bloody with ratty clothes.

Museum Day. Museo Sorolla-Madrid-Spain

On the ocasion of the celebration of the Museum Day , a group of Urban Sketchers were invited to visit the Museo Sorolla, and drawing the inside and outside.
Surrounded by a secluded garden, like an oasis in the centre of Madrid, the Museum holds the greatest collection of works by the Valencian painter Joaquín Sorolla (1863-1923)
Sorolla is often called the "Master of Light" but as attractive as his pictures, his studio and house are more or less as he left them when he died en the 1920s.

some more sketches in my blog

Madrid from the Sky. Ok, almost !!

Another saturday morning, cool and with some ugly clouds on the horizon, we chose the comfort of a cafeteria installed in a ninth floor of a well-known departament store chain with a unbeatable views over Madrid.

Gran Vía from Callao, in the rear the Plaza de España-

Teatro Real in the center, Catedral de la Almudena to the left and Palacio de Oriente to the right

Palacio de la prensa

Update on my March 10th Post.....

I posted the sketch of Broadway Church of Christ on the left back in March( http://urbansketchers-texas.blogspot.com/2012/03/finding-right-view.html )...a quick sketch just to explore composition, value, etc. 

The sketch on the left was done in the studio from the study....I apologize for this one-time violation of  the first imperative of the USK Manifesto(We draw on location, indoors or out, capturing what we see from direct observation), but I thought it was interesting to see the difference.  I think I prefer the looser and free-er feel of the original study!  My work tends to "lose something" when I labor too hard over it!  

Back to pure location sketching!