Field Testing a Steel Brush
The other day we finally made it to Quebec City. We’ve been living in Montreal for about five years now, but for whatever reason, it took us this long to visit. For our first trip, I wanted to hit the...
View ArticleUSK:MTL : Sketching Atwater Market
We had perfect lazy Sunday weather for today’s USK:MTL monthly sketching meetup. I was doing more talking than drawing today so we have a little bit of everything going on in the sketchbook. Thanks to...
View ArticleThe Hand Drawn Snapshot
I show a lot of ‘nice’ sketches on this blog. What I consider finished works. Things where I took a reasonable amount of time (45 minutes? an hour?). And things that often call for an easel and a...
View ArticleTravel Sketching in Mixed Media: Lesson Sneak Peek – Silhouette Shapes
Here’s a sneak peek at the second concept in my new video class Travel Sketching in Mixed Media. The course starts with the slightly more obvious approach of doing line drawings and tinting them with...
View ArticleTravel Sketching in Mixed Media Live Today! Lesson Sneak Peek!
The new video course is live for registrations as of this morning! Super exciting for me – I’ve been planning this for months now, and am very pleased to see people already signing up! Thanks...
View ArticleSingapore Workshop Results: Street Portraits and Crowd Shots
We’re recently back from the USK symposium in Singapore. After a few years of going to the annual international event, I’m starting to take it as a normal experience. But really – it’s far from normal....
View ArticleOne Day : One Sketchbook : The Plateau Panoramas
This past May Day was the first alignment of great weather and time off I’ve had in Montreal for 2015. I met up with a couple of friends from USK, and spent the afternoon sketching in the Plateau. I...
View ArticleSpeed Painting at Vizcaya Gardens Miami
Near the end of our recent Florida cruise we had a free day in South Beach Miami. Not being much of a beach person, I was looking for something paintable, and a quick web search came up with the...
View ArticleSaint Patrick Preserve Us!
This past Sunday was Montreal’s St. Patrick’s day parade. Unfortunately for us, it was an inhospitable -8 C / 18 F. I heard someone say the wind chill rating was -17 /1. Not a great day for a parade....
View ArticleWinter in Montreal : Sketching from the Car
[Random street view in Westmount, watercolor, approx 12×16″, about 45 mins] Went out painting the other day with Shari. We practiced our Great White North version of plein air painting – sketching...
View ArticleOne Day : One Sketchbook : The Plateau Panoramas
This past May Day was the first alignment of great weather and time off I’ve had in Montreal for 2015. I met up with a couple of friends from USK, and spent the afternoon sketching in the Plateau. I...
View ArticleSpeed Painting at Vizcaya Gardens Miami
Near the end of our recent Florida cruise we had a free day in South Beach Miami. Not being much of a beach person, I was looking for something paintable, and a quick web search came up with the...
View ArticleSaint Patrick Preserve Us!
This past Sunday was Montreal’s St. Patrick’s day parade. Unfortunately for us, it was an inhospitable -8 C / 18 F. I heard someone say the wind chill rating was -17 /1. Not a great day for a parade....
View ArticleWinter in Montreal : Sketching from the Car
[Random street view in Westmount, watercolor, approx 12×16″, about 45 mins] Went out painting the other day with Shari. We practiced our Great White North version of plein air painting – sketching...
View ArticleWorking with a Limited Color Palette at the 2014 Urban Sketchers Brazil Workshop
We are just back from the 2014 Urban Sketchers symposium in Paraty Brazil. I can’t begin to explain how great it was without waxing philosophical. When you’re traveling, every view is fresh. The...
View ArticleStep-by-Step Drawing Example : Davis House Dot Plot
The other day I showed you a quick example of what I’m calling ‘Dot Plots’. I really need a better name for this. Maybe somebody who isn’t such an autodidact can tell me what it’s called? I came up...
View ArticleRenew your Artistic Licence, or: “Don’t Just Document – Design”.
Every spring in Montreal we have a brief opportunity when it’s warm enough to be out drawing, but before the leaves come back on the trees. I try to make the most of this time – running around looking...
View ArticleUSK:MTL Griffintown Sketchcrawl
For this month’s USK:MTL 4th Sunday sketch-out we did a walking tour of Griffintown. This historically Irish part of Montreal has been undergoing gentrification for a few years now – I was hoping to...
View ArticleThe Classic Street Sketch and Other Philosophy
This unassuming sketch is a perfect example of why I’m hooked on Urban Sketching. I’m waiting on the street corner, meeting people before a show. I’m there a few minutes early, and they’re a few...
View ArticleUrban Sketchers in Savannah
I’m just back from a weekend in Savannah Georgia at the first meeting of the urbansketchers.org executive board. We had a very productive weekend discussing our various projects. (The annual symposium,...
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