recent sketches from here and around

I sat in a nook of the archways across the road to sketch this view of the Jamieson Bone building. I have been taking a Craftsy course with Stephanie Bowers and it is really good. She demonstrates how to look at a building and break it into the big shapes, how to find the eye level line and from there to sketch more accurately. I am not sure that it is improving my sketches but it is improving my confidence in the way I approach a sketch, thinking more about the actual composition, the placement on the page and perspective. I’m on my second viewing of the lessons and the concepts are taking root. There are also classes on Craftsy by two of my favourite sketchers, Marc Holmes and Shari Blaukopf and I suggest you have a look at all of them. Each set of lessons, each bird’s-eye view of an artist’s sketching style, actually leads you more into your own sketching style, refines how you see and depict the world.

I was away last week on a short road trip and I sketched as much as I could. Here are the sketches from Toronto, Guelph, and Port Hope. In Toronto I stood on sunny Avenue Road after my visit to the Textile Museum for this elevation view. It was Sunday and the pace, and parking, were much easier. In Guelph I was in a cafe opposite the historic City Hall. A table and a cappuccino make one of the most comfortable ways to sketch. And in Port Hope, I sat on my trusty stool in the parking lot. Each time I measured out the proportions with my pencil and did the pencil and then ink sketch. Paint was added later.