Sketching in the wild

#Sktchy30 #Day27 and I think 116 for the…I have it written down…The Prompt today for Sktchy 30 is success.  Success comes in many forms. My high school’s motto, several decades ago….is “Vincit qui se vincit.” “She conquers who conquers herself.” Success is getting out of your own way.  Success is being brave. It takes guts to get out of the studio and sketch (or paint) at some place like Starbucks. If you look at the reference photo, the young lady with the ash blond hair caught my eye and I wanted to sketch that hair! Sketching people in public can be a little stressful, you have to really look at them in order to draw them and they catch on after a while. Most ignore me. Some leave. So far no one has freaked out.😂


The dance of line

I did this today in a sketchbook that is very basic, it isn’t great paper, it has prompts on the pages…I call it my grunge or junk sketchbook….this one usually doesn’t see the outside of the studio…I have several sketchbooks like this.  These are where the grunt work and exploration meets creative thought.  I don’t worry about if the pages look good, my main focus is on ideas, things that come from happy accidents.

Today’s sketch is #sktchy30 #day26…the Prompt was “flow”…. for me, flow is the dance of pen on paper….it is this dance, this toccata and fugue of line, that keeps me coming back time and again to create something on paper or canvas.  It’s primal.  It’s something I love to do.

This sketch just flowed…..I didn’t add color because I liked it the way it is and many times color ruins it for me….I want to tell the story with just the pen, paper and line.

Today’s sketches

Good evening folks!

FYI to my blog followers:

I want to say thank you for following my blog.  I appreciate you! I will be showing my appreciation soon with some changes that I am working on.  Stay tuned for that!  My Twitter and Instagram will each have their own exclusive “thing” as well.    I will be slowly rolling these out soon.

These bleeding hearts were done with mixed media on a 4×6 postcard.  They are growing in my garden right now.


This next postcard is a technique I was playing with today.  It was done using painter’s tape and oil pastels, ink and pencil.

Today’s  sketches

I went to the local animal refuge.  They have a strange assortment of animals.  There are the usual barn yard animals…but there is also a bear, a emu….a few spitting alpaca (from a conversation that I overheard), eagles, a fox, etc

I thought they closed at five, fail.  They closed at 3.  I had one hour to sketch.  I did what I could in an hour but now that I have the layout, and it is free, I will be heading over there more.  Especially during the week while the kiddies are in school.

April 21 sketches

Here are some sketches from today/this evening…


These 2 pages of vignettes were done at Starbucks.  I sketched what I saw there, I sketched my cup, etc.  One woman….


brought her two young daughters, purchased them each a cake pop and a small chocolate-something frappaccino.   They weren’t comsuming these 5 minutes when the sugar rush hit and they were literally jumping on the furniture and yes the smallest of the two little girls jumped back and forth from one chair to another….then the mother, exasperated that she couldn’t control them, took them home.  All I had was a flat coffee, no sugar added. I just shook my head as they left.  Some parents have to learn the hard way.