There Was Sketching...

You may recall that I tried to squeeze in some sketching assignments from a Sketchbook Skool class I signed up for while I was also working on the leaf clusters for ArtWalk. I haven't shared much of that with you, and while I still have 3 sections of the class to work through, once free of the ArtWalk deadline, I've done a few more urban sketches. This rabbit was my choice for the hatching homework from the first section. Somehow I got it all squat and rotund and the background hatching got off-kilter much like parallel or cross-hatch quilting stitches can. I was amused at how many students chose rabbits for this exercise. Well, it WAS around Easter time.

Moody Lane

I'd been waiting for the weather to get better so I could go out to sketch, these two apartment buildings being a juxtaposition I'd wanted to sketch for some time. It still was a blustery day when I headed out, sun often hidden behind clouds and a spit of rain on my open sketchbook surprising me when it was showing through. I do find this toned sketchbook somewhat difficult to work in, but it is the one I've designated for architecture, so there you are. I tried practicing some hatching rather than my usual smudged in shading. It's not as easy as one would think.

McNearney Park

 

The second section was about urban sketching and adding watercolor to line sketches in ink. Both of these were done late May at McNearney Park along my walking route but a week apart. I discovered that the Leuchtturm 1917 sketchbook is not at all suitable for watercolor as I had hoped. The pigment didn't spread but pretty much sank right into the paper, making it fairly impossible to do anything akin to a wash or blend, and it quickly pilled if I worked an area too much with the brush. Perhaps it would hold-up to a spray of ink as was demonstrated in the video that convinced me to buy it, but not to brush action. On the other hand, I did very much like using the waterbrushes I showed in the previous post and learned to use a very light touch on this paper in my testing. One thing we were to do as we sketched in a place near home that we passed by often was to take note of things we hadn't noticed before. This was a big ask for me because I'm constantly scoping out places for future sketching and generally take in my surroundings in quite a bit of detail. I sat in full sun on a boulder at the base of a hill, across from the fence I wanted to sketch, so it wasn't long until I noticed how hot the sun was on my bare arm taking the brunt of it. I also noticed some small bugs crawling around the rocks near me - not ants as I would expect but busy bugs of some kind that in my walking along the path I would not notice. And then there were the trees beyond the fence. I'd studied them before but this time I was more aware of how many different kinds firs and shades of green were represented back there. So yeah, drawing slows you down and makes you really look. The flowering tree was at the opposite end of the park, on a cooler day when sitting in the sun actually felt good. It's another attempt at mastering a brush pen.

Not so good and not so bad - pen and colored pencil

 Once I was freed from finishing up those leaf clusters, I really did itch to go back to McNearney Park to sketch this little log structure that is part of the children's play area. I was way too cocky about my ability to sketch it without some pencil work first. I'd thought about it for so long, planned my attack, and then blew it. Oh, the roofline is pretty good but I totally messed up the proportions on the walls. That front wall should be twice as wide, or probably the logs should have been smaller so that the wall would be proportionally shorter. Eating some major humble pie and couldn't wait to redeem myself by sketching another building long on my list. Actually, just that lovely fan beneath the gable is what caught my eye as I drove by, and every time since. I hadn't really noticed til I was well into the drawing that the house had been remodeled to add a big ugly black window under it. It spoils the sketch, and I suppose I could have found a way to leave it out. Maybe I'll try again and crop it out.

My mind also kept gravitating to a large tree I'd studied at a public garden in town earlier this year. I'd been intrigued with the way the texturing of the bark curved halfway up the trunk. I thought it might make for a good exercise in drawing the negative image, and I'd try again one of my brush pens to do it. Again, the day I planned this turned out to be overcast and blustery but at least I didn't get rained on. And of course, the curving in the bark was not as extreme as I remembered. Oh well, I'm here so let's get to drawing. It was much more difficult to keep track of the negative areas, and I frequently got lost. I moved around to the other side and tried again, with about the same luck. Pretty disappointing. Since I'd used my "and then add red" sketchbook, I played around with adding red with a Sharpie marker. I soon realized I could do a sort of hatching rather than just solidly color in. I must say, it improved my befuddling sketch.

Just the other day, I took some time to go through a suggestion for "creative warm-ups" I'd bookmarked for when I had more time. Basically it's working through various doodling ideas, and if nothing else, I figured it would give me ample practice working with the new Metropolitan fountain pen. I mostly tried to copy the examples rather than print them out or go my own way, and the waves in particular gave me a lot of grief. The whole page was underwhelming, until I remembered to add red (with a gel pen). That really perked it up!

Neighborhood Park

The doc said to take it easy this week (no heavy housework or even laundry - what a pity!) but it would be ok to try a short walk around the block. I gave it a go yesterday when the sun came out, a slow amble to relish the clean fresh air and warm rays on my back. I yearned to continue over to the small park that's been developing over the last couple of years, just to sit and enjoy the view, but that would have definitely been more than around the block and I could feel I didn't have it in me yet. But I'd taken pictures of the park a few weeks ago so what better time to share them with you than this?

I don't know who this McNearney is that the park and adjacent street are named after, but I do know that he donated the land that made it possible for the new animal shelter to be built. The rest of the block behind the shelter had gone undeveloped, just an uneven weedy swath waiting for something. I noted that the kids were riding their bikes at the end closest to the street where I walked, not sure if someone had officially turned this corner into a track or the kids had just taken advantage of the natural terrain.

The next bit of improvement I noticed was that the cross street that ended at the other end of this lot was extended out to McNearney Street, then paved and curbed. Looked all in the world to me like someone was about to develop the land with housing, except the curbing had no dips for driveways. A few months later, trees appeared along the street and I was still thinking this must be for more housing. Guess they'll have to rework those curbs...

Eventually, I noted areas that had been leveled, cleared and seeded, and a few things like this fencing popping up. Could this be a park? I could scarce believe it. Eventually I caught up with someone doing some work there who confirmed that yes, this land had been donated to the City of Ponderay for a park, and it was slowly coming together.

And it has been slow, the additions of landscaping and typical park amenities popping up one by one over last summer. So surprised by the blue bench and water fountain.

On the end opposite the bike pump track, this play area for the little kids slowly came into being. Picnic tables were recently added and I've seen families stopping by to eat their take-out and watch their little ones play. Build it and they will come.

There's a path that cuts along this end of the park, back along a line of cottonwood trees, eventually looping around another bike area and along the back side of the park.

As it loops back toward the play area, it skirts a practice area for kids just learning how to maneuver through a pump track.

There's this lovely stone area I suspect for parents to watch their kids as they work through the practice area. It almost looks like a small stage which makes me wonder if the designers of the park had that in mind.

From this angle I can get a good shot of the blue bench, this time with blue trash receptacle. I'm so intrigued by that blue! I want to sketch this but will have to do it standing or sitting on the ground - no seating available to capture this view.

Here's another view of that train engine in the play area. Kids can climb inside, through, over, while the dinosaur looks on. 

You may have noticed in an earlier picture that there is a rather high berm along the back of the park. Kids can ride their bikes up there too, with challenging ups and downs, no worry of adults shooing them away because they will ruin the hillside. No, this park was built for them.

Another recent and surprising addition (at least surprising to me), is this repair/service station. There's a pump for putting air in your tires and a collection of tools on a chain for tightening and adjusting and who knows what. More of that outstanding blue!

The park was officially dedicated earlier this year, and more and more signage has gone up, more landscaping put in place. Here's another view of the pump track.

And more of that wonderful old-fashioned zig-zag fencing. There's art inspiration there.

I've saved what I think is one of the best parts for last. This spring I noticed signs up at intervals along that path that loops along the back of the park. Encased in laminate, these are stories for young kids, but instead of sitting to read a book, the kids read a "page", answer questions posed at the bottom and follow instructions of how to proceed to the next "page". Even I found this fun to follow, and could just imagine how a group of young kids would respond, having at one point in my life been a library aide who read stories to groups of little ones. The stories change (I think about once a month or so) and there is a notebook at the end where you can record responses to the experience. Such a brilliant idea.

So what was once a weedy dirt heap is now blossoming into a beautiful little park that I look forward to looping through on my daily walks. Curious to know what other additions will pop up, and especially anxious for the trees to grow tall enough to start providing some shade.

Another Sketch, Another Book

We've had a pretty glorious week of temps in the 70's and several good rains that have helped clear smoke from the air and dampen down some nearby forest fires. I've been back on the deck reading in the afternoons and enjoying some walks including one down at city beach. I really wish I'd thought to bring my swim suit - it would have been perfect for a dip in the lake! Today was just too good not to grab a sketchbook so I could stay outside a little longer as I walked around McNearney Park. I certainly need more practice, once again running out of room for the entire building here and wishing I'd turned the sketchbook sideways so I could have gotten it all in. I will post this anyway on the Urban Sketchers Facebook page, remembering what Angela Walters reminds us: "Comparison is the thief of joy." I'm certainly not as good as many of the posters, but as I sat in the sun and sketched away while children and adults alike enjoyed the pump track, I certainly felt joy and no need to compare my sketch to others.

I'm gearing up to make another french link book, using cardboard from a cereal box covered in that cat tissue paper. I nearly tossed or gave it away since I am not a cat person. But then I remembered someone who very much is who I had planned to make a book for some day. That day is here. I wasn't going to use cereal boxes again as covers because of some issues I had, but I'm telling myself I will be more careful about applying the glue and weighting. As you can see, the ribbon I'll be sewing over is narrower than what I used on the first book and has a light and a dark version depending on which side of the ribbon you decide to have showing. And you can also see that I will have a choice to make - the blue (there are bits of blue here and there in the print) or the pink (which shows up in dark bits as well as the light background). I hope I don't end up spending too much time making up my mind. Maybe I'll use both!

Roadside Attractions and a Quotation

I see deer behind my place fairly often but I rarely see one on my daily walks that take me along sidewalks and across a heavily traveled main cutoff road. I've been taking this maintenance road that runs between it and McNearney Park, dog park on one side and a narrow wooded area between it and houses on the other side. I nearly walked by this one less than a half block from the street, my eyes somewhat concentrated on the ground before me, and perhaps that is what it hoped I would do. Stopping stock still upon seeing it so close, we began a rather long stare-down. It was as if it was thinking, "If I don't move, she won't see me," while I was beginning to wonder if it really saw me. Surely when I reach into my pocket for my phone (which apologies, has a terrible camera capability), it will bolt into the underbrush, but no, just that steady gaze while a snapped away.

 

At one point it did turn its head at a sound coming from the other side of the trees, but then turned back to me. I tried a few steps forward to see if it would move. It was unconcerned. But eventually it tired of me, I suppose, and started picking its way through the bushes beside the road. That's when I got the second surprise - it had a black-tipped tail. The skittish deer I'm used to seeing, the ones that must be responding to my movement off the couch as they bound away before I can get to the patio door for a closer look, are whitetail deer, distinguishable by their fat fluffy tails that have white hair on the underside. When they spook, that tail goes up, showing like a white flag in warning to their buddies.

 

Naturally, I thought this was a black-tailed deer but decided I'd better look it up. And sure enough, it actually is not, but a mule deer of which the black-tailed deer is a sub-species. It really did have huge ears like a mule that should have tipped me off. As it emerged from the brush, it still was not concerned about me being there, following along as it slowly ambled up the road.

 

Eventually, it decided it didn't appreciate being stalked like this and made its way back into the wooded area. I love being able to have these encounters without making my way outside of town.

 

So that's some fauna. How about some roadside flora? I do love Queen Anne's Lace (sometimes known as wild carrot) that thrives in the ditches and along the shoulders of rural areas. If you look closely at ones that have not opened up, they are an amazing complex bundle.

 

And then they open big and flat, often with that black spot in the middle. For the longest time I thought that was just a bug, but no, it is on all of them, a part of the flower.

 

This flower is not wild or a weed but part of the landscaping in the park. Don't know the name but I've been taken with the shape of the petals, how they pinch in a bit where they join the center the way some dimensional applique flowers do. Apologies again for the limitations of my phone's camera to get a clear shot.

And now for the quotation. I was watching the documentary "Good Work: Masters of the Building Arts" (which I highly recommend you watch) and about fell off my chair when the featured stained glass artisan, Dieter Goldkuhle, made this comment when talking about the warehouse where he buys his glass:

"It's fatal to go there because I always end up with so much more glass than I initially wanted to buy. And it just begs me, "Purchase me"."

He goes on to say he brings them home and puts them in his bins, and from time to time he will just get out pieces to hold to the light and marvel in the colors and patterns. "It's that intimate" he says of his relationship to the glass he buys.

He may as well have been any one of us talking about going to a quilt shop or any other type of art store where we buy our supplies. "Fatal" he calls it, to walk through those doors and start looking and touching and trying to block out the siren calls begging us to gather up so much more than we need and bring it home. I found it rather comforting to hear this older, much experienced man talk this way, as I picked myself up off the floor. I doubt I will ever cross the threshold of another quilt shop without thinking, "This is gonna be fatal!"