Monday, June 05, 2006

Ahh...the Weekend

As I was waiting for the train after work on Friday, I sat by the river and sketched this gargoyle. I didn't have enought time to fill in all the detail--might have to sit out there again sometime soon, and finish it properly.



Saturday I indulged myself with another sketchride. It ended up being a 34 mile ride, but took me hours because of two stops. I brought my Faber Castell color pencils with me and my pocket Moleskine sketchbook, and sat for at least 30 minutes at each stop.

The first stop was at Viking Park. I decided on a narrow field of view between two light poles. I'm particularly pleased with the way the roof of the outhouse turned out (yep, that building with the multi-peaked roof is an outhouse). While I was working on this, Murphy snuck up on me and stuck his nose right on my sketch and proceded to sniff my water bottle, hip pack (where there was a half eaten granola bar), and he rearranged my pencils onto the ground at my feet. Murphy is a 6-month-old Mastiff/Lab, and he is a sweetheart. He generously gave me some of his slobber, and I gave him some good scratches behind his ears. I also met Murphy's owner, Tim, and we had a pleasant but brief chat, and then Murphy was ready to move on.



The second stop of the day was at Wright Woods. Both of these locations will be familiar from my last sketchride because it was the same ride--what can I say, I'm not that creative in pickinng my routes. However, every ride is a little different from the other even if it's along the same path. Plus, there are so many great (and small) things to see at each location.



Thanks for reading!

2 comments:

ControlThis said...

Hi, I like your blog. Good vibe.

You own the term "sketchride". I googled it and it's yours! For now, anyway.

Hey, do you take fixative on your sketchride? I can't live without the stuff -- but it might be paranoia -- so I am not a very mobile artist.

Nan said...

Thanks.

Nope, no fixitives used here. The colored pencil stays in place pretty well on it's own. These little drawings were done in a pocket Moleskine, so there isn't too much rubbing of the paper surface. To protect the Moleskine from sweat (I know, gross), I keep it in a plastic sandwich bag.

On day two of Cowlaunga, I had the Moleskine and my colored pencils with me. The Moleskine stayed nice and dry, but the colored pencils melted a bit. They firmed back up pretty quickly. If I'd been smart I would have tried using them mooshy--probably would have made a very bold sketch.

I don't know that "sketchriding" will ever really catch on because it's very easy to get absorbed in one, and fail to do the other...we'll just have to see.

Popped over to your blog--great photos!