My All-Time Favorite Sketches (that’s saying a lot!)

Alas, it’s been a while since I posted! In August, I’ve taken a much needed break to recharge after four back-to-back international teaching trips this year (and to focus on my day job), as my fifth trip starts when I head to Italy on Sunday morning! Whew!

I have stacks of sketches to post, but I’ll start with my favorite two from the entire year, maybe ever. I did these before my 5.5 day workshop in Oxford with Studio 56, and I think all the travel sketching from prior months helped to get me warmed up for these sketches. I picked a spot in the center of beautiful Oxford near the famous Bodleian Library and Sheldonian Theatre, sat down and quickly got into a “flow”. Instead of rushing, I let take it’s own course. I worked slowly and deliberately, only interrupted by LOTS of people who wanted to chat. I think I sat there for 3.5 hours, really long for me, but we can easily take off an hour for chatting!

So why do I love these sketches? The vibe in Oxford was amazing–school was just finishing up for the students, so it was cool to see them running around in their final exam clothes, happy and enjoying friends. I also loved the architecture here–the scale, the amount of detail and complexity, the color of the famous Oxford stone that glows were all just right for the way I sketch. In terms of technique, I always struggle with hitting the right balance between the pencil linework that I love and the watercolor…my tendency is to be too heavy-handed and overpaint so that the watercolor obliterates the linework. My goal is to hit that sweet spot that has the happy blend of both pencil and color, and for some reason, I managed to hit it with these two sketches.

Another change: I actually used a .03mm mechanical pencil with B lead…so tiny, I felt like a neurosurgeon, but it really helped me to get crisp details in the background. I used my usual .05mm for the foreground linework.

So, what do you think?

I should also add that I’m planning workshops for 2024 now too, with the first happening when I return to beautiful San Miguel de Allende, Mexico at the end of February to teach a 5.5 day workshop again with Studio 56. Info on that workshop is here.

And after that? Plans are for Paris in June (I’d love to return to Oxford and maybe go to Cambridge too!), in the USA Madeline Island in August for a perspective Master Class, Italy in September, and hopefully, the Urban Sketchers 2024 symposium in Buenos Aires, Argentina in October…where else should I teach next year??? Where would you want to go?