Sketches anyone?

   I believe that a good artist takes tools of the trade because sketching is like water... it sustains that which it feeds. I find that it is most beneficial not only to be prepared (just in case the muse strikes) but to dedicate oneself to these practices. Thus I will be submitting pages of sketches to inspire and inquire about the importance of sketching on a regular basis. I invite others to share pages and thoughts- kind of like a tennis match: sketches anyone?

   This pack that trifolds into a thick 6x9 I call "the arsenal" It has a full range of pencil soft/hardness, pencil extender, sharpener, kneaded eraser and small pad. It is perfect to pass time when waiting for an appointment, a model to show up or throw into a pack for a waterside walk which, in this case, I was surprised to discover a "tall ship" had sailed in and docked where I happened to take my walk that day.

   This book is a moderately priced 6x9 vinal covered sketchbook made by pentel. It has a cream base, smooth surface that takes pen and watercolor well while allowing easy smudging and clean up. It has a pocket in back a center tail to mark the page and an elastic band to keep the pages and pocket items (pen. pencil. business cards...) from escaping. I call these daily travel books my "take me along" and rarely leave the house without them. They become visual diaries to the treasures of a daily moment often too ordinary to recall until the book is reopened some time late. They can also be great references for everyday stuff like drawing streetlamps or stoplights.

    In today's entry I wanted the challenge of a live model so turned to my always willing victims for these pages "dog days". 

In these two figure studies I was working on a 18x24 sized paper at the "drawing jam" which is a 12 hour draw-a-thon in Seattle. The double render of male with pole was done once in charcoal with the smaller sub image in ink wash. Both of the sketches were made in  a 20 minute session each. The female figure at right was made full page with charcoal in two twenty minute sessions. This was made in hour 9 of my 11 hour, non stop, standing at the easel, shoulder to shoulder with 100s of other intensely focused (yet exhausted) artists.  I felt it was my best sketch of the day.