Botanical Gardens

Charlee Chartrand in Spiderman costume

Drawing of a woman in African dress in the textile market

Sketch Study - Figure Balance

Mojo magical meetup with Audery

Audery posed for us last evening at Concrete Ocean Art Gallery. Here are some sketches.

Updated 2014-12-17

Updated 2014-12-17

Dani as a Harlequin

Dani posed for us again as a harlequin. This time she took one long pose. I did some composition studies below in ink pen. I am starting to like the longer poses and think of the shorter drawings and paintings as just hardly worth posting. It takes quite a bit of time to keep updated and since I am doing daily work, I would like to feel that I was working on something a little more substantial. For instance a page of sketch studies and a finished work, or at least a major work that was getting some attention.

Watercolor Sketches

The blog is called Daily Sketchbooks, but I will consider all sketches or notes that I collect as part of this online sketchbook, whether or not they exist in one physical volume or not. Here are some watercolor sketches of some Flamenco Dancers that I did today. The dancers were performing at the Tavern of Fine Arts. They belong to the St. Louis Cultural Flamenco Society.

Kate Westhoff and Emma Frey Dance Flamenco

Kate Westhoff and Emma Frey Dance Flamenco

Kate Westhoff

Here below is a video of Kate Westhoff of the St. Louis Cultural Flamenco Society dancing the Flamenco. 

Mary Elizabeth Kennedy at Tavern of Fine Arts

Mary Elizabeth posed for us at Tavern of Fine Arts this afternoon. Below are a few of my sketches.
The details of the event can be seen here on the Saint Louis Drawing and Painting Group's Meetup event page: "Mary Elizabeth at Tavern of Fine Arts".

Today I was just playing around with mediums. I was all over the place really. Mary Elizabeth was very colorful and I would like to do more color studies of this session as that isn't so much conveyed in these drawings. I'll probably do an update on this post soon with more work done on these.

Fridays at Koken Art Factory

The event that normally in the past occurred at 2720 is from what I hear going to be moved to Koken Art Factory. Bryan Pease from Concrete Ocean Art Gallery invited us to draw with his group as people  would volunteer pose for us.

Posted here are two of my better charcoal pencil drawings from the evening. The young lady immediately below although unknown to me was selling some of her crafts at the monthly art event. I really wanted to capture the light and the subtlety of the locks of hair.

Below is Joey who is a friend of Chad. I didn't realize it was her until I began drawing. We only just met her the week earlier at Mark Plattner's Birthday party. She is a very tall and graceful lady.

Here are some bits from other peoples sites for me to reflect on regarding techniques in Charcoal. 

 Links: 

1. Prud'hon's Technique | Ricardo Pontes
2. Theory: Best Guess at Prud'hon's Step by Step Approach

Kickstarting This Thing Again

This Thursday December 6, 2012,  I made a wager with a friend (Chad) that I would make a new post on this blog every day for the next year. In the case that I fail to update it for a day, I owe Chad $20. That is to say $20 for each day I miss. Therefore, here are my posts  to follow beginning on Friday December 7, 2012.

Here's to a year of uninterrupted drawing success! Chad tells me he is set to start a goal of his own in the new year. Let us just see who is the richer at the end of the year!

Melissa Cannon at Shameless Grounds

Melissa Cannon

Allen Kriegshauser drawing Melissa

A good sized group of artists

A Weekend of Sketching

Soulard Market

It has been a while since my last update. This weekend I was back to sketching at the Soulard Market in Saint Louis. One way to work for me regarding subject matter is  to find a spot to make a composition and wait for your subject to walk into view.  This works better than perpetually looking for subjects. They just stroll on by and see me sketching. I get lots of neat conversations and meet people that way. Everyone seems really excited about artists working.

Many of my sketches of the Soulard Market include the round-topped doorways that are on each of the four wings and on the front and back entry to the market.

The way I work is first to draw a series of live sketches. As I sketch, I take reference photographs. The photos aren't used while these preliminary sketches are made. They only serve to solve compositional problems and keep the image active by drawing from life. The energy and concept of the thing to be drawn is what's important.

Later, I take the sketches home and use them to develop painted works. Sometimes I do like to do watercolor sketches on location, but usually I find black and white is most portable.

I struck up a conversation with a lady who walked into my composition with her many colorful bags and scarves. She seemed interested in seeing the final work. Painting and drawing outdoors like this is a great way to build contacts that are interested in your work. I am working to have a better digital portfolio to carry around as that is really helpful.

Joyce's Corner

Then, I turned 90 degrees and drew Joyce's Corner across from Frandeka's Meats. There is a constant stream of people passing changing the scene. People push strollers and shopping baskets on wheels. They pause at Joyce's for a hotdog, brat, or polish sausage and beer among other things.

They saw me drawing them and wondered what i was up to. Later I showed of my sketches. Sometimes I am self-conscious about how my sketches focus on the motion and stances more than a finished illustration. It isn't what people are used to in sketches.

A trick I have been using lately is to carry a small cut mat with a wire across from corner to corner making an x in the center to frame up the subject. I hold it out in front of me to find the center with the x. For some reason I have been playing with aligning something with the visual center of the frame whether or not it is the actual focus of the composition or not. Something just snaps in place in my mind in the composition when this happens.

Rue Lafayette

Sunday Lisa and I went over to Rue Lafayette to watch the Miss Jubilee band play. Again, here the focus is on the energy and composition of the moving scene versus any exact edges. It reminds me of when the grade-school teacher said not to draw hairy lines. Are hatchy non-edges the same thing? I don't know really.

Miss Jubilee and her band are really really great! They all switch off on instruments and they really know how to make live music and to get the audience hopping. Literally, as there were 4 different couples who got up and satisfied their urge to swing dance.

Soulard Market Sketches

Soulard Market with color notes

Soulard Market Scenes

Soulard Market Scenes 2

Heather Dawn at tavern of Fine Arts

Heather Dawn - Back

Heather Dawn - Portrait

Heather Dawn -Seated

Heather Dawn - Portrait

Playing Cards

Playing Cards 2