Sketching Hunt #130

You may recall that I am hosting Scavenger Hunt #130 from May 5 to May 13. I put a few more outdoors items than I meant to. I usually like to sketch at night while watching TV. This Hunt will get me out of the house in the daytime, it seems.

I commented to Rose Welty the other day, that my style of sketching hasn't changed much after all this time. I believe it is because I think of sketches as quick "notes". I don't enjoy drawing with pencils and carefully drawing in detail. If it takes too long I get bored. I admire artists that do that and I love to see their art. It isn't me. I think these quick notes help my painting as I get the practice of making quick lines and when I concentrate they are more sure and accurate and speeds up my drawing time. I can get into a painting quickly.

This is also why I like pastels. The drawing is incorporated right into the painting process so it goes quickly. Oil paints are somewhat the same, you can put down a color with one good brush load of paint. It does take a while to dry, however. With watercolor the artist needs to use layering and waiting for the paint to dry and with colored pencil you have to go over and over it to get the darks and depth. Acrylics can be used somewhat like oils or watercolors depending on the thickness of the paint. I use them more like oils and they dry fast, sometimes too fast. They also darken when the water evaporates and they dry.

I sketch freehand with pen and ink so here we go.


Number 1 - Round, a speaker from the old iMac. It is clear plastic with a white rubber ring around the metal part in the center. In my sketch it did not come out very round.


Number 2 - Battery, this is from my camera, about 1 x 2 inches. It stays charged very nicely. Number 3 - triangle. This is a drawing triangle, clear greenish plastic.

Number 4 - Square, this is a rubber (?) potholder, hot pad. It is red and has a hole in one of the corners for hanging and the other bumps provide a resting place for the pot or grip if using it as a potholder.

For my art link today, I will post about Clint Watson on Fine Art Views. He publishes a newsletter with all types of hints for artists, mostly the business side. His advice can apply to most businesses, not just art. He writes some articles and also has guest writers. His newsletter and blog today deal with selling art. The article has links to many articles published previously, so is a great index. He also hosts websites for artists if you don't care to do your own at FineArtStudioOnline. Very easy to set up, but for me a little costly.

Artist Links, Landscape Photos and a Little Baseball Note

I will put my art info links first for those of you that are "art only" guests. Karen Margulis is an artist working in pastel. I have her in the links on the sidebar. She has worked hard at her painting, usually one a day. She studies, takes workshops and teaches, too. She has made great progress in the several years I have followed her blog. She has a second blog, Painting Cats and Dogs. Today she posts about using watercolor with pastels. Interesting technique. Check it out.

Chuck Law, a great artist that I have followed for several years. I think we started communicating about crow photos or some such. He does very intricate paintings and has been working lately on plein air pieces which he posts on his blog, Chuck Law's Art Pages. He is a regular on wetcanvas.com in the plein air section. Have a look .. you will find something you like. His "From the Sea" paintings first captured my interest.

Now on with my day:

Today was beautiful and hot eventually. The morning started off nice so we went to the golf course. Our golf playing was about normal which isn't great.


These photos are of hole number 9 at the course we play, Lost Pines Golf Course in Bastrop State Park. It looks beautiful, right? That is one of the reasons I like golf. It is always beautiful and peaceful. Also, we are outside getting a little walking exercise. This is the hole where I take the turtle photos. If you put "turtles" in the search box, upper left, you will find more turtle photos.


Baseball tonight was with Texas Southern, a "small" university from Houston. Texas Southern has just under 12,000 students and Texas has almost 39,000. They are a Division 1 school, too, in the Southwestern Athletic Conference. Texas won 3 - 7 as you see. Have a look at the temperature at 8:46 pm -- 86 degrees F. Whew! It is still 80 degrees at almost midnight.

This is only the third time Texas Southern has played at the Disch in Austin, record now 0 in 3. It must be daunting for them to come to Disch-Falk Field and play a top ranked team. The adrenalin must be high and the nerves on edge. They played pretty well even though they used a bunch of pitchers and had three errors.

The game was good and had some interesting moments. You can read about it as usual on Joanna's Longhorn Baseball page and the official Longhorn page.

Sketching Yellow with Pen and Ink

Sneaky title, huh? I sketched for Scavenger Hunt 129, one last time. Tomorrow is Scavenger Hunt 130 and I am the host. I hope I have time to post quite a few sketches for a change. We will see how it goes. I did manage to get 11 items sketched the last few days from the list of 26.

Number 10, something you drink and number 11, yellow. I sketched these with a Micron 05 and colored them with colored pencils. About 20 - 30 minutes on a page in my regular 7 x 10 inch sketchbook.


Continuing with my links to blogs I follow, here are links to fairly new blogs I follow, fellow members in the Austin Pastel Society.

Johanne Morin, lives in Austin and works in pastels and learning oils. She also does wood burning.

Rae Andrews, works in pastels and other media in Austin, too.

Sue Wiley, Austin artist that works in various media.

Two More Sketches for #129

Those of you new to my blog may be curious about the Scavenger Hunts and why I sketch the way I do. I went to look at previous posts and was trying to decide if sketching is accomplishing my goals. This post from November of 2007 explains my goals and participation in the Scavenger Hunts.

This is what I said were the results then:

• My style hasn't changed. I thought I might change my style after seeing the other beautiful drawings, by leaning toward one of the artists' work that I like. It appears that sketching is like painting, you have a style. I can copy something, but when I am just sketching, my style comes back, which is probably a good thing.
• I sometimes just sketch for no reason. Is it becoming a habit??
• I have never been able to keep a diary or journal, but I have been able to blog regularly and it is often to post sketches.
• Even though I sketch more often and better, I tend to be lazy and will not pay attention and do lousy perspective or inaccurate drawing.
• I don't know if it has helped my painting ... hopefully it has.

And after another review today, I do think it has helped my painting. It may not be visible to you, but I know when I paint now, I am quicker to decide on perspective and drawing. In sketching I also know that I am still lazy and sometimes don't pay attention. Sometimes this pushes me to try harder. I post all my Hunting sketches and do not like to post such disasters. :) Therefore I try to make better drawings. I have been better at planning my paintings and putting down a better start.

Unless the Hunts ask for different mediums, my favorite media is pen and ink, freehand. This also forces me to try to get it right the first time .. no erasing. I also like that it is immediate, like pastels and oil. You don't have to go over it again to get the rich descriptive color and lines. Did I ever mention that I am impatient as well as lazy? Ah, well.

Sketches for Scavenger Hunt 129 which I did last night:

Number 7, something alive. Well, the corn plant is barely alive. I cut off the tall part, it was sort of drooping and this is all that is there now. The pot is about a foot and a half tall, so you see the plant is not big. Sketched with my green Prismacolor pen. It is a nice sketching pen. about 10 minutes. Number 8, hand and Number 9, green. My hand does not have such a weird thumb and the pen is the Prismacolor pen that is green and black (the darker part is the black part). Sketched with the green Micron 005 pen. The two pens are very similar in feel when using them.

I'm hosting Hunt 130 starting tomorrow for nine days. I will post the list and tell you about it tonight or in the morning. You may want to drop in and sketch with us.

A couple of related posts:

Sketching with Pens

Sketches 99 in Ink

Sketches for the New Hunt 129 (Baseball note, too)

It is already May 3 and this hunt ends May 5 so I sketched last night after listening to the baseball game to have something in this Hunt 129. These sketches are in my regular sketchbook with an old Pilot ballpoint pen. I added some colored pencil to the "blue" selection.

Number 1 - front steps. This is a substitute of the living room steps from my computer as it was about 1130 last night when I was sketching. I am happy that I did get in some sketches. This one took about 10 minutes.

Number 2 - vegetable, number 3 - something that cuts and number 4 - kitchen utensil. This also satisfies a challenge to put three items in one sketch. 15 or 20 minutes.


Number 5 - something you eat and number 6 - something blue. I liked the net bag on the mandarins better before I added the red. The box was a very dark blue, but I didn't care to "color" for an hour. This was about a 25 minute sketch.

The Longhorns swept the Baylor Bears. Whew. Today's game was close, Texas 3 - Baylor 1. Last night it was Texas 19 - Baylor 11. This puts Texas first in their conference for the moment. They play Wednesday night at home against Texas Southern and then the Texas Aggies next weekend, Friday night in College Station and Saturday and Sunday in Austin. I watched the game on the Baylor Bears stream last night, but it wouldn't work today. I listened to it on Yahoo Sports audio. Read all about it on Joanna's Longhorn Baseball Page and the official site. Go Horns Go!

Texas Wildflower Photos and Baseball Notes

I have been working on the news stories and advertising for my show in Magdalena, New Mexico, in July. It takes so much time and effort. Artists need an assistant for paperwork, but most of us cannot afford one, so we plow along with our best efforts.

In absence of art, I will post Texas wildflowers that are always popular. Here are a few photos I snapped at the golf course. If you would like a larger image for reference I will be happy to send it. If you use one of these, just remember where it came from.

These tiny wine cups are such a brilliant fuchsia color. I love them and each one blooms only a day or two.



Cactus Pears have beautiful blooms. They must be tasty, look at all the bugs.


Mexican Hats are in their full glory now. Striking with the deep crimson and bright yellow.



These look like the lace used in store bought bouquets. Lovely around the electric box, eh?


This isn't a great photo, but I was compelled to post it. It must be wild honeysuckle, it smells wonderful.



And last but not least, the bright red and yellow Indian Blankets. Oh, I do have an art link for you today, Carol Marine. She painted and Indian Blanket just the other day. You will have to scroll down her page to find it, but you will like looking at her daily paintings. She lives in the area and has painted other wildflowers as well. She has a unique style that is great to see and makes you smile.

There were many more varieties scattered among these. It is a great time to drive around the area and it is still a mild 84 degrees outside this morning.

And a couple of baseball notes and photos. We are nearing the end of the season and each game seems more important.

This isn't the best photo, but I did get a photo of the fireworks at the end of the game last Tuesday. They go off as soon as the last pitch is thrown and you need to be ready. The Longhorns beat the Texas State Bobcats 12-2. One of their players had 70 runs batted in, just about as many as the whole Texas lineup! They have been a big scoring team all season. We expected them to have a high score. Give the credit to the Longhorn pitchers.


The final handshake and hugs. I mentioned before that many of the Texas players know each other from high school or may even be related and it is fun to see the camaraderie and rivalry as well. Oh, and those of us sitting in our area all thought the gold pants were not a great idea for the Bobcats.


Last night the Longhorns beat the Baylor Bears 12-4. The game was full of errors on their side, seven and the Horns had a couple. Wow. The game was on ESPNU and you can barely see the outfield camera in the lower right part of the photo. They play in Waco tonight and tomorrow so we will rely on the computer to find out what happens.

As usual you can read the nitty-gritty on Joanna's Longhorn Baseball Page and the official story on the Longhorn baseball page. There are links on the official page to the Game Tracker and Yahoo Audio if you want to listen.