Scavenger Hunt 232 Sketches

Scavenger Hunt 232 runs from July 30 - August 7, posted by Stacey from Australia.   As usual, I'm getting in some sketches, but not all.  The Hunts have 26 items up for 9 days.  I'm not sure why we picked 26 items, but we decided on 9 days so that the Hunts start on different days so the artists can have new items without all the new Hunts starting on Monday or a weekend.  It has worked out well.

The sketchers volunteer to make the lists and keep the thread going.  I have been participating since the beginning.  It has been really good to keep me sketching which I consider my homework for painting.  It helps me to sketch with pen and ink.  It is fast and I have to concentrate to get the shapes and perspective down without pre-sketching in pencil.  Every artist has their style and this seems to work the best for me.   At times one of the challenges may be to use a different medium and that is good as you might have to think out of the box a little.

All sketches in the Hunts are to be from life, not photos.  That helps as well for determining composition and shadows.  Every once in a while one of the artists pick an item like "an ad in a magazine" but otherwise it is all common items from life found in or near your home.  When you cannot find one of the items, you are welcome to sketch a substitute.  I tend to sketch landscapes and having a variety, for instance the pipes under the sink or your dirty dishes, gives me specific lines and something that I would not ordinarily sketch.

The artists (guys and gals) are around the world so we get to see different fruits, animals, neighborhoods, etc.  If you need to be inspired to sketch, come on over to the Hunts and give it a try.  You can post your sketches, comment or not, and visit with some great artists.  I know that my friend,  Judy, from my gallery in Bastrop, sketches and doesn't post hers on-line,  so you could do that, too.  :-)

The Hunts are a tiny part of wetcanvas.com where you can find posts in any genre, medium, style, etc.  I usually wander around in the Artwork from Life (the Hunts), the Southwest forum, Pastel forum and the Plein Air section.  There is photography, sculpture, debate, business, painting, and so much more.  There is a great image library if you are looking for inspiration or the shape of animals, flowers and anything you can think of.  wetcanvas.com is free, but you do have to sign up if you want to comment.  It was started by a group of artists and grew so much that it is now sponsored by F-W publications which is The Artist's Magazine, Pastel Journal, Watercolor Magic, etc.

See you around there I hope.

For Hunt 232:  Number 1, push bike - turns out in Australia this is a pedal bike, but what I saw on-line here was something like a bike with no pedals.  So I substituted the motorcycle, the complete opposite, I saw out back from the deck.  Now that I see it is a pedal bike I will try to sketch Gene's bike later.  Number 2, birds on a limb or stick - I did the hummingbirds again.  There were so many around the feeders when I came outside.  They have thinned out now that I have the camera, wouldn't you know.