Hiking Sketch Book Part 2

Coming soon! I am teaching a 3 hour class on how to sketch your hikes. The class is during Elkin Trail Days in June.

June 2-4 Trail Days Festival, Elkin, NC www.nctraildays.com

June 2 – Friday Night Art Walk
Wil and Maura are exhibiting work at the fabulous new Three Trails Hotel (airbnb) on the corner of Main Street in Elkin, a quaint NC mountain town.

June 3 – Sketching for Hikers class, 10 AM to 1 PM
On Saturday, Wil is teaching a sketching class, beginning on the rooftop of the Three Trails Hotel. No experience necessary.

All these images are from my hiking sketch book and are 3 x 5 inches. Most are pencil or color pencil. A few have some watercolor as well. I have drawn these all last fall and this year. 

 

Figure Sketch book - Cross Legged Poses

Figure drawings in my figure sketch books. I use a moleskine book with bristol pages and a Scarlett Lake red colored pencil. 

 

Black Eyed Susans on the Mountain to Sea Trail

This field is so beautiful, I have returned several times to it. It is along both the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Mountain to Sea Trail. The field is full of flowers and grasses. These are color pencil sketches I have completed recently. Some are my normal level of realism, but others are more abstract and simple. 

Drawing 9 in the Tree Series

Here is drawing 9 in my Tree Series. There are a few things I am happy about in this drawing. One is the dead branches that change texture on the right. Also the knot in the truck came out well. The multiple rings were fun to draw. The knot is almost a scare on the tree. This is a tree in the Cone Forest near Blowing Rock, NC.

Figure Sketches - Faces

I enjoy playing around with figures in my sketchbook. Here are a few recent ones. The smiling face above was very difficult, but it came out well.

Drawing 9 Begun!

I have a process for each drawing or painting I begin.  I do a small drawing or value study in one of my sketch books first.  This allows me to catch problems in the composition before I waste too much time on a larger drawing.  In the sketch of this drawing, I changed the slant of the rock a lot.  At this point in the drawings above, I have worked on the outline or contour of the entire figure.  During this stage I had to make a lot of changes to the face.  When the contour is at a certain point I put in the first white highlights with white charcoal.  Looking at the drawing now, it  looks like her hands are cut off, oh no!  I will have to work on that.  Her toes look cut off as well.  I have a long way to go on this one. 

Sketch Book in April

Detail of the face.  

 Full Drawing.  I decided not to put the hard exterior line on this drawing. 

 This drawing has the hard exterior line. 

These are found images that I drew in my sketch book recently.  The exhibition in December and January went well, but took up so much time and effort that I did not get to my studio for a while.  I'm back!  I am playing with the exterior contour line: whether to use it or not.

Sketch that began series

The July gallery Crawl in the Southend area was well attended. It was a cool night for July! The officers of the Art League allowed me to display all the drawing in my series in a vacant studio. The drawings looked good. I saw some areas in each drawing that need work. Also, I was able to hang the sketches that began the series. The one shown above has never been published on this blog before. I decided not to execute a larger version of this sketch. It seemed too pessimistic; the rock looks like it is about to come crashing down into the figure. I may do a larger version of this in the future. Mark your calendars: the Weight series will be exhibited in December at the Art Institute gallery.