Valentines Day Sketch Tour notes.

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These are thumbnail studies made at the Valentines Day Sketch Tour. Kelly Medford from Rome was offering advice on making simple value studies. I used a blunt black colored pencil to quickly fog in some grey valves and line work. Although the exercise wasn’t about color, I couldn’t resist adding a few watercolor washes. The color swatches were added to show the colors available with the palette we gave each student. First a thick swatch us added with plenty of pigment. Then the color was thinned with to of water to show how light values cool be achieved. Our lakeside classroom felt a be in like a Colosseum with the gentle arch of the shoreline.

After all the mornings sketches, we all took a lunch break an found food from vendors in the Mennello Museum’s Folk Festival. After lunch it was my turn to inspire artists to try and populate their sketches. I posed and the had several students pose to give everyone an idea of how to quickly block in a figure. Then I explained one and 2 point perspective and had student create a for grid plane. They then took the figure studies the Did and added them to the grid plane. Large figures were is the foreground and small figures were is the background. Then we all explored the crowded Folk Festival, with the objective to incorporate as mane figures in one sketch as was possible. We agreed to return to our quiet lakeside classroom to share the results.

Sketching swans and ducks at Lake Eola.

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This is the last sketch I did at the First Orlando Sketch Tour. Instructor Kelly Medford and touring artist Gay Geiger set out to sketch the black swans and ducks. It had been threatening to rain all day, so it was nice to have a moment to enjoy a break in the weather. I decided to only use line in the foreground of the sketch. The far shore and city scape I left as bold blocks of watercolor. Since I had just done a demonstration on watercolor of the pagoda using no line, I was loosened up to try the same technique here. By verbalizing my thoughts as an instructor, I ended up learning something new. This is a technique I should be using more often. It is far more experimental and leaves much more room for discovery during the process. I am very much a creature of habit however so change comes slowly. Eight artists came out for the sketch tour and I had a blast collaborating with Kelly Medford sharing our sketching techniques. I hosted a second Sketch Tour at the Orlando Fringe and will probably host another one in September or October as the Florida heat dies down.

The Orlando Sketch Tour explores color.

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At the First Orlando Sketch Tour we were chased inside Panera Bread thanks to impending rain. Kelly Medford and myself made the best of it and the restaurant became our classroom. Here we introduced everyone to the watercolor pallets we had supplied each artist with. We asked everyone to make a color wheel and then to make a light watery wash of each color along side a dark, syrupy wash of the same color. When working on location, I seldom have the time to mix colors, so I mix color washes on the sketch to find the colors and values needed. A sketch always starts out light and then I keep adding pigments to build up the darks. Trying to cover the whole surface except for a few white spots is the first objective.

On this day, students from Elite Animation Academy came out to join the Sketch Tour artists.  My wife Terry also came out to show her support. She is in the center of the sketch in the pink cowboy boots reading a magazine. Her signature sketch is a smiley face and she can finish that in five seconds. Shelby brought her daughter on the tour and together they discovered color and how to compose a sketch. That seems like the perfect way for a family to spend time together. My Elite Urban Sketching students were well into their studies so I let them sketch in peace offering just a few suggestions if they needed help. Between the eight or so Sketch Tour artists and the four Elite Animation students, we pretty much filled up the front room at Panera Bread. A little rain never stops an Urban Sketcher.

A sketch demonstration from the First Orlando Sketch Tour.

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I hosted the first Orlando Sketch Tour along with plein air painter Kelly Medford from Rome Italy on March 1st and 2nd. We decided to hold the Sketch Tour at Lake Eola and we gathered with about six other artists near the Japanese Pagoda at the North East corner of the park.

Kelly and I tag teamed, offering advice to get everyone warmed up and ready to start sketching. All skill levels were encouraged to participate, so we each offered one on one instructions to each student to bring them up to speed. We started off the day with blind contour drawings with artists sketching each other without glancing at the sketch. Then we did quick gestures again without looking at the page. I did several watercolor sketches to demonstrate value studies. I painted the Red Pagoda since it was in view.

The clouds moved in and we went to find cover at a lake side restaurant. I didn’t sketch at that location. Instead I did thumbnail sketches for each student showing them how I might compose the scene they were sketching. Kelly and I covered a lot of material that weekend and hopefully we encouraged the artists present to take a sketch book with them to document their next vacation. If just one artist from the Sketch Tour catches the sketching bug, then I’ve done my job.

I’m planning to host an Orlando Sketch Tour quarterly. The second Sketch Tour was held at the Orlando Fringe Festival which offers endless sketch opportunities. I’ve just started hosting Orlando Drink and Draw (ODD) events every month, so over time I should meet more local artists who love to sketch. Last year, the Orlando Weekly claimed I was Orlando’s best Urban Sketcher. Since I’m the only Urban Sketcher, that title doesn’t have much panache. I want to meet others who are as passionate about art as I am.

Of course the Kids Fringe had a Unicorn Bounce House.

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On each morning of the Fringe Sketch Tour, we would start at Kids Fringe, warming up by sketching the kids stretching under the supervision of a Voci Dancer. After that, we would start the hunt for another subject. This Unicorn Bounce House was in the shade of a huge Live Oak Tree. There was always a line of parents escorting their children to the entrance. Oddly the Unicorn had a sand bag on her head. At first I thought it might be an icepack since the Unicorn might have partied too hard the night before. If that was the case, then having those children bouncing inside couldn’t have helped her unsettled stomach.

I did this sketch to demonstrate the idea of covering the sketch with as few large washes as possible. The Unicorn and all of the foreground was covered with a blue wash for shadows and the local color of the bounce house.  I encouraged Gay to leave the lightest areas at the window where you see a child bouncing and around the Unicorn’s head. The eye is attracted to the areas where there is the most contrast. I put a yellow band across the middle of the sketch to symbolize bright sunlight. Distant trees were treated with the lightest blue-green wash to imply aerial perspective. I also taught Gay to remove objects that over complicated the scene. For instance there were branches and moss directly behind the unicorn’s head, but I removed those in the sketch to give the Unicorn head a clean silhouette.