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“Leaves, Tracks and an Octagon House”

 

(please click pictures to see larger)

Oak leaves and tracks in the snow, January 9, 2013

The sketches above are from my walk on January 9, 2013. I didn’t need to wear my snowshoes this time and I walked further than before, making it to “Oak Lane” today.  It was there in my favorite lane, that I leaned against a tree to sketch the oak leaves on the ground. I also saw interesting little tracks that I can only guess are squirrel? I have grey and red squirrels here, these look a little big for red squirrel but I’m just guessing. The top track is life size at 1″ x 1″.

The Octagon House in Akron, NY

I went to Akron NY this weekend to go sketching a bit with my friend Nancy. I want to practice drawing buildings and houses more and Akron has some interesting old ones. This Octagon House was built in the 1840’s by Charles B. Rich for his fourth wife. It’s a museum too and someday I want to go through to see all the Victorian era furniture and decorations. It was a challenge to sketch standing there on the sidewalk opposite, leaning against a stop sign! I sketched it in pencil then put a little watercolor on; at home I used my ink pen to draw over and then painted from the picture I took. It was such a grey dull day but can’t complain about how warm it was.

A building on Main Street in Akron, NY.

This is a business on Main St. in Akron I started to sketch from a cold bench across the street. I’ll try to work on it this week to finish it up. I guess it looks like many old businesses do on any Main St. in America. It was popular to have a facade that is really taller than the building itself, kind of like an old western town movie set!

I also worked on a little watercolor landscape study from a photograph I took while in Northumberland, England, but want to put a few finishing touches on it.

“Green Batt House Gate” Alnwick

Green Batt Gate

Green Batt House Gate

This is an old gate in Alnwick, Northumberland, that I drew while waiting for Gary one morning. I don’t know how old it is or what the history of the name is but I liked the gate, green trees inside, golden sandstone blocks all worn away and the tread worn threshold stone below the gate. It’s just on a side street above the main shopping area of Bondgate Within in Alnwick. I leaned against a wall and many cars and passers by gave me a glance wondering what I was doing there.

Green Batt Gate + moths

Green Batt Gate + moths

Though it doesn’t show you much, I included the sketch in it’s early stages because I started it on one day and went back to finish on another. I wasn’t happy with the first sketch outline as I knew I had my comparative measurements off. So when I returned I decided to just draw over what was there with the pen and oh well! So it came out well, I bet you can’t really tell too much of where I drew over it? I like to show you my mistakes because they’re not really mistakes; every artist starts a drawing and needs to alter it to ‘make it right’. Drawing in permanent pen can make this difficult but also spontaneous, “wysiwyg” or “what you see is what you get”. You learn little things to cover up the mislaid lines or how to work with them. I was in a hurry when I laid down the initial lines but glad I was able to return to finish it!

I’ll save the information about the moth sketches for another post, just thought I’d show you how my pages get all kinds of things drawn next to each other!

“Buxton Bookfair at the Pavillion Gardens” 10-25-09

Buxton Book Fair, Pavillion windows.

Buxton Book Fair, Pavillion windows.

We drove across England to take part in the Buxton Book fair held in the Pavillion Gardens in Buxton.  We got up at 2:30 am and we left around 5am…oh wow was I tired today! I did this little watercolor sketch while sitting at my table, between talking to people. You can see I was most interested in the gorgeous tall windows and the view of the fall trees outside.

At Buxton book fair.

At Buxton book fair.

Here’s one part of my set up selling Limited Edition prints, open edition prints and note cards. I had a lot of fun chatting with the local people who came by my table and bought my cards.

Windows of the Pavillion

Windows of the Pavillion

Stage in the Pavillion at Buxton book fair.

Stage in the Pavillion at Buxton book fair.

Here’s a photo of the stage as you look across the room, it was a gorgeous old Victorian building with hardwood floors. a cafe and a shop filled with local artists works.

In the sea of books.

In the sea of books.

I never saw as many books!!, well not since I worked as a librarian in college at the Buffalo State College library. I wish I had more time to shop, I loved seeing the old book cover designs. Next time I’ll try to take pictures of some.

Here’s a link to the Pavillion Gardens at Buxton.

“Waiting in Friendly’s” 12-26-08

I did this sketch obviously while waiting to eat at Friendly’s in Endicott NY. I went to visit my dad and family after Christmas, always taking my sketchbook with me, like a little kid I need to keep occupied! I originally drew this with a pencil and kneaded rubber eraser, hiding it under the table as I drew. I try not to be too obvious when I draw people in public, they can start to feel like you’re staring at them. I try to get the general person sketch in and some lines of the furniture around them, then work on the people leaving furniture for later. You can finish that stuff long after they’re gone.

The pencil got so smeared by the time I got back to Buffalo I had to redraw it quickly in pen. So it looks a bit different, but I should learn my lesson by now, graphite just doesn’t travel well in a sketchbook that gets moved around a lot.