More from SketchCrawl

Sketchcrawl is part of urban sketching groups. It's organized periodically in many and various locations around the world. Groups of artists get together for a day and walk around sketching what they see.

Watercolor Tree Sketch

Watercolor is very nice for sketching. Here is a small crabapple tree, done with a few loose layers of watercolor paints. Simple and pleasant. I did a graphite sketch first. Then drew a few pale lines in pencil on the watercolor paper to act as guidelines for my washes. Mainly to remind me of where the highlights of the branches should be. A few details were added with a small brush. And then a few little background shapes, suggestive of plants or distant foliage, to ground the tree and make it seem connected with Earth.

SketchCrawl April 2011

This sketchcrawl was organized by artist Jim Stigall. A small group of artists wandered through downtown Denver sketching various scenes along the way.

Urban Nature

These are some sketches I've done in Denver. I'm a member of Urban Sketchers group. One is a band that is playing during the People's Fair in the park. One is at the Chalk Fest, with two artists at work in the street.  One is outside the Paramount Cafe, along the outdoor 16th Street mall. Yes, I know it's not nature, but I love urban sketching--sitting and watching people has always been my favorite activity. Sketching is great fun, but I truly had to train myself to draw fast to capture people's gestures and poses. These are all sketched in pen with watercolor washes over the top.

Oxalis stricta

This is a field sketch of the common yellow sorrel. It grows freely in waste areas or disturbed areas. There's only a small patch here so I'm gonna let it grow and hope it spreads itself further. Sorrel leaves make a nice addition to salads, a bit of a spicy flavor. It's a quick pencil sketch with watercolor added.

Farmer's Market

This is a watercolor sketch I did at the Cherry Creek Farmer's Market. It was done quickly, with a simple pen sketch and watercolor washes. While I was working a woman with two Siberian dogs sat down next to me. One of the dogs immediately sprawled across my feet. Good thing I like dogs, because it was hot already and to have a thick-furred Siberian covering my feet just raised the temperature even more!