This newsletter is coming to you from the Stumptown Coffee on Belmont in Portland, Oregon. I met up with the Portland Urban Sketchers at the Rainbow Road for this month’s sketch crawl. As I tend to do, I wandered off and ended up sketching the main entrance to the Coca Cola factory a couple of blocks down from the rainbow street. It was great to see so many different drawing styles and experience levels though.

As a drawing practice grows, it is not unusual to start experimenting with a variety of materials. In this newsletter, I want to cover some intermediate tools that are relatively affordable and can add some pizzazz to your drawing. If you would like a refresh on getting started building a drawing kit, I recently added a beginner drawing guide to the newsletter website.