Hello, from the Sketchy Traveler newsletter. A mostly twice monthly newsletter on drawing and life design. Excited to have you join us! If you are enjoying this newsletter consider becoming a patron to help keep this newsletter financially sustainable.

Apologies on the long time between newsletters. These last couple of weeks found me traveling and drawing without much time for sending newsletters. As I come back from an intense period of sketching and traveling, I wanted to take the chance to demo some of the techniques I talk about in this newsletter and what they can look like in practice. From blind contour with an old teacher to detailed drawings in rose gardens, this trip found me using new and old techniques.

Gesture Sketches and Old Teachers

The majority of my travels this last week were in the Seattle area, and it was great to reconnect with a former art teacher while I was there. Travel is a great opportunity to deepen an old connection with some in-person time and return to old mentors and teachers. This teacher was particularly influential on my use of gesture and blind contour in my work. It was great to reconnect with this side of my practice and return to a simply, but accessible, tool for creating quick sketches.

Sketching Notes from SketcherFest

My main reason for visiting Seattle was attending SketcherFest, the annual international celebration of sketch reporting. I was a sponsor of the festival, and it is always exciting to see the wide variety of styles people bring to the Urban Sketchers. I was mostly interested in attending people’s talks, which presented a bunch of opportunities to incorporate sketches and text. Drawings and diagrams can be a nice way to quickly capture a concept and adding in a quick sketch can help to anchor the experience of the talk in your memory palace.

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Practice and Friends

A great part of attending an event like SketcherFest is the opportunity to get together with friends attending the event you might normally see in-person. SketcherFest was in Edmonds, which is part of the greater Seattle area, which provides many great locations to draw. A couple of places I stopped at outside of SketcherFest with friends were The Fishermen’s Terminal and the Mercer Slough.

The Fishermen’s terminal is great as it is the home of the Seattle fishing fleet. As a result, you can pick up super fresh seafood and take a stroll along the docks to admire and draw the ships that brought in your meal.

The Mercer Slough features a historical blueberry farm, but unfortunately it was not open for upick when we visited. We still got in some great drawings of the willow forest around the fields and the historic house on the farm.

Let me know if you are in the Seattle, Portland or Willamette area and would like to get together to sketch. It is always more fun to go drawing with people😊 If you are outside the Pacific Northwest, the Urban Sketchers host free drawing meet ups in cities around the globe and probably have a chapter near you.

Flaneur Corner

Excited to Join The Art Center Artstore

Excited to join The Art Center’s store here in Corvallis. Starting in August, my work will be available for sale with them as cards and prints. A percentage of the proceeds go to The Art Center to support local access and engagement with the visual arts with the majority of proceeds coming back to me. This is a great way to support me and the Corvallis art community if you are in the area.

On-site Drawing Workshop Coming Up

I’m currently organizing an on-site sketching workshop in Corvallis starting in August. This will include a self-paced email series on tools and techniques supported by in-person workshops every other week. Workshops will meet in various locations around Corvallis to practice techniques and share our work together. If you ever wondered how I produce my work this workshop is for you.

The End is Only the Beginning

Wow, you read all the way to the end of the newsletter. This is the end of the newsletter, but only the beginning of your journey. Here are some potential next steps:

• Become a newsletter patron and help keep this newsletter financially sustainable

• Register for a 1:1 coaching session

• Purchase a print or commission me to do a drawing for you