Sketching

I have been trying to do a little more "plein air" sketching this year.  I think it is good drawing practice and I would like to get a little faster at doing it.  Although I have not been doing it on a regular basis, I have found that I am getting a little bit faster.  Treasure Valley Artists' Alliance has a Urban Sketchers group that goes to different locations once a month to sketch.  I have been to a few of those.  I have also made an effort to go on a few outings with my friend, Mary, to do some sketching.

Recently, I posted a few of my sketches from the last Urban Sketchers outing at the Boise Depot.  I have also posted some of my sketches on my Facebook art page throughout the year.  (I don't always post the same things here and there.)

Last week, Mary and I went back to the Idaho Botanical Gardens to do some more sketching. Usually, I do a couple of sketches and then end up taking a bunch of photographs.

What I have been finding challenging is drawing a bunch of different kind of vegetation quickly.  I have just been using different types of scribbles to indicate different types of plants.

Here are the very quick sketches I did in the gardens.  I would like to get to the point of using some color, but that takes more time.

Here are a few more that I have done throughout the year.

Milkweed pod.

On our hike in the Sawtooths.

 From our trip to Long Island, NY

Also from Long Island, NY

These are sketches, not finished works of art.   Some artists, like Lisa Cheney and Jane La Fazio, do beautiful sketches in their sketchbooks that are like finished works of art.  They are wonderful to look at, but that is not my aim with these.

I think you can tell from looking which ones I drew more quickly than the others.  I hope to get quicker and be able to do more shading quickly as well and then be able to add color, too.