sketching Mom

I sketched my mom tonight while she was studying Spanish on Duolingo, a great language acquisition website I just discovered. She's down for a short visit, enjoying a few days off from work.

Sketching with Inkling

Thanks to Wacom, I had an opportunity to field-test their Inkling digital sketch pen. I used it for a sketching session and here's what I found....

Inkling is a tool that turns hand-drawn lines to digital, editable lines. There are two parts to Inkling: the pen and the receiver. Inkling pen uses a standard ball-point refill, which is included in the package. There is a separate receiver about the size of a large pack of gum and a USB cable to connect it to the computer for transferring the drawing file. Before I got started, there was prep work to do. It takes full three hours to charge the unit, so I installed the Inkling Sketch Manager software into my computer while I waited.

Next day - Inkling is ready for the first sketch outing! The pen and the receiver fits neatly into a compact carrying case - it is a perfect size for toting it around with my usual sketching supplies.

Inkling pen feels very natural. The receiver clips easily to the top of the sketchbook page (I used Stillman & Birn Alpha series since it takes a variety of media well). I pressed the button on the receiver to turn it on. I then held the pen, which has the weight and the feel of a fountain pen. I was careful not to cover the tip of the pen (where it sends the signal). It took me a few strokes to get used to the softer feel of ball-point tip (I usually draw with Uniball Signo gel pen that makes crisper lines), but I started sketching as usual very quickly and felt at ease.

For this test, I chose a typical scene that many of us Urban Sketchers draw all over the world: people eating at an outdoor café. It was an ideal sketching setup: I had a chair to sit in, a table to rest my sketchbook, an umbrella above to provide shade (it is advised to keep Inkling receiver away from strong, direct light), with clear sky and a steady midday light.

When I was sketching, people moved around (of course), so I pressed a button next to the power button on the receiver to create a new layer, and continued drawing.

I went home and plugged in the receiver into my computer to see how the sketch turned out. I opened the file in Adobe Illustrator. The sketched lines are turned into editable vector lines. Lines that are drawn after pressing the layer button on the receiver do appear on separate layers. The lines are fairly uncluttered without too many extra stray points - much better than an auto-trace tool.

Here is a big disappointment: Inkling did not record the top part around the umbrella, as you can see from the scan of the original sketch. Maybe my hand was blocking the receiver, or I might have started sketching before the receiver was fully on.

It also did not record smaller area of the sketch accurately - maybe it had to do with amount of lines per area, or how fast I was moving my hand. The left side is a close-up of the scanned drawing, and the right side is how Inkling rendered it. It reminded me of the time when I tried to draw with an iPad: the lines dragged behind my finger at times because I was drawing too fast for it to render in real time.

I also found that you have to use the Inkling Sketch Manager software to set the position of the receiver - either on top, left, right, bottom, or corner of the page - or it won't record your lines. When I sketch, I flip my sketchbook around to use both sides of the paper, so not being able to change the recording direction on the fly is limiting, especially since I rarely have a laptop with me when I'm sketching.

In conclusion, it is a fun tool to try as long as you keep in mind that it doesn't reproduce your sketches exactly. It does help if you are used to drawing with a pen and keeping your sketchbook oriented in one direction. It can only record pen lines, so if you paint directly or use another media when you are sketching, this might not be your thing. For digital drawing, I've used Wacom's other products (Intuos tablet and Cintiq) and found them to be much more precise - but Inkling is useful for making editable lines of your sketches to refine later. The ability to make layers of your sketches can be explored more, like I did here: I added some colors and made an animated GIF using different layers.

I like the feel of the pen and the ease of the use of the receiver. If the software can be improved to record the lines more accurately,  and if the settings can be changed without the computer (perhaps even by using a smartphone app), it will truly be portable and be better suited for drawing on location. I still enjoyed playing with it!

sketches at Gasan Digital Complex area, Seoul

The name of the station (Gasan Digital Complex station) was changed from Garibong station into Gasan Digital Complex station on 2005. Originally old type industrial factories located at the area, which were changed into new type, apartment factories in new highrisen buildings. There was another reason that the area was transferred to new district with different name from Garibong-dong into Gasan-dong. I went there after tens of years. I was surprised so much at the street scene. Of course there were shiny glass wall buildings, so called apartment factory buildings. But The area was famous with the fashion outlets such as Mario Outlet, Fashion Island, W-Mall...The station is a transferring one of Subway No. 1 and 7. Therefore the station is crowded with passengers always. When I got off the train I looked around. Before leaving. I felt like to sketch the station in a bench. I thanked about that the station was over the ground not under ground. I had no water to wash so I tried with pencil and pen. 

pen & pencil, A 4

I entered the Fashion Island outlet building. I could see only a few customers in the shops because it was before noon. I sketched one looking down the shops sitting on a comfortable chair laid for the customers tired with shopping. It was a challenge always for me to sketch looking down. I wanted to put the right wall together but failed. 

pen and watercolor, A 4

After finishing the above one I came out. I sat for a while on a bench under the shade of trees looking up the Mario Outlet building not far from the Fashion Island Outlet. The building looked good with brick color contrasted by strong sun light. I hesitated for minutes whether I should draw it horizontally or vertically. Because I wanted to put the bottom tent and the small outdoor performance space I chose the vertical scenery.

pencil, watercolor, A 4

I entered the Mario Outlet building. It's summer. In 11th floor there was a big sale (40% off) event for camping goods including big and small tents, shades, chairs. There were chairs for customers too, which was useful for me too. 

pencil, watercolor, A 4

Though it was a very hot day I enjoyed the sketching trip as if I were a foreigner in Seoul, hoping to visit there to capture the developed features of the area soon.

Antique day in new oxford

I live in new oxford, the antique capital of the US. Every third Sunday of June we have an antique/craft fair. It's a great opportunity for drawing. I just wish I could borrow some of the items for a couple of hours and draw them unencumbered by all the crowds and traffic. This year I spent most of the time in the old train station which is now a train museum that has hundreds of different train signal lamps. I'd love to have a couple more hours in there!

Slussen in summer mode

 
Since my summer holiday finally started yesterday afternoon, and today offered fantastic weather, I decided to celebrate my first day off by going drawing at Slussen again. Made two drawings, and the one below had to be quick, because my Nordic skin can only take so much sun…

 
Stockholm has a winter and a summer face. Winter makes people stressed and cold, seems like everyone is hurrying to go somewhere. But in summer, everyone switches to their sunny mode. People are so relaxed now, taking it more slow, enjoying the warmth and each other. Ryssgården, the square in front of the Slussen metro station, is an ongoing social event all day when the sun is shining. Perfect place for people watching.

A view from Shinjuku Odakyu department store

I have drawn same view several times. This time I tried to heed Omar's advice. To draw long objects in diagonal composition. But you have to be careful, keep an eye on your horizontal line in your drawing otherwise you can easily draw wrong angle line. ( you can see my corrected lines on the right building)
June 17, 2013


Feb. 18, 2010


April 24, 2010

Day trip to Aran

Taking the ferry from Brodick to Adrossan



Then cycling over the island on a road called the string (its called this because it looks like someone has dropped a piece of string on the map) then a loop over the top of the island.



An easy going lunch at the Sandwich Station.



Just round the corner was where I was heading the Isle of Arran Whisky Distillery. I missed the tour but was kindly allowed to see and draw the whisky stills. I chatted to Gordon who worked there and he said that these stills are smaller versions than they usually are, think they're based on the Macallan stills. The smell of drawing in here is quite something, a real aroma of whisky and malt, I wasn't sure if it goes to your head.



On the last part of the ride around Arran after Lochranza there's a long straight part of the road with these high peaks to your right. I stopped for some time to draw them and you could hear cuckoos making their calls.



And lastly the ferry back home, a pack of cyclists(pelaton). You get quite a few teams that cycle round the island as quickly as possible. A good drawing day!

The Sea

Brooklyn is the new place for seafood.

First Time SketchCrawlers

I was very lucky yesterday. I was running a SketchCrawl for a little, local festival, in Sheffield's Botanical Gardens. Despite grim forecasts, it was warm and dry and not even windy: perfect for sitting around on the grass, drawing together.

It was an especially lovely afternoon, as I had all very inexperienced sketchers, people who had done some drawing indoors, but not been brave enough to try sketching out on location. 

I took some tins of coloured pencils and watercolour pencils for people to borrow, which meant that they all had a go with colour, rather than sticking to a regular pencil. I had to work double-quick myself, as the idea was that I would sketch with them, as inspiration, then work my way round the group, chatting to each person and offering any advice that was needed. 

We had a sharing session at the end and everyone produced lovely sketches. I think I may have recruited a few to our regular SketchCrawl North group too. Success all round.

Brad Catron Quartet

On April 17th I went to Tastings (164 Lake Ave Maitland Fl), to listen to jazz and sketch.  The Jazz Tastings Quartet performs every Friday starting at 7PM. I ordered a white wine and a lobster bisque that was delicious. The band got on stage just as I was finishing my bisque. Cary Frank was on the keyboards and you can't see him in my sketch. He is behind the bass player, John Toney.  I recognized John, I had sketched him perform once before at the Obama Campaign Headquarters. Brad Catron was up front with his self deprecating humor and fast fingers on guitar. The fish bowl tip jar was half full of dollar bills from the start.

The music was lively helping motivate every line and splash of color. After my second cup of white wine the sketch started to look not so bad. As often happens, the band took a break before the sketch was done. I kept painting, forgetting about local color, and going with colors that worked for the sketch.

It was a good sketch session, although the bisque and wines were more expensive than I expected. Most people don't recognize the cost of making art.  Maybe I should put a tip jar out every time I sketch. With my luck, I'd be arrested for busking or begging.

- Analog Artist Digital World

4/48 h neukoelln

in reuterstr84, viewing 15 orte - 3 perspektiven and devote myself to other night-out-joys

 

like sitting at corner hobrechtstrasse | sonnenalleen and eat and drink

 

and roam around backyards and end up in pub 'mama', watering hole of young globetrotters and  listen to another version of

'i_want_to_learn_german_as_i_think_it_is_very_unpolite_to_assume_that_everybody_understands_english_(nevertheless,_everybody_does,_does_not_make_it_easier)_and_i_tried_but_it_is_so_complicated_with_der,_die,_das_and_these_verbs_changing_all_the_time'

.

| rolf schröter

a couple more davis bars

Davis CA: when I first came to Davis, there weren't that many bars, for a college town. There were a few, but not as many as now. They are everywhere now. Everywhere is falling over themselves (literally in some cases) to get you the latest hippest craft beer, brewed only by the people with the biggest beards and the oldest bicycles. I must say, I do like the beer out here on the West Coast, of course, and on those very hot Davis days it is nice to kick back with a couple of pints of tasty stuff and draw these bars. Above is Uncle Vito's, not a bar primarily but a pizzeria with a very sports-bar feel. They do good beer in very cold glasses. I have sketched in there before, about four years ago when it was new (it used to be a Chinese take-out place called "Wok'n'Roll"), and I like that big mirror, but now they have that lampshade as well which is always worth a sketch. That evening I had given a rambling talk at my local bookstore, the Avid Reader, about travel sketching, Danny Gregory's book 'An Illustrated Journey' (in which I have contributed a chapter), and Urban Sketchers, and it was great fun - you can read about it on my blog. I came for a couple of beers afterwards to cool down - it had been 109 degrees F that day! That's Davis for you.



This second bar is a brand new one called 'University of Beer'. This place is just about the beer, and they have lots of different micro-brews on tap. This is one for the beer-geek. When it first opened, I thought I was back in Portland, the selection was so good. It was a hot Saturday afternoon, I had been out sketching something or other, some building with some trees probably, and wanted a nice cool interior to balance it. I didn't have space to sketch the wall on the right, which is covered with lots of colourful metal beer signs, but maybe another time. In the 'UoB', their menus are so big they have them on iPads. They also have this cool icy strip at the bar to put drinks on to keep them cold. This is cutting-edge beer-geekery, and I love it.

by Pete Scully

T2 teahouse is closing!

Well, very sad news last week that my beloved local tearoom - The T2 Teahouse at Macquarie Centre is closing down on Friday 21 June. It is hard to put into words how special this place is… and how much a big part it has been of my creative journey over the last 5 years. It has become part of my life...catching up with friends, the start and end of every overseas trip, the place where I have fun and experiment with new techniques, when things were really crazy at work it was the special little event in the week…. and  this year it has been my external office, I go there when I want some time to think.

A little haven for me to sit and sketch and have a lovely time with the amazing amazing staff! In so many ways they have made me feel special - giving me special selections of cups or pots to draw, dashing across the way to get a sample of tea from the retail store because they had run of the tea I wanted, allowing me to sit in the big red chair on my own for an hour or so (or even been there all day!) There are so many different places to sit- all with unique views and characters… and of course the tea and scones and cakes are AMAZING!

I used to just drink tea… this place has made me total tea mad and addicted to tearoom visits!

Thankfully there is one other T2 teahouse still operating for a few more months in a different part of Sydney. T2 is a big brand of teashops all around Australia - but to have one of their special teahouses right near me has been a real treat.




I am collecting 'best wishes' messages from around the world to tell them know how many people know about them globally as I am preparing a 'little card' to give to them all on the last day. Would love you to leave a message here or over at my blog.

There is no doubt that my sketchbooks will be less colourful now….

Carousel at Parkway Plaza in El Cajon, Califonia

Parkway Plaza is a Westfield Shopping Mall in San Diego, California. Right in the middle of the mall there is a Carousel where the San Diego Urban Sketchers met to draw. We were lucky because it stopped at the same place every time it went around. This made it easy to pick one part of the carousel as a subject.

Old Timers

The other day when the weather was still bad I went to paint old timers at a garage specialized in these cars. There were plenty  cars to choose. I did these first two.

By cars I use pencil and watercolors . Sometimes Pen. I do three washes of color. The first one saving the whites of the reflections, a second for the shadows and third to smooth over both.

Ford Mustang: It was parked outside the garage. I am very proud of the reflections on the store window. You can see the building on the other site of the street.
Chevrolet Corvette: The car was on the hydraulic ramp.

A few days later there was also a big car show on the Ku'damm (an important street in Berlin West)
A Mercedes Benz190 SL
An here is my favorite car, probably because I had not seen one before. A Borgward Isabella Coupe.