Our host, Tom Bradley led us to the lovely sketch-out on the first Saturday of October at the Wright Park Conservatory. Everyone seemed so happy to see all the other Urban Sketchers that beautiful, breezy morning. Afterwards, a good number of us enjoyed a great lunch and lots of interesting friendly conversation at the Hob Nob Restaurant
on 6th. Ave, across from the park.
Walking to and from the restaurant, I picked up a handful of beautiful, shiny, mahogany-colored horse chestnuts as well as several of their prickly yellow-green 'seed pods.' Their parent trees were all along the path at the edge of the park. I think the chestnuts and the seed pods will make a great combo for a sketch. I'll save them and will turn them into a little 'indoor still life' some rainy day.
My first experiments were using very big oil painting brushes or foam brushes to slather abstract patterns of gesso onto a mat board, followed by drawing with sticks of charcoal on that base, after it dried....then adding more gesso...as many layers as desired. First was a sketch of a sleeping friend, followed by a sketch of a model in a Figure program. (Gesso allows for lots of corrections when figure drawing....which are to be expected after not doing it for quite awhile!)
Saturday, I did the above linear sketch of the building and plants of the Conservatory using grey gesso with a small brush on black mat board. After that dried, I added a bit of color with some pastel pencils.
I plan on doing more sketches using gesso plus 'who knows what else' along with it. I believe all of this particular experimentation means I'm edging ever closer to getting back to doing some painting with oils...my other love besides Urban Sketching. It's not exactly common....but, it's also possible to do Urban Sketches in oil. One of these days.....
Here is Andrea's photo of the group:
Walking to and from the restaurant, I picked up a handful of beautiful, shiny, mahogany-colored horse chestnuts as well as several of their prickly yellow-green 'seed pods.' Their parent trees were all along the path at the edge of the park. I think the chestnuts and the seed pods will make a great combo for a sketch. I'll save them and will turn them into a little 'indoor still life' some rainy day.
Besides these future still life items, I also brought home my sketch from the morning. 
For the last week or so, I've been using scraps of various colors of mat boards instead of my sketchbooks. The mat boards all come from the center pieces cut out when cutting mats for a picture. I've been 'painting' on the mat boards with white or grey gesso, as a new way to do sketching. My first experiments were using very big oil painting brushes or foam brushes to slather abstract patterns of gesso onto a mat board, followed by drawing with sticks of charcoal on that base, after it dried....then adding more gesso...as many layers as desired. First was a sketch of a sleeping friend, followed by a sketch of a model in a Figure program. (Gesso allows for lots of corrections when figure drawing....which are to be expected after not doing it for quite awhile!)
Saturday, I did the above linear sketch of the building and plants of the Conservatory using grey gesso with a small brush on black mat board. After that dried, I added a bit of color with some pastel pencils.
I plan on doing more sketches using gesso plus 'who knows what else' along with it. I believe all of this particular experimentation means I'm edging ever closer to getting back to doing some painting with oils...my other love besides Urban Sketching. It's not exactly common....but, it's also possible to do Urban Sketches in oil. One of these days.....
Here is Andrea's photo of the group:
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