Shoreline Park

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I had been in a sort of a rut lately with my art, and I thought sketching with fellow urban sketchers might be just the thing to pull myself out of the rut and get me back on track again.

I spent the morning being inspired by the pen and ink sketching from a book called The Sketch. It is a book that is no longer available and I remember acquiring it in the second hand market a couple of years ago. I remember learning a lot from it, and going back to it today was helpful. 

For today's sketching I decided to go back to my first love, which is drawing, and focus on capturing the essence of the place and also think about composition a bit.

The South Bay Urban Sketchers met at the Shoreline Park in Mountain View, and it was an absolutely gorgeous day for it. 

I sketched our fellow sketcher for a bit to get things started, I focused on ink and added color in a very restrained manner, purely to separate the planes a bit.

sketch of sketcher

As I looked around to find my next subject to sketch, I was struck by the big tree in front of the boathouse, and I decided to incorporate the two in my next sketch. I was more deliberate with this one than I planned to. I like the result over all, but I would have preferred to finish it sooner and move on to another one.

boathouse cafe sketch at shoreline park

Alphonso Dunn and pen and ink sketching

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A package containing the new Alphonso Dun book and a new S&B Alpha sketchbook arrived in the mail, and I knew it was a promise of a wonderful weekend with lot of learning and exploring.

Pen and Ink Drawing: A Simple Guide by Alphonso Dunn

I have been a follower of Alphonso Dunn's youtube channel for a long time and I learned a lot about drawing and composition from him. His book is packed with all manner of great exercises that build your drawing skills from the ground up. 

After spending some time going through book and doing some exercises from the first few sections, I was inspired to try my hand at a pen and ink drawing of my own. I chose a picture from the "Photos for Artists" facebook group with good light and shade and went to work.

Pen and ink drawing of a door

I am curious to see how I would approach this subject after my art class with Alphonso Dunn. I am only on page 36 of the book right now, after all.