Lake Harriet Kite Festival

It was 10 degrees when I sketched the Lake Harriet Kite festival. The ink in my pen froze and my fingers were numb, so I bent the rules and finished the coloring at home. Click on the picture to make it bigger.

Roz sucks it up and draws a car!

O.K. So I'm out with Ken and Roberta at Wet Paint. (They said they needed paper advice, but I don't really believe that; I think they were being sociable.) After the visit at Wet Paint we went down the road to Shish where Paul (a helpful artist/staff person at Wet Paint told us there was the best coffee in the area—I mention this in case you are coffee drinkers; I'm not—but I like Gyros so that's another attraction).

There we are at Shish, at a small window table, checking over our purchases and then eating, and finally, getting out our sketchbooks and so I decide, since I am sitting there with the King and Queen of scene sketchers, to broaden my view from the crack in the sidewalk. I boldly select a damaged car across the street (front end crumpled so badly bits have fallen off the hood so you can see inside, I guess that's because we don't use metal any more?). And just when I get going the driver comes out with a couple friends, they all pile in, not hearing my pleas from across the street and inside a building, of NO, No, no. (This action on my part causes the woman wedged in next to me to scooch further and further away from me.)

Then I learn something great from Ken. When this happens, wait until another car, similar to the first, comes along and work with it. This is helpful information because I am such a literalist, always drawing only those things in front of me (I rarely draw from my imagination). This is exactly like being at the zoo (which I do all the time; so this is a transfer of practice, a using of skills in a new area; it's growth!).

Since no other car was coming along I passed the time by working on the building and the fun shadows on the snow. And so it goes. I will draw more cars in the future. It wasn't that painful. Thank-you Ken and Roberta!

Grand Avenue in St. Paul

Roberta and I got paper and pen advice from our art guru Roz Stendahl at Wet Paint. Afterward's we walked down Grand Avenue a block to eat lunch at Shish. While we were digesting, we did some sketching. Roz did a great sketch of a car that moved befor she finished it. I am using my new 2009 journal (brown paper). Roberta also sketch on brown paper.

Roberta's sketch of people in Shish (click to enlarge the picture):



My sketch of a bike in snow: