I did a quick sketch of the Beer Store in front on Dundonald Park the other day during our little walk with Newton. The yellow building really stands out on the street, you can’t miss it.
This really neat sculpture by Chung Hung is located at the Garden of Provinces and Territories, right in the middle on a field of grass. The abstract sculpture is made out of red cedar in the shape of a “loop” bending at 12 locations (points). It looks really nice against the various types of trees and was a good challenge to draw. I wonder if the 12 points was supposed to represent the 12 provinces and territories at the time, since it was built in 1982, before Nunavut was added.
We’re in the second quarter of the TGIMs so I decided to make some little adjustments to the look of my sketchnotes. It looks like this quarter is going to be about taking action. I always internalize ET’s instructions and I can already see a couple thoughts I need change (not an easy thing to do, but it’s necessary), some adjustments I need to make and massive actions I need to take. I guess we all have our weights we carry around in life for whatever reason and the key is to see how they can be used to help us get to the next level. There’s a lot of things that involve an amazing life for me and I can tell you that my amazing life includes a lot of art and a modern luxury villa in Ibiza :).
week 19 daily sketches
These are my daily sketches from last week. I like the fading background from the “Munny World” sketch. It wasn’t planned. My marker was running out and I ended up with a better result from it. It’s my favorite background thus far from this “series”. Newton’s non stuffed toy was interesting and challenging to draw. It turned out better than expected. The chew toy didn’t turned out as I would like, but still interesting. I’m also liking the border using the word “shower” on the side at the bottom. Will probably use that again somewhere else
I’m testing a new idea for some of my urban sketches, using paint chips as a my “canvas”. It’s an interesting way to “add colours”. These are my first few attempts. 
Sometimes I get the impression that science is slowly becoming a religion with strick rules and doctrines on how things should be. It’s strange to hear scientists mocking other scientists because they are studying things outside the currently accepted norms or are making discoveries that would completely change the way we currently understand various things in life. Or maybe it’s always been that way? Change make most people uncomfortable and therefore always seem to bring a lot of resistance. The biggest discoveries of our time seem to always have encounter a lot of resistance. Perhaps as a scientist, it’s a good way to know that you’re on to something. I wonder if the next big step in science will include the study of consciousness.
This sculpture, located on the corner of Bank St and Spark St (Ottawa,ON), was created by Sorel Etrog, a Romanian-Canadian artist, writer and philosopher. Named “Flight Vol”, it is made out of bronze and was part of the Canadian Pavilion during Expo 67 held in Montreal. It caught my eye as I was walking with Newton the other day. It’s a very abstract and interesting sculpture to draw. To me it evoque the embrace of a couple.
Looks like I might be making more daily sketches to practice on a weekly basis. I find it not only helps to draw various objects faster, but also I get to test various techniques and layouts. I like challenging myself by not using an eraser and draw with a pen directly. I’m also playing with the lettering. I recently bought a calligraphy marker to change things up a bit. It takes a little getting use to but there’s a lot of fun thing that can be done with it. The titles on the bottom three sketches were made using the calligraphy marker.
The last homework from my online workshop is about perspective. Above is the final result. I was rushing to get this drawing done as the sun was coming down and took a picture of the area so that I could properly add the shading afterwards. That’s a tricky thing with urban sketching : The longer you take, the more the scenery changes so it’s important to be aware of that when you draw. When I have more time on site, I wait until I finish the line drawing and then add the shading all at once in order for the drawing to be more realistic as opposed to have shades from multiple time period. If I don’t have time, I just take a picture and use it as a reference to add the final details afterwards. Adding people is a different thing. I like to add them as they come and go. I feel that way my sketch transcends tim
Today was my first time attempting urban sketching with Newton. It’s a little rough, but I’m hoping to do this on a regular basis so that it becomes more refined. We went to the Dundonald Park and spend a little extra time sitting at the park and watching the comings and goings of people passing by and taking a little break. I also recorded sample conversations I overheard on the left (including those involving people coming to see Newton because he’s so cute). I like the idea of recording conversations as well. I find it ads an interesting layer to the sketch. It’s not my idea. I remember first seeing the sketch of a various conversations at a coffee shop and ever since I’ve been wanting to do something similar. I’ll probably do it again.
I decided to try something a little different for this drawing of the Animal Connection and be a little more creative with the composition of the image. It’s a little more fantasy like. Pardon the mouse on the top corner, the pages are starting to curl up :)
The second workshop exercise with Jorge was all about framing and accurately representing depth. Above is my attempt. The shading was done mostly with Faber-Castell PITT artist pens “shades of grey”. It was a great opportunity for me to practice with brush pens, which I don’t use very often but was always a little curious about.
Over the past couple days, I started to draw a couple quick daily sketches of various subjects to get back into urban sketching and just practice a little more. It’s a fun thing to do and it doesn’t take too much time and I don’t erase anything, I just draw with a pen and add color with simple Crayola markers I have laying around. Above are the images of the past 10 days or so. There are a lot of images of Newton as he loves to spend time sleeping on my lap while I work on the computer and he’s a fun subject to draw. Not sure how long he’ll be able to do that as he’s getting bigger and heavier every day :)
pacman
I decided to draw on blank stickers and stick them inside my notebook. This is the results. I like the idea of videogame graffitis. They add some fun to people daily routine. It would be a very fun project to do in a city as an art project