Sonic
Posted: November 23, 2017 Filed under: Uncategorized 19 CommentsCold weather sketching can be challenging when you are dependent on the perfect parking place and a good view from the car window. I often drive around and around, looking for the perfect spot, with no success. I settle for an obstructed view and paint whatever I can see in front of me, just to get in a little drawing practice. These strange angles sometimes make for a more interesting composition, and the bits of signage add colour to the scene during a very grey time of year. Sketched in a Handbook Journal, 9″ x 12″.
Shari Blaukopf's Sketchbook 
Love the way you make a picture out of “nothing”. Do you use a pen or brush for the wires etc?
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Hi Sarah, Thanks so much for writing. I sometimes draw the wires with a pen, but this time I did most of them with a rigger brush. You can probably see some preliminary pencil lines in there too.
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Those huge transformers hanging off the top of the power/telephone poles add a heaviness or instability to the scene. I like and appreciate your honesty depicted in you work.
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Thanks so much. For this one, I didn’t worry too much about the composition. It was an organic process because I started drawing the telephones poles at the top of the page and wasn’t really sure how far I would get on the bottom.
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You make everything..even Sonic and a street look charming..I’ve only seen one in Rigaud..:)This long winter I plan on going through your Craftsy classes again..:)
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HI Monique, I don’t often comment on your blog but I have really been enjoying your photos of Provence, knowing that I will be visiting many of those same areas next summer. Thanks for sharing them with us.
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You have become an expert at sketching urban scene, specially hydro lines,There is more work here thån any other sketch, You made it very interesting and making the viewer discover details that too often we take for granted. I like it a lot.
Good work.
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Thanks so much Andre!
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Wonderful. Agree with Andre–you are an expert on Hydro lines or any others that add to the painting.I see that I have to keep driving around and start looking more at other than just the buildings. As I have written, many streets here have no place to park. But I am now sure I can find someplace to sketch. Thanks for another inspiration.
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Thank you Judy!
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Don’t you just hate it when you can’t find the parking spot that you want? You do so well no matter what the view! Great job on this and all those power lines.
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Thanks Joan!
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I do much the same thing here in the Santa Fe, New Mexico winter. I decided last year to take the first available parking space, look around and start sketching. There is almost always something interesting around the central plaza.
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I envy you as we lived in NM for over 20 years. Santa Fe is one of my favorite places. And-most people don’t know that winters there can be cold and snowy.
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Erik, Santa Fe is a place I have always wanted to visit. Of course I don’t think of it as a place where you would need to sketch in a car, but I know that’s not true. I have a friend who just moved there and one of these days I would like to give a workshop there. Is there an urban sketchers group?
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This is so well designed and beatifully painted of such a mundane yet chalenging subject matter…what was the first thing you penciled in?
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HI Gil, Thanks for writing! For this one I started at the top with the utility pole and all the details. I wasn’t sure how much I could fit on the page but I always love all the details on the poles. If I had started on the bottom, I am not sure where I would have ended up at the top of the page. I am always pretty bad at fitting everything in!
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You are the only artist I know that makes telephone poles interesting!! Love it….
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Thanks Donna!
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