SBS Draw Party

When I checked my email this morning, I was, for once, early enough to catch the notification about a drawing party over at Sketchbook Skool, so I jumped onsite with seconds to spare and did some quick sketching along with Danny and Koosje. (They schedule it for noon New York time, and at 9 a.m. here I am usually distracted by something else, like sleep, or coffee.)

Danny had chosen three mug shots from Australia from the early part of the 20th century, and we had 30 minutes to draw one. He did his digitally, so it was all about color and shape, but I did mine my usual way, which was with a Uniball fine black pen in my Bee Sketchbook. I loved this photo, because of the intense expression in the eyes and because of the guy's hairline—and those ears! I wanted to keep the focus on the face, so when I went to watercolor it after the sketch party was over, I chose to simply put in shadows for his clothing, except for the tie, which I felt made a statement to go with his personality.

After Danny was done, Koosje jumped on. Today was all about random sketching in a hurry—we picked three objects within eyesight and drew them all within 15 minutes, and then added just a little color. That was fun too, but I enjoyed the portrait a lot more.

It's nice to draw and paint in the morning, a good start to the day. I'm off to breakfast!