Bayard Park Sketch Crawl

On Tuesday I participated in a sketch crawl. Well, it’s not really a crawl or a walk or a stand – but maybe – Yes!  a stroll. We spent an hour strolling around the Bayard Park area, near the East Branch Library which was sponsoring this class.

This area is made up of beautiful old houses just ripe for sketches – and in my case, picture taking. The sun was bright so the images aren’t as pretty as I would have preferred, but the best I could capture for that time of the day.

This is the first house we came to and probably my favorite in this area. I really love the porches.

Bayard Park house
My favorite house in the area

Donna decided to sketch the side porch which I also found interesting.

Sketching in Bayard Park area
Sketching in Bayard Park area

Carla decided to make it a sketch sit-in and put her blanket in the grass under the trees to sketch this beautiful house.

Carla sketching under the trees
Carla sketching under the trees

However, I really was interested in the details more than the actual houses.

Concrete post

Texture on a porch drain
Love this pattern on this porch drain

 

Then some great patterns on sewer and water covers. I had to watch out for traffic while shooting these!

water main cover
They really didn’t have to decorate this water main cover. Love it!

sewer cover

Another Bayard Park area house
Another Bayard Park area house
Another Bayard Park area house
And another one

But the one picture that got me to sketching was this beautiful gate.

Gate
Beautiful gate

I started with pencil, moved quickly to watercolors and finished with Pitt Pens and Copic Markers. I’m such a novice at sketching. I realized quickly that I needed to complete the background before I added the gate. (Duh!) And I’m still learning about shading and making things look like what I want them to be instead of blobs of color. I also know what I’d change with this sketch. But here it is, my first sketch from this sketch crawl.

Gate Sketch
My Gate Sketch

I really enjoyed this – both the crawl and sitting down and working on this sketch. I know I have a long way to go, but I’m real encouraged. Now is the time in my life that I want to stretch and try some things I’ve not had the patience for in the past. Will I ever be a great sketcher? Don’t know. But if I don’t try and that means practice, I’ll never know.

What I do know is that I’ve grown these past three years by pushing my boundaries. I’ve become less afraid of making art. If it doesn’t turn out, nothing happens. But if it does, what a feeling!

So as with most of the stuff – really all of the stuff – I create on this blog, if I can do it, you can do it. Just posting this sketch is a bit out of my comfort zone, but I hope it encourages you to stretch a bit, maybe do something this week, or this month that pushes you out of that safe area.  And if you are so inclined, leave me a comment on what you are planning to create that pushes you out of your zone. Have a wonderful, creative day!