I’m getting ready for my annual European travels with myself and others in less than two months, so I hope you will join me! In preparation for the Portugal sketching segment in the Algarve (near Faro on the southern tip of Portugal), I have been sketching daily. Before then, I was following a number of Instagram sites and became overwhelmed by the incredible skill and agility of those who post their beautiful, lithe, watercolors. I decided not to be too discouraged by their talents. Everyone starts somewhere! So I got back in the saddle after a brief hiatus.

Portrait Party

Thanks to a “portrait party” sponsored by Arch Supplies in San Francisco, my interest in being the perpetual sketch artist was renewed. This second annual event was as delightful and entertaining as the first. Sketchers in groups of six warmed up with one-minutes gestures using the non-dominant hand, followed by sketches using the dominant one. Here were my results:

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Hmm…maybe the non-dominant hand controls a sharper part of my brain…?? Each group then progressed to 10-minute sketches of each other in the group, with each person taking turns “posing”:

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100 People in Five Days

The Portrait Party helped to launch the start of a frenzied affair to draw 100 people in five days. This is a challenge to stake out unsuspecting individuals in cafes, public transit, or hotels lounges while keeping yourself from being suspect. Unless you take a “stealth bomber” approach, you will end up with many unfinished sketches of people disappearing from your cone of vision. The panel above shows the entire string of sketches I completed in five days! Here is a slide show of the best of the ten sets and where they occurred:

The process was a bit unwieldy, but it forced me to be better, faster, cheaper (on my time). My favorites were the construction crew at Seventh and Irving and the sleeping “shoppers” at San Francisco Center!

As a novice sketcher, I hope you will bear with me as you mark my progress. In case you are still foggy about the subject matter of my blog posts, they normally focus on my current interests of cultural and historical travel; art, architecture and design; German as a learner of the language, and about food. Let me know if you have particular interests in any of these!

Beginning in June, my travels this year will include a special focus on UNESCO world sites in the Caucasus (Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia), Goethe Institute stints in Dresden and Vienna for a couple of weeks each, and sketching in Portugal. There will be a bonus stop in Italy too! This could be the last year I will be sharing my travels via blog posts, so please share your thoughts and comments. I love hearing from you particularly during my real-time travel posts.

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Featured Image Above: Sketching at the weekend San Francisco Ortega Library Tai Chi Group