Urban Sketching in California

Helloooo everyone!  I'm Kari McKnight Holbrook, and I'm so honored to be here!  I was a little nervous about what I would need to do for "urban sketching" and I had visions of having to go to the seediest back alleyways of a big city....thank goodness I looked it up and found I've been doing urban sketching all my life...even way out here on the farm!  Just grabbing quick glimpses of what I see where ever I am.

I travel alot teaching, so I grab sketches whenever I have a moment or two.  In the airports, waiting in the lobbies, at the restaurants.  Last week in CA, I tried to focus on things that were different than what I see at home. Lines of people, fire hydrants, seagulls, lines of luggage and skyscrapers.

As several others have said, I too ALWAYS carry a sketchbook of some sort with me, and have at least 10 different ones going at any given time.  I also almost always have a prepared painted and printed quick journal with me, so I can work on it with a minimum of supplies.  I do rough, down and dirty graphite sketches in my 'grub' journal, then choose the best lines to highlight.  I then copy those lines over with Faber Castell Pitt artist pens onto deli paper, and adhere it to my prepped journal with Pam Carriker's Mixed Media Adhesive and a bondo spreader! (It allows me to color with pencils and watercolor on top of my images!)   This allows me to use the same images over and over too- even flipping the image if I so desire. 

Most times I only grab the grub sketch at the scene, I don't ever seem to stay in one place long enough to fill in with color, so I add that and the texture/doodles when I am confined for longer periods of time- like on an airplane.  TSA made me empty my waterbrush, but I was undaunted, and refilled it on the plane!