Less is More

 

Less is More is one of the events for the Vancouver Urban Sketchers group.  It is meant to inspire line drawings; here is my line drawing of a traffic calming circle in my neighbourhood.

I Liked Drawing the Car Best

 

We have a little shaded corner spot in our neighbourhood with a bench, community library and a wooden chess set.  It's a perfect place for some Urban Sketching!

Because I enjoyed drawing the car the best, I returned a couple of days later to sketch a couple of other parked cars. 

Also a Bit Reckless

 

Here is the second card I made on Wednesday when I was feeling "strong and brave".  It turns out I was also a bit reckless with respect to the size.

I painted these on 1/4 sheets of card stock, and by the time I mounted them they grew to a tiny bit wider than 5".  Finding envelopes will be a challenge.

Note to self:  Plan just a little bit before cutting.

Strong & Brave

 

I woke up yesterday feeling strong and brave and decided to cut into some precious paper.  (Yes, I do know it is only paper, but knowing it with my head and feeling it in my heart are two different things.)

I made a couple of cards out of pieces I did in the Flat Brush Flowers course with Violet.   I'll string you along and post the other one tomorrow. LOL

Starting Where I Am

 

I'm practicing some sketching from life - these sneakers came off and lay in an inspiring position!

Triptych

 

I did this set of three watercolor stems and leaves in the Watercolors Made Simple class.

More Artistic License

 

I changed the colors of this 1947 Ford Pickup from the photograph taken by @mozarts_ride.

1957 Chevy Bel Air

 

@mozart_ride has this to say about the photo that inspired this sketch:

1957 Chevy Bel Air parked on the streets of Lowell, Az. So much history on one short street in one small town. “Tonight, tonight the strip’s just right; I want to blow ‘em off in my first heat; Summer’s here and the time is right; For racin’ in the street.”⁣

Miss Doris

 

Photographer @mozarts_ride discovered Miss Doris in Texas.  Here's what he said on Instagram:

1948-53 Chevy School Bus... I spotted "Miss Doris," an old abandoned school bus, resting in a field near Lamesa, Texas. You can find fields of rust, containing old vehicles, pipes, and other oil company equipment, scattered all over the desolate West Texas.. While photographing Miss Doris, I could just imagine the songs kids sang and the stories they told, while traveling on this school bus.. I also thought about the oilfield workers riding to and from work on the bus, and looking forward to a cold beer when they arrived home... Still "chasing the rust".... 😎
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."The first school bus was horse-drawn, introduced in 1827 by George Shillibeer for a Quaker school at Abney Park in Stoke Newington, London, United Kingdom and was designed to carry 25 children..... Wayne Works, predecessor of Wayne Corporation, was founded in the United States of America in 1837...Other important facts were: 1) In 1939, a conference was organized at the University of Manhattan to develop school bus standards. 2) Yellow became the standard in 1939 and was gradually adopted nationwide. 3) In a 1939 issue of American Childhood, the lyrics to the song, "The Wheels on the Bus", made their first public appearance. (Zippia.com ... "Educational Bus Transportation Company History Timeline")... Now you know the rest of the story....

More Stems and Leaves

 

Exercise from Watercolors Made Simple Class

Artist's License

 

I took a bit of artist's license with this photo from @mozarts_ride, but the description he gives about Corbitt Trucks still holds.

On instagram, he says:

Early 1940s Corbitt Henderson Truck…. I spotted this beauty at the Gold King Mine. ….. “In 1910 the Corbitt Company, owned by Richard J. Corbitt, built its first truck, and in 1913, they decided to become a full-time truck builder. For most of the next 40 years, the company made money, building trucks and trailers. The trailers included vans, drop-frame vans, and flatbeds up to 36’ in length. Most of the large motor carriers of the Carolina’s came to be Corbitt customers. In 1917 the company built North Carolina’s first school buses. In 1917-18, it supplied trucks to the US Army and Navy. It started building 4x4s and 6x6s for the Army in the early to mid-1930s.. This relationship with the Army would continue during WWII.” Sadly, the North Carolina company closed during 1953-54.. (Corbitt Trucks) ⁣

Watercolors Made Simple

 

I'm taking a new on-line watercolor class, Watercolors Made Simple.  It is taught by a Canadian artist from Ontario; information available here.

2nd Vaccine Urban Sketching

 

An artist friend encouraged me to join the Vancouver Urban Sketchers group when she saw an online event for showcasing vehicle sketches.  This inspired me to do some REAL urban sketching (i.e. in real life, not from a photo).  Forced to hang out after my 2nd COVID vaccine I sketched this.

It's a totally different experience and I'm very rusty, but you have to start somewhere, right?  And in two weeks I'll feel more comfortable being "out and about", so who knows?

1915 Casey Jones Rail Auto

 You can't get any better than a train and an automobile all in one!

This is sketched from another inspirational photo by @mozarts_ride.  Here is what he says about it on Instagram:

This is the 1915 Casey Jones Rail Auto. The rail auto was used as an ambulance and a rail bus to transport miners from the mine into Silverton. It was restored in 1918, using a Cadillac Series 51 auto chassis, engine, transmission, driveshaft, and differential. The white bus enclosure, rebuilt in 1929, holds up to 12 people. (Now you know the rest of the story.) “Casey Jones you better watch your speed: Trouble ahead, trouble behind; And you know that notion just crossed your mind….”⁣

Snowdrops

 

This was a piece I did in the Flat Brush Flowers 5 class with Violet Smythe.  Snowdrops are one of my favorite flowers; the first flowers that I see signaling the coming of spring.

1957 Studebaker Truck

 

Photo reference is again courtesy of @mozarts_ride on Instagram.  His post is brief this time:

1957 Studebaker Truck. So surprised to see this old truck with 5 bales of hay on its bed. Each round bale of hay can weigh as much 1,100 lbs.

Miss Rosa

 

During the recent Canadian west coast heat wave, I was driven underground, living in our basement.  I did manage to draw a few trucks, however.  

Here's what @mozarts_ride says about his photo inspiration on Instagram:

1961-64 Chevy Corvair 95 Truck ... I spotted "Miss Rosa," a wonderfully restored Corvair 95 pickup with the famous "rampside." One never knows what they will find while driving the back roads of west Texas. She looks very different, when compared to today's trucks, but this little truck was popular for a short period of time. Would you drive a truck like this? 😎
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."If Chevrolet's Corvair proved not to be the stake through the heart of Volkswagen that the GM brass hoped it would be, you couldn't blame the division for lack of effort. Chevrolet spun out the lineup in every direction it could think of, offering not only coupes, sedans, convertibles and station wagons, but also a line of forward-control light trucks that included two pickups, the Loadside and the Rampside, to take on their counterparts from Wolfsburg." ..... "Fully restored, factory-correct Rampsides and Loadsides are beginning to appear more frequently at shows, and the best examples are commanding $10,000 and up." (Hemming Motor News "1961-'64 Chevrolet Corvair Rampside and Loadside" by Dave LaChance)... Now you know the rest of the story...

Miss Marion

 

Photo reference still courtesy of @mozarts_ride on Instagram.  Here's what he says:

 

1940s Dodge Power Wagon...I spotted "Miss Marion" while traveling the back roads of Tonopah, Nevada. She's the only Power Wagon I have ever photographed with a box built onto the back. This truck was once owned by the Nye County Search and Rescue Organization. 😎
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,Tonopah is an old mining town, located in Nevada, that was founded in the early 1900s. "As the story goes, Jim Butler was camping around Tonopah Springs, the spring of 1900 when his burro wandered off. 😎

.While chasing it, Jim picked up a rock to throw at it and discovered some promising looking ore. He continued his journey and showed the samples to others, who showed little interest. After returning to his home in Belmont, Butler told a young attorney named Tasker Oddie about his discovery. Tasker had a friend who taught chemistry in Austin, and he enlisted the teacher’s help in assaying the sample." (Tonopah Historic Mining Park) In the end, Jim Butler became very wealthy...