#photopaintchallenge

 

@kimyest took this photo on a rainy day in Annecy, France and included it in the #photopaintchallenge.  I chose it to draw because of the interesting foreground figure as well as the lovely buildings.  You can see the photo here.

#challengemotodog

 

I loved everything about the photo by @sedmogjula10 that inspired this challenge.  You can see the the original here, on Instagram.

Robinson Memorial Park Cemetery

 

A week ago we interred my dear mother's cremains at Robinson Memorial Park Cemetery.  The weather was terrible that day, raining harder than I have ever seen it here.  The cemetery is a lovely spot, and I used a photograph taken on a better day as the inspiration for this drawing.  Rest well, mum!

Wheels Off the Ground

 

We're back at the 1996 Indy today, photograph courtesy of John Denniston.  It's a great photograph, but I found the composition difficult for sketching.

r/drawstreetview on reddit

 

Amsterdam, inspired by Google Street View

Before September dawned, I didn't know much about reddit.  Maybe I had my head in the social media sand, but Instagram, Facebook and blogs were enough for me.

I started to notice reddit coming up in my Google searches, and then I read Reddit 101, a blog post by Vancouver urban sketcher "The Sneaky Artist".  As I read, I became increasingly convinced that reddit might be social media for people who are interested in ideas.  I have been accused of "thinking too much", so I thought I would give it a try.

I started on reddit by subscribing to the r/urbansketchers community.  I was only browsing for 5 minutes when I saw a post by someone starting a new community based on an an idea that I have been thinking a lot about, virtual urban sketching.

Reddit user u/CptTimWhiskersTheFox posted the following about his new community:

If you're like me you'd like to get out and do more sketching around the world but are limited due to funds, time, or any other reason, perhaps you'd be interested in participating in the subreddit https://www.reddit.com/r/drawstreetview/ that I've just created.

The idea behind it is to post an image/place every (approximately) two weeks and members can draw it in their own style and share with the rest of the community. It could be a good means of meeting other sketchers or sharing techniques and inspiration.

I've posted a subject for the first session and will be working on my own interpretation! I would love to see other's take on it!

Members can also share their own subjects and adventures in the drawing-street-view world; posts using it as a medium pop up enough on other subreddits that it would nice to have our own community.

My user name on reddit is "love-to-learn-things", and I'm learning about reddit, Google Street View and sketching by participating so far.

Miss Hilda

 

This drawing was inspired by a photograph by @mozarts_ride.  He says the following about it on Instagram:

1940-41 Ford Fire Truck... I spotted "Miss Hilda," while driving through the town of Knab, Utah.. She's a wonderful old fire truck, but her days of putting out fires and rolling in town parades are over. It is nice that the town honors her by having her on display outside the small fire station.... I'm proud to say that my son-in-law is a Fire Fighter in Houston, Tx.... God Bless all of our "first responders" that put their lives on the line every day so that we can enjoy the life that we live...

Neighbourhood Construction

 

Construction is something else we have a lot of in our neighbourhood. I like a challenge and there are no shortage of diggers to draw.

Austin Minis in the Hood

 

We seem to have a lot of Austin Minis in our neighbourhood.  I like them because they are small and cute, so I drew a couple of them.

Indy

 

John Denniston's blog recently featured the photographs he took at the Indy in Vancouver in 1996.  You can find them here.

This was very fun to draw!

Ritchie's Homecoming

 

This photo from John Denniston's The Car Project inspired me to do something with an Urban Sketching feel, although it can't be strictly classified as that.  It is photo #33 if you are following along.

The photographs are black and white so I can paint my cars whatever color I like, and this convertible had to be red.

A Nice Round One

 

Life has been getting in the way of sketching and blogging lately, but I do have a few more that I did from the lovely photographs of local photographer John Denniston.

If you want to see the photo from The Car Project, it is #30 of 43.

I do like those nice round old cars!

How to Choose?

 

This was inspired by another of John Denniston's photos from The Car Project.

When Janice sent me the link to her cousin's website, she said she would be interested to see which photos  I would choose to draw from.

This one had me at the car, but the Midas sign was definitely a contributing factor.  Thanks, Janice!

My Cup Runneth Over

 

I couldn't resist a photo with a car and a shopping cart.  It turned out that the bucket was pretty fun too.

My friend Janice found the photo for me.  Her cousin, John Denniston, is a retired newspaper photographer, and still loves to take pictures.   He did an entire project devoted to cars, and you can find them on his website here.  

If John isn't too appalled I'll do a few more.