Blog
June 16th, 2016
If you’re looking to bring a little sketching into your life, or you attended last month’s sketch outing and want a little training, you can learn the basics with me in July!
I’ll be teaching my one-day urban sketching workshop again at Seattle’s School of Visual Concepts on July 16—I only teach this workshop at most once a year, so if you’ve been wanting to get some drawing skills under your belt, this is your chance!
In the class you’ll get a crash course in everything you need to get you on your feet and sketching. We’ll cover travel-friendly materials, tricks for setting the scene, finding inspiration on-the-go, and all kinds of drawing, watercolor, perspective and composition techniques.
And of course, you’ll get plenty of hands-on experience with the chance to get out there and draw in the wild.
My favorite thing about teaching sketching workshops is seeing my students learn from each other. We’re all basically drawing the same thing, but since everyone has a different style, point of view and level of experience, the finished results are wildly varied.
Last year we all walked to South Lake Union Park, and I loved seeing what everyone chose to focus on in their sketchbooks.
We had both beginners and veterans among us that day, and everyone completed at least one full-color sketch (several went to town and came back with a whole handful of drawings!).
The really fun part is the end of class, where we all got together and shared our drawings. No two were even remotely alike, but all were completely gorgeous!
So if you want a fun kickstart to your new life as an urban sketcher, join us! Here are the details:
Urban Sketching: Learning on Foot
Saturday, July 16, 2016
School of Visual Concepts
2300 7th Avenue, Suite B, Seattle, WA
BYO sketching materials (a list of suggested materials will be sent when you sign up)
More info and registration here!
(Use the code GIVE_SMALL at checkout for a $25 discount!)
Note: unless it’s pouring rain, we’ll be sketching outdoors. Please dress accordingly, and plan to be on your feet! Bring lots of drinking water (and snacks if you need them), layered clothing, sunscreen, a protective hat, and good walking shoes. Last year it was 100°F outside, but thanks to everyone being prepared and smart about the heat, we still had a great time!
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May 30th, 2016
Photo by Shawn H. Nichols, taken at Artist Trust on Tour: Tacoma
If you happen to be in or passing through Tacoma soon, I’ve got a new show of sketchbook drawings up right now, at the brand new Feast Arts Center on Hilltop.
Like the way I do it on my travel blog, the images in the exhibit are arranged thematically rather than chronologically—this made curating the show something of a challenge, since I have frillions of drawings to choose from. So I did a practice run on my living room floor, with a notebook in hand to jot everything down (seems fitting!).
That ended up being a really good idea, because pre-arranging everything beforehand made the installation of the show much, much easier. All I had to do was measure and level everything, rather than try to make any aesthetic decisions on the fly. Still, you can see from the above photo that hanging a show is always a big, big mess—no matter how prepared I am ahead of time. Everything is total chaos until the last possible moment!
The show consists of ten original sketchbooks, paired with reproduction prints hung on the walls of the gallery. Displaying original sketchbooks is always another challenge, since it’s only possible to show one page at a time, and the books are delicate enough that they can’t stand up to constant handling during the show. But the folks who run Feast, Todd Jannausch and Chandler Woodfin (yes, there are two Chandlers involved here!), had the great idea of displaying the books in unobtrusive, handmade glass tabletop cases.
Here’s Todd putting one of them together—
the end result is sleek and professional, and it made it easy for me to come in and turn the pages of each sketchbook once a week or so, to change things up during the show’s run and give folks the chance to see multiple pages over time.
These little map cards tie everything together, providing a little context behind the drawings and explaining my rationale for the themes I chose for the prints.
I’m so pleased with how the show came together—this has quickly become my very favorite solo show. So major thanks to Todd and Chandler for making it happen and handling the logistics!
Photo by Shawn H. Nichols, taken at Artist Trust on Tour: Tacoma
As an added bonus, the folks at Artist Trust, a statewide arts organization, hosted an event to tie in with my exhibit opening. Since Artist Trust recently funded me with an artist grant to continue my sketchbook work, they asked me to speak about my process at the opening. I brought my very first travel sketchbook with me, and it was great to talk shop with the crowd that showed up that night!
Photo by Shawn H. Nichols, taken at Artist Trust on Tour: Tacoma
The show closes on Sunday, June 12—here are all the details, if you’re looking to visit:
Jaunt + Jot: a solo sketchbook exhibition by Chandler O’Leary
May 19 through June 12, 2016
Feast Arts Center, 1402 S. 11th St., Tacoma, WA
Open Saturdays 12 to 4, Sundays 9 to 1, or by appointment
Photo by Shawn H. Nichols, taken at Artist Trust on Tour: Tacoma
Or if you’d like to try your hand sketching yourself, Feast, Urban Sketchers-Tacoma and I are hosting a special ad-hoc sketch outing this Sunday, June 5, as part of Feast’s Sunday Coffee series! The event is free and open to anyone who would like to try their hand at urban sketching—no prior experience is necessary, and all you need to bring are your own sketch materials (paper or sketchbook, pen or pencil, watercolors, or whatever you like to use).
Here’s how it works: Feast Arts Center will open at 9 am on Sunday, so visitors can see the exhibit. Anyone interested in sketching will gather at 10 am at Feast for a quick meet-and-greet. We will then split up and sketch around the Hilltop neighborhood; you can choose to stick around Feast, or wander farther afield and sketch whatever strikes your fancy. Some people sketch in groups, others go off by themselves. Then we’ll all meet back at Feast at 12:30 for an informal show-and-tell of our sketches. This part is completely optional (so if you’re nervous about showing your drawings, you don’t have to!), but it’s always fun to see everybody’s different styles, materials and points of view. Feast will remain open until 1 pm. Here are those details again, in digest version:
Ad-hoc Sketch Outing, sponsored by Urban Sketchers-Tacoma
Sunday, June 5, 2016
Feast Arts Center (open 9 to 1)
1402 S. 11th St. Tacoma, WA
1. Meet at Feast by 10 am
2. Sketch in and around Hilltop
3. Show & tell at Feast at 12:30
Please note that this is not a class or workshop, so neither I nor any Urban Sketchers members will be offering instruction. But this is a great opportunity to meet other sketch artists and find inspiration. People tell me all the time that they’d love to try sketching, but aren’t sure where to start. This is a great way to get your feet wet amongst friends—so don’t be shy! Grab your pencils, and we’ll see you this Sunday!
Creation of this work was made possible in part by Artist Trust Grants for Artist Projects. Special thanks to Artist Trust, Feast Arts Center, School of Visual Concepts, and Urban Sketchers-Tacoma.
Photo by Mary Holste.
May 9th, 2015
Speaking of new books, my work has appeared in a few other recent titles, and I finally had a chance to share some photos with you.
First up is another garden book, which I hinted at some months ago: The Nonstop Color Garden, published by Cool Springs Press, an imprint of Quarto Publishing Group.
This is the second garden book I’ve illustrated with Quarto, though while the first one was about centering a garden around edible plants, this one is about creating a year-round display of color.
I contributed a dozen illustrations to the book—each showing a garden plan throughout the year, with the color evolving and changing with the seasons.
The book couldn’t have arrived with more perfect timing for me—now that the Tailor and I are in the new house, we have all sorts of ideas for how we’d like build and shape a future garden. One of the things I always admire in Pacific Northwest gardens is how they’re bursting with color in nearly every month of the year. Just researching the illustrations for The Nonstop Color Garden gave me lots of new knowledge and ideas (and the book doesn’t just deal with one region, either!), and you can bet I’ll be reading the finished book carefully for even more inspiration. Big thanks to Quarto and my fantastic art director, Brad Springer, for helping turn my thumb just a shade greener!
The other two books are centered around my favorite thing ever: sketching. One is the latest book written and edited by my friend Gabi Campanario, founder of the Urban Sketching movement. His newest, published by Quarry Books, is a handbook on urban sketching, focused on drawing architecture. The book includes tips and examples from artists all over the world, in a wide variety of techniques and styles. I was asked to contribute a sketch I did in Philadelphia a few years ago—it feels great to be in such good company in the book. Thanks, Gabi!
Finally, the newest book is called A World of Artist Journal Pages, by Dawn DeVries Sokol and published by Stewart, Tabori & Chang. This book is different in scope from Gabi’s sketching handbook—instead, it’s more of an anthology of journaling. There are over 1000 artworks represented in the book, and they present a broad range of journal work—everything from personal diaries to collage books to handwritten calendars to idea sketchbooks to figure studies to travel journals. Much of the work reminds me of the personal diaries of artists like Frida Kahlo, and the book is a fascinating glimpse into how the creative process works differently for everybody. If you’ve ever wanted to keep a visual journal, but didn’t know where to start, this might be a good reference book to have on hand.
Many thanks to the authors and publishers who included my work! It feels so good to have these babies on my bookshelf.
April 23rd, 2015
I don’t normally do the whole “Throwback Thursday” (#tbt) thing on social media, but I stumbled across a good one today. While digging through a still-unpacked moving box for something else, I came across these oldies. These hearken back to circa 2001, back when I went through a phase of doing my urban sketching in oil paints, in large hand-bound sketchbooks I made myself. I switched back to watercolor and pocket-sized sketchbooks for practical reasons, but it was fun to see my old stomping grounds in Boston and Providence again, through the eyes of a painter.
February 17th, 2014
Photo by Candace Rardon
If you know me at all, you know this is how you’re likely to find me. But I’m not the only one known to be seen with a sketchbook and paintbox.
My friend and fellow travel sketcher Candace has been in town visiting lately, and we’ve spent most of our time together with sketchbooks in hand.
In addition to showing her my favorite haunts, it’s been fun to introduce her to some other Urban Sketchers I know.
And I have a feeling you can guess what happens when a bunch of sketchbook nuts get together.
June 23rd, 2013
I’m usually terrible about attending organized sketch crawls, but today I made an extra effort and joined the local Urban Sketchers group up north in Edmonds, WA. My friend Gabi Campanario (who founded the group) was there, and while most of the rest of the group camped out to sketch around the downtown core, we set out for the shoreline. There, Gabi let me in on the best sketching secret ever: that the best place to be was under the ferry landing.
You can only walk under there (without waders) when the tide is lower than normal; today we had a boatload of sheer dumb luck, as it happened to be an exceptionally extreme spring tide. Today was not only a full moon, but a so-called “supermoon,” where the moon is the closest to Earth that it will be for the next year. We arrived on the scene about an hour before low tide, and found the place absolutely teeming with marine life.
I’ve seen tide pools before, but nothing like this. There were literally hundreds of sea stars, crabs, anemones and clams in lurid colors. And I got to make a few discoveries—like just how bizarre an anemone looks when it’s completely exposed and left hanging from a rock like a gob of soupy ABC gum. Or that if you stand in place long enough, sooner or later a clam will squirt a jet of water at you from two feet away, and hit you with uncanny accuracy.
The place was also teeming with beachcombers, who provided a good exercise in speed-sketching an ever-changing crowd (as if the seriously challenging perspective of all those pilings weren’t enough…). Gabi, on the other hand, was super easy to draw: he plonked himself down on a rock to paint, and became almost as motionless as the sea stars clinging to his perch.
So thanks, Gabi, for a great sketch outing today. And a big shout-out to the moon, for providing the perfect opportunity!
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