Medium: mixed media, pen, ink wash, and watercolor
Format: sketchbook studies
Reference: drawn live and from my own travel photos
These mixed media sketchbook pieces were made between 2022 and 2024, either on location or later in the studio from my own travel photos. Urban sketching has a way of refusing to let me fuss forever. Even when I’m working from a photograph, the sketchbook format encourages quicker decisions, looser marks, and a finished page before perfection can drag a chair over and make itself comfortable.
I especially enjoy pen and wash for this kind of work: building the drawing in ink, adding tonal structure, then bringing in watercolor. The process feels part observation, part memory, and part negotiation with the page.
Included here are a sample of some of the sketches I’ve done over the years.
We visited the Kansai Peninsula in Japan in 2015 to walk part of the Kumano Kodo. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that trip. On our first night, we arrived at the Tanabe train station late in the evening during a heavy downpour that was so bad we couldn’t see two feet in front of our faces. The inn owner told us it was monsoon season, and this storm was a bad one. I remember how it made me feel more anxious, as if being in a foreign country and attempting a multi-day difficult hike wasn’t stressful enough! Still, the weather cleared by morning, which boded well for the rest of the trip. While waiting for the early train to the trail head, I spied this cafe. Its Tudor-style architecture stood out like a sore thumb in the middle of all the traditional Japanese architecture, and I captured the memory later in a sketchbook.
During my first trip to Europe we spent a day in Northern Ireland. It was one of those perfect days–blue skies, green fields, sheep dotting the landscape as we drove across the coast. We were coming back from the Giant’s Causeway when we stopped to take in the views. I started snapping pictures of sheep along the roadside, turned around and saw this perfect view of the sea framed by an old stone wall. Another memory I had to capture!
This was from that same trip to Europe–my husband and I arrived in the Netherlands and spent a few days there exploring the country. We took one of those all-day tours that led us around to some of the well-known towns, and got to Zanse Schans late in the afternoon. Unfortunately for us, all of the buildings were closed, but we still were able to wander around and admire all the windmills. This sketch doesn’t capture how beautiful it was, but it still reminds me of that day.
I don’t wait until we’re traveling to do urban sketching. Sometimes I go downtown to sketch the old buildings. This time, I was waiting for a friend who was going to go sketch with me. While I waited, I captured the old bank building across the street. I don’t think I had my watercolors with me at the time. But I think it turned out nice without them.
