Weekly Theme: Be Inspired by Your Favorite Artist

Sketch by Marianne Milzoff

This week's sketching theme, suggested by Marianne Milzoff, is "Be Inspired by Your Favorite Artist." We will bring elements of the greats into our drawings. We can learn a lot from the artists of the past, techniques that can be incorporated into our own art. Cezanne's lines and planes influenced Picasso whose cubism influenced David Hockney's work, etc. For this week's theme, take a subject, any subject (people, landscape, sky, flowers, etc) and use your own artistic flair to add aspects of your chosen artist into your work. For example, in the image above, Marianne's incorporated Klee's lines into her figure drawing.

 

Some ideas:

• Give your sky a Van Gogh swirl of brilliant color.
• Experiment with colors like Joan Miro.
• Take you pencil for a walk  in the spirit of Paul Klee.
• Try Cubist faces and bodies, a la Picasso.
• Borrow a little gold from Klimt to light up your painting.
• Go into your subconscious and splash paint onto your paper as did Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock.
• Try other art techniques like we did with Fauvism - examples include Dadaism, cubism. impressionism, pop art, pointillism, etc.

You can also be inspired by our fellow Urban Sketchers artists. What better way to pay homage than bringing forth a characteristic style of that artist (please attribute) and adding it to yours. 

You get the idea, explore and have fun!

If you need some additional inspiration, check here:

7 Famous Painting Techniques You’ll Want to Try
https://www.artistsnetwork.com/art-inspiration/7-painting-techniques-youll-want-try/

Pointillism Techniques Challenge Tutorial
https://paintbasket.com/pointillism-techniques-challenge-tutorial/

SATURDAY: Sketch our New England Towns

A Virtual Sketching event created 

and hosted by Andrew Borloz

MORNING: Small New England Towns

This morning, we will be taking the backroads through various small towns in New England. Each one of them is distinct and unique - some are resort towns, university towns, mill towns, harbor towns, shipbuilding villages, farming towns, and mountain towns. A number of them are excellent for shopping/browsing in a "general store" or for attending a festival or an art/crafts fair - often held on the town square, common, or green. Fall is usually the most popular time to explore the towns as many of them often hold special events.

Many of the building styles are vernacular - native to the area and dependent on the plentiful supply of wood. The most prominent feature of these buildings is the clapboard shingling. Other architectural examples are the Cape Cod-style, gables, shutters, saltbox, and barn structures. The church steeples in many of the towns are often the tallest structures - no other buildings were allowed to be built higher than the church steeple.

Later this afternoon, these same backroads will also take us to the covered bridges.

A Few Examples of New England Small Towns:

Newfane, VT - mostly white clapboard buildings with green shutters. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=newfane+vt&atb=v183-1&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images

Manchester, VT - outlet stores in NE style. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=manchester+vt&atb=v183-1&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images

Grafton, VT - a wide variety of architecture within a small area. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Grafton%2C+vt&atb=v183-1&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images

Guilford, CT - by the seashore https://duckduckgo.com/?q=guilford+ct+green&atb=v183-1&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images

Mystic, CT - maritime town https://duckduckgo.com/?q=mystic%2C+ct&atb=v183-1&iax=images&ia=images

Deerfield, MA - academy town https://duckduckgo.com/?q=deerfield+historic+district&atb=v183-1&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images

Stockbridge,MA - charming village in the Berkshires https://duckduckgo.com/?q=stockbridge%2C+ma&atb=v183-1&iax=images&ia=images

Portsmouth, NH - harbor town https://duckduckgo.com/?q=portsmouth+nh+historical+areas&atb=v183-1&iax=images&ia=images

Keene, NH - a university town https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Keene+nh+historical+homes&atb=v183-1&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images

Websites on Small New England Towns

https://www.countryliving.com/life/travel/g3578/new-england-small-towns/

https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/usa/new-england-towns-usa/

https://bigseventravel.com/2020/07/beautiful-small-towns-new-england/

AFTERNOON: Covered Bridges in New England

We are most likely to encounter another type of structure while traveling on the backroads to visit various small New England towns: covered bridges. A good number of them have been preserved or restored, and are often found by the river, near the parks, nature preserves, or forests.

Websites on Covered Bridges:

Wikipedia Entry on Covered Bridge in America: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covered_bridge

Covered Bridges in Every New England State: https://newengland.com/today/travel/new-england/the-best-covered-bridge-in-every-new-england-state/

16 Beautiful Covered Bridges in Vermont: https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/vermont/covered-bridges-vt/

A few examples of covered bridges: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=covered+bridges+in+new+england&atb=v183-1&iax=images&ia=images

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

• You need to register to participate.
• Click here to register:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/saturday-sketch-our-small-new-england-towns-tickets-128017063483
• The virtual sketching event will be this Saturday and starts at 10 AM EDT
• Registration closes on Friday at noon EDT.
• On Friday afternoon if you registered you will receive the login info you’ll need to participate.

There are no fees. All drawing skill levels are welcome

SATURDAY: Sketch the Spooky Stuff

​

It’s our Halloween Party!

Time to face our fears 

with sketch book in hand -

the ghosts and haunts await us.

This event was created by Cecelia Evasco

For our morning you might consider a virtual visit to Salem, Massachusetts, home of the witch trials. More than 200 people were eventually accused. Thirty were found guilty and 19 were executed by hanging. The stories the accusers told would raise the dead.

But if witches aren’t your thing, no worries. You might want to stop by Amityville, NY to enjoy the company of the murdered family whose ghosts are said to haunt the house on Ocean Avenue. The murder told detectives: "Once I started, I just couldn't stop. It went so fast".

And for your afternoon entertainment Cecilia is leading us to the Abandoned Places.

Cecelia's Special Halloween Website:  https://5f94d51718895.site123.me/

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

• You need to register to participate.
• Click here to register:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/saturday-sketch-the-spooky-stuff-tickets-127066345861

• The virtual sketching event will be this Saturday (Halloween) and starts at 10 AM EDT
• Registration closes on Friday at noon EDT.
• On Friday afternoon if you registered you will receive the login info you’ll need to participate.

There are no fees. All drawing skill levels are welcome

Weekly Theme: Patterns in Nature

"To understand is to perceive patterns" 
- Isaiah Berlin, British philosopher

Did you know: Nature also likes to stay in order?

In art, a pattern is a repetition of specific visual elements. The dictionary defines "pattern" as an arrangement of repeated or corresponding parts, decorative motifs, etc. a decorative design. Patterns in nature are regular forms and symmetry found in the natural world. Most often they are based on mathematical models. Some examples include: symmetry (snowflakes), fractals (tree branches), spirals (flowers), meanders (river bends), waves, spheres, tessellations (honeycombs), cracks and spots and stripes on animals and birds.

Thanks so much to Susan Skorneck Chavez for suggesting this week's theme of "Patterns in Nature. " There are natural patterns everywhere - your choices for inspiration are endless: stripes on a bird or zebra, seed heads, the branches of trees, conifer cones, etc. Once you start noticing patterns it’s hard to stop

What can this exercise do for us?  Not only can it hone our powers of observation, it is also a powerful tool for meditation.  While rendering repeating patterns, we can take a break from the busyness around us.  

So, ... give your left brain a break, and create some patterns with us.  

If you can sketch from direct observation, it will be urban sketching. If you work from a photo, please use the label NUS (non an urban sketch) when posting on https://www.facebook.com/groups/nycurbansketchers.

For some additional inspiration, see: 

Natural Patterns https://ecstep.com/natural-patterns/
Patterns in nature by Amy Lamb https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGKLZ3NO9Qk




For information on Mathematical patterns in Nature, see:

Fibonacci Sequence in Nature https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt2OlMAJj6o
How To Use The Golden Ratio In Art Composition & Design By Chelsea Wells Https://Artignition.Com/Golden-Ratio-In-Art

SATURDAY: Sketch the Sailor’s Salvation

This virtual sketch event was suggested by Andrea Couture

If you think about the incredible dangers sailors have faced one of the most severe is trying to make landfall on a treacherous coastline. Lighthouse are built in remote dangerous locations. They are hard to construct requiring massive amounts of building materials. They are also tall dangerous structures to build. Lighthouses are located in lonely places where the men and women lived who were employed to keep the lights going and to spot ships in danger.

We have a number of websites to help you get started. Use them as a starting point. If you find a lighthouse that calls to you, a second search will probably turn up many more photos of the same structure, taken from different angles, at different times of the day and in different seasons. The choices are rich.

If you’re up for a thrill try googling “lighthouse, huge wave photo”. There is an entire sub- genre featuring lighthouses being struct by epic waves during fearsome storms. It all adds to the mystic, making us realize what incredible structures they are.

Websites with Incredible Lighthouses

• 14 Must-See Lighthouses Around the U.S. https://savingplaces.org/guides/14-must-visit-lighthouses-around-the-united-states#.X5BFdJNKg5g
• 35 of the Most Beautiful Lighthouses in America https://www.countryliving.com/life/travel/g2422/the-30-prettiest-lighthouses-in-america/
• 26 lighthouses you have to visit in your lifetime:  https://www.insider.com/beautiful-lighthouses-world-2017-8
• 23 of the Most Awe-Inspiring Lighthouses Around the World: https://www.tripstodiscover.com/23-of-the-most-awe-inspiring-lighthouses-around-the-world/
• 10 Of The Planet’s Most Scenic Lighthouses: https://www.holidayme.com/explore/10-of-the-planets-most-scenic-lighthouses/

WHAT TO DO - WHAT TO EXPECT

-   To attend you will need to register.

-   Click here to register:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/saturday-sketch-the-sailors-salvation-tickets-126266810429

-   Registration will close at noon EDT on Friday

-   On Friday afternoon, after registration has closed everyone who signed up will receive a separate email with login information and a more complete list of reference sites you can use.

-   Our virtual sketch event will start at 10 AM EDT on Saturday.

There are no fees. All drawing skill levels are welcome