the coffee stained blog

I seem to have a lot of blank, spankin' new sketchbooks lying around the house (I have a problem) and I decided to use one of them to document my lovely neighborhood of Irvington. I've been dying to draw this interesting church in the area so this weekend I braved the heat to sit in the dirt and get it in the book. However, after about an hour and a half of drawing...I went running for some cool air indoors. I will get back to it this weekend and get the color on.

Hi all, It's been a while since I posted and I've kicked up my game a little. I have joined the Urban Sketchers group here in Portland. They are a fun group of amazing artists...professional, amateur and all talented. It is a great learning experience to meet up and look at a location from different sets of eyes. You can check out their blog here:  http://urbansketchers-portland.blogspot.com I have also updated my kit of traveling supplies. I've learned more about what works and what doesn't work for me...so here it is: I have my own watercolor kit with scavenged tube watercolors from cheap coleman to some pricy utrecht artist line. As I get better with my skills I plan to upgrade my watercolor kit. Other items on my list: Pigma Micron .005 very fine line ink pen Copic Multiliner with replaceable ink cartridge - .05 and .01 Niji waterbrush - medium and small - mini size pentel 0.5mm mechanical pencil woodless graphite pencil 4B knead eraser small pencil