Sketchy Nights, March 1, 2012

We had a smaller group last night and a couple of new people, which was really great! One gentleman claimed "I don't draw" and that's exactly the type of person we are encouraging to come to Sketchy Nights. He enjoyed himself and experimented and played with drawing, that alone is a huge step for some people. That is the essence of the Judgement Free Zone_TM that is part of the culture of Sketchy Nights. Anyone, regardless of ability, can come and draw with us. You will not have to show your work if you don't want to and we will never critique your work, good or bad. We strive to make you comfortable doing what you want in the session.
Strangely enough, I'm more comfortable here as well. I'm an abstract artist and very rarely work with figures or faces. I haven't done any regular drawing since art school, so this is ideal for me. I can try out new types of media, play with styles, and feel very free doing it with no one hovering over me trying to tell me fix my experiments or trying to give me an ego boost.

So, in the spirit of that culture, I present some of my sketches from last nights session:

I bought some Prismacolor Art Stix since I love their colored pencils. I really liked these because the colors were vibrant but there is no dust or smearing, so much less mess and no spray fixative needed. I love the look of charcoal and pastels but the mess drives me crazy! (Plus I'm not a fan of toxic aerosol art materials). So these seem like a nice compromise. I will definitely buy more! I also used some drawing pencils and graphite sticks, which were fun but not dark enough for my taste but good for laying out a rough composition. Next week I might try some different paper...I used regular rough newsprint pads. 
More after next week's Sketchy Nights on March 8th! I hope to see you there.
~Rebecca