I’m glad I made it to Winona for the Minnesota Marine Art Museum’s Plein Air Experience Event – Sketching Winona. Sketchers from various cities within the region attended and it was a fun event.
There were demos and sketch walks by some of my talented friends at Urban Sketchers Twin Cities.
I couldn’t make the Friday events. We drove from the Twin Cities Friday evening. But it was just in time to join the bunch at the Two Fathoms Brewery for the Drink and Draw event.
There was a lot of drinking and a lot of drawing.
The next day, I joined the group for the scheduled demos and sketch walks.
First up – the Farmer’s Market at Levee Park.
The talented Pam Luer of Urban Sketchers Twin Cities led a demo of her sketching process using water media – particularly the convenience of using watercolor pencils.
Next we tackled some storefronts on the historic main drag. The sketch walk was led by Heather Hultgren of Urban Sketchers Twin Cities inviting us to notice the various points of interests around the old buildings in the area.
The final demo was led by Eau Claire artist Joe Maurer where we sketched boat houses at Island Number Seventy Two. Joe showed us his oil painting process which starts with blocking out the details of the scene to capture the scene’s foundational colors. You can then develop the piece by slowly adding details into these foundational colors producing a more realistic rendering of the scene.
I tried to accomplish these principles by doing a value study of the scene using my pen. I didn’t really do a lot of outlining at the beginning of this drawing and I rather enjoyed the process.
The day ended and I was exhausted. We had some delicious food at Bub’s Brewing Company. We went at the peak of dinner hour – so the wait time for food was long. We were patient – and I managed to do a couple of drawings while waiting for food.
