Virtual Portrait Party

These are all 6 minute sketches created while I attended a Portrait Party on Zoom. The San Francisco Sketchers hosts these every week or so and we take turns posing. They started out with 30 second poses then went to 1 minute and concluded with 6 minute poses. My handmade sketchbook is about 4 x 4 inches. Working small enabled me to do a quick contour sketch and then enhance with watercolor.

Urban Sketching With a Zoom Gathering

The San Diego Urban Sketchers had a zoom event where we all sketched "together" using our internet devices. The prompt was to draw a room from another room. One of our attendees was a frequent visitor we have had from France. He did his sketch earlier and just dropped in to say hello. I did not catch him in the photo.  : (

 I created mine in pencil, watercolor, and a bit of watercolor pencil. The pages in this little handmade book are about 4 x 4 inches and the first few sheets are thin paper - not really suitable for watercolor but I still liked the effect.

Kitchen Patio

With a temperature of mid to high 70s in San Diego, I have been going outside to draw. This is one of my shelves in the kitchen patio. The cow planter used to have legs but they rotted off. Koh-i-nor Sketch Pen and Watercolor.

Notan Exercise

Definitely not my usual type of work but I have been working through the book, "Composition" Understanding Line, Notan and Color by Arthur Wesley Dow. The first one is a landscape I was to create in 2 values. Oops. The second one is drawing from nature 2 values. It's a drawing of what's left of my birthday flowers. I used an ink cake from Blue Heron Arts and an inexpensive brush.

Orly Avineri's Art Journaling Game

"Conflict and Resolution" Using Orly's Art Journaling Game. There were 3 faces but one was creating conflict so I zapped her out of my art journal piece. In a way this is how I run my life. Hehe I don't hang around people that create conflict and ruin my peace of mind.

Urban Sketch - Cactus Flower and Succulents

 Many of our flowers and succulents are blooming now so I decided to take myself out in the yard to sketch a few. Pencil and watercolor in a handmade book.

Lydia Velarde Sketchbook Flip March 2020 - May 2020

Sketchbook Flip in a Canson, Montval Field, Watercolor Book

March 2020 through May 2020

Zoom Portrait Party

This week my friend told me about a Zoom Portrait Party organized by the San Francisco Urban Sketchers. I only had an hour before another zoom meeting started so I only got to draw 2 people. The leader asked participants to pose and each pose was for 7 minutes. There were introductions before we started sketching and we found out one of the participants was from England. It was a fun experience but it made me tired for my next 2 hour zoom meeting. 

This sketchbook was handmade by me. Most of the book contains mixed media or watercolor paper but the first part of the book has very thin stationary paper. The watercolor just soaked right in.

Done With This

Devil or Angel?

I usually go outdoors several times a day to visit Gary working out in various parts of the yard but it was so hot we stayed inside. We watched a movie and I ate A LOT.

Germs

I have been so cautious around people and isolating that I have no desire to go places that have a lot of people around.

Cotton headed ninny muggins

Aside from wondering who I can call a cotton headed ninny muggins I participated in a zoom meeting that had 6 Urban Sketchers drawing in their homes. The subject was produce.

Part of the Urban Sketchers Manifesto states that urban sketching is not a "still live" but something with its surroundings. It must show context. The first drawing was a still life but after we all shared our drawings I realized that I didn't do it properly. I didn't want to take the time to do another large drawing so I stopped what I was doing and created a small drawing to fit on the same page.

It's my birthday!

Thank heaven for my husband and adult children that gave me a lot of love on my birthday IN PERSON. I also received many digital birthday wishes and had a wonderful happy day.

I have a tradition of creating a poem every year for my birthday and this was my age 69 poem. It is just a bit too close to 70 years old so I had about 4 tries before I came up with a poem that had a positive spin on it.

Something that keeps "us" close together

A full day of meetings and talks with zoom. A great way to stay connected when you can't be around people.

Found Objects

I've heard of people leaving their nasty dirty gloves and masks all over the parking lots and streets but I have never encountered any until today. I also got to find several painted rocks along my walking route. It was a pleasure to see these little pieces of art placed on walls, utility boxes and propped up in the dirt. I have a few artist friends that place these around town and I have always wanted to find one. I didn't take any home but left them for others to enjoy. 

Too Many Sweets

Oh when will I ever learn. Eating a lot on isolation day 43. The problem is that this food makes me sleepy and robs my ambition. This last day was a completion of one of my pages of my sketchbook journal which is a 7x10 inch Canson Watercolor Sketchbook.

Coronavirus Journal Entry

I have been keeping an "isolation" journal in my sketchbook journal for 42 days now. My blog has gone by the wayside as I tried to figure out if blogs are still relevant and if people still read them. Most of my isolation journal entries and other sketches are posted on my Instagram Page,https://www.instagram.com/zipchip/ and my Facebook account, https://www.facebook.com/lydia.velarde.

April 25th and 26th journal entry.

Latest Sketchbook page.

Enlargement of my crow mixed media piece.

San Diego Plein Air Painters and Oceanside Art Alliance

The San Diego Plein Air Painters had a joint event with the Oceanside Artists Alliance at Buccaneer Beach in Oceanside, CA. This is my watercolor of lifeguard stand #11.

Me and Renata painted together and got to visit while we worked.

These are some of the other artists on the beach.

 We painted from 9 am to noon and then were invited to the first Sunday open house at the Oceanside Museum of Art.

The plein air paintings from the morning were placed on a table in the reception area. 

Lydia Velarde Sketchbook Flip - March/April 2019

1. 
   
   This sketchbook was made from an existing book. Pages were torn out and I added various papers for sketching and painting. Most of the book is made with watercolor paper.

Old Poway Park with Inland Painters

This morning the Inland Painters met at Old Poway Park on Midland, in Poway. The park staff was busy decorating for a big Christmas event on Saturday. There were many decorations and a lot more being put up which made for a wonderful subjects.

Painted on an 8 x 8 watercolor block.

Matchbox Book

These are photos of a mini sketchbook I made from instructions found in the book, Book Play by Margaret Couch Cogswell.

The paper of the box was taken from newsprint that I used to cover my art table. It has splotches of paint, hand-carved stamp "tests" and also felt tip pen marks when I was checking to see if they still had ink in them.

 The little book is made from past paper I made and has a little accent from the newsprint paper. It is bound with a pamphlet stitch. It was pretty easy and fun to make.

360 GraF'Book Review

This book was sent to me to try. I guess you can say it is my first "official" review. 

Ask The Sketcher: What Have You Learned From Urban Sketching with Louisa...

Louisa Schofiels shares some of here sketches and what she has learned from Urban Sketching.

Ask the Sketcher: What have you learned from Urban Sketching with Rachel...

Rachel Kopel shares what she has learned from Urban Sketching.

SDUsk Attends the Rendezvous in Poway 2019

The City of Poway, along with the living history groups the Shadow River Regulators, and the Apache Canyon Gang, presented the annual Rendezvous at Old Poway Park. History came to life as we walked back in time to the 1800’s. Check out the great sketches and some of the living history participants. Video by Lydia Velarde, lydiavelarde.com

Ask the Sketcher - Ann Schwartzwald - What type of sketchbook do you use...

Ann Schwartzwald shares the sketchbook she is using and shows us a few of her sketches with water-soluble pencils and a Tombow.

instagram.com/annschwartzwald

Ann Schwartzwald on Facebook

Kobey's Swap Meet San Diego - Volkswagen Swap-N-Show 2019

Ask the Sketcher - ANNA - What type of sketchbook do you use for Urban S...

San Diego Urban Sketcher, ANNA, shows us some of her pastel drawings while sharing her favorite sketchbook.

Ask the Sketcher - Nikhil - What type of sketchbook do you use for Urban...

Nikhil shares his favorite sketchbook and a few sketches with us.

Little Italy - San Diego Urban Sketchers 2019

Ask the Sketcher - Kathy Aldrich Shows Us What Sketchbook She Uses

What type of sketchbook do you use for urban sketching is the question of the month. In this short video Kathy Aldrich answers the question for urban sketchers.

Poway Lake en plein air

We found some shade at Lake Poway and stayed long enough to get some plein air painting done. This is a small sketchpainting created with casein.