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. 

Ask the Sketcher: What type of sketchbook so you use for Urban Sketching?

The Urban Sketcher Youtube Channel Call Out for September 2019 is
What type of sketchbook so you use for Urban Sketching?

SEPTEMBER 2019 CALL OUT FOR VIDEOS

The Urban Sketchers YouTube Channel would like to feature individual urban sketchers or chapters sharing their answer to What type of sketchbook so you use for Urban Sketching? We are requesting answers submitted in video format for our YouTube Channel. These do not have to be professional videos and can be videos taken with your phone!

Guidelines: Please submit anytime during the month of September 2019. We prefer very short videos (2-3 minutes for a group). By submitting your video you give permission to have it edited and/or combined with other submissions if necessary. MPEG4 OR .mp4 file extension, steady camera, clear, intelligible voice, little to no background noise, no advertisements. To submit your video for consideration please send via We Transfer to Lydia Velarde at video@urbansketchers.org. I am looking forward to viewing and sharing answers on the Urban Sketchers YouTube Channel!

Direct painting

I left my Casein paints on my palette and threw it in the freezer. The freezer part was probably not necessary but I wanted to see if I could reuse the paints or if they would dry up. Of course, they weren't as creamer as the first time a squeezed them out of the tube and on to my palette but I was able to revive them by spraying them with water.

This sketch was painted directly on the paper, without making a drawing first. I used an empty spot on my sketchbook page so these railroad volunteers are only 2.25 inches tall.