It’s been a few weeks since I posted here, but I couldn’t let the year end without sharing my top 10 sketches from 2022. I have many favorites, but these have a special place in my heart, for a variety of reasons. Enjoy!
In March, I was on vacation at Sanibel Island, Florida. I found dead crabs on the beach and loved their variety of colors, shell shape, and details. I laid the crabs and the claw in the sand and sat in a chair to sketch away. The condo we stayed at had a book about sea life so I looked up their identities and read about them. They were super-fun to sketch!
Sketcher friends met up with me in June at Edgewater Park in Woodbury, MN. I was under a shady tree and had plenty of time to sketch, so I sketched a mom with a little boy who was fishing, the pavilion, and a parked lawnmower. I have been working on collages in my sketches to describe a sense of place, so sought to connect these various elements in one sketch.
A trip out to upstate New York in July brought my family and I to Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall of Fame. We toured around the museum on a cloudy day and it was crowded. I was able to stand in a corner to get the sketch of Babe Ruth’s uniform, and later I went outside and across the street to get fresh air. I liked the museum architecture, so sketched it from across the street. What a fun memory!
In September, I sketched a lot with Urban Sketchers Twin Cities and other sketch friends. We sketched at Como Zoo and I started with the orangutan first and added in other animals as I went around the park. I find the animals interesting and comical at times. The tiger looked just like a house cat laying on its back against a fence, snoozing away!
We also went to Gibbs Farm in St. Paul. This was a historic farm with many things to see, but one of my favorite sketches was of a pig in the pigpen. This large animal was immersed in its feed trough scarfing down meal as fast as it could. There was a chipmunk (corner) that capitalized on extra meal that the pig threw on the ground, so I added it into the sketch!
3rd Act Brewery in Woodbury was a fun place to visit with sketch buddies. I sketched our giant pretzel and added other elements like the large lawn dice and the outdoor canopy. I like how the food took the center stage in this sketch, and the other elements added a nice touch and sense of place.
A new place I sketched in October was Nadia Cakes in Woodbury. This cake and cupcake shop had pink walls, pink furnishings, and was super-fun to sketch in! I loved the funky furniture and bought cupcakes for my daughter, but I made sure to sketch one first!
We went to visit our daughter in college and went to a restaurant, the Nitty Gritty. This fun bar has a huge beer mug. When someone turns 21 and it’s their birthday, they can get a drink in one of the mugs as a souvenir. I sketched people in the bar, the display, then added color later. Super-fun sketch!
The next sketch was done at an Urban Sketching Event in November, the Midtown Global Market in Minneapolis. There was so much to see and hear. A live jazz band played fun music and there was a ton to sketch. I did a 2-page layout and tried to add as many elements as I could!
The last sketch I am sharing was from a few weeks ago, at the Como Conservatory in St. Paul. We sketched the Holiday flower show in the Sunken Garden, where it was humid and quiet. Trickling water from the fountain added to the sense of calm. It was truly a meditative spot and I felt very relaxed. Greens, grays, and a limited palette added to the simplicity of this sketch.
So there you have it, my top 10 sketches of 2022! I have several other favorites from the year, but these are sketches I can keep coming back to again and again to enjoy. I can remember what was going on around me at the time, and appreciate working with a Sailor Fude Pen and watercolors, indoors and out.
Thank you to all my readers who have enjoyed the last year of my posts. I look forward to another year of sketching and sharing in 2023!