I went on my first outing with Urban Sketchers Boulder since this exact time last year. I thought I would be out there more frequently considering I can take the bus, but... as usual... life got in the way. I did return in the end! The group has grown significantly in the past year, which was great to see.

I attended my first Sketcherfest in Edmonds, Washington this year. I will lead with my conclusion that Sketcherfest is the best convention I've ever been to.

(If you missed it, also read about how I spent my time in Washington pre-Sketcherfest!)

I took an excellent little trip to Washington state at the beginning of the month. It's been 7 years since the last time I've been. I love the area and wanted to go back sooner, but Covid made stuff a little more difficult and then life got in the way. But I finally got around to doing it!

The primary purpose of my visit was to attend Sketcherfest, a convention for urban/travel sketchers. I will talk about Sketcherfest in its own post because there's a lot I have to say about it. I spent the rest of the time exploring and drawing the Seattle area. And I got to hang out with Curi in meatspace!

I've been trying to come up with something with the appropriate amount of gravitas to say for my first post of the year. This has been unsuccessful, so now I'm just going to say something and move on.

This year, the main goal is to stop thinking about shit so much and instead make like Shia LeBeouf and just do it. This is particularly pertinent to my art — I made some progress in overcoming my aversion to "wasting" sketchbook paper last year, but I've noticed I'm still not immune to the pressure to find the perfect scene or reference to draw. This eats up a lot of time that could be spent doing literally anything else.

I've started pulling out my sketchbook and drawing something around me whenever I feel the impulse to check my phone. Most of the time, that "something" is a mundane man-made object, so I can't waste time looking for something photogenic. Also, sometimes it sucks. It's fine!

After experiencing some success with plein air drawing (as detailed in the tree-drawing post), I was consumed by my own hubris and set out to assemble a field painting kit. This is a well-tread road, but I wanted something small enough to stuff into a backpack or fanny pack.

I cobbled together a kit with a mint tin palette and a small tupperware container for water. These are attached directly to the book with magnets: I used a pair of small neodymium magnets for the water container and a magnetic metal clip for the palette. This setup has been working out really well, even in situations where I'm sitting on the ground or somewhere similarly uneven. It's not great for standing work, though, since the water needs to stay perpendicular to the ground.