Scavenger Hunt from Life #56: Feb 03 - Feb 11

[Jo Castillo]

Welcome to the Scavenger Hunts from Life.
The Hunts were started in 2006 by Jamie Williams Grossman as a way to practice with prompts. Artists have come and gone while forming some lasting friendships. We hope you will join in and tune up your sketching skills. All levels and techniques are welcome. We hope you can have some good times here. You can travel the world seeing the sketches of items at hand by the artists.

If you’ve participated in at least one Scavenger Hunt and have time to host one we would really appreciate it. You can sign up by posting your name on the current hosting schedule in the Art From Life forum here:
https://creativespark.art/threads/scavenger-hunt-from-life-host-sign-up-list.2481/page-5

Here are the rules for the Hunt:
*All everyday common items on the list must be sketched from life – not imagination or photo reference.
*Each object you draw can count for only one item on the listless, no matter how many shapes/parts/colors that object contains. This was agreed on by unanimous vote among the participants.
*You may place multiple objects together in a drawing or painting, and may count these objects as separate items, but no single object can count for more than one item.
*All items posted must be numbered. Count them as you go. The first item you post will be #1 regardless of its place on the list. Do them in whatever order you wish, but count them in the order in which you sketch them, from 1 to 26.
*Do as many or as few of the items as you like. You don’t have to finish the entire list to participate. The Scavenger Hunt “week” will last for 9 days, with the next hunt starting on the 9th day.
*Please tell us your size, surface, medium, and the amount of time it took you for each sketch. We love hearing about your subjects and setups. Photos of your subjects are welcome.
*Have fun!
*** If you have some hunt sketches completed but little time to read/comment, please post your sketches anyway. Commenting is appreciated but not required!

Scavenger Hunt from Life #56: Feb 03 - Feb 11

Airplane
Buttons
Cactus
Double
Eggplant
Flower
Grass
Healthy
Indigo
Jelly or jam
Kitten
Laundry
Mountain
Narrow
Outside
Potato
Quarter
Ruler
Sweet
Thumb
Upside down
Vegetable
Window
Xylophone
Yogurt
Zebra

If you don’t have an item, instead of substituting something similar, find something that starts with the same letter. Example: ruler > round or laundry > lamppost
Have fun.

 

[AiArts]

Thanks for the list Jo.

 

[jmfletch]

Thanks jo. Hmmm an alphabet list.

 

[Jo Castillo]

Hi Ai and Joe. Alphabet is easiest, don't need to count to 26. Ha.

I sketched here at the computer desk. Need to go to the grocery store after the freeze. It will be crowded for that and also being Friday for the weekend. Not happy to do that. So procrastinating......

Number 1, buttons - on my sleeve (In my winter uniform either flannel shirts or sweatshirts.) In the ArtStreet book with a Micron 02 which makes the skittery lines about out of ink and nib.

 

[Joan T]

Jo, thanks for the new alphabetical list for the hunt. Nice sketch of the sleeve with buttons. Hope the freeze is over down there. It has arrived up here. I'm in layers so I don't have to turn the heat all the way up. It is probably somewhere around freezing but very windy which makes it feel colder. Tomorrow is supposed to be really cold. Not looking forward to that!

Since it was so cold today I didn't want to sit in my mobile studio, but wanted to get out. So I went and checked out a local coffee shoppe that I hadn't visited yet called "Cool Beans." That way I could be warm inside with something different to sketch. The owner was really nice. I know the shop is in a lousy location because he is too far out of the town and there isn't any foot traffic by him. Added to that another coffee shop just opened and a drive-thru Starbucks is coming in about 6 months. I know this poor guy isn't going to last there. I showed him the sketch and he loved it. Now it belongs to him.

1 - cactus (really succulents) on the tables - watercolors and ink
2 - upside down cups
3 - double coffee bean grinders on the counter

 

[Joan T]

Jo, thanks for the new alphabetical list for the hunt. Nice sketch of the sleeve with buttons. Hope the freeze is over down there. It has arrived up here. I'm in layers so I don't have to turn the heat all the way up. It is probably somewhere around 20 degrees and very windy which makes it feel colder. Tomorrow is supposed to be even colder. Not looking forward to that!

Since it was so cold today I didn't want to sit in my mobile studio, but wanted to get out someplace to sketch. So I went and checked out a local coffee shoppe that I hadn't visited yet called "Cool Beans." That way I could be warm inside with something different to sketch. The owner was really nice. I know the shop is in a lousy location because he is too far out of the town and there isn't any foot traffic by him. Added to that another coffee shop just opened and a drive-thru Starbucks is coming in about 6 months. I know this poor guy isn't going to last there. I showed him the sketch and he loved it. Now it belongs to him

View attachment 28231 in town him.


1 - cactus (really succulents) on the tables - watercolors and ink
2 - upside down cups
3 - double coffee bean grinders on the counter

 

[AiArts]

Jo: Great start with nice ink line with buttons

Joan: Beautiful and charming cafe sketch. The owner must be so happy. I wish I could order some constant customers to his place.

Tone and I did a short sketch survey trip about 1 hour from where we live in a town called SamutSakorn ... we ran into this nice italian restaurant... but I was still full, so I only ordered a cheese cake to share with Tone.

#1 sweet -- a blueberry cheesecake, done in directwatercolor

 

[joe1It]

Jo,thanks,Jo,Joan,Ai,supe start in ink and wstercolor

 

[NedL]

Thanks for the list Jo! Good on the texture of the sleeve!

Joan -- made me happy to think of the owner now with that sketch. Wish him luck! Unique customer on the little bench on the counter!

Ai -- love the colors. blueberry is a favorite!

 

[Jo Castillo]

Joan, nice coffee find. Too bad it is not busier. Nice gift. Looks great. Nice plants on tables. You got in lots of detail. I can't imagine the cold in upstate NY and the northeast. I heard someplace in Vermont or Maine was -100 degrees F. Yikes! Hope you are safe and have power. Still a few places here with no power, trees fell on power lines.

Ai, you always have the most delicious desserts and paint them so well. Yummy cheesecake. We are having Larry's birthday today, it's not until Monday, but we can all get together. I made a lime cheesecake.

I went for coffee and a sketch yesterday, but didn't stay too long. It is a coffee/bakery called Tough Cookie. Old building with art on the walls, abstract at the moment. That is a bread machine that was running in the middle. Huge bowl. The other one looked weird and I forgot to ask. I had a latte and avocado toast. MMM,mmm good.
Number 2, healthy - the restaurant is vegetarian and serves gluten free, too.
Number 3, jam or jelly - I subbed the jars with all sorts of cookies.

 

[Joan T]

Ai, I can understand why you went for that cheesecake. You made it look so delicious in the sketch...so how can you resist?

Ned, thanks. I try to get out and support the local businesses. It is so hard to keep them open. His place is just in the wrong location.

Jo, thanks. It was cold yesterday, but not as bad as I expected when I went out in the afternoon. Mount Washington in New Hampshire had the -100 temperatures. I don't know if that was at the summit or not, but it usually has the coldest recorded temperatures in the country. Glad to see you got out to a coffee place too. Looks like they have a nice assortment of yummy treats and fun things to sketch.

 

[M50Paull]

Jo, thanks for the list
6 for me..... will be back for comments later many great sketches... All pen and ink with pencil, 8"x11" sketch pad maybe 60 to 90 minutes no real idea

#1 Thumb
#2 Ruler
#3 Xerox substitute for Xylephone
#4 Window
#5 Tree Arborvitaes
#6 Yogurt

 

[NedL]

Ai -- last night I just randomly clicked on hunt #37-B and you had a blueberry cheesecake in that one too!!!

 

[Jo Castillo]

Joan, you do know about cold. Ha. I avoid it that is why we live in central Texas.

Paul, good 6 finds to start off with. Good perspective and lines. Like the touch of color on the Yogurt.

Ned, yep Ai is good at food sketching. She eats some good stuff!

I wiped off the last sketch on the blue paper, lemons and folds, right? Sorry Joe. Ha.
Number 4, potato - pastel on the wiped paper with a variety of pastels, about 30 minutes wipe to finish
Number 5 thumb, 6 xylophone - sub a sort of X-acto knife in the Art Street sketchbook with a Micron 02
Then my set up for the sketch.

 

[eyepaint]

Thanks for the new list! I'm looking forward to this

 

[AiArts]

Ned: lol ... I love blueberry cheese cake. ... So hopefully I will have more life sketching of it here.

Jo: That is so cool pastel of your potatos... Super view of your studio too.

 

[Joan T]

Paul, nice group of sketches. Love your lettering on the yogurt container. The Xerox machine looks like it is ready to be filled with that ream of paper. Nice thumb and great markings on the ruler.

Jo, lol at least we are prepared up here for the cold and the snow (most of the time). Nice purple shadows around those potatoes! Your thumb and Xacto knife look good together. Good view of your studio and your assortment of pastels.

Hi, EP, Ai, and Ned!

I didn't go out sketching yesterday because I had a memorial art exhibit to attend for a friend who passed away a few months ago. Her family donated funds for the art awards as per her request and her daughter and 2 sons attended the reception yesterday. I had met her daughter previously but it was nice to meet her sons. I plein air painted many times with Sue. Anyway, today was warmer and I just HAD to go out sketching after picking up artwork that had been on exhibit since December. I headed (believe it or not) down to a marina in Patchogue that has a little lighthouse.

4 - grass - watercolors
5 - substitute for laundry - L for lighthouse
6 - narrow wooden fence

 

[Jo Castillo]

Thanks, Ai. I'm smiling thinking of cheesecake. I still have one piece, maybe I can sketch before I eat it. Doubtful. Ha.

Joan, great substitute, the lighthouse is perfect. Nice scene and rendering.
Hi, EP.

Later......

 

[Sylwia J-D]

Thank you for the new list, Jo.

Jo - Nice ink sketches. They remind me of illustration in books I've read in my childhood. Great pastel potatoes.

Joan- lovely sketches and nice gift for the coffee shop owner.

AI - delicious looking cheesecake.

Paul - very nice sketches, perspective on Xerox printer and shading. I like the details on a yogurt container.

#1 sweet seagull - ClipStudioPaint, charcoal brush, drawing paper texture for the background layer.

 

[brianvds]

Years ago I was gifted a bunch of sketchbooks that I seldom use, because I tend to just use loose sheets of printer paper. But what the heck, I have them so I might as well use them. Just one problem with sketchbooks: any work done in them in pencil or other such dry media quickly gets reduced to smudges, so thus far, when working in sketchbooks, I stuck to using media like ballpoint pen or watercolor.

Problem is, I am enjoying working in pencil more and more. The obvious solution: spray fixative, so I bought a can and today decided to try out both working in pencil in a sketchbook, and then fixing the sketch to see how it would work out.

I don't have access to eggplants at the moment. But my landlady's father (the venerable old gentleman turns 89 this year and is quite a bit fitter and stronger than I am!) has a vegetable garden, and he is growing some oblong-shaped tomatoes that I decided would work as substitute. Trivia: eggplants and tomatoes both belong to the nightshade family, so they're cousins.

Good news: the fixative really does seem to reduce smudging a great deal. I'll have to see what happens over time, as I add more sketches and page through the book etc.
Bad news: the fixative renders the pages partially transparent, so that the sketch on the other side shows through! This is more visible in the actual book than on the photo here. Perhaps better then to use only one side of the pages in the book. This is exactly why I prefer loose sheets!

Anyway, here's my quick sketch:

It occurs to me I could also write it up as vegetable. Of course, tomatoes are, botanically speaking, fruit. But as they say, knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in fruit salad.