Urban Sketching y Cafe de la Manana

 

Another installment of my sketches of local area coffee shops I've visited recently. Sometimes a simple interior sketch is all that's needed. That's especially true when the exterior is basically low-slung box of a building and all you really see is a parking lot full of customers' cars.

However, the full parking lot told me that La Panaderia is a very popular place. It's a local bakery [pa-nuh-DEH-ree-uh] with local ties to bakeries in Mexico City, so the pastries and baked goods were excellent as was the coffee. Two locations in San Antonio, downtown and Alamo Heights area, if you're visiting.   

New Life for Old Buildings, Perfect for Urban Sketching

I decided to take a break this week from my Coffee Shop Sketching series. A few weeks ago I did another of my  #lineandwashdrawings in the #urbansketcherstyle . This of St. Paul Square in the Depot District downtown.

This is a somewhat charming old urban area (from the last century when we rode trains everywhere) that is being revitalized and brought back to life. New night spots, shops, and restaurants - always a good thing I think.

Coffee Shop Sketching No.3

Here is another urban-sketch in my local coffee shop series. This shop is different from the others in that it's not a storefront coffee shop, such as Starbucks. Rather Theory Coffee started life as a mobile truck coffee shop. It's owners found a perfect location in the neighborhood at the intersection of a busy thoroughfare and a freeway. The spot had been a gas station in its former life but was perfect for a mobile coffee truck. The property was updated, and the awning/portico provides the perfect place to sip coffee with shelter from the sun and weather. The coffee is excellent, too, so it's always busy.

#urbansketching  #watercolor  #urbansketchers 

Coffee Shop Sketching No.2

In my last blog I told you how I had decided to visit some of the coffee shops in the local area and sketch what I saw either from an an interior window seat, or even better, from an outdoor seating area or patio. Today's image is from another Starbucks nearby, no surprise, they're everywhere! This one at the Oak Park location at N. New Braunfels & Nacogdoches.

Coffee Shop Sketching

Good morning, buenos dias, etc! I hope you have had your morning coffee today or tea or chai or whatever gets you going.

Recently I joined a group and began urban sketching, which, as it turns out, is a worldwide pastime of artists and sketchers and painters and some architects even. Who knew?

I'm enjoying the new challenge and decided to scout out some urban locations to sketch. With the proliferation of coffee shops on almost every corner it seems, I started there.

I've been visiting several in my nearby area and, after purchasing my brew of the day, usually dark roast, I find a seat, either a window or outdoor area, and sketch the view.

Today's image is my sketch of the view from the leafy Starbucks in Alamo Heights looking north on Broadway. Hope you like it.

In upcoming blogs I'll talk about what I'm learning about the many different tools of the trade used in this endeavour. Note: I'm still figuring out which ones work best for me.

Urban Sketching in San Antonio

 

If you've re-discovered The Painting Life blog, aka orbisplanis.blogspot.com, thank you for viewing. As you may have seen in my last post, I started posting again after a multi-year hiatus to attend to a family crisis.

In order to make my posting to The Painting Life blog as easy as humanly possible, I'm using the most basic blogspot formatting tools so that I may post quickly without fiddling with the look and feel. I hope you don't mind.

The topic of today's blog is Urban Sketching, in which I recently started participating. I knew very little about this art phenomena, although I had heard snippets about it for years. So I did a little online research. Seems it is way bigger and more widespread than I imagined  - worldwide in fact! There are urban sketchers in every part of the globe and it appears in most of the world's urban population centers.

I was pleasantly surprised to find one in San Antonio and one in Austin. I found them on the MeetUp app and joined the movement. The San Antonio group meets roughly twice a month at notable locations around the city and in nearby Hill Country towns.

Today's image is my sketch from last Saturday at Mission San Juan Capistrano, one of San Antonio's famous missions dating from the Spanish colonial era. 

Hope you enjoy it and maybe it will spark an interest in your trying urban sketching.

#urbansketching, #acrylicpainting

The Painting Life Blog is Back

Two Pears

Acrylic on Canvas Panel

20 in x 16 in

Copyright 2023, All Rights Reserved

If any of you reading this blog remember way back in 2018, that was the last time I posted on Orbisplanis.

As happens to all of us sometimes, life intervenes, and we must face the challenges we're confronted with. In my case, and without going into any details, the challenge was the diagnosis of a terminal illness of a loved one. This stark reality lead to life-altering changes for the family. I was completely overtaken with the subsequent illness, death and recovery period (if you can call it that).

Needless to say, my painting life was put on hiatus for the duration. It has only been recently that I was able to re-kindle my interest and pick up my paintbrush.

Today's image is a by-product of my new reality.

   

Take Comfort In Your Oil Paint

Blazing Sunset
Water-Soluble Oil on Canvas Panel
10 x 8 in/25.4 x 20.3 cm
Copyright Byrne Smith 2018

With the holiday season right around the corner, the weather finally starting to feel like autumn (in the northern hemisphere anyway), and as a way to cope with everything going on in the world, I needed to take comfort with my oil paints.

I equate using oil paint with eating comfort food in my mind anyway. Compared to painting with watercolor and acrylic, oils provide the oozy, rich warmness you get from eating mac 'n cheese, lasagna, cheesy mashed potatoes and the like. At least I think so.

I think in Denmark they have a word for it: hygge (hue-guh). It loosely means having that feeling of being cozy, charming or special--just like painting

I can't think of anything better than mixing up a palette of all values and colors of oils. Then you apply it via brush or palette knife for the cozy satisfaction of rendering a painting well painted.

Take comfort in your oil paint.

Painters Should Not Be Bored

Indian Summer
Oil on Canvas Panel
6 x 6 in/15.2 x 15.2 cm
Copyright Byrne Smith 2018

Before the month was completely gone, I wanted to post again. I've had a slow week or two getting going with my painting. I don't know why, but suspect it's painting ennui, that is, boredom and lethargy.

The only way I know how to break the cycle is to paint and paint some more. So that's what I did this week.

I also decided to use a different medium than what I've been using of late. I switched to water-soluble oils rather than my usual acrylics. That did help since you use them differently, not altogether differently but enough to make it more interesting. The ennui was overcome, at least for now.

I decided to paint a little impressionistic landscape before the seasons changed completely. Hope you like it.

Painters should not be bored.

Seascapes and Beach/Water Scenes

Beachy
Acrylic on Canvas Panel
 6 x 6 in/15.2 x 15.2 cm
Byrne Copyright 2018

One thing I like about seascapes and beach/water scenes is that there is an unlimited number of combinations between the color of the sky and the color of the water. There are a myriad of reasons, such as the time of day, the weather, the season, the geographic location, and the surrounding landscape, if any.

What attracted me to today's image was the contrast between the predominantly ultramarine blue of the sky and the cerulean/pthalo green of the water near the coast. Beautiful, and it also helps set the mood, bright and sunny, a winning combination.

Beach scenes also keep the painter on his toes by having to create the correct color of the sand at the location of the painting. Similar to the reasons mentioned above, the types and colors of sand around the world are almost limitless.

The sand in today's painting was mixed with primarily titanium white, but you have to add very small amounts of cad yellow light and and cad red light, along with a dab of ultramarine blue to help gray down the other three colors slightly. I always forget that until I notice that something with the sand is not quite right.

I hope you like it and that you will paint your share of beach/water scenes.