Watercolor Sketch - Main Street, Old St. Charles

Main Street, Old St. Charles
©2010 Steve Penberthy
Pigma Micron 03 pen and watercolor wash in Aquabee Super Deluxe 808 sketchbook
6" x 9" (15 x 23 cm)

I sketched this while having coffee at Picasso's Coffeehouse in St. Charles, MO.

The streets were mostly blocked off, and I saw a blur of activity around me as vendors were setting up tents and receiving deliveries of supplies in preparation for Festival of the Little Hills this weekend.

Shortly after lunchtime, I got caught in a huge thunderstorm, and got completely soaked trying to get to my car; thankfully my sketchbooks remained dry in my backpack...

(sub)Urban Sketch - McDonald's

(sub)Urban Sketch  - McDonald's
©2010 Steve Penberthy
Pigma Micron 03 pen and watercolor wash in Aquabee Super Deluxe 808 sketchbook
6" x 9" (15 x 23 cm)

Off work today, so I sketched this view of the interior of a McDonald's where I beat the heat with a cold drink.  There weren't many people in the restaurant, yet it was very loud in there--most of the noise came from the employees behind the counter along with the fryer timers going off, etc.

On The Go with Don Colley (and his PITT Artists Pens)

Today I came across this awesome video featuring artist Don Colley titled, "On The Go With PITT Artist Pens." Of course, the video is a promotional work, but I was really inspired by it--it's sort of a day in the life of an urban sketcher at work.
Don is an incredible artist. I had the good fortune to meet and talk with Don for a while at the Learning & Product Expo in Chicago in 2008, where he showed me his incredible sketches and let me browse through his sketchbooks; he uses large antique ledger books as sketchbooks, complete with pre-printed page numbers and grid lines. Examples of his sketchbooks appears in the photo below and throughout the video. I bought a set of PITT gray-scale brush markers/pens as a result of my interaction with him; some examples of sketches I've created with these pens appear in one of my previous blog posts.

Colley's work in a Faber-Castell catalog

A listing of other videos featuring Mr. Colley (and other artists) using various Faber-Castell products can be found on Faber-Castell's website.