sketchcrawl, 28 January

I drove to Excelsior Springs on Saturday, meeting up with Kate, Joseph, and Kelly to sketch at The Elms. The historic hotel is undergoing a renovation at the moment, but Kate arranged for us to have a private tour, followed by free access to sketch as long as we wore hardhats and stayed out of the workers' way.

While waiting for the others to arrive, I sketched the little gatehouse where we were to meet. I should have added some of the bare winter foliage but the others had arrived. (This was done in 15 minutes.)  Later, when we met for a late lunch and to show our work, I added a sketch of one of Kate's newest pens from Noodler's -- a limited issue brush-tip pen. Cute! but I think I'll stick to my Pentel brush pen -- I'm far from mastering it, as the next sketch shows!

After the tour, we settled in the curved library, a sunny spot where we have sketched from before. But even the sun couldn't warm us up much in the cold stone structure.

I tried sketching a portion of the building seen out the window, but was NOT happy with the direction it was going. Later at home, I tried reworking it but I still don't like it. After several days of indecision, I decided to post it anyway.

Both pages are ink and gouache on Niddigan paper.

Meanwhile, as I was loading these photos and cropping them to post, my email was hacked. I changed my password, but not sure what else might be needed, if anything. What an annoyance!