We had a couple of days off this past week so my wife and I packed picnic lunches and sketched at two different locations in Lancaster County. On Thursday we went to the Tanger Arboretum where I sketched in the dwarf conifer garden using my 12.9” iPad Pro with Apple Pencil and the Procreate app. Brenda decided to sketch in the beautiful Beech Grove area of the arboretum. I made a color palette to paint from by snapping a photo with my iPad and using the create swatch palette from photo feature in Procreate. I used the standard Procreate flat painting brush.

On Friday, we packed a picnic for the Columbia Crossing Visitor Center in Columbia, PA which is beside the Susquehanna river. The massive concrete arch bridge is a feature of the area that’s hard not to include in an outdoor sketch. I decided to sketch with a fountain pen in a sketchbook while we sat by the river. Brenda was not into sketching that day so she read out loud some historical facts about the bridge and other bridges that were in that location over the years.

It was great to be outdoors (though I think we’ve both picked up mild allergies over the years).

This week in Create-A-Thon 2017 - Urban Sketching. I have, in the past few weeks, been carefully putting together an urban sketching bag with essential supplies that I might want to use without carrying too much. I've found a light weight stool and had thoughtfully chosen which sketchbooks I wanted to carry. I have been a member of two Urban Sketching Facebook groups for a little while and I finally got up the nerve to join in on a meet up for each of them this past weekend.

On Saturday, I joined Harrisburg Sketchers at Fort Hunter Park along the Susquehanna River for a beautiful autumn morning of sketching. After completing two sketches, I introduced myself to a few of the other sketchers and enjoyed a couple of conversations about sketching, art materials and looking at sketchbooks.

On Sunday, Isaac joined me to meet up with Urban Sketchers Baltimore in Fells Point. Isaac had intended to work en plein air in oil, but was unable to find a suitable subject. I was able to meet a fellow sketcher in person that I had communicated with on Instagram. After completing a couple of sketches, I talked to some of the other sketchers, but was not able to stay to have lunch due to a prior commitment. I was excited that Urban Sketchers Global later reposted my favorite sketch of the day on their Instagram account.

It was a great weekend to get outdoors and try Urban Sketching, and meet new people. I'm looking forward to future events with both groups in the coming months. I think I might sketch outdoors on my lunch break until the weather starts getting colder.