September was a busy month for sketch meetups. I went to both Boulder meets in addition to the Fort Collins one since they didn't overlap this time! I keep telling myself I'm going to discuss each of these outings in separate posts and never do, so I'm throwing them into one post so I can stop being so behind. The overarching theme was cool buildings.
The first meetup of the Urban Sketchers Fort Collins chapter was in August. I was surprised there wasn't one already when I started looking for groups last year. I would have done it myself, but me starting a recurring social group??? In this economy??
This group has a different energy from the Boulder one because some people have been bringing their kids! Which is awesome! More kids should go on art outings. Also, I brought my dog and everyone was a big fan.
Of course our first meeting was in Old Town Square. I've drawn in the square many times already, so I split off to walk up the street and find a building I haven't worked with yet. I picked one that I've thought a lot about drawing without actually getting around to it... the architecture is neat and there's a horse in the window. I tried using watercolor crayon to add some brick texture and am happy with how it turned out!
Pen and watercolor painting of a brick building with a green awning. The lower part of the building is painted teal and white with red accents. There are plant containers in front of the lower windows. The right window has a white carousel horse displayed inside.
The lunar eclipse on August 27 was almost completely visible in Colorado. My phone photos of it came out predictably awful, so I sat outside and drew it with a flashlight as it progressed.
Sketches of the stages of the lunar eclipse. The right page shows the eclipse at its maximum. Most of the moon is shaded red except for a sliver of white on the top.
An extremely crunchy phone photo of the eclipse. The red tint is visible but at what cost...
I finally uploaded all the Salad Magazine issues to Itch for download. I don't expect a lot of people to actually download anything since it's all conveniently accessible on the web, but it was important to me that each issue would be self-contained for archival purposes.
I forgot how proud I was of all this until I was checking the files for broken links. I haven't seen any community projects like it, and I really like the flexibility and ease of access it provides. Web events are awesome and I hope people keep doing them, and I think the space needs more ways to participate that don't require someone to have their own website.
Anyway, this is a long-winded way for me to announce that I have gotten my shit together and Issue 4 of the zine is finally back underway! Submissions will be accepted until October 10. Come reheat some salad with us!
The year is only 2/3 of the way over, but planner companies have already begun the hype cycle for 2027. Corporate has asked me to post about planners to capitalize on current trends.
I haven't posted anything about my planner since my 2024 Traveler's Notebook update. At the time, I was using a shitty hand-bound book with dot grid paper where I had to measure and date everything myself. Unsurprisingly, this got tedious really quickly. I've been buying planners since then, and the time/sanity saved have been well worth the expense.
Hobonichi Weeks (left) and Sterling Ink N1 common planner (right)