My husband and several friends and I were able to attend the Richmond Folk Festival last weekend. This is a really neat event that occurs every October. Most amazingly, it is free. They ask for donations, and I think most people do donate, but if you can’t afford to donate, you don’t have to.

In any case, I took a lot of photos especially of interesting people. My artist buddy, Brenda, and I also sat ourselves down for about 30 minutes and did sketches.

This is one I did from life of folks visiting a couple of food venders (there are lots of food venders, these two are just a tiny sample).  I am trying not to overuse the watercolors, but this one might have needed a little more. Not sure.

This sketch I did from one of the photos of a gentleman in traditional costume that I took at the fair. This one combined an ink wash (especially in the background) and the watercolors and the pen and ink.  Both started with a light pencil sketch that was later erased after the pen work was completed.

I am referencing this book to help me get figures on the fly.  I want to get to the point of creating sketches like the chap in the costume while on site. And, if I’d had the courage to whip out a sketchbook at that particular time, I probably could have done something similar because he was standing very still. The hard part about the first sketch is that folks keep moving! You sort of have to quickly get a notion in your head of what they look like and then get it down on the paper. I was successful some of the time and not so much either times.