Tonight was Studio Night! I did some preparation for teaching on Thursday and worked on a new idea for a show I have coming up later this year. I didn't have time to sketch any of it, so I found these two sketches of my studio from several months ago. It still pretty much looks like this.

When I scanned in those last two sketches I was surprised by how many sketchbook pages I had not scanned yet. I did more sketching in December than I realized! These are mostly quick sketches of everyday things and places interspersed with maps and notes. Just keeping track of my days!

Click Read More below - there are nine more sketches!

Okay, just one more acknowledgement of the social construct that is the new year. I worked at home on Monday, but took time to study my new coffee mug and to document my Christmas tree before taking it down. 

Tuesday was a lovely New Year's Day! Just relaxed at home all morning, then joined friends for black-eyed peas and a game of cards. Hope you had a lovely day, too!

I'm teaching two classes at Flicker Street Studio in winter/spring and I hope you'll join us! Visit the Flicker Street Studio site to sign up.

Mixed Water Media and Composition
January 17, 24, 31, 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
This class is good for beginners and for those with experience who want a new challenge. We'll explore a variety of mixed water media and techniques to learn about composition and create a finished painting over three weeks.

Getting Comfortable with Your Sketchbook
March 21, 28, April 4, 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm 
All levels are welcome to learn to make a practice of using your sketchbook to tell the story of your everyday life. We'll explore materials and sketching techniques to help you get to know your sketchbook better.

I also added a new page on this site, Upcoming, to let you know about classes and shows.

I will spare you all of the "omg I can't believe I finally did this" and just present to you my sketches from Porto, Portugal. This is the trip that Toby and I took in July of 2018 so that I could attend the Urban Sketchers Symposium. This was the seventh USk Symposium I've attended and the first time we went to Portugal! 
We had a fabulous time. I learned so much at the Symposium, and I also learned how much I love to eat fish! The Portuguese diet was my friend.
These are not all of my sketches, just a selection of my favorites. 

Yesterday the Memphis Urban Sketchers went to the library to sketch - this is the Benjamin Hooks or Central Library.  We are never sure what the weather will be like at the beginning of December, and yesterday did not disappoint with unexpected 70-degree weather. A few people went outside to sketch, but I went up to the top floor to sketch the view and a dichroic glass public art piece by Ed Carpenter.

And here's a sketch from earlier in the year that I haven't posted here yet. It's from the Memphis Urban Sketchers' September gathering at the Memphis Farmers Market. It was definitely higher than 70 degrees that day!

This is the story of how Kristen Haas Curtis and I made a thing together, #bythebones, a game of randomized constraints that helps you create diary comics. If you’ve never tried diary comics, this is a fun way to start. If you have, it’s a good way to challenge yourself or get out of a rut.
I’ve been making comics on and off kind of forever. Comics run in my family, so I made them a bit as a kid, and then about four or five years ago I started feeling the need to tell stories with words and images. This June I committed to making diary comics, and Kristen and I devised #bythebones as a way to help with layout and structure, and to overcomplicate things in a fun way.
You can find the full instructions at Kristen's site, hellomizk.com, and you can follow her diary comics and other comics on Twitter (@hellomizk) and Instagram (@hellomizk).
Here are a few examples of my #bythebones comics from the last couple of months, and I'll be posting new ones this week on Instagram and Twitter. If you decide to play along, please use the hashtag #bythebones. Good luck and have fun!

Here are some random sketches from this year as I catch up with my blog posts.

I sketched the top two at the symphony in September. It was the Memphis Symphony Orchestra's opening show for the season and it was fantastic!
The bottom one is of the Rhodes College Jazz Band, which opened for the Sun Ra Arkestra.