Ken O'Connell Sketching Weekend Workshop

Meet and Greet at Centre 64, September 27th, 7-9 pm. 

2-day Sketching Workshop, Saturday September 28th & Sunday September 29th, 9 am-5 pm.

Click here to see Ken's Work.

In my years as an artist and teacher, the Sketchbook/journal has always been with me. I've just started sketchbook number 106 which I will bring with several others to this workshop in Kimberley, Canada. I started 65 years ago keeping sketchbooks. I've taught at the University of Oregon for 30 years and was department head for about a third of that time. I wanted to work and teach drawing, painting, photography, ceramics, and filmmaking. I did that, but found the Sketchbook my regular companion. It was for sketching, small watercolor sketches, notes, and fragments of my experiences. I used it to develop ideas from a simple sketch to a more developed painting print or film. It became my visual memory bank of things along the way. Some are finished on a page or two but mostly unfinished or in the early stage of an idea. Most artists try to keep a sketchbook, but they misplace them or have several going at once and never use more than a few pages. They don't date them or number the sketchbooks so it is hard to see the personal history that is developing. I'm different, I number each sketchbook. I date some pages and note where I was when I had the thought or did the sketch. I write as well as draw and even glue in notes or paper and keep track of names and addresses and emails in the back two or three pages. I believe in personal growth and development and find the sketchbook/journal a valuable resource in the process."

Tips for keeping a sketchbook

1. We are all at the beginning when we face the blank page. We need to cultivate the

spirit of the rough sketch, of being open to the possibilities that we are about to explore. 

2. Sketch what is right in front of you!

3. To see the shadows and the shape and color of shadows. Once we do this we will

always see them. 

3. Have the confidence to draw and sketch darker, bolder, and with gusto. 

4. When you think you are done with your sketch and you want to give up, you are not

done. You need to work on the sketch for 10-15 minutes more. You will be surprised!

4. Don’t let reality get in the way of a great sketch!

THE SPIRIT OF THE ROUGH SKETCH with Ken O’Connell

In this Workshop you will learn the “way” of the sketchbook/journal, its mystery, and magic!

Saturday/ Sunday. 10:00 am -  5:00 pm, with lunch hour 12:30 - 1:30 pm.

Basic Plan:

I will transform your idea about sketchbooks and what they can do for you, your thinking, your artwork, your memory, and your life! Especially, the second half of life. From start to finish of workshop you will be actively sketching in your book. 

The Spirit of the sketchbook is the spirit of beginnings, of starting, of exploring, of evolution, of fragments, of the celebration of the nobility of simple details of our world and our minds. We don’t worry about finishings or endings. 

That is for outside of the sketchbook. 

Go ahead and start without me. I’ll be there soon. 

Materials:

-Bring an old or new sketchbook with blank paper. Medium weight, not too thin or too

many sheets. 

-Pencil HB

-3-4 colored pencils 

-Ink  pen medium point (.5)

-One black and one brown

-Ink Brush pen Black

-Simple Watercolor set (8 to 12 cakes of color)

-Brush medium size like the ones that come with a watercolor set. 

-Then one smaller brush

-a WaterBrush if available (with water in brush handle)

-Small jar for water 

-A tiny sponge

-Share paper towels