John Mark’s urban sketching journal from May 2019 – January 2020.
This sketchbook has drawings, sketches, and paintings from Sendai, Yamagata, and Fukushima, Japan. Pastels, pencil, pen and watercolors.
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Prints of the sketches from this video are available, along with prints of film photographs and original paintings and drawings.
Originals will only be available until February 1st, 2020! After that, because of our move back to the states, they probably won’t be put back up until May. The prices will also increase, due to the differences in shipping costs. Japan Post is so cheap if you’re willing to wait. Hurry and buy now before it’s too late!
Most of the pages in this book are “urban sketches”– where you draw what you’re wanting to focus on, but you also provide some sort of context. Urban sketchers like to go out and draw something from observation, instead of relying on reference photos. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with using a reference, and I do with my art all the time, but this sketchbook was meant to go draw things that I was seeing as a form of meditation, journaling, and practicing my skills.
That being said, a few things, like the giraffe sketch from the zoo, the pescatore pasta sketch, the scones and the gesture drawings don’t usually show the surroundings of what I was trying to capture. This was mostly because I forgot. Oops.
I also show you what materials I used with this sketchbook: My Nouvel Carré Pastels set, a cheap toy watercolor palette made for a keychain, and a “more serious” Royal Talens Petit Color travel palette, as well as the Pentel and Kuretake Waterbrushes and the Holbein Resables with short handles.
Places seen in this sketchbook (Places are in Miyagi Prefecture unless marked as Fukushima or Yamagata):
Yagiyama Zoo – Sendai 八木山動物園
Matsushima Italian Toto – Matsushima 松島イタリアントト
Cafe le Roman – Matsushima カフェ ロマン 松島
Matsushima Bay 松島
Sendai Asaichi Market 仙台朝市
Ramen Billy – Sendai ラーメンビリー
Morohashi Museum of Modern Art – Urabandai, Fukushima 諸橋近代美術館
Rurinuma & Bishamon-numa, Goshikinuma – Urabandai, Fukushima 五色沼 (北塩原村)
Sendai City Museum, Special and Permanent Exhibitions 仙台市博物館
Cafe Mozart Atelier – Katahira, Sendai カフェ モーツァルト アトリエ
Sendai Aoba Festival 青葉まつり
Sanbongi Sunflower Festival – Osaki City 大崎市三本木ひまわりの丘
Go!Go!Rally Sendai – Sendai International Center Subway Station GO!GO!ラリー in 東北
Shintera Temple Complex – Sendai 新寺
Jozenjidori and the Mediatheque – Sendai 定禅寺通
Tsutsujigaoka Park – Sendai 榴ヶ岡公園
Hirose River, Tamaya Bridge and Katahira Park – Sendai 広瀬川 玉屋橋 片平公園
Aeon Style Oroshimachi – Sendai イオンスタイル卸町
Izumigatake Mountain – Sendai 泉ヶ岳
Tachiya River Bridge – Yamadera, Yamagata 山寺
Sendai Medical Center 国立病院機構仙台医療センター
Taihaku Mountain and Taikhaku Ward – Sendai 太白山 太白区
Nishi Park and Downtown Sendai 西公園
Sendai Station Pedestrian Deck 仙台駅 西口ペデストリアンデッキ
Spring Valley Ski Resort – Sendai スプリングばれー泉高原スキー場
Odawara Town – Sendai 小田原町
S-Pal Sendai Station エスパル 仙台駅
Underground Stars by Loxbeats
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