Symposium participant: Laura Frankstone

A breathless hello in the middle of an eventful summer! I'm an Urban Sketchers correspondent from North Carolina. I'm so thrilled to be heading northwest in a few days to meet those of you I haven't met (which is everyone, actually, but Veronica and Donna) and to draw together and to be inspired and stimulated and refreshed. There are so many of you whom I feel I know already and whom I admire so much from seeing your work on Urban Sketchers, your own blogs, and elsewhere. I really can't wait for all of us to be in the same place at the same time!

A little background about me: I've always had one foot in the visual arts in my working life, whether it be helping organize and mount exhibits statewide from a state art collection, acting as curator for a university antiques and portrait collection, writing art criticism for a local newspaper, running my own small interior design business, or as an adjunct staff member of an event design company. A few years ago, I turned to pursuing my art career full time.

My sketching habits and sketching gear are as varied as my career. I'm always on the lookout for the new best way to make the lines, colors and shapes I want to make, It's a never-ending, exhilarating/frustrating process---one I'm sure most of you are familiar with!

My latest gear is pictured here. I'm messing about with Kuretake water brush pens I fill with various acrylic inks to see what can happen with them. I alternately use Cretacolor oil pencils---they make nicely sensuous lines without a lot of smudging. The Schmincke travel paintbox you see here is the result of my trying to travel light(er.) I like sketchbooks that are not spiral-bound, since I always want the option to draw across a double-page spread. I'm especially fond of Maruman accordion sketchbooks, which I bought several of a couple of years ago---but, of course, I just learned they are now impossible to get. If anyone knows of a source for these, please do tell!
Here's a sketch made with ink-filled waterbrush pens and watercolor washes: And here is one made with Cretacolor oil pencils and watercolor washes:

More of my work can be seen on my blog Laurelines.
See you all very soon!