Sketching Walking Tours

A few years ago we took a walking tour of Porto, Portugal. Our guide took us to several scenic places to impart interesting information on the history and culture of the city, and stopped in each spot long enough for me to make a quick sketch and to write down a few notes. Now I take walking tours wherever I go- it is a great way to get an introduction to a new place and fill up several sketchbook pages as you go.

 

Sketches from Oaxaca!

 Oaxaca is an incredibly lively city filled with art, fiestas, and delicious food! After several trips and many sketches of this amazing place,  I am putting them all together in an upcoming book. Here are a few samples:

Los Mercados de Mexico

Sometimes when I want to sketch a lively scene I head to the markets, the hub of every Mexican city. It can be overwhelming to try to capture the bustle of people, colors, and chaos of the marketplace, so sometimes I focus in on details and vignettes. Here are a few samples from the past several years.

This market stall in Pátzcuaro sell everything from mops to garlic

A flower seller at the indoor market in San Miguel de Allende

You can find anything you want at the Tuesday "Tianguis" market in San Miguel

Fresh fish at the Tuesday market in San Miguel

The view from my lunch at the San Juan de Dios market in San Miguel

Scraping the spines from the prickly pear (Nopal) is a common scene in any Mexican market

Living the Sketchy Life in Mexico

Recently the Mexico Daily News featured an article on my urban sketching adventures in Mexico.  Although I don't entirely agree with many of the ways the writer interpreted my ideas on urban sketching it was nice to get a bit of publicity. Here are a few out takes:

Artist and teacher Susan Dorf has been drawing daily life in Mexico for a decade....For Dorf, sketching is a way to both be part of the action of a scene and yet keep a kind of journalist’s distance, allowing sketchers to be both participant and archivist. And if you think that after years of teaching and creating, sketching would lose this transformative force, Dorf insists that the experience is always fresh, no matter what the scene. And here is link to the article.

  

Vistas de San Miguel Book Flip Through

Here is a flip through of my bilingual book, Vistas de San Miguel, a Sketchbook.

10 years of sketching places and events in the streets of San Miguel de Allende,

now available on amazon.

Artesanos de Michoacán

Michoacán is well know for its master artisans. 

Here are a few sketches of some of the ones I have visited over the past few years.

Jaime Horta from Tocuaro carves delightful animals from wood and the reeds of lake Patzcuaro.

Felipe Horta is a master award winning mask carver from Tocuaro

At Taller Ahuanda in Santa Fe de la Laguna Nicolas Fabián and his wife Rosario
produce beautiful hand carved ceramics

Juan Valencia Villalobos produces intricately carved Maque
on wood and gourds painted with hand made pigments

The village of Ihuatzio is famous for baskets, animals, and furniture
made from the local reeds called Chuspata.

Sketching the Pandemic

               Some Sketches from the past few years during Covid-19 Pandemic

Cubrebocas

Ice Cream Break

Lining up for Las Vacunas

Social Distancing at the Mercado