Neighborhood Four Square

Four members of the Art Toolkit team took a 10-minute break to sketch kitty-corner views from the cross streets just outside the shop!

By The Art Toolkit Team

Four people lined up in a warm-toned room, wearing coats and hats and fumbling with sketchbooks.

Today, we are sketching our neighborhood of Victorian buildings in downtown Port Townsend! Four members of the Art Toolkit team took a 10-minute break to sketch kitty-corner views from the cross streets outside our retail shop. Come along as Outreach Coordinator Cole Morreale, Shop Assistant Lena Valentine, and co-founders Maria Coryell-Martin and Darin Reid sketch what they see and share their reflections!

The Challenge

Each person took 10 minutes to sketch one of our street corners, a little square block just outside our shop, and then reported back on their sketching experience!

Maria

A person leans against a brick wall, smiles and looks to the left while holding open a sketchbookk showing a building painting. — Art Toolkit founder Maria Coryell-Martin.

Someone holds up a finished sketch of a building with the subject in the background, sketching tools in hand and a palette clipped to their paper. — Maria’s 10-minute sketch.

“Wow! Ten minutes went super fast! For fun, I had a pen with some sepia ink and just dove into the big lines of [the] building. I was thinking about the contours and letting go of perfection, and instead, I tried to look for the verticals and horizontals and some of the nice swoops of windows.” — Maria

Over the shoulder, someone adds color to a building sketch with a water brush. — Maria adds color with a water brush in her final few minutes!

Maria enjoyed finding the greens, reds, and yellows, mixing them in the lid of her Explore Palette Plus.

Maria’s Supplies included a Duotone Forest A5 Art Toolkit, Explore Palette Plus, Platinum Desk Pen with brown De Atramentis Document Ink, Pentel Water Brush, and a Hahnemühle Watercolor Book.

Darin

A person leans against a brick wall, smiling, while holding open a sketchbookk showing a watercolor sketch of a building. — Art Toolkit founder Darin Reid.

Someone holds up a finished sketch of a building with the subject in the background, a toolkit in hand and a palette clipped to their paper. — Darin’s 10-minute sketch.

Darin chose to sketch the Captain H.L. Tibbals building across the street.

“I’m really drawn towards the half-circle windows up above, and [I] like the ornamentation in the brick. I thought it was pretty challenging to have to capture this whole building in 10 minutes. But, it was a fun challenge sketching outside and sketching to a time limit and a great opportunity to practice perspective.” — Darin

Darin mixes an orange in his palette lid.

Darin expressed regretting going into watercolor, because it was really fun just to sketch with pen! Reflecting on our creative experience is such a key part of the process of making art: remember that you can always try a different approach next time!

Darin’s Supplies included a Black A5 Art Toolkit, Explore Palette Plus, Sharpie, Pentel Water Brush, and a Moleskine Watercolor Album.

Cole

A person stands in front of a brick wall, smiling, while holding open a small sketchbookk showing line drawing of an urban intersection and crosswalks. — Outreach Coordinator Cole Morreale.

Someone holds up a finished sketch of a building with the subject in the background, with a palette clipped to their paper. — Cole’s 10-minute sketch.

Cole is relatively new to urban sketching, so sometimes, they get overwhelmed by lots of movement and everything going on around them.

“I tend to start with what’s right in front of me, which happened to be the streetlight and the cute little garbage can! I worked my way out from there.” — Cole

A person holds a toolkit, open sketchbook and sharpie, sketching, while leaning up against a brick building. — Cole clipped their palette to their sketchbook.

Cole stood kitty-corner to our building downtown, so they got to sketch what people see as they head our way! Cole found the challenge relaxing, and they just let their hands capture what was in front of them!

Cole’s Supplies included a Duotone Desert Pocket Art Toolkit, Explore Palette, Sharpie, Pentel Water Brush, and a Moleskine Watercolor Album.

Lena

A person stands in front of a brick wall, smiling, while holding open a small sketchbookk showing drawing of a tree, lamppost and person picnicking. — Shop Assistant Lena Valentine.

Someone holds up a sketch of a street corner with the subject in the background with a palette clipped to their paper. — Lena’s 10-minute sketch.

Reflecting on what caught her eye, Lena shared:

“I was very drawn to the tall and narrow lampposts and to the yellows and the greens!” — Lena

A person adds details to the lamp post in a sketchbook, laid on a green tablee next to an open art toolkit. — Lena focused on the vertical subjects from her vantage point.

Lena decided to add some people to her sketch to make the scene seem a “little bit more lively” and include the signage of the Lighthouse Cafe across the street. She shared that the ten minutes limit was definitely a bit difficult, but she had a lot of fun and wanted to paint a little longer!

Lena’s Supplies included a Grey with Blue Trim Pocket Art Toolkit, Explore Palette, Pentel Brush Pen, Pentel Water Brush, and a Moleskine Watercolor Album.

Tips for a 10-Minute Sketch

Aerial view of four open sketchbooks, held together in a cluster by sketchers. — 10-minute sketches by Art Toolkit staff.

Pick a favorite pen, and leave your pencils tucked away.
Once you have picked your subject, try to spend more time looking at your subject than at your paper as you sketch. The more you do this, the easier it will be!
Include secondary colors in your palette so you don’t have to spend much time mixing colors.
Spend 5-7 minutes sketching, and leave the last few minutes to add color and/or notes!

Prompt

We encourage you to take just 10 minutes and observe the world around you. Try sketching the four corners of an intersection (or more if more than two roads intersect!) or arrange an outing with some friends to capture kitty-corner views together!

A person with a beanie and a beard squints, holding a water brush at arms' length. — Darin uses his Water Brush to measure window lengths.

A smiling person sits at a green table, sketching with a row of cars parked in the background. — Lena finds a comfortable spot to sit and sketch in the shade.

Thank you so much for coming along on our mini-adventure! We want to invite you to take a pause in your day, whether to go out in a city, your neighborhood, a local park, or into the wilderness, to take just 10 minutes to sketch and explore your surroundings. We’d love to see what you create.

We love seeing what you create! Tag us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube @arttoolkit.