By Ron Evans

Sketching is often a means to an end, to some degree. A rough outline of an idea that occurred to you at the coffee shop. A loose blueprint for your backyard deck. A quick roadmap for a complex graphic design project, later to be fleshed out. But sketching itself is its own art form and one that is not only artistically beneficial, but often therapeutically useful as well.

“Many people making art, but particularly people who define themselves as artists, may be aware of entering a state of ‘flow’ when drawing, painting or creating. It is that sense of getting lost in your process. You are less aware of what is happening around you. Your body is calm and focused and your mind is engrossed in the lines you are creating or the strokes you are making and everything around you fades or disappears. Drawing and making art activate the reward pathways in your brain that activate flow, lower levels of cortisol, a hormone that helps the body respond to stress. Even when the idea of drawing can be intimidating to individuals who don’t consider themselves artists, the pleasure of engaging in drawing or the pleasure of creating something can increase levels of hormones in the brain which improve happiness including dopamine, endorphins, and serotonin.” says Michelle Ferber, a local Licensed Mental Health Counselor with an MS in Art Therapy.

Henry Stinson and Steven Reddy are two stylistically different artists I have seen out and about, peacefully sketching and illustrating the world they see. I reached out to each of them to chat about their love of sketching, especially on location.

Talk briefly about your history with art and what you’re currently up to.

STINSON: Currently I am finishing the work on my studio, insulating, drywall, plumbing, electrical, not in that order. My history: I started out sculpting, working in clay and metal. I moved on to figure drawing. My first figure drawing class was at WSU, what a waste of tuition, no instruction from a tenured professor. It was a high priced open session.

I started going to open figure sessions in Seattle with a buddy of mine (Alan Rushing) in an attempt to teach myself how to draw. We would sometimes draw up to twelve hours a day at open sessions. You’ve got to put the miles in to get better at anything in life.

In 1990, I found my painting teacher, Ron Lukas. I discovered him by attending his open figure drawing session and I was blown away by his work. I knew that he could answer my questions about painting that no one else could. Ron taught Ukrainian Impressionism. It was in my blood — my grandmother’s family immigrated from there at the turn of the century. I studied under Ron four nights a week for three almost four years, he made me what I am today. I am blessed to call him friend.

REDDY: I’ve kept a daily sketchbook journal since high school. In 2010 I met some “Urban Sketchers” at the Gage Academy of Art drawing jam. Until then my sketches had been rather undisciplined and eclectic. Regularly drawing on location gave my work a focus and a shortened time frame for each drawing, which made them less fussy and precious. After a year of sketching in Southeast Asia I published several illustrated journals and the how-to book Everyday Sketching and Drawing.

When and how did sketching or drawing on location enter the picture for you?

REDDY: Drawing with the Seattle Urban Sketchers helped me to draw based on observation and also gave me a finite time frame, so when the session was over, the drawing was done and I moved on without belaboring it. My sketching changed from being about the end product, to being about the process of drawing in the moment.

STINSON: Well Alan and I started drawing on location to supplement our figure drawing, going to coffee shops and bars on Capitol Hill in the 80s. Drawing was our life, we pushed each other to go farther, faster in the medium of drawing. We were a great duo.

What are some of the unique aspects of sketching what’s in front of you versus pulling solely from the imagination - or drawing as a means to construct a more finished work?

STINSON: I love drawing on location, training my hand and eyes to work together as a unit. An added bonus is building my visual memory, so when I work from my imagination I can flesh my ideas out fuller.

REDDY: Drawing on location for so many years has made me less likely to draw from my imagination. My imaginative drawings don’t contain the specificity of a drawing based on observation. I occasionally publish graphic novel style memories, dreams, reflections and conceptual pieces in my books, but the bulk of my work serves as illustrations for a series of very personal memoirs.

Do you find therapeutic benefits of sitting in a public space and capturing the world around you?

STINSON: Yes! I am never bored when I have my sketchbook with me.

REDDY: Absolutely. The meditative aspect of observing the same location for a couple of hours is one of its many allures. To be completely lost in the contours, patterns, textures, colors, shapes and geometry of a complex scene can be immersive to where my ego drops out and I’m surprised that hours have passed and the drawing is finished.

What are some of your favorite places or subjects to sketch?

STINSON: Waiting room, sporting events, airports, coffee shops, public pools are all my muse. People first and foremost — I get ideas from the people I sketch for future paintings, the clothes, style, hair, etc.

REDDY: Because I draw slowly with close observation, I rarely draw moving targets. People, dogs, birds, boats, vehicles, don’t hold still, so my drawings tend to portray somewhat of a ghost world, unpopulated and still. To avoid overthinking my choice of subjects, I’ve lately been setting my phone alarm to random times and committing to drawing whatever is in front of me when the alarm goes off.

What are your favorite materials to sketch with? Are you always carrying them in case a scene you want to capture arises?

STINSON: I always draw in pen in my sketchbook, even when I paint. I never use pencil in my sketchbook, it smears. Also you can erase, which is highly overrated. It takes courage to draw in pen, never fear making a mark. “Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid.” ~ Basil King

When I paint I use watercolor and gouache, and I carry all my sketching supplies in a wheeled backpack that in its former life was a bowling bag. No joke.

REDDY: I’m never without my materials which are very simple and compact so I can carry them in my pocket. Uniball pens, a tiny watercolor kit, brushes and my sketchbook are all I need. My most recent publication, Walks with Willa, is about exploring north Seattle with my new labrador. Because she’s always moving and we walk all day, many of the drawings in that book were drawn from photographs. During Covid I drew a lot through the windshield of my parked car.

Do you often take these drawings and flesh them out into more finished projects?

STINSON: Yes, I will use them for inspiration for a oil painting. No, I don’t work up the sketch into a larger painting itself. It gets me started looking for a model or set to fit my vision that the sketch started.

REDDY: The only time I do any planning sketches are for the graphic novel style narratives. The Urban Sketches are begun and finished on location. Even if I resort to drawing from a photograph I don’t let myself draw for longer than a few hours and I hold myself to the same time constraints, as if I was drawing on location.

Are your drawings compiled and archived in any way? Do you flip through old sketches from time to time?

STINSON: Ha, ha! Don’t make me laugh. Archived, compiled, all loose sketches go in a large drawer in my flat file, sketchbooks get thrown on a very large pile of older sketchbooks. Although I can tell newer books from older ones in that the newer ones have stickers of my art on their cover. Sometimes I do go back and look through my sketches, but that can be a wonderful or dreadful experience depending upon my mood.

REDDY: All of my drawings are kept chronological in their sketchbooks. On my bookshelf are hundreds of 9 x 12 hardbound sketchbooks. The only time I look through them later is for scanning them to be printed as books or when somebody contacts me about purchasing a drawing. Since I post almost everything when it’s finished, it’s simpler for me to flip through Instagram to see a previous drawing.

Any suggestions for people who are looking to get out there and experience the Zen of sketching for themselves?

STINSON: When I taught figure drawing in Seattle, one of the things that I would have my students do is draw on location. I would have them bring their large drawing pad (18”x 24”) so that they could not hide. It helped them get over their fears of working in public. Work from love never fear. It’s also good to have a partner in crime when you’re beginning this adventure, someone to support, and in turn be supportive when you need it.

I’ve made so many ugly drawings to get where I am now, don’t let that stop you in your quest to record your truth. Acknowledge the effort you put in, a bad day painting is better than not painting. Each minute you invest puts you further down the art road towards your goals/visions.

REDDY: My book, Everyday Sketching and Drawing is available everywhere and has hundreds of tips and tricks for inspiring artists to go out and draw from location.

But most good advice about drawing on location boils down to drawing for the love of drawing. Not for the final reward, not for the accolades and pats on the back from other people, not through a competitive streak where you want to be as good as somebody else’s work that you’ve seen — but drawing for the love of being absorbed in the moment in a specific location, thinking of nothing but what’s in front of you. C