(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . WAYWO: Some Recent Sketches [1] ['Marko The Werelynx', 'Rob In Vermont', 'News Corpse', 'Returning Fire', 'Kelli Anne Busey', 'Sabrina Haake'] Date: 2026-06-28 Marko the Werelynx I suppose the best way to start one of these things is by introducing myself. You might have seen my fuzzy face around the WAYWO group diaries occasionally. I’ve posted a few in years past, but those were mostly about my kiln building and ceramics work. I can remember doing my first sketch in elementary school back in Madison, Wisconsin. I sat at the edge of the school’s back, blacktop playground and drew a car that was parked across the street, just a small pencil drawing. I’ve always enjoyed drawing and made a comfortable, or rather, an exhausting living at it for a number of years working freelance for several advertising agencies and other assorted companies in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. For a few years over here I was going out sketching with a couple of friends quite regularly. Patricia dubbed our group “Sketch & Kvetch” because every day out drawing had to end with tasty beverages and commiserations. She dropped out to spend more time with her grandkids and Chris and I muddled along for awhile by ourselves until Chris’ own situation and my increasingly awkward schedule made meeting with any regularity impossible. This Spring a young friend celebrated her birthday and asked Chris if he’d give her a drawing lesson for her birthday. Another member of the birthday party chimed in that she’d be interested in learning too and we had a group. We’d meet at a park downtown and Chris would get the ladies set up and working on a subject while I’d wander off and do my own thing. Each week we’d pick a new spot to meet for sketching and a new little cafe or restaurant for kvetching. It looks like this past Thursday was our last meeting for awhile. Chris will be too busy for several weeks and the summer always tosses a bit of chaos into any plans, but I thought I’d like to share what I’ve drawn and painted during these short sessions. The title image of the diary is the box I manage to fit into a backpack and take out into the terrain when I think there might be a chance that I’ll ambitiously do a bit of oil painting. It’s a light wooden box, with a hinged lid that was a wine gift box. I’ve partitioned the inside to provide an A4-sized space for my little canvases and blocks of paper, a small corner spot, and two longer slots for all the brushes, tubes of paint, rags, paper towels, an adorable bottle of water, an old film canister of push pins for securing the canvases and separating them for transportation, a bit of aluminum foil to use as a palette … Usually, I’ll just take along a little cloth, zippered case with brushes and a cheap little plastic box of dry watercolors. Plus a bottle of water or at least a little cup if I know there’ll be water nearby. Marko the Werelynx Sometimes, it’s just a matter of slipping a tiny sketchbook and a couple of pens or pencils into a pocket. But enough about the tools, we’d best get to the sketches. The first was done on a little island park downtown. Mark Hirschler When you sketch in a public place you occasionally have to deal with the public. I remember my interactions with people much better if I was sketching at the time for some reason. A razor-thin lad with black hair and dark clothes, smoking a razor-thin cigarette and looking like a cartoon gigolo, approached me as I sat in a shady spot in the grass and interrupted my sketch of that statue of a girl to ask (in very broken English) if I had any change, if I could help him get the last few crowns he needed for a bus ticket back home to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. Upon hearing his destination I kept trying to steer the conversation into Czech, mine is far better than his English was and a Slovak should have no problem understanding it. I also do pretty well understanding Slovakian, but he was having none of it and I began to have fun stringing him along, the suspiciously Bulgarian wannabe scam artist trying to scam an artist out of some pocket change of which I had none anyway. And so I remember him when I look at my sketch. Then we had an afternoon of sketching at the “High Castle.” You can really see how rusty my skills had gotten in these first two sketches. I also kinda ran out of time on the one below, but that’s one of the risks of making sketching a social activity. If you want to fit a beer into the schedule, you have to fit it in before the other folks with appointments planned have to leave. Watercolor and fine-liner pens Mark Hirschler A favorite courtyard park has plenty of places to sit and interesting views. Watercolor and fine-liner pens. Mark Hirschler Then back to the High Castle for a series of quick sketches in a very small sketchbook of warm grey paper. An equestrian statue of a Bohemian king Mark Hirschler A sculptural detail of one of the gates to the graveyard where you’ll find many famous Czechs buried. Mark Hirschler View from the ramparts looking toward that other castle. Mark Hirschler Another day on an island. This time with a view of the National Theater. Mark Hirschler Finally a day that justified dragging around my big oil painting box. A4 size, oil on pre-sized and gesso-ed canvas Mark Hirschler Back to watercolor, but being a bit braver and not relying on pens to provided outlines and detail. Mark Hirschler Then a couple weeks ago, Mrs the Werelynx and I left to go visit a music festival and I took along some of my sketching tools. There was a park on the grounds of a monastery where free concerts were held and we caught several acts there when we weren’t exploring the town’s other attractions. Mark Hirschler Our accommodations were so nice that I drew a quick ball-point pen sketch of my sketch in their guest book. Mark Hirschler Quite a challenge to sketch the singers and conductor during one of the concerts we attended. Can’t anybody sit still? Mark Hirschler Ah, but that’s a big part of sketching: to capture the form of a thing within as short a time as possible. I’ve spent an hour on some of these drawings and paintings. I get bogged down in detail, counting windows and fiddly bits. What appeals to me more is the work of my friend Anne Rose whose buildings dance and her street scenes are populated with lively characters. Even her use of color is more expressive than realistic. I’ll get there some day. Or perhaps I’ll rather get to a happy place between her exquisite vision and my own, that’s still going through changes. I do think I’m loosening up a bit. My line work should be less hesitant, but it’s at least going somewhere. I see improvement. To be honest, I mostly just see my work getting back up to where it was 10 years ago. Sketching is a skill that atrophies quickly if you don’t keep at it. Back in Prague with the our little sketching group, joined by a third lovely lady for a day of sketching in the oppressive heat last Thursday. This time we met in the university’s botanical garden and drew detail views of plants for a change. A bit of watercolor Mark Hirschler Massive triple trunk of a Platanus tree. Colored pencil on recycled paper Mark Hirschler Well, that was pretty painless wasn’t it? And yes, vgranucci, I did see the lack of faith in your fuzzy-headed friend. Listing my slot on the schedule as “tentative” — harrumpf! Look, I can even copy/paste the usual blurb: What Are You Working On? Do you knit? crochet? sew? make jewelry? do metal (or other) sculpting? build furniture? create with your hands and heart? If you do anything ‘crafty’ please consider doing one of our Sunday afternoon/evening diaries. You can volunteer by replying in the comments or by sending vgranucci a Kos-message Of course, vgranucci should be by to repost to the group and post a comment with the current schedule. I’d like to encourage you good folks to volunteer to put together one of these little community posts. I always have a good time sharing what I’m working on with my DK community. And now that we’re in DK 6, and so much has changed, it feels comforting somehow to be posting a bit of WAYWO again. With comments limited to a single image, why not give yourself a chance to share your own projects in more detail? Sign up! Plenty of slots open last I checked … The only real difficulty is having this thing post far after my bedtime. You’d think, by the looks of me, that I’d gotten too much beauty sleep this weekend. Sadly no. But I shall dutifully queue this up to post at 2:00 AM CEST and pounce on it after it’s had a chance to simmer for a few hours. Late replies are always a feature, not a glitch with your ol’ hairy friend Marko. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/6/28/800061282/community/waywo-some/ Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/