Portlandia Sketchcrawl!

A fun day for a sketchcrawl--veering back and forth between cold and rainy, then suddenly sunny and blue skies, and then rain again. We were making good use of coffee shops, overhangs, and whatnot to keep sketching in the unpredictable climate conditions.

Today I decided that my little warm brown Micron pen was good for bricks. And I let my brain play with drawing just enough to give the impression of brick-ness, without driving myself crazy doing every brick. Fun challenge.

Similar challenge when drawing twigs and branches--how much detail is enough to suggest the scene, without going batty tracking every last nuance of the fractal pattern?

As I wandered from the starting cafe towards the ending cafe, I got caught up in the carving on a historic fountain. Fascinating trying to suss out how the stone carver created each letter and number, and also surprising to see how the light and dark of each incision were not where I would have expected them to fall. 

We sketchers met up again at a coffee shop near our fine city's "Portlandia" sculpture, and were able to sit indoors with warm beverages and draw her through the windows. Amazing watching the light on the rain-wet sculpture change as the clouds would part, and then regather again.