Upcoming Sketching Events this July

July is a great month for sketching fun!

2nd Annual West Coast Urban Sketchers Sketchcrawl! See full details at http://wc2014.pdxusk.org/. Please RSVP to 2ndwcuskskcrawl@gmail.com

• Friday, July 11: Icebreaker at McMenamins Ringlers Pub at 5:00pm, with a Five-Minute Portrait Party. Get to know your fellow sketchers over drinks and snacks.
• Saturday, July 12: All-day sketching in the South Park Blocks. Event starts at 9:30am at the base of the Theodore Roosevelt statue near the corner of SW Madison Street and SW Park Avenue, just east of the main entrance of the Portland Art Museum. Sketchbook sharing at 12 noon and 4 pm in the outdoor courtyard area of the Portland Art Museum.
  

Teddy Roosevelt says, "Bully for sketching!"

Third Saturday Sketchcrawl: Saturday, July 19. Let's explore Sellwood Park and the surrounding area!

• Meet 9:30 am at the Blue Kangaroo for coffee and snacks: 7901 SE 13th Ave, at Lexington.

• 10 am: Stroll three blocks east to the lush, shady paradise of Sellwood Park. Views over the river, sports fields, heck you could even pack your swimsuit for a post-sketching dip in the historic Sellwood Pool. Oaks Pioneer Church is nearby at the corner of SE Grand and Spokane. Folks can head down to the waterfront too if they like!
  
  
• 1 pm meet at The Muddy Rudder for sketchbook sharing and lunch: 8105 SE 7th Ave, at Tacoma.

The Sellwood Pool has open swim from 1-5 pm on Saturdays, $4 drop-in fee. Just so you know.

Do you know of other great sketching events this month? Share your tips in the comments! 

Library Display, Part 2

More of our sketchbooks are now on display outside of the Popular Library downtown. The top shelf has sketchbooks from Marco and Gregg. The next features Janene's and Bill's. Katura's sketchbook and a copy of a page by Andrea are on the third shelf, along with a couple of library books. (Emily Carr was a sketcher, right?) The bottom shelf has another library book and sketchbooks from Deb and me.

The poster that Andrea designed will get an addition after this weekend, saying  something like: for future monthly sketching events visit...UskPDX. Both this display and the one on the 3rd floor will be in place until August 5th.

I have all the sketchbooks that we were unable to use. I would be happy to return them to you this Friday at Ringler's if you'd like. (I won't bring them unless I hear from you.)

After the setup, I wandered over to the Art Museum and look what I saw:

(the Sketchbook Project getting ready to open)

It's too bad this won't be around this weekend. It will be open from 1:00-5:00 today and tomorrow. Wish I had brought another sketch crawl poster to tack on the outside.

Teddy Roosevelt

The 2nd Annual West Coast Urban Sketchers Sketchcrawl is coming up on Friday, July 11 and Saturday, July 12! I went to take a photo of the Teddy Roosevelt statue across from the art museum in the South Park Blocks today, since that is going to be "base camp" for our sketchy adventures on Saturday. Since the baby was in a fine mood to play in the park, I got in this quick sketch of the statue as well.

(My current approach to sketching is a novel variant on the blind contour drawing technique: glance at the page every now and then, but mostly keep my eyes on the baby as I draw. When I decide that she has put quite enough handfuls of dirt into her mouth for this sitting, I put down the pencil. Tah dah! This is how art movements are born, my friends. Hee hee.)

Hope to see y'all at the event! Don't forget to RSVP!

Library Sketchbook Display

I thought those of you who generously loaned your wonderful sketchbooks for our library display might like to see the result--or at least part one. These are the sketchbooks that are displayed on the 3rd floor of the Central Multnomah County Library, underneath the clock in the Art and Music room...

More sketchbooks will be setup in the wall display case outside of the popular library, but that won't happen until next Monday, so stay tuned for part two.

Deb and I were given a tour of some of the more secret parts of the library, from basement archives to the top, looking down on the rooftop gardens. We would have loved to get in some sketching of those great city views.

The library is also featuring several books on sketching that can be checked out. These are on display on shelves as you enter the Art and Music room. If you're there, take a look.

Thanks to the MCL for their support of our sketch crawl event, my friend, Jayne, who coordinated it, to Andrea for her eye-catching poster, and to all of you who loaned your very precious sketchbooks.

A Return to Urban Sketching

The weather in Portland is warming up, the people are in the streets, and I'm there, sketchbook in hand observing the goings on around town. Well, the goings on inside coffee shops, bars, and on nice sunny hot dog eatery patios anyway. It's great to get out and although I haven't had a chance to join up with you, my Urban Sketching brethren, I've gone on solo missions to sketch the people and places of our colorful city. This past week's adventures have taken me to Zach's Shack, which I believe are the tastiest hot dogs in town; for some sweet treats and caffeine atDragonfly Coffee House, one of Portland's coziest coffee shops; and for some libations at Muu Muu's one of the chillest bars in the Northwest area of town. Hopefully as the summer goes on, I can get out and continue my little solo Urban Sketching adventures, and if anyone ever wants to join me for a mid-week romp around town, shoot me a line, perhaps we can romp together.
Once again the links to some of my sketch spots:
Dragonfly Coffee House and Bakery
Muu Muu's
Zach's Shack

Cozy seats and sweet treats at Dragonfly Coffee House

People doing their thing at Dragonfly Coffee House

People of Muu Muu's

The view of Por Que No from Zach's Shack

This is my first try at posting sketches.  The sketches were done looking down NW 13th at Hoyt done 17 years apart.

Extra, Extra, Read All About It!

The Oregonian wrote up a nice article about the upcoming 2nd Annual Urban Sketchers Sketchcrawl! Check it out:

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2014/06/portland_poised_to_welcome_art.html

We sure hope you can join us on July 11 and 12 for all the fun. Get all the details at http://wc2014.pdxusk.org/.

Director Park and Drink and Draw

These big chess pieces are fun to draw.

 

The building under construction doesn't look that big when there's all these trees around.

This is a sketch from the Portland Art Museum 2nd floor.

I'm making my way through all the sculptures I can catch from sitting on a bench.  Forgot my stool - whoopsie.

Director Park

Milwaukie

A couple of pencil sketches from the Milwaukie sketchcrawl.