Seattle Public Library

I'd gone to Seattle for a concert, and delayed my return so that I could also attend a sketchcrawl there, at the downtown library.  While most people stayed inside the library to sketch either the interior or the views of the city through those diamond-shaped windows, I retreated to a coffee shop across the street, and worked on the view outside the window, tackling the strange perspective of the exterior of the library.

Sketchcrawl in Beaverton

I found a dry place to sit in the center of the court and did a sketch of the carts in the opposite corner, with the city hall looming behind them.






By the time I'd finished that I was chilled, so I retreated to a heated porch, sitting behind a line of sketchers perched on bar stools.




And one bonus sketch, of one of the stuffed animals in the Christmas display at Union Station.


Another fun day with the Portland Urban Sketchers!   Ellie

Happy to see everyone at the BG Food Cartel in Beaverton.

I tried the "direct to watercolor" approach that I keep hearing about.

BG Food Cartel today ... and some other recent sketches

Today we had a nice turnout again - it was nice that there was no rain - and the cold did not deter us!

Lovely to see you all - new and familiar faces alike.

This sketch is from last month's crawl at the Portland Nursery.  I enjoyed capturing Paula and trying out some warped perspective.  Cozy and warm inside the greenhouse.

This sketch is from the 10x10 class taught by Rita at the Chinese Garden.

This was at the Annie Amie Vinyard - our office had a winery tour for a holiday party.

And here are some recent bus sketches from my new commute on the #35 bus.

Oregon Historical Society- sketching visit

On this past cold and windy day in Portland I decided to visit the Oregon Historical Society. I had heard that there was a display of SantaLand items and thought that might be interesting.

Now, I am immigrant from the east coast, so I was not familiar with what Santaland was. It turns out that for many years the Meier and Frank company had this animated holiday  display...at one time it took up a whole floor of the downtown store. Over the years it was compressed to smaller spaces and eventually disbanded.

The display that I saw was pretty small. A volunteer there said that mostly it was due to the extremely poor condition of most of the items when the historical society took possession of them.
What I saw was the Santa chair, Rudolf, tree, wreath, and three elves. The sort of train thing behind the elves is supposed to be a model of a monorail that had been part of the original Meier and Frank display.

I originally worked this up in pen but was dissatisfied with the black and grey tones so decided to do it up in Gouache when I got home.

I walked around a bit at the other displays and settled on this other display to sketch.

 

And just to round out this report of my sketching day is my beginning sketch done from the Behind the Museum Cafe....a view out the window.

 

Staver Steamup

I made it for a bit of the day this year.  I had a prior commitment in the afternoon, so I had to go in the morning, just after they'd opened and could only stay an hour.

I started out by sketching some of the stationary trains, not being quick enough to do the ones running around the tracks.

By the time I was finished with that more families had arrived, so I did one quick sketch of a couple of kids playing with wooden toy trains.

Portland Nursery Setchcrawl

Thought I might join on the bandwagon to post sketches from our latest...and might I say, largest turnout! Someone mentioned that we had 35 people show up for this event. Amazing.

It was also an awesome day....sun, and wonderful shadows, as evidenced in these two sketches.

Not sure what this machine was initially for...perhaps heat? Anyway it was displaying a proper holiday spirit!

Fall color was awesome on this plant in a pot.

 I took the opportunity to do another quick sketch while waiting for our sketcbook share.

A few people had to leave early and were not there at the time of our share.
Would love to see those and others from that sparkling day at Portland Nursery! Please Post.

Sketchcrawl at Portland Nursery

We scheduled our November sketchcrawl at the Portland Nursery on Division because they have a heated greenhouse there.  And we wanted a warm, dry refuge from the winter weather.

Well, this winter day was sunny and mild, if a bit windy.

I had to leave early, but I managed a couple of sketches, one of a statue inside the shade pavilion, and another of a jumble of pots stacked outside.


(While I was working on this one, a man wandered by and told me that I was cheating, because I was using a tablet.)

Portland Nursery on Division

What a beautiful day!!!

DECEMBER 15, 2018 Sketch Crawl - BG Food Cartel

DECEMBER 15, 2018 Sketch Crawl - BG Food Cartel

Image Credit: BG's Food Cartel at the Round

The BG Food Cartel is Beaverton's largest food cart pod.  Let's go check it out and sketch it!  The MAX stop is Beaverton Central.

• 10:00am - Meet under the tents (4250 SW Rose Biggi Ave, Beaverton, OR 97005) for introductions, coffee, and snacks.
• 10:30am - Sketch the carts.
• 12:00noon - Sketchbook Throwdown at a cart location TBD.  
• 12:15pm - Optional lunch and sketchbook sharing at the food cart pod.  We'll figure out the exact lunch destination when we get there. 

2019 - THE YEAR OF THE BRIDGE

ANNOUNCEMENT: The Portland Urban Sketchers Administrator Team  hereby declares 2019 to be THE YEAR OF THE BRIDGE.  Every month we will sketch a different bridge - views from it or views of it.  Here are some of the bridges we would enjoy sketching.

• Tilikum
• Hawthorne
• Sellwood
• Marquam
• Steel
• Darlene Hooley
• Fremont
• Union Station Pedestrian
• Ross Island
• Broadway
• Vista 
• Morrison
• St Johns

We need your help to identify bridges that are worthy of our sketching attention!  Please send us any bridges you would like to sketch. 

In January, we will kick off THE YEAR OF THE BRIDGE from OHSU.  There is the Darlene Hooley Pedestrian Bridge and the VA Skybridge, plus views of the Marquam Bridge.  And, it is a warm interior space for January.  More information will follow. 

Thank You for the Fantastic Year of 10x10 Workshops in Portland

Last Saturday we wrapped up the last 10x10 workshop of 2018. This year in Portland over 50 sketchers and 4 instructors participated; 2 students received scholarships; and we are sending a portion of the proceeds ($1091) to Urban sketchers organization to help improve educational programming around the world. This year we have covered a lot of territory. First we addressed our fears and obstacles head on, held three workshops on perspective, learned to draw crowds at the Pride parade, and looked at ways to tell stories in our drawings, and much more. Thank you to all of you who participated and made this such a successful year!

We will kick things off in March of 2019 with “Introduction to Urban Sketching”–a free fundamentals workshop where we invite complete beginners as well as artists from other fields who are curious about urban sketching to attend. Please join us and invite your friends too. Urban Sketching will change your life! Registration to this and other workshops coming in 2019 will be announced soon.
Happy Sketching!

November 17, 2018 Sketch Crawl - Portland Nursery Greenhouse on Division

NOVEMBER 17, 2018, Sketch Crawl - Portland Nursery Greenhouse

We have a great opportunity to sketch at the Portland Nursery.  They have a greenhouse with cacti and tropical plants - sounds great on a fall day! Our pre- and post-sketching will have an Asian theme.

Special Instructions from the Portland Nursery:

1. Please do not disturb or interfere with customers.
2. If you are going by car, please use the East parking lot (gravel lot), instead of the one out front.
3. If you are biking, there is a bike rack on the west side.
4. If you are going by public transit, Trimet bus and MAX have nearby stops.

Schedule:

• 10:00am - Meet at Gary's Bakery and Bistro (8615 SE Division St # 101, Portland, OR 97266) for introductions, coffee, and snacks.
• 10:30am - Walk over to the Portland Nursery Greenhouse at 9000 SE Division.
• 12:00noon - Sketchbook Throwdown at the Portland Nursery Greenhouse.  
• 12:15pm - Optional lunch and sketchbook sharing at Wong's King (8733 SE Division St #101, Portland, OR 97266)

Swan Island sketchcrawl

Another lovely sketching day that started out cold and foggy but then moved to sunny and warm.
We explored a little part of a new walkway/path and its views of the river. This spot is worth another visit. Thanks Andrea, for scoping this out.

My warm-up sketch tried to capture some of the fogginess of the morning...not exactly!

I then switched to doing a series of vignettes using my two non-waterproof pens and Lexington Grey filled water brush.

This last group I added some color with Watercolor Pencils.

On Monday, I and a couple of other sketchers visited Reed College. The combination of architecture and big, gorgeous trees in color was too stunning to pass.

Watercolor pencils and ink

Trying to capture some of the color!

Sketchcrawl on Swan Island

 We all headed towards the river and straggled along the park there, finding vantage points.  I started out looking directly across the river, with the clouds pinned to the top of the Tualatin Ridge muting all the colors.



Then I wandered to the end of the path, and then backtracked to a shrub with colorful fruit.

3rd Saturday Sketchcrawl - Oct. 20 - Swan Island

OCTOBER 20, 2018, Sketch Crawl - Swan Island

Photo Credit: OregonHikers.org

Here's a place I've never been and have been wondering about for ages.  Swan Island.  It is full of industrial buildings and it sits on the Willamette River.   There is McCarthy Park with a path you can walk along.  It looks like it has some interesting views.

• 10:00am - Meet at Anna's Island Cafe  (4715 N Lagoon Ave, Portland, OR 97217) for introductions, coffee, and snacks.
• 10:30am - Walk over to the McCarthy Park trail  at N. Channel Ave & N Anchor St.  (I will make sure this is feasible.)
• 12:00noon - Optional lunch and sketchbook sharing back at Anna's. 

Pottery in Montevilla

Most of us strung ourselves along Stark to draw the Academy Theater from different angles.  But I was struck by the figures posed in the window of a pottery shop and stopped to sketch them.

Montavilla and the Academy Theater

We had a good turnout, good weather, and good sketching yesterday. Here's a photo of the sketchers who were around for the throw-down and another of their sketches.

Some of the sketchers stayed for lunch at Flying Pie Pizza. It was also a chance to look at sketchbooks and iPad sketches up close.

Quite a few of us drew the Academy Theater and it was fun to see the various approaches. Here's mine.

Thanks everyone, for another fun day of sketching and chatting (and eating) together.