May 2021 SketchCrawl - Eastside Esplanade, Saturday, May 15, 2021

Ready to return to on-site sketching?  We're planning our first non-virtual sketchcrawl since February 2020!

We recommend join this sketchcrawl only if you will be fully vaccinated and don't consider yourself high risk. Please wear a mask and be prepared to keep up social distance.

If you need to stay vigilant at home -- you are welcome to continue to participate virtually! 

Saturday, May 15
10am-12pm (No group lunch this time)
Vera Katz Eastside Esplanade

Meet in the open area just south of the bronze Vera Katz statue.  We will gather again at noon, and try to do a sketchbook throwdown in an orderly and distanced manner. If we get rain, there is shelter under the bridge and overpasses with good views still available.

Parking is available right next to our location on SE Main ($3 an hour or $9 for the day) or a couple blocks south at OMSI ($5, pay inside based on parking space number). Bus lines 2, 6, and 14 stop at Hawthorne Bridge and it's a ~7 minute walk.

If needed, bathrooms are available inside OMSI; as you approach the ticket desk, they are down the corridor to the left/east.  Be prepared - OMSI can be a bit crowded both outside and inside so it will be difficult to maintain social distance.

Looking forward to seeing everyone's faces again -- at least the upper half!

Virtual Sketchcrawl- Just Three

Seems that I may have a tendancy to choose limited materials anyway having found a least these two examples.

In the top image I am using a pen with black ink, a waterbrush with Noodlers Lexington Grey ink (watered down a bit), and another water brush with Noodlers Apache Sunset ink. This is a view of the neighboring house through the broad crotch of the Catalpa tree. In the other (same view, but of the whole scene) I used the pen with black ink, waterbrush with Noodlers Lexington Grey ink (as in the other sketch), and a pen with Noodlers Kiowa Pecan ink.

Just Three

It's spring and I thought that those endearing and pesky robins who wake me up at dawn would be the perfect thing to sketch with just three colors. Black for their wings and outline, a dash of orange, and green as the background for the lawns where they hunt worms.

But when my sketchbook came out, they suddenly became elusive, or were at the top of the trees. It wasn't fun to sketch a speck. Next, I moved on to my neighbor's house, but their Victorian just looked flat with three colors.

While sitting in a local park, I noticed a sunbather on a hillside of grass blocking out a confusing background. I made a quick sketch and splashed on some green watercolor. Messy it is, but I think it captures the moment of inspiration.

-Bruce

Easter Morning

My next-door neighbor used to have a camellia tree at the corner of her house, that towered over her roof line, splendid with red blossoms.

When the oak tree fell it smashed most of the plant.  It survived, but in a truncated (sorry) state, ending up as a sturdy shrub.

This spring, after a year of rest, it put out a single bud, a single blossom.  I'm taking that as a portent of hope and rebirth.