President's Day Sketchcrawl - EcoTrust Building

A few of us took advantage of the public holiday today to do some sketching in and around the EcoTrust Building in the Pearl District.

I spent most of my time working on a single large spread made up of smaller images...

Left to right: Ruined wall in parking lot, Vespa, view from the roof of the Eco Trust Building, Stone Lantern at 'Cargo' store

After lunch we walked over to the import store 'Cargo' on 13th and Flanders to draw some funky Asian imports. This is a great place to draw, and the staff are really accommodating to sketchers, but with so many things to draw it's serious sensory overload. There really is such a thing as too much of a good thing! I finally settled in the room where they keep all the Buddha statues...

After Cargo we had coffee at Lovejoy Bakery, showed off our second round of drawings, and then went our separate ways. It was great to see everyone and talk pens, paint, and drawing styles. Good times!

Portrait Party

Portland weather means more indoor sketching during the cold and rainy winter months. Often the subject is whatever you can see from the cozy confines of a cafe couch, but this Tuesday we got together to draw a very specific subject - each other!

The portrait party is not a new idea - there are plenty of examples online - but it was the first time for the Portland Urban Sketchers Group to try it.

We gathered at the Columbia River Brewing Company Pub in Portland's Hollywood District and, after drinks and dinner, got to drawing. 

We worked on pre-made portrait blanks 8.5"x7" in size on heavy bond paper, specifically designed to copy easily onto legal-sized paper in the second part of the party. Attendees were asked to bring drawing media that photocopied well - pigment liner pens, black brush pens, black ink, or very dark pencil are best.

Partners were chosen randomly, and each partner took a turn drawing and being drawn. Each partner was drawn twice - a 2-minute warmup followed by a full 10-minute drawing.

(We had an odd number of people this time. Vicky was kind enough to sit out the regular drawing round and do a number of thumbnail sketches instead.  Then she sat for multiple artists in an extra round of drawing while we got sorted. Thanks, Vicky!)

When the drawings were done, one drawing of each person was turned in for collating. Occasionally people prefer their looser, more gestural 2-minute drawing over the 10-minute one, but ultimately it's left up to the artist and model to decide. The short drawing times help level the playing field between artists of different skill levels, making beginners less anxious to attend!

Drawings in hand, we headed to the Fedex copy center a few blocks away for the next step - turning our drawings into a book!

The portraits were collated and copied into book format so each page spread showed a pair of portraits. Each full sheet was a legal-sized piece of paper, making each page 8.5" high by 7" wide. We also added an introduction page in front and Vicky's thumbnail sketches in the back. During copying, other members were hard at work preparing the other pieces of the book...

 

We folded heavy art paper for the covers - Mi-Teintes or similar paper is good for this - and attached pre-made title cards to the front covers using a glue stick.

We cut and waxed white linen thread for the spine-stitching. After pages and covers were assembled, we used a 5-hole pamphlet stitch to bind the whole thing together and...

Finished! The first Portland Urban Sketchers Portrait Party book ever. We made one copy for each attendee, plus an extra copy for our very patient waitress from the pub, delivered to her after the event.

Here's a sample spread from inside - Alanna and Katherine taking turns drawing each other...

 

All told, the process took about 3 hours including dinner, explaining the process, drawing, and making the actual book. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, so hopefully we will do this again next winter!



If you are interested in learning more about the portrait party process, you might want to check out this excellent post from Roz Stendahl which acted as a guide for our own party. In addition, Flickr users may be interested in the Julia Kay Portrait Party group, an ongoing online portrait party with over 10,000 portraits and growing!

Field Report - Paris

Some Urban Sketching from further afield...

Back in August when it seemed half the sketchers in the world came to Portland to draw our city I found myself going in the opposite direction - on my first ever trip to Europe. I spent a few days each in London, Paris, and Berlin running around madly trying to see everything. And, while I mostly took photos or bought postcard sets at each place I went, I did get some drawing in...

I did the most drawing in Paris, the middle leg of the trip. I wasn't running full speed like I did in London at the beginning of the trip, nor was I exhausted like I was on the last leg in Berlin. Paris is best when you slow down anyway.

You could spend the rest of your life drawing Notre Dame and not be done. I didn't get inside - the lines were too long that day - but I did have a great time drawing the facade.  

 

The BHV (below) really summed up the spirit Paris for me. This ornate, 150-year old building is...a department store. Paris is old and funky, but it is not decaying. It is used. Lovingly so. Sure, there were plenty of museums, but just as many old buildings were being lived in, worked in, and played in. It was wonderful.

My favorite museum had to be the Musee d'Orsay. I like Impressionist painting, particularly Degas, so the Orsay was high on my list of places to visit. I was not disappointed.

Paris Museums are crowded, but usually around the famous paintings. I didn't bother trying to squeeze into the Monet room, any more than I bothered braving the line to see the Mona Lisa at the Louvre. Instead I usually wandered away from the crowds to try to find something that felt significant to me. My favorite work in the museum turned out not to be a Degas, but this work, 'Le Silence' by Lucien Levy-Dhurmer, an artist I'd never heard of before...

 

 

Drawing in a crowded museum is not for the self-concious - I'm sure at least a hundred people peeked over my shoulder in the time it took to do this copy. I didn't mind much - you tend to tune them out after a while. And yes, there is a certain amount of satisfaction when you're getting as much attention as the work you're copying.

If you are seeking some peace and quiet in Paris - and you probably will be at some point - try visiting a church. I didn't realise that the church near my hotel, the Eglise St-Paul St-Louis, was open to the public until I went in on a whim on my last day in the city. Very peaceful inside, with locals coming to pray quietly at the front of the church while people with cameras stayed largely unobtrusive in the back (if they didn't the locals weren't shy about telling them so, either!). I did my own form of meditation, by drawing this statue of Joan of Arc in a quiet corner of the church...

 

All in all, a great first trip to Europe. I did a few drawings in London and Berlin as well, plus lots of pictures from all three cities, all of which I have posted on Flickr.

I definitely plan go back someday. Having done the mad whirlwind tour, I'm hoping to slow down a lot more next time and do even more drawing!