January sketches

A couple of sketches including our January sketchcrawl at McMenamin's Kennedy School in NE Portland.

A day last week was good enough to do a bit of outside sketching at PSU. The Beech tree was so spectacular in its winter structure and a great contrast to the PSU Library structure. I wound up doing two sketches from different angles.

Old and New Portland Architecture

I'm sure you recognize these houses from the sketch crawl posts on this blog. I couldn't resist going back to New Seasons to sketch these colorful oldies.

This new building is the Karl Miller Center at PSU.  I sketched it from the covered deck of the Urban Center building. It was a perfect for a drizzly day.

Native American Student Center PSU

Last week I had an hour to kill some time near PSU.  I am not fond of much of the modern architecture in Portland because it is boring, not adventurous, but this building is complicated and evokes the Native American traditions beautifully.  I knew what it was before I heard the name. 
It is both modest and strong, reflecting the tradition it houses.

Above, a quick sketch (with Diamine Ancient Copper ink in a Lamy Al-star) of
the Native American Student Center at the south end of the PSU campus, off the park. 
Watercolor wash moved the inks: three colors were used: Yavapei, Lapis, and Shungite, with a bit of leftover mixed green for the tree which was overshadowed by the Ancient Copper ink, which runs like crazy.... Below, pushing my comfort zones, using watercolor pencils, no inked lines (absolutely out of my comfort zone), and light watercolor washes on site.  Back in studio added to the washes a bit, and may have overworked it.  All a learning.  Watercolors are SO in the moment, unforgiving!

PSU Sketchcrawl

These is something about a nice comfy bench that enhances the view in front of it, in my opinion anyway.  We found a bench and this was the view.

I did the drawing in ink but ran out of time so added the watercolor later.

Someone I know pretty well sat beside me & did this sketch--pretty ambitious, John!

I did this sketch at a Plein Air event at Tryon Creek the weekend before.  Everything had a velvety coat of moss.

Spiral Sketching

I've been taking a Sketchbook Skool (yes, it's spelled that way) class and last week's instructor was Urban Sketcher, Miguel Herranz. One of his suggestions was to start a drawing in the center and then spiral out from that instead of doing a layout first. One advantage to this kind of sketching is that you can stop at almost any time and you have a fairly complete looking sketch. Somehow, I haven't found it very easy to stop, though.

I started the Jamison Square sketch yesterday and went back to finish it today. I had drawn the birch trees with white gel pen and they looked like ghost trees. Today, Deb informed me that they are infected with Birch Boar and are indeed dying. That's too bad. I've been drawing these trees over several years and it will be sad to see them go.

This next sketch was drawn from inside at the always welcoming Ovation Coffee Shop, bordering the Fields. A few of us sketched inside, waiting for the drizzle to end. Again, Deb helped me out by giving me an Urban Sketcher sticker to cover up the partially drawn dog that I didn't have time to finish before it walked away.

The toned paper seemed appropriate for the cloudy days we had today and yesterday, but here's a bit of color from a sunnier day last weekend.

Walk of the Heroines

What a great turnout for the sketchcrawl on Oct 18! Loved meeting all the new folks, including travelers from afar, as well as seeing old sketching buddies. Plus breakfast tamales, wow.

I mostly drew at the Walk of the Heroines at the PSU campus. Was glad for (mostly) dry weather and also very glad that there were puddles of rainwater in one of the carved stone monument thingies for the kiddo to splash in!

I was once again blown away by the sketchbook sharing at the end--such beautiful, creative, and unique ways of capturing the world around us. Thanks to everyone for being so fun and inspiring!

WCSketch - watercolor

Here are my sketches from Saturday - one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  Sitting in the shade, the heat wasn't too bad.

Here's some lively Farmer's Market.

And this is Lincoln Hall, also at PSU.

I loved this beautiful day.  Thanks to all of you beautiful people for joining us!