The View from Pill Hill

Another big group of urban sketchers this month--13, 14 people? Wonderful.  * Otra vez, un grupo grande para dibujar esta mes--¿13, 14 personas? Que maravilloso.

The Rilassi Coffee House on the south waterfront is an excellent place to admire people's dogs. Chops the bulldog puppy was perhaps the biggest hit in the puppy parade. * El café Rilassi, en el sur de la orilla oeste del rio, es un lugar excelente para admirar perros. El perrito "Chops" tal vez fue la superestrella del desfile de perros. 

Fast sketch as we rode up the aerial tram to the OHSU campus. Had to stop and admire the historic photo of the student rugby team from 1894. * Hice este dibijo rapidamente al subir a OHSU por el teleférico. Despúes, admiré a lost chavos del equipo estudiantíl de rugby de 1894.

From the balcony where the tram lets you off, the view down over the city is pretty fancy. My attempts to paint the Ross Island Bridge and the Marquham Bridge from above would have been better if Wayne Thiebaud had been there to give me advice. * Al salir del teleférico, hay un balcón con una vista excelente de la ciudad. Mis pinturas del puente Marquham y del puente Ross Island habrían sido mejores con la ayuda de Wayne Thiebaud.

The lovely blue-green building tiles and the bright yellow flowers made this corner of campus a lovely little scenic surprise. * Los azulejos verdes y azules en el edificio historico con las flores amarillas trayeron color sorprendente al gris del día.

And finally, before we went back down the tram to share sketchbooks and eat pho, I tried tackling the skybridge. My grasp of the architecture is so-so, but I like how the contrast between the trees and the buildings turned out. * Antes de regresar al fondo de la colina para compartir dibujos y comer pho, traté de pintar el puente de vidrio que conecta dos edificios de la universidad. No entiendo bien la arquitectura, pero me gusta el contraste entre los edicifios y el bosque.

Black and White and Red All Over

I have such a backlog of urban sketches that I want to share... I'll start with a little lesson I am learning about working on toned paper. Very often I only pack a dark pencil (black or brown) and a light pencil (white or cream), leaving the middle tone of the paper to do the rest of the work. But every now and then a splash of additional color is so helpful!

Example #1:
Raindrops on maple twigs, sketched in Poulsbo, Washington. My brother-in-law loaned me his red editing pencil for the color detail and I was so glad to have it.

Example #2:
Took the Bolt Bus to Bellingham a few weeks back, and got these doodles during our layover in the International District of Seattle.

As you might guess from the red lanterns in the tree, it was right about the time of the lunar new year. I had only packed two pencils--a black and a white. Luckily my husband had a red ballpoint pen with him, because that little scene really needed its splash of color!

Pocket Notebook

I recently bought a small notebook that I can use for shopping lists and other tedious daily notes. Since it is small enough to fit in my coat pocket, and the paper has no lines, it ends up being very useful for unplanned sketching adventures, too.

This statue is so shiny and luminous in the rain!

Such as the other day, when I was running errands downtown and found myself contemplating Portlandia in the rain. (Note: flimsy paper + ballpoint pen + steady drizzle = rip city.)

Scavenger Hunt: Blind Contour of Portlandia

Scavenger Hunt: Blind Contour of Portlandia

Or, when I recently hopped off the bus and found myself right outside Voodoo Doughnut II.

Scavenger Hunt: A doughnut. One that returns your gaze, even, while twiddling its mustache.

 
Handy little tool, indeed! 

Goose Hollow

I’ve never really explored the Goose Hollow neighborhood before, so I was excited to go to the sketchcrawl there this morning. But the coffee shop where we met up was decorated so charmingly that I spent most of my time inside, admiring the artificial crows. * Nunca había explorado la vecindad de Goose Hollow mucho antes, así que estaba muy entusiasmada assistir al sketchcrawl ahí esta mañana. Pero las decoraciones dentro del café donde nos reunimos eran tan encantadoras que pasé la mayoria de mi tiempo adentro, admirando los cuervos artificiales.

Realizing that it was a beautiful sunny day, I took a quick walk around the block and did fast doodles of pretty decorations on people’s porches. * Me dí cuenta que era absurdo estar adentro durante un día tan perfecta de otoño. Rapidamente pasé por las casas históricas y dibujé las decoraciones en las porches.

Scavenger Hunt: Bridge

I've been dragging my feet on choosing what bridge to draw for our artistic scavenger hunt. Portland's bridges are so darned iconic that it's hard to chose! But yesterday I found myself waiting on the Hawthorne bridge, as the drawbridge section was just starting to rise...and I realized that this was be the perfect moment to capture in a sketch. I scratched it out in ballpoint pen and then added watercolor at home. * He tardado mucho en escojer un puente para la búsqueda de tesoro artístico. Los puentes de Portland son tan icónicos que ha side difícil escojer! Pero ayer me encontré en la puente Hawthorne, esperando porque el mecanísmo de levadizo estaba empezando a trabajar…y me dí cuenta que era el momento perfecto para capturar en un bosquejo. Lo dibujé con bolígrafo, y anadí la acuarela al regresar a mi casa.

Bikes, revisited

OK, I know that I already crossed of the "bike" from my scavenger hunt list; but I can't resist sharing this doodle of an amazing bike that was parked outside of the museum this week.

Keeping Portland Weird with every pedal-stroke!

Beaucoup de Bastille Day Sketches

The Bastille Day sketching expedition was a lot of fun. I started off with watercolors, tackling the musicians and one of the ladies listening to the music.

Stumptown Comics Fest: Fashion Notes

Spent a lovely Saturday afternoon browsing the incredible piles of talent on display at the Stumptown Comics Fest this past weekend. Part of the fun is always seeing what people are wearing! While waiting to meet up with some friends, I did these quick fashion sketches of folks purchasing tickets to the show.

Quite a lot of vintage-inspired outfits, bordering on historical costume pieces, but plenty of punk rock black leather jackets and good reliable trench coats with Batman patches to balance out the tweedy vibe. 

My friend Isabel was in the spirit of fancy hats with a twist of Victoriana that day, so I'll share this fast (but more detailed) sketch I did of her at breakfast before the event.