Brrrr! Adventures at Mount Scott Park

I was a little less social at the sketchcrawl today than normal; my friend Katy and I had established a rambunctious toddler kingdom in the corner with all the books and toys and had our hands full with steamed milk, cookies, and Fox in Socks. So my apologies for not chiming in on the formal introductions! The sketching I did manage to do in the cafe included the assistance of a very dedicated 2-year-old colorist.

When we moved outside to the park, it was crazy cold but also there were a lot of things for the littles to do in the playground, so some unassisted sketches managed to sneak onto the page. Nothing very fancy, but a nice reminder of how beautiful fall is, how decadent it can be to erase lines drawn in pencil, and how warm gloves are totally crucial part of the sketching kit this time of year.

A very happy Thanksgiving to you all! I am so thankful to be a part of this group, even when life gets nutty and I don't always attend.

It's Melting!

This morning, my eye was drawn to these diagonal icicles on the rhododendron outside the living room window. I couldn't figure out how some of them were diagonal until we realized that the branch had broken or bent after the icicles formed.

I really haven't had much practice drawing snow and ice scenes, but Andrea's sketch inspired me to give it a try.

 I haven't had much practice drawing dogs either (as noted by the extra large head), but we're happily dog sitting this weekend. Paisley was a willing model as she napped in her vest.

I hope all my fellow sketchers are warm and cozy and maybe as relaxed as this dog.

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.

Youthful Helpers

Biking through Ladd's Addition after work tonight, I pulled over because I heard the sound of banjos from the center of the grassy circle. Sure enough, the weather is nice enough for the tradition of the Wednesday night bluegrass jam session to be back in action--I counted about 12 musicians with either fiddles, banjos, or guitars playing and singing together.

My first instinct was to sketch the musicians, but the nearby boy holding his poodle's leash immediately struck up a conversation once I busted out the watercolor kit, so I went ahead and decided it was time to tackle Item Number 10: Dog and its Owner. (The poodle got some wonderful back-scratching from my sweetie while she posed.)

The sketch is somewhat peculiar, largely because more and more kids got interested in what I was doing as the work progressed. The adorable crawling baby was handily (and repeatedly) intercepted before she got into the paints, but a nearby adorable toddler and the older sister of the boy with the poodle were eager to either give advice, or grab a brush and help paint! I quickly wrapped this sketch up and flipped to a "sacrificial" page of the sketchbook so I could let the kids have a turn--which happened to be an incomplete sketch of a Benson Bubbler (Scavenger Hunt Item #18).

The pen work had been abandoned because I was drawing while waiting for the bus, and voila! The bus came! (Funny how that works.) So it was really generous of the kids to help me finish the piece. The 9-ish girl was choosing colors carefully and placing them very deliberately in order to flesh out the shape of the fountain and show the water squirting out, while the 2-ish toddler used my mop brush to swirl all the paint around on the page like mad. I really adore how it looks. So dynamic! Hooray for collaborative artworks.

A Nice Day For Lounging

This past Monday was a nice day for just lounging about on the waterfront and I wasn't the only one who thought so. Bike riders, runners, walkers, lounge abouts, and just the general Portland populace was out in droves to enjoy one of the warmest days of spring. Sketchbook in hand, I lounged on the grass of the esplanade, soaking it in.

Scavenger hunt, a dog and their person. Thought about adding color to this later, but I figured I'd post this one before I go mucking it up. Dip pen (yes, I brought ink a dip pen with me) over pencil in Moleskine watercolor sketchbook.