Sketching at the 'Fields' in NW Portland

Am trying to get out as much as possible to sketch and squash down those feelings of envy viewing the posts from Paraty (usk symposium in Brazil)....Vicky and I met at the Fields in the Pearl for a morning of sketchng.
It is a great spot with all of the construction going on and those ubiquitous cranes in the air...love it!

Watercolor and non waterproof ink

playing around with this split panoramic view- watercolor and non waterproof ink

 Not sure what Vicky meant about comparing the scenes since we all know that no two sketchers ever do the same scene alike! And that is the fun of it.


 The next day I was in Portland again. Checked out the setting up at the Art in the Pearl and did a couple of sketches around there.

watercolor and non waterproof ink

Non waterproof ink and waterbrush

There are a couple more sketches from these two days on my blog.
http://www.reason2draw.blogspot.com

St Johns Bridge sketchcrawl

I missed the last time the urban sketchers visited the St Johns Bridge and was very determined not to do so again. This bridge is one of the prides of Portland with its graceful arches and because you can actually access it from below you can also see the wonderful structure...again with those beautiful arches.

My intention this time out was to select a view and do that same view in several sketches. I hoped to learn something in each one. I can't say that I consider this as successful though....it seemed that I repeated the same problems of proportion in each one.
As with other Portland bridges I discovered that the structure is complicated, sometimes confusing and very challenging!

 After these above sketches I thought I would concentrate on a little smaller area because truthfully at this time, I was pretty overwhelmed.....!