expecting clear views of Willamette River bridges from atop OHSU......

Well you can see from other postings that the expectations were not realized as the fog played with us all morning!
In the end we all had to think a little out of the box and sketch the other bridges that were around us.

Turns out there were a surprising number of brridges for us all to sketch!

A Perfect Sketching Day

We rode the tram up to OHSU where we could take in the magnificent fall views of the city, Mt. Hood and St. Helens, the river and gorgeous fall colors. The air was chilly, but the sun was shining so by putting on hats and fingerless gloves, we could stay outside or we could head inside for the coziness and the comfy chairs.

The views, the sun, and the comradely must have worked to inspire such excellent sketches. Here's what we did.

I hope people will still post their sketches, because it would be wonderful to see them close up again.

Thanks everyone for such a fun day!

Portlands South Waterfront

I elected to stay below and not travel up the tram to OHSU. I had been on the previous visit to this site last year and was interested in concentrating on all of the cranes and industrial paraphenalia there.

In addition Kalina lent me a couple of pens to experiment with and play....

These first are using the HERO M86 (with a distinctive bend at the tip of the nib) and some watercolor pencils for more color. I liked the thick and thin line that I was able to get using this pen. And an added bonus was that the pen had some old red ink that Kalina loaded with newer black...which resulted in this lovely reddish wash when water was added.

The other pen to try was a TOMBOW Brush pen. This one was fun to work with...easy to get those thick and thin lines. The added color was from some of the sample watercolor pencils I got at the Art Materials Extravaganza & demonstrations in Milwaukie last Wednesday. These were a DERWENT watercolor in blue and a DERWENT Inktense in chartruse and my standby grey toned PITT pens.

OHSU Views

We met at the same cafe once before, but ended up staying in the area of the South Waterfront instead of taking the intended ride up the aerial tram to Oregon Health & Science University.  This time a group of us made it all the way up and the views were certainly worth the wobbly ride. We had our work cut out for us, but the sketchers were up to the task.

Here's long-absent sketcher Janene finally returned to the fold, and camped out for a lovely view of the river and Portland's east side...

I made this sketch while seated next to Janene. The great bridge/overpass shape was hard to resist.

When I went searching for a new scene I passed a few of my fellow sketchers hard at work...

Finally I chose a spot in the skybridge (as shown in Katura's post). The resulting sketch looks weirdly abstract, due to the strange shape of the building that houses the aerial tram dock.

OHSU was full of great views, but it was also a surreal place to spend time.  Once as I sat there touching up watercolors, a woman walking by exclaimed loudly to her friend, "I'm so glad my mother didn't die!"  There were doctors walking briskly through the halls in their scrubs and patients with crutches making clattering sounds as they passed. Of course, this is a place where lives are saved... and lost.  I felt grateful today to be visiting simply as a sketcher.

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.

OHSU Tram & SW Waterfront

OHSU Tram and Pedestrian Bridge

Our Saturday sketchcrawl in the SW Waterfront area started out cold with some drizzle and pretty grey.  My attempt at the Tram structure was challenging with lots of angled shapes. It was filled with all kinds of stuff and part of the challenge was to try for it all to make some sense in the drawing.

View from the Pedestrian Bridge looking east with the Ross Island Bridge on the left and McLoughlin Blvd on the east side of the Willamette River.

Later I walked up the Pedestrian Bridge to get an overall view of the area along the SW Waterfront. The crane structure in the foreground was a formidable structure and I thought interesting enough to attempt to draw it. Again there were a lot of other things going on and the trick was to try to make it 'read' well....I kind of lost the river in there...but there is always an opportunity to try again. The Pedestrian Bridge was a great viewing place for this busy area!

Tram and Streetcar

Aerial Tram and Streetcar from Saturday's sketchcrawl in the South Waterfront neighborhood. I'm not used to drawing shiny metal things! You can see a few tiny raindrops on the page. Autumn is on its way. * Dibujos del teleférico y el tranvía, dibujado en la adventura en el districto del South Waterfront el sábado pasado. ¡No estoy acostumbrada a dibujar tantas máquinas! Algunas gotas de lluvia mancharon el papel; ya viene el otoño.    

Weekend Scavenging

Saturday morning was perfect weather for sketching with the Urban Sketchers.

I sat down low by the Ira Keller Fountain, close enough to feel the cool air from 

the falling water. The last time I sketched this was with Tia at the 2010 Symposium 

and I was reminded of her saying, "Add brown to those greens in the trees."

 Here's my latest attempt.

There was a Benson Bubbler right across the street, so that sketch knocked off another

 scavenger hunt item. I wish I had been quick enough to sketch the crow that dunked

 his bread in the water.

I started drawing the elk after lunch, but he looked like a cartoon, so I'll need to

 revisit him another day.

On Sunday, my husband and I rode the aerial tram up to OHSU. (Sunday is a good day 

to go because it isn't very busy.) The ride was quick, but fun and the views were great, 

even on a cloudy day. Drawing the tram is very tricky, because it's only still for a matter

 of moments. I drew the dock first and then raced to get the tram in before it disappeared.

Here's another view of the tram dock.

"Pill Hill" would be a terrific place to practice perspective drawing because you 

can see so many different views of buildings and passageways. Here's a one-point 

view that I took from the skybridge to the Veteran's Hospital. I'm glad it's not on the 

scavenger hunt list!

Scavenger Hunt Tally: bubbler, tram 14