Ladd's Addition

I admit I never left the warmth of the cafe....but I did sketch!

Ladd's Addition Sketchcrawl

At last week's sketchcrawl, I didn't have my watercolors with me, so yesterday I went back to Palio and added the color. My notes helped, but I faked it a bit since a lot of the leaves had dropped this past week.

This may have been better left in b/w, but it's really hard to resist trying to record the fall colors.

I can see spending more Saturday mornings at Palio, recording the changing view, and then crawling out for a street sketch--weather permitting, of course.

deb rossi, Ladd's Addition sketchcrawl

Our sketchcrawl at Ladd's Addition started as a beautiful day..the temp was bearable so I ventured out. I had passed this interesting church while driving to meet at Palio's so decided to go there first. The church is St Sharbel's Catholic Church. St Sharbel born in Lebanon (1828-1898) entered a monastery at the age of 23 and then sometime later was granted permission to live as a hermit which he did until his death.


Later after lunch I did this sketch looking out the window with a 'Palomino Blackwing' pencil ("half the pressure, twice the speed"...so it says) that Kalina generously gave me. I used to do only pencil sketching and I have to say it was fun to go back to it again.

11-11-11 sketching

Veteran's day fell on 11-11-11, and the Japanese garden offered free admission. The day was cold, but it wasn't raining! We warmed up with a delicious lunch at elephant deli.

November sketches

These sketches are from two different sketching days. On Nov 2nd I started out at Coffeehouse Northwest and just walked around the block to see what was interesting. On Veteran's Day I joined up with Alanna, Vicky, Kathryn and Cindy at the Japanese Garden. The day was cold but the colors in the garden were spectacular...too bad I was only using ink and not color. Again it is the architecture that I am drawn to... still trying to work on composition.

Back Stairs = Guest House

Secluded stairway in a woodsy setting.

ASIFA Drink 'n Draw at the Peculiarium

Some of us Portland Urban Sketchers tagged along with the Portland branch of ASIFA (Association International du Film d’Animation) for a Halloween Drink 'n Draw at The Peculiarium in Northwest Portland!

The ASIFA folks set up three light tables, and we were all encouraged to take turns making 10 frames of animation, following their simple guidelines. Alanna, Tad, and I each did one set. At the end, more experienced animators connected the end of each series with the beginning of the next to make seamless loops, after which we got to watch what we had done on the projection screen! It was awesome; I look forward to trying this again now that I have a little bit of a feel for how it turns out.



Here are some ASIFA folks at work on their animation frames (surrounded by the grotesque masks of the Peculiarium)...



The Peculiarium is a crazy place - an art gallery of the weird and macabre combined with a candy shop/novelty store/snack bar that will sell you meal worms to sprinkle on your ice cream, which you can eat as you stick your head up through the hole in the alien autopsy table.



Thanks for the fun, ASIFA, and thanks for the weird environs, Peculiarium!

Cirque de Soleil tent

This tent had such as nice soft, organic form....although my drawing doesn't show any color, when I was drawing I was conscious of the contrast of the white tent against the background of the sky and freeway above. For the other drawing I swivelled 180 degrees to look toward the river front. These buildings must be old warehouses or factories...the one on the right has a great water tower on it which I wanted to include but didn't!...just poor composition planning.

Cavalia

Last week, Deb and I sketched the Cavalia tent from an empty lot near NW 12th and Marshall.

When I sketched it, I noticed that there were rope ladders hanging from each of the tent peaks. The peaks are more than 100 feet tall. No sign of the 50 horses or acrobats, but maybe someone else will see them another day.

Now I'd like to see Deb's sketches and some from the Peculiarium.

Seattle Sketchcrawl

Here are my sketches from the wonderful sketchcrawl in Seattle last weekend. Since Alanna and I sketched in the same places, you'll see some repeating scenes.

On the train ride north, we talked and sketched eachother, (as well as an agreeable young woman who offered to model for us). I think by about an hour into the trip, Kalina had convinced her to become an urban sketcher.:)

After the warm welcome from the Seattle Sketchers, I joined the group going to Pioneer Square.

The first sketch I did was of Merchants Cafe, Seattle's oldest restaurant. It still seems to be pretty busy.

Then I sketched in the park. Lots of tour groups left from here. There was an artist who was displaying his work in hopes of sales. In drawing the group, I was trying to put into practice Veronica Lawlor's symposium advice of seeing the group as one whole, rather than as individual people.

Windows and signs... It's pretty hard to imagine that rooms were once that cheap.

After the group sharing of sketchbooks, Gabi took us down by the ferries which were unloading huge numbers of soccer fans. I sketched the ivy covered viaduct. I'm hoping that Gabi will post his sketches, since some of us were lucky enough to have been sketched by him.

This man, all in purple head to toe, was smoking near the garbage can.

This family seemed to be waiting silently for a ferry to come in. Maybe they were entranced by the gorgeous bay and mountains.

It was a beautiful fall day in Seattle and it was very fun to meet the other sketchers and to sketch in their city. I'm looking forward to another group sketchcrawl together.