Worldwide Sketchcrawl

I had to work on April 21, missing most of the W.S.
I was able to meet up with the big group of Portland Urban Sketchers and have a meal with them at Silk.

Oaks Park Organ

I had a unique experience recently. At Oaks Park skating rink, we got to go in to the little room where the organ is played on Sunday and Thursday nights. The organ used to be at the Broadway theater, downtown, and was used for sound effects for movies until they came out with "talkies". Keith demonstrated the bird chirps, train whistle and telephone effects. Keith has a passion for playing and his girlfriend is an excellent dance skater.

I sketched this standing up and did it quickly when I realized what a unique experience this was!

Portland Art Museum & Lan Su Garden

This is my first drawing using my new Noodler's Flex Pen. Linda E. and I were downtown on a Monday and since we couldn't get into Portland Art Museum we decided to take advantage of a good break in the weather and sketch in the sculpture court.

 Here I am experimenting again with the Flex Pen and a new brown ink from Noodler's (Kiowa). Later after I got home I applied some water to the ink to see what would happen....possibilities?

 At the Lan Su Garden I choose not to enter the garden but to draw from the outside. The day being sunny and warm I sought out shade to sit in while drawing the wonderful shadow patterns on the walls of the garden.

After the Garden

Last Saturday, after a lovely few hours sketching at Lan Su, we met up with the "night shift" of urban sketchers and headed for a delightful Vietnamese restaurant in the Pearl District. Lots of animated conversations about paints, bikes, international travel, and so forth ensued. I couldn't resist sketching people as they talked, and sketching the delicious dinners as well!

Lan Su Chinese Garden

Wonderful sunny Saturday with the Urban Sketchers at the Lan Su Chinese Garden in downtown Portland. I had been digging through my art supplies and trying to find the absolute perfect brush before I headed out, because I had a vision in my head of what kind of drawings I wanted to do--like a long thin rigger-style brush, with really graceful painted lines...But when I got to the garden, I randomly pulled out a white paint pen and the sketchbook with black paper, and did that instead. Silly old brain.

Yes, it's the time of year for baby ducks in the fish pond. They were fantastic to watch. And when I got bored of the pattern of roof tiles, the scales on the fish took over nicely.

Then, after staring at that magnolia flower for a while, I shifted to a tube of "moonglow" watercolor paint and my travel brush with the water reservoir in the handle. Again, not what I had been planning to do. Again, lots of fun.

There was a pretty huge group of us passing around sketchbooks by the time we re-grouped out in front of the garden. Delightful doodles all around!

Will post sketches from the post-garden dinner soon.

Homey

Hi, haven't been out much but on rainy mornings I'm perfectly happy sketching the living room, especially someone else's living room. I seem to revert to wonky angles anytime I do a drawing like this, I should have tried to at least maintain horizontal.    Ink drawing (Pitt Pen) with watercolor.

Carrie

Pascale's studio visit

After a wonderful tour of Pascale's home we settled in her studio. Everywhere you looked there were interesting things to draw or look at ! Thanks Pascale for sharing your delightful work space.

Pascale's Studio

Pascale invited us to her studio.

We enjoyed peeking at her supplies

Making a list of books we should read

and  thumbing through her sketchbooks

We snacked on good cheese and bread

And of course we sketched, and chatted.

 We noticed the sun coming in...

so we toured the garden

And we met her kitty. :)

St Paddy's day

A couple of us met at Biddy Mcgraw's to take in their St Patrick's Day celebration. There was some confusion about the opening time but we eventually got in around 11:00. The place filled up very quickly with families and other celebrators...so it got loud almost immediately. Alanna, Kalina and I were positioned pretty much in the middle of the action. If you use your imagination you will see an incomplete portrait of Kalina in the top drawing. And an equally indistinct portrait of Alanna in the drawing below.

After some time we left Biddy's and settled in the Seven Virtues Cafe across the street. Aha...quiet and calm and the big windows allowed for some good street views.

San Antonio

I'm sorry I haven't been able to attend any recent sketching events. I haven't done much drawing lately, unfortunately. I took a little time to sketch on a trip to visit my daughter in San Antonio, last week. Sadly the weather was very similar to what we've been having here so it was cold and wet but I got a couple of sketches done under cover on the River Walk.

The one above was looking up from the River Walk to the skyline.