Japanese plaza on the waterfront

It seemed to me that the cherry blossoms were a touch past their peak.  I did the rocks in the center of the plaza, and a fragment of one of the columns, and then a quick pass of one of the other sketchers.

I did these same rocks the last time we were here.  When I showed the sketch to a friend later, he asked why I'd drawn paper bags.  This time I hope that they don't look like paper bags.

Cherry Blossoms & kids at the fountain

We were so lucky with the weather today.  Almost all the people of Portland joined us at the waterfront.  They made great subjects for sketching.

3rd Saturday Sketch Crawl - Cherry Blossoms on the Waterfront

MARCH 19

This is a re-run of last year's Cherry Blossom sketching at Tom McCall Waterfront Park. Hopefully the cherry blossoms won't be already gone by then, but even if they are, we will still have Ankeny Fountain, Saturday Market, and Old Town/Chinatown nearby.

• 10:00am - Meet at Floyd's Coffee (118 NW Couch St.) for coffee, snacks, and socializing.
• 10:30am - Sketch along the waterfront around the Japanese American Historical Plaza (near the intersection of Couch and Naito) from 10-noon. 
• 12:00noon - Optional lunch at Old Town Pizza (226 NW Davis St.) If it's warm and dry enough we can grab food from the Saturday Market, and meet/eat outside by the Japanese American Historical Plaza.

APRIL 16

Let's check out the Zipper on NE Sandy.  This building was just finished in September.  It has:
* a place to gather indoors
* a firepit outdoors (maybe only lit at night though)
* a variety of eating/coffee/drinking establishments to choose from
* a nail salon
* nearby interesting architecture and neighborhoods

• 10:00am - Meet at Kerns Kitchen (2935 NE Glisan St) for coffee, snacks, and socializing.
• 10:30am - Sketch buildings, people, or tuck into the neighborhood and draw some residential gardens from 10:30-noon. 
• 12:00noon - Optional lunch and sketchbook sharing at the Zipper, 2705 NE Sandy.

 If you know a better nearby coffee shop, let me know.  Kerns Kitchen seems kind of like a sit-down restaurant but at least it has a lot of tables outside.

Lan Su Chinese Garden in the Spring

In spring in Portland, we have beautiful trees bursting 

 with new leaves and fragile blossoms of pink or white.  There's so much potential for sketching, but there is often accompanying wind, rain, chilly temperatures, and sometimes hail. Luckily, the tearoom at the Chinese Garden offers shelter and views out the window, along with  fragrant pots of exotic 

tea and delicate, tasty snacks. I think I could spend days there, watching the sky change, drinking tea and  never running out of things to draw.

Sketching with Ellie

Ellie was out of town for our last sketchcrawl so we went back to the South Waterfront when she returned. Here are our sketches, first hers, then mine.

South Waterfront from inside Rilassi

Here's my little sketch from our outing last week.

By the way, I think the cherry trees on the waterfront are already about to bloom.

-Andrea 

Ross Island Bridge

This past Saturday morning, I loaded up my bike basket with art supplies and rode over the Tilikum Crossing down to the South Waterfront where we met for this month's sketchcrawl. A short ride from our meeting place was a sunny viewpoint showing the full expanse of the Ross Island Bridge. The steel structure is going to be repainted this year and in real life, it is faded. I took some liberties with color and decided to show how nice it will look in bright green. 

As I finished up the ink for this painting, the sun was warm and I was even able to take off my coat. A sail boat floated by with 4 pirates on deck singing,"What will we do with a drunken sailor, early in the morning?” By then, it was a bit late to be considered early in the morning, but at the sounds of it, they had the drunken sailor part just right.

South Waterfront Looking West

I was sure it was going to be raining but the day was beautiful. I haven't been in the South Waterfront area much. What a great place to draw! There is something of interest in every direction. I decided to turn my back on the water for this one.

Tillicum Crossing sketches

I have been watching this bridge being built for the last couple of years but this is the first time I have been close enough to sketch it.
I thought I'd try something a little different. The first sketch was with my regular approach; ink and watercolor and the other two are watercolor only (the last one in a larger format sketchbook).
This was a challenging subject no matter what approach....but fun too.
All three sketches were all from the same view point.

non waterproof ink and watercolor

watercolor

watercolor (8"x23")

Centennial Mills, on the way down

 I'd noticed that the demolition was continuing on my way to the Broadway Bridge one day last week.   But I didn't get a non-rainy day to go back until today.

And found that there are actually two cranes simultaneously tearing the building apart, one at the front and the other at the back.