It was a small turnout today, and it was cold - but sunny! - so here are my efforts.
Started at Sister's Brew and drew some folks enjoying a mellow Saturday morning in a very warm, cozy space. I really like this wine-colored Copic Multiliner ... might need to buy a fresh one soon.
From the same spot, near the windows, I did this sketch looking across Main Street. Wells Fargo, our bank, is on the left and The Red Door, one the very few decent restaurants in town, is on the right. This was the final sketch in my first Moleskine sketchbook ... it felt good to finish that one.
I broke in a new Moleskine pocket watercolor book for this sketch, of an alley off First Street. It was a nice view, with clear contrasts and a nice perspective, but my hands were freezing by the time I finished up.
So I retreated to the Moscow Bagel place for a sausage/egg/cheese bagel, and managed this quick watercolor. It was a nice morning of sketching, followed by a 2-hour figure drawing session in the afternoon. After all the work I've had to deal with in the past several weeks, it felt good to simply draw today. Now it's time to surf the SketchCrawl forum and see the other sketching that happened today all around the planet.
This second sketch was done at the Art Institute, where Caravaggio's "Supper at Emmaus" is on loan from the National Gallery in London (info here, and a nice image here). Aside from seeing so many old friends, and visiting with some of my family, this was the major highlight of the weekend for me. I've loved Caravaggio's paintings for many years, and this was my first look at one of his most interesting works, which marks a sort of bridge between the early and middle segments of his career. Sketching this painting, while sitting on a bench in the gallery, was really a lot of fun and gave me the chance to patiently study an astounding work of art. I had originally intended to draw more of the room/people surrounding the painting, but I'm glad I left that stuff alone ... I like the way the surroundings are ghosted-in, almost as if the scene inside the painting is more 'real' than the space of the viewer, almost like looking through a window. This might actually contradict some of Caravaggio's intentions ... but I think it works in this sketch.
The final sketch of this group was made the day after I was scheduled to arrive home. Due to another delayed flight (two, actually), and a resulting missed connection, I was stuck overnight in Salt Lake City. The final flight was only an hour long, and while it started out smooth, it was very bumpy by the time I finished this sketch. This is the Copic 'Wine' color I mentioned already ... I like it a lot against the yellowish paper in the moleskine, and I like the multiliners because they just never seem to dry out. So while this was not the kind of trip where I was able to sketch very much, these three quick drawings hit the spot for me.
I was in Portland with a large group of students for a field trip, and managed to do a few sketches. The 24th Worldwide SketchCrawl was happening on Saturday, but the Portland folks on the SketchCrawl Forum weren't planning on a get-together until Sunday and I was leaving before then. So a sketched a bit on Thursday and Friday. The first one here is a building at 12th and Alder, by Skylab Design Group - it's a retrofit of a 1905 building, and it won an AIA Honor Award when it was completed in 2006.
The second sketch is of the Blitz-Weinhard Brewery from 1908. This was part of a major real estate deal in 2002 that contributed to the development of the south edge of the Pearl District, a newly redeveloped area of condos, shops, restaurants, etc.
On Friday morning, we gathered at our design studio site in north Portland. The students will be designing a courtyard housing proposal along a light rail line just off Interstate 5. A couple blocks north of their project site is Patton Park, with a small historic fire station and a more recent water tower. It was a beautiful morning, sunny and a little chilly, and this view really caught my eye.
One of our final stops, after quite a lot of walking tours, was the Chinese Classical Garden (the main photo on their home page is roughly the same view as this sketch). It took some time to get this one set up and painted, but it was wonderfully peaceful and easily one of the finest sketching experiences I've had in some time.
The second sketch is the back side of Santa Maria della Salute, from a long narrow piazza called the Rio Terra dei Catecumeni ...
... and the third sketch is of the Ca D'Oro from across the Grand Canal. This last one was a repeat of a sketch I did as a student about 23 years ago, from almost the exact same vantage point (see the old sketch here). I remember that drawing being very enjoyable, despite the fact that it was very cold that day and my hands were numb by the time I finished. It was fun to draw the same subject so many years later, and this time it was heat that I had to deal with. Perhaps in another decade or two I'll get smart and visit this place in the spring or fall.
