End-of Year Blog Loading

The Urban Sketching Symposium was back in July 2010, but I didn't post my sketches. Here they are.

And here are sketches from our trip to London in October. It started with a going away tea given by a sketching friend.

I tried to meet up with the London Urban Sketchers for a Worldwide Sketchcrawl at the British Museum, but I never saw them.

There was lots of construction going on in London.

I loved sketching in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

We could see the V&A from our hotel room.

And we also saw this.

And finally, here are some little moleskin sketches from our Paris and London trip.

That was it for the 2010 sketches...now it's time to go celebrate the New Year! Whew!

I wish all the sketchers a year of many delightful sketching events. 

Happy New Year (again)!

Old Grids, New Year

                       

                 Sometimes, it's fun to draw little pictures in a grid. (These are from quite awhile back.) 

This one was inspired by a commercial card 

of faces in black, white, and gold.

This grid was filled while watching Poirot on t.v. 

(I think he was actually a detective rather than an inspector.)

Most of his expressions were conveyed via his terrific eyebrows.

       And this grid was drawn while watching Lawrence of Arabia.

Maybe I'll make a calendar grid and add one little picture to represent each day ( A minimalist approach to drawing or keeping a journal. Sounds doable. )This could be the right day to start a project like that.

     Happy New Year!

December Sketchcrawl

On Saturday, several of the Portland Urban Sketchers met for a sketchcrawl. We started at a coffee shop in SE Portland and then moved on to the Architectural Heritage Center where we drew items that had been salvaged from old Portland buildings. We had lunch, shared sketchbooks, talked sketching and sketched some more at the Side Door. Here are some sketches from the day.

Sketchers and dazed customer at coffee shop. Lamp from  Architectural Heritage Center. I 'm pretty sure I saw a similar lamp to this while I was on jury duty. I wanted to sketch it, but it wasn't the right time and place.

Various displayed items and a poor likeness of a fellow sketcher.

This is the same face as on the previous page, but it looked surprisingly different from this angle.

Sketchers and others at the Side Door.

The day before, I sketched with some friends at Rejevenation. This little woodstove looked like it could be dancing with the andirons, Beauty and the Beast style. I was tempted to add movement lines to the sketch.

A Whole Lot of Paris Sketches

We had a lovely trip to Paris and London in October. In Paris,  I did quite a bit of sketching:

Before we left, I sketched my books so I could avoid the dreaded empty sketchbook dilemma.

Like every sketcher, I had to sketch on the plane. (I know Oregon isn't as pointy as I drew it.) We had a late start which worried some of the passengers, like the girl in front of me who was going to meet her boyfriend before he was sent to a different army base. Her mom was accompanying her.

 When we got to Paris, we checked in at our Rue Cler hotel, and went right to the Parc du Champs du Mars where I sketched the Eiffel Tour. We were here after school was out and there were lots of little kids on scooters and playing soccer.

 After a trip to Giverny with friends, I had a lovely meal at Tera Cafe. The food was arranged on a plate that looked like an artist's pallet. It was delicious, too!

Here's the beautiful lunch.

 Michael and I spent a day in the Marais where we had stayed on our last Paris trip in 2008. Our favorite waiter at a cafe in the Place des Vosges  (Nectarine) recognized us from before!

In the Luxembourg Gardens, I saw a group who seemed to be having a sketching lesson. I figure it's always fair game to sketch sketchers.

 A couple of quick sketches in the garden at Les Invalides.

We had a hard time getting inside the d'Orsay this trip. Once we were there the wrong day and two other days it was closed because of the strikes, so I sketched this statue outside the museum.

What's Paris without flowers and chocolate?

This is the view from our hotel (Hotel Relais Bosquet) window! Each night, from my side of the bed, I could see the Eiffel Tour between a sliver of the curtains. The sparkly lights on the tower go off at 1:00a.m. btw.

This window was across the street.

And this was our window grill. Among other things, I love the ironwork in Paris.

I tried three days to buy macarons at a shop in our neighborhood. When I finally bought them, we didn't even finish eating them...but they were fun to paint.

                                      We did finish eating all this marvelous chocolate.

Here I'm in the park, sketching in my little moleskin, but that will be another post. Au revoir!

Figure Drawing Class

I recently took a 4 week drawing class at PNCA with Bonnie Allen called, Drawing the Costumed Figure. Both of these models have been art students, so they really knew how to pose. Here are some of my results.