Jazz faces, Coffee Heads, Small Objects and Another Grid

As part of the Portland Jazz Festival, Duo Chronicles was playing at the Benson Hotel.

The Portland Urban Sketchers had a sketchcrawl that never left Stumptown Coffee Roasters since it was, once again, very cold outside. These are my sketches of a few of the people out for coffee this weekend.

 At home, I added a couple more pictures to my sketchbook of grids and small objects. Some of these shells were from the Caribbean. I think I need to go back there to get some more. Sun...warm ocean...walking in the sand...it all sounds very enticing right now.

The Book of Grids and Some Very Small Objects

I have a square, Stonehenge sketchbook that I am devoting to grids and small objects. This is the title page. Hmm, a Sara Midda influence, perhaps.

The button idea came directly from looking at Andrea Joseph's Sketchbook blog. http://andreajoseph24.blogspot.com/

These double snowdrops were our first sign of spring.

Valentine's Day

My sketching group went to Taborspace andbrought things for a still life. We also celebrated a birthday. These are my sketches from that day. The hearts were knit from yarn although that doesn't come across in the sketch. I found the blocks especially difficult.

This was one of the birthday cakes that we had. Delicious!

Michael brought me a gorgeous Valentines bouquet of lilies, fresia, and orchids.  They were lovely, warm colors.

Snow Day

Today, between snow and hail showers, we went over to Hawthorne and I bought a charming little 3"x8" Handbook sketchbook.  It looked perfect for some of the tiny little drawings that I sometimes like to make. I decided to illustrate the day.

There are about three more little pictures to draw, but those will come later.  Maybe tomorrow I'll have to draw ICE Day.

Presidents' Day Sketches

 At Cargo, I decided to draw one of the buddhas. This is actually the same one that I drew in ink and painted on a previous trip. There's something about a buddha face that looks so simple, but is actually very challenging for me. I guess it's hard to capture that look of serenity.

Since I was dressed for the cold, after a while it was pretty toasty in Cargo, so I went outside to draw the facade.  I added the colors that  I remembered once I was home. Like the inside of Cargo, there was much more color than what I showed here.