Rain and a SketchCrawl

Portland's Urban Sketchers had a sketchcrawl on a rainy Saturday, so most of us stayed inside and drew eachother. We started at Floyd's in NW Portland...

By lunchtime, we had moved on to Old Town Pizza and since, by this time, I had drawn most of the sketchers, I decided to draw some of the other customers...

The little boy in red was wearing a fancy folded napkin as a birthday hat.

I wasn't quick enough to capture a sketch of the zombie eating at the bar.

 Sunday afternoon I was out again and there was another downpour. Still it didn't keep this woman from wearing her flipflops...

Today's Sketchbook

Today, I met up with another sketcher, for coffee, a chat and a sketch at 26 Cafe in NE Portland. The window also had a spider web made out of a string of lights, but I thought that might be too much for this sketch.

 After looking at Linda's sketches, I was inspired to come home and draw some tiny peppers that I bought quite a while ago. At one stage, I kind of liked this drawing, but I got carried away with the paint and then the crosshatching and I overdid it. I'm still kind of pleased with the fabric, though. I won't be able to try it again, because the peppers had to go into the compost pile. Now I'll have the sketch, too, to remind me not to waste food.

Apple Tasting

The local urban sketchers group went to the 25th anniversary apple tasting celebration at Portland Nursery to do some sketching. There was a lot going on. I found that after doing so many long-term drawings this week, it was difficult to get into quick sketching. I started by doing a warm-up sketch of a cow sign, used by some families as a prop for an autumn photo. Feeding the kids popcorn helped them cooperate with the photo shoots.

This is another sketcher who was sketching people selecting apples to buy.

Crowds lined up to go into the tent to taste a variety of apples.

I liked the roof top garden...

The band, Petty Cash played for kids and adults.  I appreciated the chance to sit on a hay bale to sketch.

And here's the sound guy, who has a sense of humor.

There was much more to sketch, but the rain clouds moved in and released a downpour, so it was time to go.

Body Beautiful

The Portland Art Museum is having an exhibition of Greek and Roman sculptures from the British Museum. Since I am taking a figure drawing class now, I thought it would be a good idea to practice on some well-lit, motionless forms. I'm trying to see and draw the planes in forms.

A week ago, I sketched Hercules and the discus thrower...

Then I sketched some facial parts...

 Today, I went back and sketched the discus thrower again. (That's a tree trunk, not his leg in front, btw)

Next, I decided to just focus on his torso...but those contours by the ribs are backwards and his waist is way too narrow...

I decided I needed to focus on torsos, so a drew a youth...

 When I put my drawings on this blog, errors just pop off the screen at me. For some reason, they're much easier to spot than when I look at my sketchbooks. Now I have lots of things to work on next time I go back to the museum.

These are from my figure drawing class at PNCA... Week 2:

Week 3:

A few of these lines are instructive lines from my teachers...

I definitely need to work on the neck next time!!

The torso seems a bit twisty, but I kind of like the arm...

Lots and lots to work on!!

The Zoo

On a beautiful fall day a couple of weeks ago, I visited the zoo with some other sketchers. I hadn't been there in years. I found that even the very slow moving animals are still in constant motion and they're very tricky to draw! Disclaimer: I pretty much faked in on the giraffe's spots.

This little goat was in the petting zoo. When the goats weren't being brushed by the children, they could rub up against brushes recycled from street cleaning machines.

Rose-tu, the elephant, is expecting a baby some time in November. When we were there, the zoo keepers were giving her some solo time in preparation for the birth. (Usually, the females like to stay in a group.) We saw the tail end of her exercise routine, too.

I remember seeing Packy, the first elephant born in captivity in a zoo in over 44 years, shortly after his birth in 1962. It was a big event and I put the clipping in my scrapbook.  I can still sing the Zoo Key song, too.