I wanted to draw at this location and sent out a general invitation to the SketchCrawl group saying “I’d love company” – and wow, did I get it!  We ended up with 12 sketchers camped out along N Russell, mostly focusing on White Eagle saloon.  At one point, a man that was later identified as the bartender stopped to ask about the group. “Are you all drawing the White Eagle?”  Later, inside, he told me we’d made his day – that he’d woke up feeling hung over, but we’d made him feel like he was part of something special, he was someplace that mattered.

Sketch 1 was a reject.  Sketch 2 is a Jason Das tribute, using red pen as a base…

I had drawn with colored pens before the Symposium, but it was in the urban color session with Jason Das that I first tried using colored pen as a base for other colors.  This pen was water-soluble (Pilot Hi-Tec-C) so of course there were some challenges to overcome, but some of the blurring effects of water-soluble ink are quite attractive.

Then we went inside. I sketched something for the shared sketchbook, then joined Carrie at the bar to draw detailing…

The bike ride there & back was gorgeous, taking me along the river, over and along railways, and alongside some interesting industrial scenes. I did catch one more scene on the way home, crossing some rail tracks…

I’m really thrilled with the increased turnout at our sketchcrawls ever since the Urban Sketchers Symposium! Thanks to everyone who came out to sketch today.

Any regular visitor to Urban Sketchers or the Urban Sketchers Flickr pool will have seen the gorgeous linework of Lapin, which is often done on a surprising surface – old accounting ledgers. He uses this paper because he likes the surface – the paper is thin, but takes watercolor without buckling, ink without feathering, and [...]

The Portland Urban Sketchers have been more interested in Portland’s Northwest neighborhoods since the Symposium, so we met up this morning at Pearl Baking, NW 9th & Couch.  We stopped in the North Park Blocks to draw the elephant…

I wish I hadn’t drawn the frame, or had drawn it to the left – the elephant would be better on the right side of the frame.

Then we went for more coffee at Floyd’s – there continues to be a lot to discuss as we all absorb our experiences at the Symposium and go through resulting changes in our practices! – and afterwards stopped at Hoodoo Antiques to draw this scene…

These were drawn in the sketchbooks donated to symposium participants by Legion Paper; a new product to be released this month, Stonehenge Wired.  The 90 lb paper is nice and sturdy, takes Lamy Safari fountain pen without feathering, and holds up well to watercolors – I’m liking it.

I’ve always felt shy about my drawings.  My most frequent excuse for not drawing has been that I couldn’t find a spot where no one could sneak up and peer over my shoulder.  Ohh, the hours of drawing practice I could have gotten, had I not been so worried about the opinions of strangers! It [...]

Matthew Brehm teaches architecture at the University of Idaho. On Friday morning, I went out with his group for tips on sketching urban architecture. Now, like anyone else who has ever taken an art class, I know that being systematic at the beginning of a sketch is a good thing. We’re supposed to make thumbnail [...]

On Saturday, we wrapped up the 1st International Urban Sketchers Symposium. This event drew together artists from around the world to celebrate this particular joy we have, of sketching the living city around us.

Sounds fun, right? And it was. It was lots of fun. Also lots of hard work! But the surprising part was how much our energy became amplified, when we all got together in that room. We got swept away into this lifestyle, so much so that just three days seems like it may have triggered some major transformations – not just of our art skills and styles, but of practice, attitude, diligence, receptiveness.

But I’m gushing. With my next post, I’ll start discussing the specific lessons I learned, and directions for the future.

Worldwide SketchCrawl Day – Downtown Portland, OR

Originally uploaded by geminica

I uploaded a few sketchcrawl photos to flickr – this is the one I liked best but all the comments were on the street view, so what do I know!

It was a great sketchcrawl – 11-12 people, and a beautiful sunny day.

I started following Urban Sketchers sometime last year. This is a global group of folks who believe in drawing our environment as we live in it. Much fantastic artwork is produced – all of it a testament to a time and place. This wasn’t a new interest for me – when I traveled there was always at least the intent to draw, and a few years back I took an urban landscapes course at PNCA from Kurt Holloman, who turns out to be Urban Sketchers’ Portland correspondent.

Urban Sketchers eventually led me to find the Portland Sketchcrawl. This group gathers at least once per month to wander a particular area of our city and study it through drawing. I first participated in Fall 2009 but have been a diligent participant every since. Our last meeting was Saturday at the Ace Hotel; we had 6 sketchers. Here are some rough grabs of moments in the Stumptown Coffee area -

And all our sketchbooks laid out -

Well, this group is evolving fast! We recently started up a flickr pool and an Urban Sketchers Portland blog, where I recently introduced myself (“Romancing the City”). Out of the blue, we discovered the global Urban Sketchers organization is holding their first major event in July – here in Portland! – and it looks awesome. I had to sign up, despite the cost.

I’ll be generating a flyer and business card for the Portland sketchcrawl group soon, and we’ll be having a public urban sketching event at the King Farmer’s Market this summer. So – you’ll be seeing us around town more as the weather improves! And we’ll probably be sketching you.

I love urban sketcher Freekhand’s idea of using comic panels for presenting vignette urban sketches! Seems like an efficient way to experiment with comic panel layouts while out on an urban sketchcrawl, while at the same time adding a sense of narrative to the scattered moments. The approach would be particularly well suited to an environment like the farmer’s market, where it’s hard to get anything more than a gesture or glimpse anyway.

Though I’ve felt uninspired lately and have eschewed all my ongoing projects, I’ve kept up my social sketching habits and recently participated in the 26th World Wide SketchCrawl Day. I joined the intrepid bunch at the EcoTrust building in NW Portland. Obviously once the attractive dog appeared, I got distracted from architecture!

I had to leave early, so continued doodling at a party in Albany, Oregon. This dog’s name is Ruby.