Portland Pirates at Dr. Sketchy (10-28-12)

I met with some fellow local Urban Sketchers and British artist Pete Scully who was visiting from California at this month's Dr. Sketchy event at Crush. This is a wonderful opportunity to be around other artists and work on life drawings of people in various settings and/or costumes.

A fitting theme for this month centered around pirates; Portland pirates, that is...

Timed poses ranged from 5 to 20 minutes and were pretty challenging: elaborate scenes with several people, odd perspective due to proximity to the stage, colors...

I didn't feel confident enough to whip out my watercolors and start painting away, so I relied on soft oil pastels to add some color to my sketches. I also made the effort to use a brush pen; this was a big stretch for me, since I feel most comfortable with my trusted V-Ball Pilot pens...

PDX Urban Sketchers at the Chinese Garden (04-21-12)

The Portland Urban Sketchers met at the Lan Su Chinese Garden as a group, to sketch or paint. As usual, I got there so late that I might as well have not bothered going (and that's exactly why I make myself go, even if late...). I was so late, that it was almost closing time, and a nice man at the gate let me in for free; he probably felt sorry for me...

I don't feel very confident with color, but made a valiant effort to paint with my small portable watercolor kit.

Entrance Gate 

PDX Urban Sketchers Meeting at my Studio (03-31-12)

Today, a small group of the Portland Urban Sketchers braved the cold weather to come sketch at my studio. Although we had initially planned to work on some sketches of the yard, the cold made us retreat to the coziness of the studio, where we enjoyed each others' company with cake, snacks, and lemonade.

I have to admit that I enjoyed the selfish pleasure to be able to peek into other people's sketchbooks, and admire their skills and proficiency at architecture and urban scenes...

Scene at a Trendy Bar (06-15-11)

Since I knew that the Portland Urban Sketchers group had planned to be there, I went to Produce Row Café with my friends Greg and Suzanne C.
Greg, who'd gone there in his younger days was dismayed that the place had gone the usual trendy route ("Coffee" stained woodwork, rich-looking patrons, expensive food, etc.). This is the way everything seems to go in Portland nowadays: posh and trendy-looking places, either for the hip, or for the well-to-do.
But we still had a pleasant time chatting and listening to great music. Greg wrote on his notebook, I finished this sketch, and Suzanne worked on her "doodle" book (for lack of a better word).

At the end, we took a peek at the other artists' work, and that was cool.