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...

Final Presidential Debate (10-22-12)

With the election a couple of weeks away, we're finally almost at the end of a long ordeal. And I can't even really complain: I don't watch television, so I missed all the ads. It's just been a long year, with constant reports about "the campaign this...the campaign that..."

So, while we were watching the last half hour of the last debate, I worked on a quick sketch of each candidate.

Alanna R. Wedding (10-06-12)

Alanna, a friend of mine and fellow local urban sketcher, got married at a Eagle Fern Camp, a lovely rural camp near Estacada.

 How wonderful to see that so many relatives and friends were present to offer their support on such a special day! Franky, I was stunned, since this is not anything I've experienced in my life in the United States, as people have been reluctant to even drive a mere 45 minutes out of their way for some of our important family events, so this was absolutely the best thing to see...

Alanna is great. She is the one who most often comes up with suggestions for places to meet and sketch, and the PDX Urban Sketchers group wouldn't be the same without her.

The dinner was fun, with guests treated to a delicious home-style meal, and I took the opportunity to draw faces in the crowd.