Riding the rails on New Year's Eve

I took advantage of the free rides on Trimet on New Year's Eve, and spent the evening riding around town.  Two streetcars and three MAX trains, from Good Sam to the South Waterfront, and from Beaverton to Gateway.

It was a mixed group.  Some were quiet, some were sleeping even.  Some were on their way to a party, while others were already on their way home.  And some were partying on board the train.  (There is such a thing as a coffin-shaped cellphone case.)

Portland Art Museum

Our assignment was to try to show motion on a motionless medium.

I started out in the Laika exhibit, which solved the similar problem - that of using motionless objects to produce motion.  There was an entire wall of characters' heads, each just slightly different from the on before.  When they want a character to speak, they snap a frame with his mouth closed, then swap out that head for one with his mouth just a tad open and snap another frame, then another with a slightly more open mouth, and so on and so on.  I very briefly considered drawing a long line of heads, each blending ever so slightly into the next, but that was too much for me.  So, instead, I did one of the feet of the monster skeleton, articulating its joints in a multi-exposure.

Then I went downstairs to take a look at the exhibit of animal prints.  In many cases, the animals portrayed were motionless.  But many were in motion, and the artists had to show that somehow.  With the horses, though, they could use bunched muscles and the flow of the mane and tail to show it.  And so I copied details of a couple of prints, mimicking what the artists had done.

Party

Specifically, the annual holiday party at the NW hostel

Pioneer Courthouse Square

While everyone else hung around the square, I  went off to look for a lion that I'd been lusting after.

I found it on Alder, on the Electric Building.  Two lions, actually, facing each other across the entrance.  I did a line sketch, then saved that much aside and continued, obliterating the lines with color.

Then I went back to Pioneer Courthouse Square, to hear a bunch of pirates singing sea shanteys and Christmas carols.  I did a sketch of one of the singers, but my tablet was balky and unresponsive.  And after I'd rebooted it, to fix that problem, I'd lost the sketch. 



Back up to the balcony, where most people seemed to be sketching the square, with the tree and the courthouse beyond it.  I sat down and sketched the sketchers.

Night sketches

Ended up at Pioneer Courthouse Square, for a holiday performance that didn't happen.  So I sat down and sketched the weather machine instead.

And then, on my way to my next stop, did one of the front doors of Trinity Cathedral.

Christmas Music

Festival Brass Band, in Pioneer Courthouse Square

Lecture

Staver Steam Up

Grown man (with the occasional woman) nursing their model steam locomotives.  With bunches of kids, and dogs, watching.


This year, they also had a couple of vintage cars.


And a karaoke machine.  Which turned out to be OK, once the guy who had brought it let the kids use it.