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Sketching at PAM

Today's challenge was to deviate from reality far enough to insert some of our own personality into our sketches.  The example given was that if you particularly like dogs, then you should add something doggish in.

I wandered about the museum, and quickly stumbled upon a portrait of an Elizabethan lady.  And since a cone of shame is properly called an e-collar, or even more properly, an Elizabethan collar, after the Elizabethan ruff, it seemed utterly fitting to turn her into a cat.  With a mouse dangling from her hand, rather than the original handkerchief.

Then I wandered back into the Paris exhibition, and did a straight rendition of the bust in black and white marble, so I could alternate between sketching in the shadows and sketching in the highlights.

And finally, I copied the chat from a Chat Noir poster.

Fashion Show

Part of the JAW festival at PCS

More bridges

I set off on a field trip, to scout out sketching locations along the river.  I crossed Naito and headed north, towards the Fremont Bridge.  But, along the way, realized that it was a no-go for a sketchcrawl.  Even if I managed to find a spot for coffee and a spot for lunch, there's no transit access (save the miserable once an hour 16).  Some people might drive, but few others would be as willing as me to make the trek on foot.  Plus, it's really, really loud near the bridge.  (The new condos and apartments, with plazas and balconies and promenades?  No one much uses them.)

So I crossed back under the bridge to try the next section of the Willamette Greenway Trail.  This was more promising, with few downstream to the Steel Bridge, and upstream to the Broadway Bridge.





I continued under the Broadway Bridge to the next section of the trail, and stopped when I got to where I had a good view of the Steel Bridge.  And of a great blue heron.


And at this point, I had a problem.  The McCormick Pier Condos have had problems with homeless people on the trail.  They even tried to close the trail a while back, to keep them out.  The city made them reopen it, so they came up with another solution.  Now you're allowed to walk or run along the river, but you can't stop.  A polite security guard came by to tell me to move along.

Meeting

Sketchcrawl at Cathedral Park

Getting to St Johns on transit from my house is a bit awkward.  You either take one of the few 15's that goes past Montgomery Park to the end of the line, then get off and wait for 40 minutes for a 16 to pick you up for the rest of the way, or you go the other way and cross the Steel or Morrison bridges, and then transfer to a bus that makes the long trek up into the peninsula.  But I decided to be clever and concocted a direct route without a long layover.  It involved riding an orange bike to the hub outside of Schoolhouse Electric, then crossing the railroad tracks to catch a 16 on Front.

But there was a catch.

That being a freight train parked on the crossing.  And extending as far as I could see in both directions. I settled in to wait, to see if by chance it would get out of the way before my bus arrived.  And sketched until I heard it go by on the other side of the train.

Then I checked the bus schedule, and decided that taking the bus in an hour wouldn't make me too late, and decided to try the new coffee shop in Schoolhouse Electric.  Had a latte and a croissant and read the Willamette Week from cover to cover.  And, eventually, the train started up and rolled away, and I was able to get to Front and catch my bus.

I'd missed the pre-sketching gathering, so I headed straight down into Cathedral Park and worked my way down the hill until I found a spot in the shade with a good view up at the bridge.

And then headed down to the river, where a stern-wheeler was passing.  I watched it go by downriver, and spied a mysterious ship off in the distance.  So I worked my way along the river to find a better view of it.

Sketchers and a Tree

I downtown today to listen to the noon-time music at Pioneer Courthouse Square.  And found clumps of sketchers already there.

I snuck around them after I finished my own sketch, and found that no one was doing the band or the people dancing or listening.  Every single one of them was sketching the buildings surrounding the square.  So it must have been an architectural outing.

Then I set out towards home, stopping at Couch Park to do a sketch of the Empress tree there.

Japanese Garden

One final sketchcrawl for Cara, before she moves to Michigan.