The Union Pacific Big Boy

Jeff and Mike

A real horde of train lovers showed up to see the Union Pacific Big Boy on Sunday at Amtrak station downtown. The crowd was so big, that some of us never hooked up for a throwdown. The group in the header were sketching along the track in front of the engine. Jeff, Mike, Susan and Peter were sketching alongside the train in the crowd. Heat and the crowd claimed a few of us early, but Big Boy did not disappoint as a sketching subject.

Peter

Peter arrived very early and did a couple of sketches from across the track on Dart and Elder streets. There was a fence which he artfully deleted, but no crowd. His second sketch was from the vantage point of "the most haunted building in Houston", the original Jeff Davis hospital.

Peter-Big Boy and downtown

He also did several very long views of the train. An unusual composition choice.

Peter

This view was from the station side of the track. 

Peter

Peter

A nice three-quarter view in watercolor.

Michelle and Richard were among those who chose the foreshortened head-on view. Bruce and I were there as well. Standing against the fence and a bit in front at least gave us elbow room to draw.

Bruce and Michelle

Michelle

Bruce

In both cases, they chose to go back later and add some cool text to the page.

Richard also chose this view. You don't often see Richard draw a lot of people, but the crowd was part of the story.

Richard

I anticipated a big crowd, so I worked in graphite and water-soluable graphite and kept it quick and somewhat simple.

Chris

Two new sketchers joined us. The first was Amber.

Amber

The second was Kayoko, who worked from the teeniest little Altoid palette in OILS. I think that's a first. She captured not only the engine, but the passenger cars parked in back.

Kayoko at work and with one of the "steam crew"

Kayoko- passenger car

Kayoko

I especially like the way she abstracted the crowd in front. Speaking of abstract...Carlos decided to stick to black and white too. Charcoal? Conte? I love the shapes for the crowd.

Carlos

Susan went around and got a three quarter view.

Susan

Susan is another person who likes to "compose" a page with image and text.

Mike

Jeff

Mike and Jeff were working on the other side of the station, so when they didn't find the rest of us, they had their own little throwdown.

Mike and Jeff-throw

This event was a good reminder that even under challenging conditions you can make it work.

If you are new, please join our Facebook group, check us out on Instagram or follow the blog.

For our regular members, please JOIN US in Galveston on Saturday Oct 12 for our annual Galveston sketchout.

The Old Houston Air Terminal Museum

 

Our group

This month we went back to the old 1940's Air Terminal for an event called Ramp Day. Luckily this gem of Deco architecture was saved from the wrecking ball and is open as a museum out on Telephone Road near the current Hobby airport.

Take yourself back to the days of prop planes and air travel when it was a "dress up" occasion. That's the vibe of the old terminal. They have saved  exhibits of things from the era and give tours.

The terminal was a fascinating thing to draw. You can see Bruce's version in the header. Other people gave it a try as well.

Lee Ann

Lee Ann was in town from rural Alabama, where she lives miles from the nearest USK chapter. She was happy too join us. Welcome, Lee Ann.

Michelle set up her easel in the parking lot and stuck with it despite the heat. 

Michelle Jannise

The lettering is a nice finishing touch.

Maggie

Maggie captured all the people peering over the edge of the building from the observation deck.

Peter

Peter was tickled by the "editing" on the body of the male figure.

Chris

I zoomed in on that marvelous Deco entranceway.

Several people sketched features from inside the building.

Karen

Karen chose the lobby and the reception desk.

Bo

Bo did a collage of several elements including vintage travel luggage, an "air attendant" uniform, a fuel truck and the building itself.

Melissa

Melissa drew the vintage brick still in the process of being restored. The group working on the building has made the best of "a work in progress".

But of course we were there to look at planes. And we saw a few.

Jeff

Jeff caught the Rockets' jet which we understood was there for repairs.

Judith

Judith tried out a new technique just using Posco markers. She picked up that tip at Sketcherfest. It has a very graphic look that fits the era of the museum.

Michael

Michael drew the people checking out this smaller plane.

Peter

Peter went upstairs in the building for a different perspective on the same view.

Chris

I also drew from above out one of the windows in what used to be the pilot's quarters.

Lynn

Lynn stuck with black and white.

Around the other side of the building there was a plane parked near a very rusty old hangar building.

Jacklynn

Andrea

Two rather different perspectives on the same scene.

And someone had painted up an old plane that sat alongside the parking lot.

Paul

I'm sure there's a story there somewhere.

Mike

Another colorful plane.

Karen

A vintage fuel truck.

Here's our throwdown.

the throwdown

Keep up with us on Instagram or join our Facebook group. There you will see links for our latest sketchouts and other activities. September will be announced soon. Remember that October is our trip to Galveston.

Looking Back At Urban Sketchers Houston

I thought I would do something a little different for this bonus blog post. When I create each month's post, I use the template Judith created and insert a sketch from my cache of photos. I don't have any particular way of choosing. I pick one that represents the place we went in a different or creative or striking way. Something eye-catching usually. And I always try to "share the love" by picking different folks as much as a I can. 

The sad part is that the next month, when I create the new post, that image is lost. I don't have the storage to keep all the photos, and the new image "takes over "(I found a sneaky way to rescue these images from Google) So I thought I'd look back at where the group has been over the past few years since Judith created that header. Maybe this will inspire us to revisit a place, or visit someplace nearby. This will also help some of the new people to see all the places we've been. We've actually been a lot MORE places, but Google has only saved the ones created in the header for some reason. Where a month is skipped, there was a picture of a place or the group or the throwdown instead of artwork.

Kathy

Our trip to an art studio complex in Magnolia in 2020.

Carlos

Our day at the kite festival in 2021.

Robert

The Silos in April of 2021.

Robert

The Art Car Event (held in place of the parade) in May 2021.

Martha

The Armand Bayou Nature Center in June of 2021.

Michael

People sketching in the Vietnamese sandwich shop on Silver Street.

Francisco

A trip to the farmer's market in September of 2021.

Linda P

Our annual trip to Galveston in October 2021.

Richard

Traders Village in November of 2021.

Juliette

Our trip to The Post in downtown in February of 2022.

Siao

We went to the rodeo in March of 2022.

Jen

Jen Bui's sketch from the San Jacinto Day reenactment in April of 2022.

Francisco

Another trip to the Farmer's Market in May of 2022.

Lisa

We visited the MFAH in July of 2022.

Chris

In August of 2022, we visited the new MKT outdoor space in the Heights.

Veronika

September of 2022 found us at Woodlands Town Square in the Market Place.

Linda

In October of 2022 we were back in Galveston drawing on the docks.

Peter

Peter drew this in Market Square in November of 2022.

Rita

Rita drew this at Bayou Bend in April of 2023

Truong

This sketch is from our visit to the Museum of Fine Arts in June of 2023.

Peter

In August of 2023 Peter drew this view of downtown from St. Arnold's beer garden.

Susan

Galveston again and a sketch of the Elyssa.

Judith

Judith made this sketch at Rockin' 'n Rollin' Prints in November of 2023.

Susan

We went to the Museum of Natural History in February of 2024.

Joel

We also went to Cameron Market in February.

Magdalena

In March 2024 we visited the Houston Botanic Garden.

Siao

April of 2024 found our group in Olde Town Tomball.

Svetlana

Svetlana drew this in May 2024 at the BAP Hindu temple in Stafford.

Karen

And Karen drew this also in May at the Menil.

Remember, these headers only go back to 2020. Here are some of the other places the group has been:

Barry

In 2019 we visited Project Row House in the Third Ward.   We also memorialized the closing of Wolf's Department store - also in the Third Ward.

Richard

We've been to Discovery Green a few times. We've checked out 19th Street in the Heights, the Houston Museum of Funeral History,  the Julia Ideson building at the library, Old Sixth Ward, the Art Car parade, Phoenicia Market, the Galleria, the old Hobby Airport Terminal and of course several trips to NASA. We were a group long before 2019, but part of Urban Sketchers Texas. I'd say we've been a busy group.

We are always on the lookout for new places to take the group. If you have an idea, here are the general guidelines: a) Saturday or Sunday is best because so many folks are working

 b) free or low cost is optimal so we can be inclusive c) crowds are a consideration as is parking. If you have ideas, please speak up.

Follow us on Instagram or join our Facebook group.