Heritage Park

 

Our group at the throwdown

Rain may have threatened, but our group managed to have a sketchout downtown at Heritage Park. Among the collection of preserved homes in the park is the Jack Yates home from Freedman's Town in the  Fourth Ward, an appropriate subject for a February sketchout. Several sketchers chose that house for sketching, but there was so much there to draw!

First let's appreciate Monica's sketch of the small wooded glade in the middle of the park. You can see that in the header. She drew a second view, which you can see below.

Monica

Let's look at some of those sketches of the Yates house.

Jeff Whit

Jeff Whit did a great watercolor of the house.

Susan

Susan chose a three quarter view.

Another favorite subject was St. John's church.

Lisa

Lisa picked a back view with the winter trees.

Decha

Decha drew the church from the side with all the winter trees and the skyscrapers behind. A nice contrast.

Carlos

Carlos also chose the side view with all the tall buildings just behind.

Judith

Judith moved way back and got a much broader view of the trees, the winter park and all the buildings.

Chris

I kept, mostly, to black and white with a splash of color on the roof of the little pavilion that sits in the middle of the park.

There were other houses in the park to draw. Each one of them has a place in Houston history.

Joel

Joel did a study of the Pilott house in brown ink.

Heather

Heather and Sherry chose to sketch in pencil.

Sherry

Candy drew the Staiti house and surroundings in ink.

Candy

Janice decided to draw the very large sphere in one corner of the park.

Janice

Candy's husband Jeff did a collage of the church and the various buildings behind it.

Jeff

Susan finished her first sketch and went across the street to draw Oldenburg's Geometric Mouse.

Susan

We had a group throwdown and then went off to lunch.

If you're reading this blog for the first time and urban sketching interests you, why not join us on our next sketchout? We'll be meeting at the new Ismaili Center in March. You can find out more about our group and the dates and times of our sketchouts on Instagram. You can see more sketches and meet more of our group on Facebook.

Swap, Admire and Share at Texas Art Supply

 This time I'm diverting from the norm. No sketch credits, no group photo, no throwdown. We met at Texas Art Supply to admire everyone's sketchbooks, to look at interesting art supplies and to sketch each other.  The sketch in the header is one example.

Judith

Judith took care of some group business first and gave a general run down of our indoor sketchout.

People wandered around and paged through everyone's sketchbook and admired the work from past sketchouts.

They also admired and tried out the sampling of supplies that people had brought to share with the group.

Some people settled down right away to begin sketching while the rest of the group paged through sketchbooks.

And the header and this sketch were some of the results.

But the view out the window works too.

Some decided to try out Joel's plasticine stamp idea.

So there was no throwdown and no group pic, but there was lunch. It's always nice to try something a little different in the months when it's harder to be outdoors. Many thanks to Texas Art Supply for lending us the meeting space....oh and shopping..did I mention shopping?

Join our Facebook group or follow us on Instagram for future sketchout locations. Remember that barring complications, we now meet on the second Saturday of the month. Join us.

Sketching Around City Hall

Our group

It's always nice to have a good turnout for our sketch outs. Despite the busy holidays, we had an enthusiastic group for the gathering at city hall. Here we are on the steps next to the Ideson Building. (Now known as Barabar Bush Literacy Plaza) Of course, in this same area you can sketch Hermann Square, Tranquility Park and the houses in Sam Houston Park. Lots of subjects to choose from.

Chetna liked the big oak trees in front of the old Julia Ideson library building. You can see her drawing in the blog header.

Chetna

Several people chose views of city hall.

Joel

Joel did a very vertical, straight-on view.

Descha

Descha picked a more angled view. He actually has time for two sketches. The second one looks down the park in the other direction.

Descha

Judith went to the other end of the park to include the Christmas tree.

Judith

Susan did something somewhat similar and from a slightly different angle. The second sketch is part of the children's play area in front of the library.

Susan

Jacklynn picked a slightly different angle and used a soft watercolor approach.

Jacklynn

Kim and Peiling also drew a fairly straightforward view of city hall.

Kim

Peiling

I turned in the opposite direction to get the pool and the Christmas tree.

Chris

Murrie and Monica went over to Tranquility Park to draw.

Murrie

Monica

There were others who drew the Ideson library building or the library plaza.

Kevin's sketch of the plaza was all done in colored ballpoint pen.

Kevin

Kayoko liked the front of the building and her sketch is also in soft watercolor.

Kayoko

Daryl and Angelica kept their sketches simple. Daryl's is in blue ballpoint. Angelica's in black ink with a pop of color for the wreath.

Daryl

Angelica

Paul went over to Sam Houston park to draw one of the historic houses, but didn't quite get a chance to finish.

Paul

Of course, we had a throwdown.

And some of us went off for a holiday lunch and White Elephant swap. It was a lot of fun.

Please consider joining us in the new year. You can find details about upcoming sketchouts on Instagram or join our Facebook group.

CRAFT DAY 2025 AT THE HOUSTON CRAFT MUSEUM

 

Our Group

As you can see from the group photo and the throwdown in the header, we had a slightly smaller group for this sketchout. Notice was short due to a cancellation, but we all had fun watching all the demonstrations and touring the various booths in the garden and the museum. It was community craft day and there were booths with demonstrations and items for sale all over the museum and the grounds at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft.

Fran

Fran and Janelle chose to draw inside the museum itself and commemorate the entire event.

Janelle

Jeff took a collage approach with several drawings in colored pencil.

Jeff

Susan

Susan also drew a variety of the activities going on, but stuck to just ink.

Michael

Michael focused in on the wood turners.

Chris

I found an interesting basket weaver.

A whole group of sketchers stayed outside and enjoyed the lovely day in the adjoining garden space.

Kim

Kim even caught a fellow sketcher hard at work.

Melissa 

Melissa found an interesting tree.

Akhil

Akhil was interested in the fountain.

Daryl

Daryl studied the forms of the garden bed wall in ballpoint

Chetna

Chetna found a booth to draw.

Angelica

Angelica did a slightly different take on a tree and one of the sketchers.

Michael

Michael did a study of his fellow sketchers.

It was a lovely day to be sketching outdoors.

Join us on Facebook or check out our Instagram account. If you are already a member, remember that we encourage you to take out your sketchbook wherever you go and then post a picture to Facebook. You can link your sketch from YOUR Instagram account to ours by adding #uskhouston in the description. PLEASE put up some of your work. We want to see where you've been!

YES! There will be a December sketchout. Watch FB and Insta for an announcement.