Levy Park

Our Group

For our September sketchout, we chose Levy park, a small park tucked into the Greenway Plaza area. It is surrounded on all sides by skyscrapers, apartments, condos and businesses. I'm sure the neighborhood appreciates a bit of green space. You can see Monica's view in the header above the blog. We had several new sketchers again this time. Welcome.

One of the things that fascinated our sketchers was the big, red bus to one side of the park.

Andrew

Michelle

Peter

Kirby

Sofia

What makes these unique is that each sketcher did something a little different. Different points of view, different distances from the subject, different media (Kirby used gouache). This is what makes urban sketching and the throwdowns fun.

Joel and Kim liked the brightly colored food stand on the opposite side of the park.

Joel

Kim

Sketchers spread out over the park and captured pretty much everything.

Susan

Susan wasn't the only one who like all the big red umbrellas.

Carlos

Anna

Chris

The little figure in the corner was the teacher of the Bollywood dance class, which was going on on the other side of me from this group of friends enjoying a coffee.

Peter

Peter caught them in all their wonky, out-of-step glory.

Astrid

Astrid's focus was that swooping overhang. But you can see the dancers in the foreground.

David, Mary and Ignacio went over to the children's playground.

David

Mary

Ignacio

I spent some time in the dog park. I decided drawing dogs and people might be a challenge.

Chris

Violet and Jorge drew in other parts of the park.

Violet

Jorge

We had the throwdown, the group photo and then some lunch.

throwdown

Don't forget that next month is the annual trip to Galveston. We have some great things planned, so keep on eye on Facebook and Instagram for more details. Save October 3 on your calendar.

West End Coffee House

 

Our group

People always seem to enjoy our trips to local coffee houses. This was no exception. We had several new sketchers this time. Welcome. As to the coffee house, this is the creative use of part of an old church that has found new life near the Washington Avenue corridor. You can see a photo and Candace's sketch in the header.

So in a coffee house, you can draw the architecture as Candace did outside. You can draw the environment, as several sketchers did, or you can draw people. Some did a combination of all these things.

Paul Shain

Paul found a seat on the balcony and drew a table of other sketchers below him on the main floor. An interesting perspective.

Joel

Joel also went up onto the balcony and drew the people busy at work on their computers.

Michael

Michael also drew from an angle. That same group of sketchers Paul drew are in the lower right.

Indah

Indah managed to get in the room, some people and her coffee in front of her on the left. Nice use of scale.

Sharon

Sharon found a small patio out back and drew that.

Several people drew the activity at the counter.

Michelle

Susan

Chris

Anna

Yvette

Lots of sketchers were just interested in the interesting people around them.

Mary McJunkin

Shaw

Monica

Emily

Mary P

A few sketchers included a bit of the architecture of the building.

Daniel

Heather

Tanya

But after drawing outside in the heat, Candace was all about the sweets.

Candace

We had a throwdown, of course. And took our group photo.

The throwdown

If you are reading our blog for the first time and want more information about urban sketching, there is a separate page on this  blog which outlines what makes an urban sketch. There is also more information about urban sketchers and OUR MANIFESTO in the right column of the blog page. Connect with us on Instagram or join our Facebook group by answering a few questions. Then join us next month for a sketchout.

HONG KONG MALL

 On the header you can see the group that made the trip out to Hong Kong Mall for our July sketchout. Thanks to Michael Jap for leading this group.

Michael

Candace

Mary McJunkin

Lisa

The next two were clearly done at lunch. Mary's portrait of three of the sketchers and Joel's little sketches on what looks to be a restaurant placemat.

Mary M

Joel

And then the throwdown....

the throwdown

A Cool Museum on a Hot Evening

Our group

It was nice to be able to sketch in the very cool Museum of Fine Arts Houston on a very warm summer night. And we had an excellent turnout for this sketchout. Welcome to all the new sketchers.

Indah brought her IPAD and her Apple pen and did a sketch in Procreate. You can see that in our header. Always nice to see someone using different media.

Now the first thing you encounter in the Law building is the very large Ernesto Neto interactive installation in the center exhibit space. Kids and adults alike were having a ball. But HOW to sketch something like that?

Just to give you an idea what we were up against...

Susan took a pretty direct approach. She chose to sketch from down in the lobby looking slightly upward.

Susan

Judith sketched from the same area. Her two versions are a reminder that adding elements after are permissible. She added a little color in Procreate that makes the people pop out.

Judith

Maggie also drew from this angle, but she soon chose a slightly different approach to this complicated subject.

Maggie

I went around the other side of the sculpture where people entered for the full experience.

Chris

Lisa chose a more vertical view.

Lisa

Rebecca also drew from the entrance side. Her sketch is very dimensional and the sculpture floats on the page.

Lisa

Chetna

The little figure on the side of Chetna's sketch is a rain god she discovered in one of the other galleries.

Megan

Kirby

And finally there was Michael who simply worked in plain pencil. He did manage to get really good contrast and capture the floating effect. Nice shadows too.

Michael

Some sketchers chose to sketch the museum building or the sculpture garden. Isabel drew

the lobby of the Beck.

Isabel

Astrid, Tami and Vivian drew stairways in the Kinder.

Astrid

Tami

Vivian

Fahed and Indah drew the sculpture garden.

Fahed

Indah

The rest of the group went into various galleries and drew from the museum collection.

Jeff and Akil found a boat.

Jeff

Akil

Kim found some totems.

Kim

Decha and Payling found some interesting sculptures.

Decha

Decha

Payling

Rita found a lion that interested her.

Rits

Olinda was visiting us again from Dallas. She drew a collection of images.

Olinda

We had our throw down in the lobby. What a collection of images!

Keep your eyes on Facebook (you will need to join) or Instagram for the location of our next sketchout.