Houston Bird Week

 Saturday was a bonus sketchout for Houston Bird Week. The Audubon Society is now Birds Houston. They invited us to be at their fundraiser at Frost Town Brewing Company. I must mention the logo created by Javier Salas used in the header. Thank you. 

I will keep this short and sweet and just post photos.

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