Woodlands Town Square- Market Street

 

The Group

One place we haven't explored previously is the area north of the city. On Saturday we corrected that. Urban Sketchers Houston went to Market Street in the Woodlands for this sketchout. The turnout was good and we were able to welcome several new sketchers. After some remarks by Judith and a lesson of viewfinders from me, we went right to work. The theme this time seems to be choices of different materials.

Starting with the blog header, you can see a street view at the town square as seen by Veronica. She says she decided to "give her Tombow markers some love". Nice job.

Mary

  Mary kept it simple working just in pencil with a little shading. The broad umbrella and the splashing fountain look inviting.

Tyler

Tyler had a similar idea. He chose the pergola area. The cast shadows let you know that the day was hot and sunny.

Lisa

One of the things we did differently this time was to each go out with paper to do a quick warm-up sketch. Lisa chose pastels to draw the clothes hanging in a shop window. The choice of black paper for the patio scene makes the pastel color just glow.

Michael

Michael's quick warm-up on the right is in watercolor and ink. Color is applied before the ink, then the ink lines nail down the details. On the left, gouache is the medium. Opaque gouache applied in blocks and dabs of color keep the shapes simple.

Marcella

I caught Marcella with her easel set up behind a potted plant. She chose watercolor to paint a couple of shops along the square.

Brittany

I wasn't the only one. Brittany spotted her too. She drew Marcella in watercolor and colored pencil.

Judith

Judith used her favorite watercolor pencils. The perspective down the street and all those cars make this trickier than it looks. When we arrived they were having some sort of a sports car rally. Vroom. You can see the last of the cars in her scene.

Patsy

Patsy did one scene on the square and one along the street. She included lots of greenery and people with small pops of color.

Shaw

Shaw's scene has simple blocks of color in themes of oranges and greens. Rendering the people only in colored shapes keeps the drawing from becoming fussy.

Carlos

Carlos lets bold, juicy watercolor tell the story. The details are minimal. The man in the blue shirt lets your eye travel around the scene and come to rest on him.

Michelle

Michelle also did a warm-up drawing (left) of the marquee. Then she settle in to draw the pergola and the people congregated above the lawn. Again some nice cast shadows.

Barbara

Barbara also drew the marquee. Guess who the stars are this week? Watercolor and, I believe, marker.

Jained

New sketcher, Jained, drew a scene along the street, but her charming clouds draw your attention to the sky.

Lauren

Lauren was also new to our group. She also drew the marquee, but from a wider perspective across the street. Good work.

Chris

I was drawn to the children playing with the foam blocks on the lawn. This was my warm-up.

Chris

But I also wanted to draw something no one else was drawing. So I found a small courtyard along a breezeway (left) filled with palms and greenery. On the right I did a quick version of the marquee in marker, colored pencil and watercolor.

Carlos

Last, more of Carlos's very simple people sketches. Blocks of color, simple lines and basic shapes make these work.

The throwdown

We had a throwdown, some lunch and everyone went home pretty happy.

Next month is our annual trip to sketch in Galveston. Check in on Facebook or Instagram for the meetup place and time.