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.

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Old Tomball

The Group

A small group gathered in Old downtown Tomball for the April sketchout. The focus was the old train station.

Veronika

Susan

Rita Wilbur

A young sketcher

Fran

There were several sketchers whose names I didn't get. The young sketcher who tackled the complicated building perspective. Good job. And two others whose names I didn't receive.

Unidentified

Unidentified

I saved Vicki Williamson's sketch for last in this group because she did something I hope many of you will consider. She sketched on site and completed the page at home. This is perfectly permissible in urban sketching, especially if you plan to journal on the page or add ephemera or other elements.

Vicki Williamson- left, before and right, after

A couple of people chose NOT to work on the train station. One, was Xiao, whose sketch appears in the header. She chose a downtown street scene instead. The other was Judith.

Judith

An antique shop, perhaps?

the throwdown

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The Houston Botanic Garden

The Group

After several rainouts, Urban Sketchers Houston finally made it to the Houston Botanic Garden. The day was perfect for sketching. The turnout was great and everyone was enthusiastic to explore the garden. We have a wide variety of sketches to enjoy.  

First there is Magdalena's sketch in the blog header. She did this drawing in the Global Collection Garden. The Tree of Life Sculpture is a standout feature.

Martha

Here is Martha. Enjoying the sun and drawing a bed of snapdragons.

Bruce

Bruce found a shady spot with some pretty trees which he drew in ink and wash.

Carlos

The chairs in the shade look pretty inviting. Those shadows tell a story.

Andrea

Andrea's depiction of trees has a sunnier feel.

Cooper

Cooper found trees that  had been taken down and drew them in pen and ink. The repetition of the log shapes makes this interesting.

Joel

Joel found a spot where various epiphytes were hanging from the trees.

 

Xiao

Xiao drew the bridge over the bayou.  Another nice contrast between those purple shadows and the bright orange bridge.

Sketching and conversation in the Global Garden

Mary McJunkin

Mary McJunkin

Two sculptures in two different sketches by Mary. In the first one, the color added to the flowers make them just pop. In the second, the sculpture echoes the curves in the roof of the arcade with its clever wall-pockets full of plants.

Peter

The very architectural shape of the water feature contrasts with the soft shapes of the trees in Peter's two sketches.

Michael

The botanical garden is full of sculpture. Michael found a butterfly. He also drew an blooming iris.

Rita

I believe Rita's sketch was inspired by the Family Garden. She zoomed right in on that foliage.

Madison

Madison's colorful sketch features all sorts of pretty blooming things and another sculpture.

Veronika

Veronika found a different sculpture and some garden workers doing some spring cleanup.

Jacklynn

Jacklynn worked in very soft and subtle colored pencil.

Sabrina

Sabrina drew this view of the dry climate garden and the view across the rest of the garden.

Chris

I was fascinated by the clusters of barrel cactus in the desert landscape with the purple Salvia in bloom behind them.

Cathie B

Cathie B

An agave about to bloom and some other dry climate plants.

Here are some more sketches from various parts of the garden.

Carlos

Mary McJunkin

Madison

Andrea

Everyone had the same comment, " I didn't get to see everything." There's so much to see in this garden. Here's our throwdown.

the throwdown

Finally, to show appreciation to the garden for the garden passes, we were asked to do some postcards. Hopefully they can be used to make postcards or cards for the gift shop.

postcards

Thanks to Jill Barry, Katy Caldwell and the Houston Botanic Garden for making this visit possible.  It was a great day!

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