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.

A Cool Museum Treasure Hunt

 As you can tell from the group photo in the header, we had a somewhat smaller group in attendance at the museum this time. But it was nice to sketch someplace cool, look at some art and do some people watching. This time Judith set us a small challenge. We were to find places or artworks in the museum that met one of a list of words she gave us. Here is the list: gold, pattern, floral, faces, feather, treasure, hold, mask, struggle, old/new, bright/dark, space, cool, green, awkward, angles. As you look at what people drew, see if you can tell what they had in mind from the list.

Peggy Engel and Judith headed straight for the Egyptian collection. Peggy did something a little unexpected. Instead of drawing the FRONT of the statue of Ramses, she drew the hieroglyphs on the back.

Peggy

Judith

Judith's sketch took in one whole space in the museum complete with the people and the art. Do I see some sketchers on that bench in the back?

Judith

Judith's sketch of the canopic jar includes some of the hilarious questions and comments sketchers are likely to get when they are out and about in a museum.

Susan D

Susan decided "First things, first". She started with the familiar metro stop by the entrance to the Beck building and a bit of ephemera to mark the day.

Susan

Susan moved around the museum a bit collecting a bit of sculpture here, a tapestry there and  some people admiring the work in the Raqib Shaw exhibit.

Barry

Barry worked in graphite to draw this bust. Since we are restricted to dry media in the museum, people have to come up with more creative solutions.

Pay Ling

With that in mind, Pay Ling used watercolor crayons minus the water to draw these tapestries.

Phillip

Phillip also worked in pencil to draw two very different objects. But then he switched to pen for the Greek vase.

Phillip

Have you guessed any of the word prompts yet?

Jenny

You should be able to guess the words that inspired Jenny. And even guess the location if you go to the museum often.

Ouisie

Phillip's daughter Ousie took up the challenge. Always nice to have young sketchers join us.

Decha

Decha also drew an entire gallery view.

Chris

First I drew the gallery view with the classical sculpture and all the receding doorways. Just ink for that one. Then I went over to the Kinder where I found this intriguing wood sculpture set against an interesting wall. I used watercolor pencil for that one.

It was an interesting evening. We didn't do a traditional throw-down, but we did talk about our work a bit. 

We are looking for something a little different for our July sketchout. If you can think of an INDOOR venue it should Free or inexpensive and not too crowded on a Saturday for sketchers. Please make a suggestion on Insta or FB. Several of our leaders will be on vacay, so we will need you to show up and play "leader". It's not hard and I'm sure anyone who had attended a sketchout know the routine. Thanks. We all need to pitch in to keep this going.

Music and Art at the Museum

The group

We had a good turnout this time for the MFAH. It's always nice to see people who usually can't make it to our Saturday sketchouts. The main feature this particular night was a short concert by the Monarch Chamber Players. Several of the sketchers chose to sketch the musicians and the audience who were assembled in the main hall of the Beck building.

Judith's sketch

Judith drew the array of musicians. I'd like to point out that her photo of the sketch gives the context in which she drew. Keep this in mind when sharing your sketches.

Karla

Karla zeroed in on the pianist.

Chris

I chose an angle behind the musicians so I could catch a little of the audience as well.

Many sketchers dispersed to the galleries to catch people and art. I will point out two clever solutions to the "no wet media" rule the museum enforces.

Andrea

Andrea toned her paper with ink before coming to the museum. This added a pop of color, but she had to get creative with her white gel pen for "lights".  She chose a really tricky perspective in this sketch too.

Andrea

Rita Wilbur solved the problem a different way.

Rita

She chose a sketchbook with toned paper and then added a little colored pencil. Very effective for the African art.

Kelly

Kelly just wanted to draw the art works.

But many sketchers were fascinated by people interacting with the artwork.

Michael

Michael's panorama of the gallery of Middle Eastern art has many viewers and a little facsimile of Arabic across the top.

Judith

Judith drew people in the galleries.

Chris

My sketch doesn't do justice to the glittery, neon turquoise Buddha in the Korean exhibit. Lots of photos were being taken.

Carlos

Carlos drew all the people wandering around in the museum.

Helen

Helen drew someone...hmmmm..watching musicians? looking at art? people watching? It was all going on.

Karla

And Karla captured a group of Indian women in saris who seemed to be all over the museum. Black and white doesn't capture the color, but Karla caught the movement.

Four people went in an entirely different direction.

Sharon

Sharon drew the outside of the Law building before it got too dark to see.

Tim

Tim drew the undulating curves of the Kinder building.

Heman

Heman chose a similar subject from a slightly different angle.

Of course, you can see Truong's view of the Kinder tunnel and light installation in the blog header.

the throwdown

Of course there was a throwdown at the end.

Please join our Instagram feed or join our Facebook group for the location and details on our next sketchout. Join our newest Facebook group, Urban Sketchers Texas for all the latest information on our ten year anniversary weekend in Bastrop. Registration will open soon.