The New Houston Farmer's Market

Michael Jap

The new Houston Farmer's Market doesn't quite have the funky vibe of the old Canino's, that's for sure. But as new vendors arrive and the spaces get rented, there is still a lot to see and buy at the market. And the crowds seem to be picking up too. Michael Jap captured the distinctive front of the market in this sketch in gouache.

The group

Ten sketchers showed up to draw this time. We dispersed to all the corners of the market and got right to work. Sketching in a public place is a funny thing. It can be intimidating for new sketchers, but something I heard James Richards say on the Sneaky Art podcast struck me. "If someone walks up to you don't shoo them away.... be open to a conversation, ...but more often than not they're going to look over your shoulder and they're going to see that building you're drawing and look up....and they're going to see things they never saw before..." Francisco definitely made a new friend with the sketch you can see in our header. Even a food truck makes a good subject.

We're getting bolder as a group about drawing people.

Chris

The young flower vender was selling what she referred to as "violets" in a stand just brimming with green plants and other flowers. She was doing a lively business. I liked that she stood still for long periods. And she liked my drawing enough to take my picture. Another friend made.

Alana came along with her mom and decided to sketch the sketcher.

Alana

Carlos always installs himself on a stool in a convenient spot and sticks to that spot. This spot was out of the way, but the action was constantly changing. (and his spot got a nice cross-breeze on a hot day) Here are the workers trotting back and forth with hand trucks loaded with produce boxes.

Carlos

Robert

Robert got the crowd bustling along behind the mango vendor.

Rona

The posture of Rona's subject suggests a caption: "Decisions, decisions".

Judith

Judith's vendor is selling pineapples, nopales, coconuts, mangos and some nice cold  Topo Chico to wash it all down.

Francisco

Francisco's second drawing is a snapshot of the point-of-purchase. Gracias!

Lisa

Lisa drew the stall of another of the plant vendors using watercolor pencils.

Lucia

Lucia's subject was lost in thought. She kept the colors simple and the ink line as well.

Liz

Liz chose the outside of one of the new buildings for a study in colored pencil.

Chris

My first drawing was in the very back building of the market, where the vendor has tables set up very much like the old Canino's. I couldn't resist all the brightly colored peppers.

Carlos

Carlos painted one entire booth using spots of color to suggest the produce and simplifying the background. This makes the two figures pop out.

The throwdown

Of course we had a throwdown before everyone left with a discussion of materials and tools and sketchbooks. And a few of us went on to lunch. Michael drew his lunch...well part of it.

All in all a successful sketchout and a good day.

Michael

  Don't miss the links I've included in this post. Check out our Facebook page and Instagram page as well. You'll have to answer some questions to join our FB group, but you can always follow us on Instagram. And if you've been lurking...join us next month on our sketchout.

The Houston Farmer's Market

The Group

 The Houston Farmer's Market has been one of our sketching venues before. Back when it was Canino's, it was a riot of color and smells. Could the new, rebuilt market still excite us? Well, we needn't have worried. The beautiful new space has many of the same vendors, booths crammed with merchandise and tempting produce, and the thrum of busy shoppers. Our turnout was great. The only dilemma was how to capture it all on the page. Francisco's sketch, which you can see on our masthead, is the outside of the beautiful new building, with a nod to its use.

Arthur

Arthur Deatly brought his easel. He likes to work in water-soluble graphite and watercolor.

Jenna

Jenna's sketches show exactly what we were up against. How do you get all the produce, the shelving, the people that are crammed into every space? Well, you invariably have to simplify just a bit. The colorful background on the top sketch stands in for an even busier background.

Carlos Chua

Carlos also captured just enough to "read" as fruits and vegetables but he used simple watercolor shapes to represent all the produce.

Michael settled onto his stool and let the scenes come to him.

Joel

Joel liked the long view down one side of the narrow vendor corridor that gives you a real sense of the new space.

Chris

I wanted to focus on one vendor space and practice my people-drawing skills.

Bruce

Bruce picked just one section of a booth with an interesting background treatment to fill the space.

Jeff

Jeff simplified by indicating the architecture of the building but focusing on the boxes of produce.

Then there were those who were seduced by all the colors of the produce.

Linda

Linda chose vignettes of several things she saw.

Kathy

Kathy picked one interesting arrangement.

Nancy

Nancy grouped several colorful things in a sort of watercolor/collage approach.

Chris

I went looking for pumpkins (my personal favorite) and I found them! But then I saw all the lovely mangos shining in the sun.

Sometimes just getting it all on the page in the time we have is a challenge. Fahmi and Judith have their own solutions to this problem.

Fahmi

Fahmi sketches on location and goes back with reference photos and watercolor later. She likes to compose her pages with the date, captions, and a bit of writing.

Fahmi

You can see the resulting two-page spread before and after. The border "contains" the image and frames it in the space.

Judith takes a somewhat different approach. First, the bracket on the roof pole makes a handy place for the watercolor kit to rest. It also provides a bit of "cover" when you are drawing people.

Judith captures it all on the spot. Very often she works in watercolor or pencil on site. But she also goes home and pumps up the contrast in Procreate. It avoids the problem of overworking the page in the moment and causing the sketchbook page to buckle or pill.

You can see the "before" and "after" below.

Judith

the throwdown

Of course,  we did the throwdown and the group picture at the end. And that was followed by lunch together at a nearby restaurant.

Next month's sketchout will be in Galveston. The weather should be great and there will be a lot to sketch. If you are a USKHouston sketcher, plan to join us.