October in Galveston

Our group

Once again, Urban Sketchers Houston went to Galveston for our October sketchout. As you can see from Jeff's sketch in the header, the sight of the Carnival cruise ship peeking through the older buildings on the Strand was an irresistible sketch subject. Here's Francisco's take.

Francisco

Here's another take.

Not sure whose this is??

And then I tackled this as well.

Chris

We started the day, however, on Post Office street for a short warmup in the area.

Lucia at the Mod coffee

Richard at the Mod coffee

Martha and Joel drew a local church.

Martha

Joel

Here's our first throwdown.

Our first throwdown

From there, we moved on to the Strand. People wandered all up and down the street sketching.

Bruce

Mike S

Rachel

Heather

Andrea

Veronika

Judith

Chris

Martha

Peter

Tanya

Jeff

Lucia

Veronika

Here's our throwdown from lunchtime.

throwdown at the arts center

Next we all went to the waterfront. Some people drew boats. Some chose other subjects.

Francisco

Bee

Mike

Amber

Amber

Not sure of the artist?

Chris

And finally Richard's sketch. He stayed on to finish it. A nice historical study of the waterfront.

Richard

Here's the throwdown from the pier.

the throwdown at the pier

From there, the group split up and met up at the end of the day at a local community center for refreshments and air conditioning. (Did I mention it was HOT?)

the community center

The pictures I received from the end of the day were from the group that went to the Silk Stocking district to draw old houses.

Susan

Rachel

Tanya

Bee

Charlotte

Heather

Judith

All in all, there was a little something for everyone to sketch. I'm going to add a few more and address a topic that comes up from time to time. What do you do when you have a day like this with several venues and you don't finish your sketch?

Richard

Richard's solution is usually to take copious reference photos and finish at home. I suspect we'll see this in finished form at some point. And taking photos is just fine. Richard travels and this is a necessity for him on trips and tours.

Judith's lunch sketch

Now this black and white sketch is just fine as is, but Judith often goes back and adds color in Procreate, or a small journal entry or caption in the blank space.

Judith

Here's another one of Judith's quick sketches of details from a building. This would be a great place to paste down ephemera ( a ticket stub, a lunch menu) or add some journaling along one side. Richard did something similar in his Mod Coffee sketch. Try this the next time you run short on time.

This group always looks forward to our trip to Galveston in October. If you are new to the blog, be sure and check us out on Instagram or join our Facebook group. And check in here again for our next sketchout.

The Annual Trip to Galveston

 

Francisco

 

It's always so hard to decide what to draw when we go to Galveston. There's just so much to look at. Judith planned a full day starting on Post Office Street. We warmed our hands up on buildings, early morning coffee drinkers and sculpture - like this turtle drawn by Francisco.

Ken Roy

Ken Roy drew one of the buildings on Post Office Street in pen and ink.

After a brief warm-up on Post Office street, we had a throw-down.

 

 

 

The first throw down

Next, we moved to Pier 21 and the dock area. Several people settled in to draw The Elissa.

You can see Susan DeCourcy's drawing in our blog header.

 

 

Chris

I like the contrast between the old and the very new in my sketch.  

 

 

Paul

Paul chose a softer and more colorful version.

 

People always gravitate to the activity around the docks. Michelle captured one of the shrimpers.

 

 

Michelle

Rita Wilbur also found a boat to draw.

 

 

Rita

Francisco used lots of clear and bright color on his.

 

 

Francisco

Ken Roy's sketch is ink with strong, bold lines.

 

 

Ken Roy

Sharon did her work in pencil.

 

 

Sharon Hendry

I like that she included the pelicans. And speaking of pelicans, Rita did a sketch of just the pelicans on toned paper.
 

 

 

Rita

Svetlana's sketch highlights the more workaday part of the dock area. She worked in colored pencil.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Svetlana

Finally, there is this sketch, done later in the day by Michael. But you can see why I included it here. I was also intrigued by the little glimpses of the cruise ship you could see between the buildings on The Strand.

 

 

 

 

Michael

 

 

 

 In the meantime, some of the group drew a few other things going on around the dock area.

Andrea drew Harbor House.

 

 

Harbor House

There was a flurry of activity going on along the dock behind the Elissa and Harbor House. The Texas Game Wardens were holding "The Guppy Cup" competition for young anglers.  The rail was lined with children and their parents hoping to land the biggest fish.

 

 

Judith

Judith and Michael were right there to catch it all.

Michael

At midday, we had a throwdown and visited a bit at the Galveston Art Center.

 

 

Throwdown

After lunch, the remaining group went back out along The Strand to draw all the things going on.

 

Ken Roy and Sharon went for sculpture.

 

 

Ken

 

 

Sharon

Patricia caught the people hanging out in Saengerfest Park.

 

 

Patricia

On the other side of the park was the Pirate museum. Judith had to draw it.
 

 

 

Judith

Ken and Paul tackled the very complicated Stuttgart.

 

 

Ken

Paul

Michelle and I tried out the equally complicated and colorful Hutchings-Sealy building.

 

 

Michelle

 

 

Chris

We met in Saegerfest Park for our throwdown.

The mid afternoon throwdown

Our next stop was Galveston's "silk stocking" district. We found some charming old houses to draw.

  

Susan

Michael and Michelle drew details of the yard and gate of this raised Galveston cottage on Avenue M.

 

 

Michelle

 

 

Michael

Michael captured the late afternoon sun.

 The owners of this charming raised Galveston house came out to see why there were people set up in front of their house. Judith was allowed inside the gate to draw their lovely courtyard garden.

 

 

Judith

The last throwdown of the day.
 

late afternoon throwdown

It was a long but very rewarding day for the people who held out to the end.  

You can always check out posted sketches on our Facebook page or check us out on Instagram. Consider joining us for one of our upcoming sketch outs.