Houston Bird Week

 Saturday was a bonus sketchout for Houston Bird Week. The Audubon Society is now Birds Houston. They invited us to be at their fundraiser at Frost Town Brewing Company. I must mention the logo created by Javier Salas used in the header. Thank you. 

I will keep this short and sweet and just post photos.

HONG KONG MALL

 On the header you can see the group that made the trip out to Hong Kong Mall for our July sketchout. Thanks to Michael Jap for leading this group.

Michael

Candace

Mary McJunkin

Lisa

The next two were clearly done at lunch. Mary's portrait of three of the sketchers and Joel's little sketches on what looks to be a restaurant placemat.

Mary M

Joel

And then the throwdown....

the throwdown

Sketching Around City Hall

Our group

It's always nice to have a good turnout for our sketch outs. Despite the busy holidays, we had an enthusiastic group for the gathering at city hall. Here we are on the steps next to the Ideson Building. (Now known as Barabar Bush Literacy Plaza) Of course, in this same area you can sketch Hermann Square, Tranquility Park and the houses in Sam Houston Park. Lots of subjects to choose from.

Chetna liked the big oak trees in front of the old Julia Ideson library building. You can see her drawing in the blog header.

Chetna

Several people chose views of city hall.

Joel

Joel did a very vertical, straight-on view.

Descha

Descha picked a more angled view. He actually has time for two sketches. The second one looks down the park in the other direction.

Descha

Judith went to the other end of the park to include the Christmas tree.

Judith

Susan did something somewhat similar and from a slightly different angle. The second sketch is part of the children's play area in front of the library.

Susan

Jacklynn picked a slightly different angle and used a soft watercolor approach.

Jacklynn

Kim and Peiling also drew a fairly straightforward view of city hall.

Kim

Peiling

I turned in the opposite direction to get the pool and the Christmas tree.

Chris

Murrie and Monica went over to Tranquility Park to draw.

Murrie

Monica

There were others who drew the Ideson library building or the library plaza.

Kevin's sketch of the plaza was all done in colored ballpoint pen.

Kevin

Kayoko liked the front of the building and her sketch is also in soft watercolor.

Kayoko

Daryl and Angelica kept their sketches simple. Daryl's is in blue ballpoint. Angelica's in black ink with a pop of color for the wreath.

Daryl

Angelica

Paul went over to Sam Houston park to draw one of the historic houses, but didn't quite get a chance to finish.

Paul

Of course, we had a throwdown.

And some of us went off for a holiday lunch and White Elephant swap. It was a lot of fun.

Please consider joining us in the new year. You can find details about upcoming sketchouts on Instagram or join our Facebook group.

St. Mary's of the Nativity-Plantersville

Our group

Carlos's lovely watercolor gives you some idea of what this tranquil spot is really like. Everyone commented on how quiet and peaceful this spot is.

For those of you not familiar with painted churches, they were mostly (but not exclusively) Catholic and founded by German and Czech immigrants to Texas. Many of them are southwest of Houston in Fayette County. I've heard two versions of why the churches were painted. One was that in the early days the congregation couldn't afford stained glass so the paint dressed up these simple wooden buildings. The other version is that the painting recalls the gothic splendor of European churches for which these immigrants were homesick. St. Mary's in Plantersville is a fine local example.

Everyone had their own plan for tackling this subject. The morning was cool-ish, so folks like Carlos went to capture the outside of the church.

Ken

You can see Ken Roy hard at work if you look at Carlos's sketch.  Ken did a fine job with a little ink and watercolor.

Susan

Susan chose a three-quarter view to give the church a more 3 dimensional look. She also got a bit of the history of the church from the historical marker. Imagine this country spot in 1873.

Rick

Rick did a closer look at the entrance in pencil.

Chris

I went over to the parish cemetery, which still has some of the old metal German grave markers. It also has live oaks that, I'm sure, date from the founding of the church.

Some people went right inside to attempt to catch the lovely painted sanctuary. To give you some idea how complicated that was, here are some photos.

The sanctuary, the altar and some paint detail

So, the only choice would be to greatly simplify. Kyoko did that very well with soft, luminous watercolor.

Kyoko

Britt

Britt focused on just the chancel and stuck to watercolor only.

Shaw

Shaw made a similar choice keeping her focus specific.

Susan

Susan moved a bit farther back and got a nice view of the ceiling and the painted posts.

Chris

I climbed into the choir loft and tried to get the entire sanctuary. Susan and I both found that we had to go to colored pencil for the smallest details. There was just so much to draw!

Cori

Cori tried a bit of everything. The interior, the entrance and a stone from the cemetery. She stuck to pen and ink.

Of course we had a throwdown on the church steps. Then a couple of us went off to lunch.

If you have not yet joined us on a sketchout, please join us for the next sketchout. We try to stick to indoor options in the summer and we are a friendly and nonjudgmental group. If you are interested, please follow us on Instagram or join our Facebook group by answering a few questions. We had some new faces this time and hope to see more in the future.

The Bug Bash- Seabrook Texas

 

our group

We had a really nice turnout for the annual Bug Bash, put on by the Bay Area VW Club in Seabrook. The setting was El Jardin by the Sea, a park in Seabrook attached to a local subdivision. There were some great VW's there, not just bugs.

Judith

First, I want to show Judith's sketch because it is quite amazing what you can get done in a mere 15 or 20 minutes. Judith brough Marvy markers and did the sketch on location on the left. Then, she went home and used more marker to give those VWs a lawn to sit on and some saturated colore to improve the sketch. This is a reminder that while we ask that you sketch on location, you are welcome to improve the work at home.

Susan

Susan did something similar adding to the background and strengthening her color.

Cody jumped in and got right to work. Here he is working on his sketch.

And here is the result. Welcome Cody.

Joel

Joel drew a classic van and even included a couple of people!

Carlos

Carlos started in ink this time and then added the watercolor in soft layers.

Chris

I arrived super early in order to get a view of the shore before it got too hot.

Martha

Martha also drew a classic van.

Indah

Indah drew the OG bug in olive and the classic van in turquoise.

Fran

Fran did the same, but her van was a camper van with all the extra kit.

Kandy

Kandy liked drawing the vans as well.

MacKenzie

MacKenzie also got one of each and some folks appreciating the view.

Jeff Whit

Jeff Whit appreciated the VW dune buggy conversion.

Andrea

The Bug Andrea chose to sketch looks like it's ready to take off for somewhere fun.

Jeff(Kandy's husband)

Kandy's husband (also Jeff) stuck to pen and ink and bravely tackled people. 

Mary

Mary worked in pencil. She alsoo included some people.

Linda

Linda did a study of rust and side mirrors. 

Chris

I finished the seaside and tackled the camper van and the Jetta in colored pencil.

We had a throwdown before it got too hot.

Then we went to lunch in Kemah. It was a great day. If you want to join us on  future sketchouts, check out our Instagram page or join us on Facebook.