The Julia Ideson Library.Houston.TX

The Kitty King Powell Gallery

Afther reading the entry  that Nadia made on his blog Dear Polia , I had that going for a walk around the building, and how to not make some sketch. Is beautiful both inside and outside, but the latter i leave it for another occasion.  Is A "must do" ,

Mrs. Kujawa's Paradise

I've had my eye on this little house nearby for a long time, but it's always been too hot to stop and sketch. Today was perfect. I had to edit for space and sanity. This yard contains an unbelievable amount of "yard art" or "garden junk". I couldn't fit it all in. She loves cows and chickens so there's lots of that. And also lots of "Texana". This lady obviously enjoys her garden as well. The flowers are all real and lovely. I wasn't there long before her live-in companion came out to check me out. Turns out there's a story here. Mrs. Kujawa is over 80 and in a struggle with relatives over the property. Her garden is her therapy. She invited me to come back and check out the back yard, which she says is "even better". Whoo boy!

Livin' large in Liberty

    This past weekend we took a short road trip to Liberty, Texas. We went camping at our friend's family ranch. If you are not from Texas you probably picture dusty, mountainy, desert with steers. This part of Texas is lush and green. Rolling pastures with big oak and other hardwood trees. Their ranch house is a single story house spread out with a library, game room, garage for bikes and cars and the dogs kennel. Even a small pool in the back. We camped across the field near the barn and work sheds. We arrived late in the day on Thursday, set up camp and headed into town for Tex-Mex and a margarita. Delisioso! 

     The next day we headed over to the Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center. On the campus of the library are a full size replica of the Texas Governors Mansion, the church (in the center of my sketch), a house and another building. We were lucky that the librarian took us around and opened up the buildings for us even though it was a holiday. It gave me a brief chance to sketch. It is good to have friends with connections. (top image is a composite of 3 of my sketchbook pages)

    The rest of the weekend we grilled steaks, the guys set up a shooting range to target shoot, and the teen boys had a huge amount of fun driving the "gator" on the gravel ranch roads. Sort of a golf cart for farms, perfect for 13 year olds. The weather was perfect and so was the company.

Brazos Bend State Park. Needville.TX

Spectacular  Park just a short 45 min.drive from downtown  Houston. This is a wonderful place to visit. Nature lovers, birders, hikers, campers and other outdoor enthusiasts, and of course sketchers will delight in an obervation tower on 40-Acre Lake trail and almost 35 miles of hiking/biking and foot trails, including an eight-mile equestrian trail system. More than 120 picnic sites with grills, water ans rest rooms.

Wildlife is diverse and abundant, more than 25 different species of mammals, Aprox 21 species of reptiles, but all them are overshadowed in general interest by the American alligator ( over 300 adults alligators make their homes in the park) Birds of 290 species have been sighted in and around the park.

Not to be missed.

Observation tower

Meet Texas Sketcher: B. Scott Shaevel

Hello!  I'm Brad Shaevel, a web application developer and urban sketcher, and I'm very excited to be your USk Texas correspondent from Austin, Texas!  This intro post comes on the heels of one of my favorite festival weekends in Austin ... SXSW (South by Southwest) music festival!    This year's event was no exception, bringing in a world of talented musicians and fans flooding into Austin for a slew of weekend-long block parties and musical showcases across the city.   I spent the weekend in one of my favorite SXSW spots listening to great line-ups of music, people watch-sketching, and just soaking up the festivities in the heart of Austin's SoCo (South Congress) area. 

My best-est sketching buddy, a rat-chi named Wiijet (pronounced "widget"), and I parked in front of Austin musical icon, the Continental Club, directly across the street from the picturesque Hotel San Jose for a couple of days.  Here we enjoyed front row sketching seats to the 2012 South by San Jose (SXSJ) block party. 

The sketch below is of the Hotel San Jose and Jo's Coffee shop SXSJ stage, and was completed on-the-spot over two days with final watercolor touches added back in the studio. 

2012 South by San Jose | SXSW,  Hotel San Jose and Jo's Coffee  South Congress Ave. Austin Tx | pen /watercolor, 7 x 20

So if you're ever in Austin, be sure to look me up and lets sketch, I know some great spots!  Thanks so much again for the opportunity to be a part of sharing the joy's of urban sketching, and the great city of Austin, one sketch at a time, through USk Texas!

b. scott shaevel
bscott@shaevel.com
http://www.shaevel.com

It was just a little building next to a grassy knoll

On my recent trip to Dallas, to participate in the Rock 'n'Roll Dallas Half Marathon, where I got my PR on this distance. Small chronicle here., I did this sketch from the Museum Store + cá fe across Houston Street, but curiously not draw the Little building ( Texas School Book Depositary in 1963), or the Grassy knoll, to the right of the image.
I found more interesting to draw the view that due to observe L H Oswald from the sixth floor window of the "little building", as well as the latest that would see JFK before his assassination, when his car was sent by Elm Street parallel to the  "grassy knoll" towards the tunnel under the tracks of the train.
The landscape has changed, the trees are much more leafy, and in 1963 neither the Reunion Tower (1978) nor the Hyatt Hotel (1978) they had built, but that is for the imagination. Even would have that see it in sepia color, which is how are most of the photos of that time.

Yes, Everything IS Bigger Here!

Returning to Fort Worth from Houston Sunday, I stopped to sketch the statue of Sam Houston on I-45 near Huntsville.  Like Dallas Cowboys Stadium and the hair of our beloved Texas debutantes, this thing is BIG.  David Adicke's sculpture is 67 feet tall and stark white against the dark green pines.  It's visible from a few miles away when approaching from the south, but I was struck by the closer view, revealing the contrast between the size of statue and the crowd of visitors around its base.

Rodeo Houston

Gives me a lot respect draw large spaces, as well drawing people, so this sketch was a real challenge for my.
Done at Reliant Stadium home of the Houston Texans.  During the celebration of theHouston Rodeo that just ended  last Sunday.

Meet Texas Sketcher: Tomas Soria

Hello, I am Tomas Soria, the new correspondent here at USK-Texas. I am from Madrid-Spain, living in Houston, TX  since Jan 2011. Is my second time in the States, the first one was a few years ago, in NewYork City, from 1991 to 1996.
I have worked many years in a Bank, so nothing to do with art.
I always wanted to do on-location sketching, but is now here ( I considerer myself a sketcher born Texan) when  I am drawing almost every day. I enjoy sketch everything, but people, trees ans cars are the more dificult to me, but I am still trying . I like to use  Ink, waterproof and non,  Pencil,Watercolor pan and pencil, and use all types of paper, but always travels with me a sketchbook and 0,1 and 0,3 Pigma MICRON.
My first contact with USK blog was surfing the net, two years ago, and since them I have entered regularly, enjoying every sketch, every style, every theme ( I was hooked without knowing it).
Since Nov 2011 I regularly hang sketches in my Flickr as well post  in my blog and participated in the Flickr groups : USK and USK Spain, and Facebook USK and USK Texas.
My other important hobby/Sport is Running, I am actually training for the Madrid Rock & Roll Marathon, in April 22.
I am looking foward to meeting all the others Texas sketchers some time soon.

Some of my tools

Some of you may remember that I did a sketching workshop for design students in Istanbul last year.  I ended up visiting twice, had a great time sketching in the city, and made some wonderful friends.  So, I was excited and honored to be interviewed by a Turkish landscape architecture magazine a couple of weeks ago about drawing, design and creativity.  The interview is published in Turkish, so I don't know exactly how my answers translated, but the sketches speak a universal language.

Finding the right view....

I was flattered recently by being asked to do a sketch of the church where I attend.  The final sketch is to be a gift to some special visiting guests in May.  I am both honored and nervous about my first "commission"!  I spent some time today finding and sketching a view that frames the tower, Broadway Church of Christ's "iconic" architectural feature.  This is a very quick sketch I did just to explore view, composition, values and color.  Stay tuned for the final version!

At the Livestock Show

The turkeys were extremely inquisitive and craned their necks to inspect all the school field trips that gathered at their pen.
For more pictures from my trip to the livestock show, visit my FLICKR page:

Right side of the tracks

Recently I went to a demo presentation for Adobe Muse.  It is software that makes it easy for designers and the non-html-y types to create websites. It was held in a studio space near downtown Houston. During the workshop break I scurried outside and made a quick sketch. Lucky me, a train traveling pretty slowly, came through while I was sketching. There are a few of these warehouse spaces in the area converted to studio space. I think it would make an interesting place for a sketch crawl. 

Smashes and Stripes

This is a collage of the past week. Note the camper on the truck. I had lunch with a bunch of friends last Sunday after church. As I was leaving the parking lot I noticed this truck. The camper is dented perfectly across the front. I don't imagine whatever they drove into looks much better. It is so neatly done it almost looks like it was designed to that shape. But sadly, no. A couple of days later as I waited for paperwork for a project to be dropped off this nice man in a striped shirt was sitting at the next table focused on his phone. I really like stripes, I can go back through old sketchbooks and they always show up in my favorite sketches.

Houston Skyline

Pete Scully published a lovely minimalist skyline of San Francisco which really inspired me, so I decided that today was the day to try the Houston skyline. The day was clear and sunny and so spring-like that I had to be outside to enjoy it.

Sketching the "Blue Ghost"

Missy and I had a great time in Corpus Christi last weekend at my beautiful niece’s wedding.  I had a little free time and was able to get a quick sketch from the seawall of the Lexington.  I sketched this with a Micron .03 in my Moleskine watercolor sketchbook.  Watercolor wash added at home.  We didn't have time to tour the ship, but by all accounts, it's an incredible tour!  Now I have a reason to go back!

The USS Lexington, known as "The Blue Ghost", is one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built during World War II for the United States Navy.  Lexington was commissioned in February 1943, and served in several campaigns in the Pacific Theater of Operations, receiving the Presidential Unit Citation and 11 battle stars for World War II service. Like many of her sister ships, Lexington was decommissioned shortly after the end of the war, but was modernized and reactivated in the early 1950s, being reclassified as an attack carrier, and then an antisubmarine carrier. In her second career, she operated both in the Atlantic/Mediterranean and the Pacific, but spent most of her time, nearly 30 years, on the east coast as a training carrier.  She was decommissioned in 1991, remaining active longer than any other Essex-class ship, and was donated for use as a museum ship in Corpus Christi, Texas. Lexington was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2003. Though her surviving sisterships Yorktown, Intrepid, and Hornet carry lower hull numbers, Lexington was laid down and commissioned earlier, making Lexington the oldest remaining aircraft carrier in the world.

Sitting on the shelf

Texas Art Supply in Houston has "The Art of Urban Sketching" in the book department. I was in there yesterday and there it was on the shelf. I recommend it for all you sketchers in the area.

I was honored to be a speaker at the 2nd International Urban Sketchers Symposium in Lisbon last August. While there my wife Patti, daughter Cassie and I made a day trip by train up the coast to the little resort village of Estoril.  It was a fantastic day for sketching at the beach, experiencing another side of the laid-back culture of coastal Portugal. This 2-page spread in my large Moleskine watercolor sketchbook was originally posted as a black and white line sketch; I only now summoned the time and courage to add color.  I was happily surprised at the result, and think it captures the spirit of the day. Yes, the umbrellas really were that colorful!

I'm a native Texan (fifth generation), but was mostly raised on the Gulf Coast of the deep South.  Memories are thick there.  On a recent visit it gladdened my heart to see things slowly returning to "normal" in the wake of years of ravaging storms and the BP oil spill.  This stretch in the Florida panhandle--Pensacola through Fort Walton, Destin and Panama City-- used to be known as "the redneck riviera."  Now clever marketing minds have rebranded it "the Emerald Coast."  I hope the person who came up with that idea got a nice bonus check.

The Art of Urban Sketching delivers to TX

Just a quick post while dinner is on the stove. My copy of Gabi's book arrived this week. Yesterday morning I enjoyed a cup of coffee and soaked in a few more pages. Then made this quick sketch before heading to my office. It contains sketches from more than 100 artists. I give it two thumbs and one waterbrush UP! If you like to look through other peoples sketchbooks you'll like this book. Congratulations to Gabi Campanario and all the artists who shared their work.