Woodlands Town Square- Market Street

 

The Group

One place we haven't explored previously is the area north of the city. On Saturday we corrected that. Urban Sketchers Houston went to Market Street in the Woodlands for this sketchout. The turnout was good and we were able to welcome several new sketchers. After some remarks by Judith and a lesson of viewfinders from me, we went right to work. The theme this time seems to be choices of different materials.

Starting with the blog header, you can see a street view at the town square as seen by Veronica. She says she decided to "give her Tombow markers some love". Nice job.

Mary

  Mary kept it simple working just in pencil with a little shading. The broad umbrella and the splashing fountain look inviting.

Tyler

Tyler had a similar idea. He chose the pergola area. The cast shadows let you know that the day was hot and sunny.

Lisa

One of the things we did differently this time was to each go out with paper to do a quick warm-up sketch. Lisa chose pastels to draw the clothes hanging in a shop window. The choice of black paper for the patio scene makes the pastel color just glow.

Michael

Michael's quick warm-up on the right is in watercolor and ink. Color is applied before the ink, then the ink lines nail down the details. On the left, gouache is the medium. Opaque gouache applied in blocks and dabs of color keep the shapes simple.

Marcella

I caught Marcella with her easel set up behind a potted plant. She chose watercolor to paint a couple of shops along the square.

Brittany

I wasn't the only one. Brittany spotted her too. She drew Marcella in watercolor and colored pencil.

Judith

Judith used her favorite watercolor pencils. The perspective down the street and all those cars make this trickier than it looks. When we arrived they were having some sort of a sports car rally. Vroom. You can see the last of the cars in her scene.

Patsy

Patsy did one scene on the square and one along the street. She included lots of greenery and people with small pops of color.

Shaw

Shaw's scene has simple blocks of color in themes of oranges and greens. Rendering the people only in colored shapes keeps the drawing from becoming fussy.

Carlos

Carlos lets bold, juicy watercolor tell the story. The details are minimal. The man in the blue shirt lets your eye travel around the scene and come to rest on him.

Michelle

Michelle also did a warm-up drawing (left) of the marquee. Then she settle in to draw the pergola and the people congregated above the lawn. Again some nice cast shadows.

Barbara

Barbara also drew the marquee. Guess who the stars are this week? Watercolor and, I believe, marker.

Jained

New sketcher, Jained, drew a scene along the street, but her charming clouds draw your attention to the sky.

Lauren

Lauren was also new to our group. She also drew the marquee, but from a wider perspective across the street. Good work.

Chris

I was drawn to the children playing with the foam blocks on the lawn. This was my warm-up.

Chris

But I also wanted to draw something no one else was drawing. So I found a small courtyard along a breezeway (left) filled with palms and greenery. On the right I did a quick version of the marquee in marker, colored pencil and watercolor.

Carlos

Last, more of Carlos's very simple people sketches. Blocks of color, simple lines and basic shapes make these work.

The throwdown

We had a throwdown, some lunch and everyone went home pretty happy.

Next month is our annual trip to sketch in Galveston. Check in on Facebook or Instagram for the meetup place and time.

Urban Sketching 101

Getting all the details

Almost 30 people showed up Saturday morning for our first workshop on urban sketching. It was a chance to get all the details that anyone new to the group might need to know. Judith and the panelists came ready. After getting the basics from Judith, everyone got to mingle and ask questions, look at sketchbooks and examine materials.

Judith and Fahmi answer questions

Carlos and Michael show off sketchbooks, Francisco talks about his favorite pen

There were some familiar faces and some new faces as well as one visitor from out of town. It was a great morning.

After a good lunch, we moved on to the sketching portion of the day. This time we went to a new area in the Heights called TheM-K-T. This new shopping area has been repurposed from an old office park and is located right along the busy Highline walking trail.

My sketch, which you can see in the header, captures the distinctive profile of the building along Shepherd. But I have to admit I was lured by the angry sky and the giant crane. Yes,

our first sketchout dodging rain.

Bruce

Bruce, who likes to work in pen and ink wash, found the area where people were enjoying the comfy rockers outside a cafe.

Michael

Michael was one of several people who drew the bright yellow, classic truck. Michael's work is in gouache.

Sherri

Sherri also got the truck and someone enjoying a rocking chair. Her work is in watercolor and pen.

Francisco

Francisco drew the truck from another angle and used watercolor to fill the surroundings in a simple splash of color.

Michelle

Michelle again chose a different angle for one of her sketches. Nice use of complementary colors to suggest the shadow under  the truck.

Marcella

The black-and-white of the wall art is in contrast to the lush greenery in the planter. Colored pencil, I believe. The linework is very crisp, Marcella.

Jill

Jill was visiting us from Ann Arbor. Welcome, Jill. Her sketch is a study in angles with the same wall as the focal point.

Carlos

Carlos found two people taking shelter under an umbrella. Perhaps from the rain. Carlos generally splashes in his color first and then uses colored pencil or ink for a few lines. The drag of the almost dry brush at the bottom reads "concrete". Great job.

Patty

Patty's sketch is the story of color and  architecture,  and people.

Decha

In Decha's sketch, you can see that same arch at the top, but he is looking through the building to the Highline and the park, just beyond. Everything in this sketch is in watercolor.

Kassidy

Kassidy was sketching in the same general area as Decha and Patty. You can see the highline on the left, but hers was a story of cafe dining under a canopy.

Joel

Joel sheltered from the rain in another of the passageways through the buildings. Several shoppers had the same idea. Nice cast shadows, Joel.

Brittainy

Brittainy focused in on the bright, orange chairs and turned her sketchbook vertically. That conveys the scale of the space.

Barbara

Barbara got all the women with their legs crossed. Tricky to draw. Bright color and the cute dog make this drawing pop.

Judith

A few splashes of bright color and simple lines make Judith's sketch successful. The lush banana plants are the focal point. And the color palette is very limited: yellow, greens and blues mostly. Simple works.

Judy

Judy' cafe scene in black-and-white simplifies a busy scene, but still conveys all the information you need. I see muffins in that display case!

Suzanne

Suzanne also stuck with line work and limited colors. The umbrellas across the page and just the suggestion of the people underneath help this to work.

Rebecq

Rebecq went straight for the back of the shopping center and drew the Highline and the city park beyond.

We came back together for the throwdown.

The throwdown

It seems that our first sketching workshop was a success. We had a great turnout for the class and a record turnout for the sketchout.

Mark your calendars. September 17 is our next sketchout in the Woodlands. Judith is planning some minitutorials and an interesting sketchout. October 1st will be our annual trip to Galveston. Not to be missed!

As always, if you enjoy our blog, please share. Please check in with us by joining the Facebook group or checking in on Instagram.

Staying Cool at the Kinder

The Group

If this month's group photo looks a little odd, it's because it is. We posed in front of William Forsythe's video exhibit "City of Abstracts". Paired with a computer program, your body twists and morphs as you move in front of the screen. This is a big hit with kids big and small.

Seventeen sketchers decided that a cool afternoon in the new Kinder Building at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston was just for them. A lot of the public had the same idea; the museum was busy.

Water media is forbidden inside of the museum. Our sketchers worked around this in various ways. Lisa, whose work is in this month's header, used pastel on toned paper. It makes the art on the walls just glow.

 Susan DeCourcy did her watercoloring OUTSIDE the building.

Susan

Then she moved inside the museum where she saw all the folks in front of the video screen.

Susan

Kate avoided the problem entirely by using her IPAD and ProCreate.

Kate

As Judith pointed out later, an urban sketch may need to be done on site, but that doesn't keep you from adding to it later. Britt took this approach. The "before" and "after" are instructive.

Britt

Or, you could add a splash of marker or colored pencil.

Peter

The red mobile draws your eye up the stairs to that unusual opening to the next floor.

Judith

Judith went to the opposite end of the same staircase and added a bit of yellow as well.

Michael and Francisco went over into the Beck building to see Leandro Erlich's exhibit "Seeing is not Believing". This clever play with optical illusions is another crowd favorite.

Michael

Francisco

Jeff discovered a Magritte he liked and went full color with his colored pencils.

Jeff

I liked the contrast between the very dark sculpture and the lush, green landscape outside the museum window. Colored pencil kept the green soft so it didn't overpower the scene.

Chris

Carlos stuck with grayscale, but he really worked it. Marker, I believe.

Carlos

Cassidy liked a gallery view and some gentle shading for tone.

Cassidy

Joel did something similar. One of his sketches is the same mobile as Peter's and Judith's sketches from one floor up.

Joel

Cyan did very simple pencil sketches in one of the sculpture galleries.

Cyan

Peggy chose a rather complicated three-dimensional wall piece. She broke it down to its simplest parts. The framing helps the sketch come together. Washi tape?

Peggy

And new sketcher, Rebecq, chose simple subjects for her first sketchout. Framing each piece on the page helps.

Rebecq

And finally, Britt's second sketch of a woman in one of the galleries intently studying the art. Somehow I think this needs a caption. It reminds me of a New Yorker cartoon.

We had a throwdown in the lobby and then lunch at the café.

If you have been lurking here at the blog or on the Facebook page, now is the time to step up.

In late August we are having a day called Urban Sketching 101. Everything you always wanted to know about tools, techniques and urban sketching.  Follow us on Instagram or join our Facebook group for more information.