Virtual Vacations

Jay Robert Larsson

This summer, for most of us, vacation means a staycation. So it's fun to take a little virtual vacation from summers or even just vacations past. Jay Robert Larsson is revisiting Stockholm, Sweden, where he tells us he makes a yearly visit. Night sketches are not as common and this restful image in colored pencil is very calming.

Chris Fitzgerald

This sketch was done in San Miguel de Allende several summers ago. The Parroquia is a very complicated building to draw and I wanted to challenge myself.

Richard Scruggs

Richard Scruggs

Richard Scruggs went on a cruise pre-COVID and visited Cozumel. The unusual perspective in the drawing from the ship really grabs your attention. In Cozumel,  he found another lovely colonial-era church to sketch. 

Kathy Fediw

Kathy Fediw went to Hawaii several years ago and sketched these images on the big island at Mauna Loa Bay. Another tranquil place to rest our eyes.

Mary McJunkin

Mary McJunkin went to New Mexico and Arizona last year to visit friends and family. You can see her sketch of the Grand Canyon in our blog header. She also captured a pueblo at Almagorda, New Mexico and a classic old motel in Mesa, Arizona. Love the diving girls on the sign!

Fahmi Khan

Fahmi Khan is a teacher and got to travel during a Spring Break with the honor orchestra students as they performed all over Europe. Here we see a moment in a coffee shop in Prague and the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. Most importantly, Fahmi notes that sometimes the group moved so quickly, she had only time for thumbnails. This is important to remember if you are journaling a trip. Sometimes thumbnails have to be enough. Enjoy the moment!

Judith Butler Dollar

Finally, there is Judith's trip to Porto, Portugal in 2018. She captured the bustle of the farmer's market at the moment and went back with Procreate to strengthen the image. A nice fusion of traditional art materials and technology.  She also captured the jumble of buildings in this hill town. Nice work.

I hope this little virtual vacation has given you some ideas for when we can all venture out again.

USK Houston Sketching in Quarantine

Working from home- Robert's wife at work

Living in close quarters and working from home has been the challenge for the past few months. And for urban sketchers it has been finding time and subjects for sketching....or at least things that somewhat resemble the mission of the group. But we have succeeded. Robert caught his wife hard at work in the sketch above.
I know that you can all relate by this point to Judith's comment on the right corner of the blog header.  Judith took refuge in her house in Galveston and gave us a view of the lovely garden.

Judith says, " I am very lucky to have my art supplies in isolation. Drawing 'the view from here' during times at home makes me take a fresh view of my daily vistas...A view from the front porch through the flowering Angel's Trumpet...when I'm filling my sketchbook there is no space in my brain for worrysome and stressful covid thoughts"

The stay-at-home order caught Mary McJunkin's extended family mid-move so she found herself on grandma duty with limited time to sketch.

Mary McJunkin

This restful domestic view reflects her limited time to draw. Mary says, "I'd watch the grandkids for several hours each day and had been trying to at least sketch a little with help from Danny and Koosje when I got a free moment." (Danny Gregory and Koosje of Sketchbook Skool)

Renata Lucia

Renata has been following along the Instagram videos from USK International. One of the assignments was to storyboard your day.

Joel

I guess I know where Joel has been spending his time. And in March and early April that fire pit would be nice.

Cissy Geigerman

How many of us went out "for groceries" and came home with something like an ice cream bar? Cissy captured the moment for us.

Cindy Chandler

It looks like Cindy got some fresh air somewhere by the bay.

Chris

I took on a more ambitious project. I sketched every day for almost thirty days and posted daily to Instagram. You can see the other sketches here. But on one of the very last cool afternoons of this spring I sat on the glider on my porch and enjoyed a good book.

Here's hoping all of you are well and still working in your sketchbook. When this is resolved we'll have some interesting lunches passing around our sketchbooks!

Urban Sketchers Houston Hits the Heights

Peter Norris captures the "strip" on 19th Street

Fourteen people turned out for the Saturday sketchout on 19th Street in the Houston Heights. Weather cooperated for the majority of the day, unusual for February. Two members of the group were visitors from the Austin Urban Sketchers group. Welcome!

Lisa reported that the old Heights Theater building was a favorite sketching subject, but it seems that everyone found something a little different to draw.

Samson Bimbo Adenugba's view 

Samson settled in front of the Heights Tower and captured the view down the street. Very nice! It was Samson's first outing with our group. Welcome.

Also welcome for the first outing was Carlos Chua. He found the area around the old Harold's clothing store most interesting.

Carlos Chua

Robert James had to capture the scene in front of the Venus salon complete with Elvis.

Robert James

And Britt Dearman made a study of the Heights Theater sign.

Britt Dearman

Afterwards, of course, there was the group photo.

The group

And the throwdown.

throwdown

Of course trying to get all the sketchbooks in a nice photo can be a challenge. Everyone tries to get just the right angle.

Trying to capture the throwdown

The group went over to Common Bond Bakery and Cafe for a little something to eat and to visit.

It sounds like a very successful sketchout.

Holiday Sketching

Mary McJunkin

Even though we're not doing a sketchout for December, Urban Sketchers Houston has been hard at work out sketching for the holidays. First, we have Mary's pretty poinsettia sketch.

Renate's sketch

Renata found some festive decorations right in her neighborhood.

Joel's sketch

Joel was eating at Red River BBQ and decided to capture the scene. " Does that tiny tree in the back make it a Christmas sketch?" he asked. Sure, we're in Texas after all.

Peter's sketch

Peter went downtown to see the Danzantes do traditional Aztec dances for the Procession of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Hispanic Houston has all kinds of celebrations for this pre-Christmas occasion.

Chris's sketch

I also went downtown. I was hoping to find fabulous holiday decorations in the old, and equally fabulous Ideson building. No luck. So I went over to Allen Center and sat it the warm lobby to sketch their pretty tree and Dallas Street beyond.

Jeff's sketch

Jeff also went downtown and found a nice lobby and a pretty tree.

Judith's sketch

Judith and her family went to Dickens on the Strand in Galveston, a longtime holiday tradition in Houston. This sketch of the Queen's Parade captures all the characters and spectators. This is only one of the fabulous sketches she did.

Join us again in January when we resume our sketchouts. We are looking for new and interesting indoor locations for the cool months. If you have and ideas, contact Judith or Robert.

Happy Holidays!

Discovery Green

The Group at Discovery Green

Although the morning started out a little chilly, the group that showed up found a few sunny spots and did some awesome sketching at Discovery Green. Several new people showed up. We're always glad for new and enthusiastic sketchers.

Cindy's Sketch

Cindy and several other people drew views of the George R Brown Convention Center.

Susan's Sketch

Prachi's sketch

Other people focused on the Tai Chi class taking place on the lawn.

Judith's sketch

Richard's Sketch

And other people focused on the view towards the Lake House.

Lisa captures someone relaxing in front of the Lake House

Chris's sketch...I focused on the skyline behind the Lake House and the fall color

Finally we did a throwdown on the lawn.

A real variety of views

Afterwards we gathered in the Lake House for a bite to eat and to compare our art materials and look at sketchbooks.

We probably won't have an official sketchout for December, but we will definitely be planning something for January. In the meantime, I will be collecting holiday sketches for the December blog post. Hope to see you all in January. Please feel free to share this with anyone who might enjoy it.

A Day Trip to Galveston- Part II

Robert's view of the lunch crowd

At lunch, we enjoyed the meal at Maceo's. Then it got very quiet. When we looked around, everyone was drawing the scene at the table!

Mary's view of the lunch crowd

After lunch, we had the morning throwdown.

the morning throwdown

As Judith remarked, a wide variety of subjects and points of view.  The morning crowd broke up and those remaining moved on to Sealy Avenue, a row of lovely Victorian "ladies" just begging to be sketched.

Someone sketched the sketchers!

Joel's sketch

Robert's sketch

Lisa's sketch

Lisa was fascinated by the multicolored stained glass in this house.

There was just so much to draw!

the afternoon throwdown

As you can see, everyone tried their hand at one of the very complicated and ornate houses. A challenge to be sure! I feel sure that Urban Sketchers Houston will be returning to Galveston.