Sketch Crawl Tomorrow

26th World Wide Sketch Crawl

Saturday Feb. 27

In Bryan, meet at 9 a.m. at the Clara Mounce Library downtown

In Calvert, meet at 9 a.m. at Mud Creek Pottery on Main St.

The above sketches are from my sketchbook, done while waiting. I have all kinds of sketches from experiences to what I observe, journal pages to gesture drawings, memories to imagination.

Different people are going to interpret what they put into their sketchbooks and journals differently.

The first sketch is one I did yesterday, while I was waiting in the Social Security Office. Light reflecting off the tin roof of this office building (which looks like a big house!) and the strong shadows from morning light, were very interesting. I also took a photo of the building, but it doesn't show the shadows as I saw them. The guard asked me what I was going to take a picture of, so I showed him my sketchbook and talked to him about drawing. I'm glad that he decided that I wasn't up to no good-just an old lady drawing!

The next picture is one that I did while I was waiting to be hooked up to a monitor and checked in at cardiac rehab. I only had time to do a gesture or stick drawing of a lady on the treadmill. They don't let you sit around there! But I had enough information to finish the drawing later and add a little bit of watercolor. No detail but I captured the pose and the moment.

I did the next drawing at supper while we waited for our food. Very strong shadows in there due to low lighting so I was more interested in that than in food. I didn't take pictures there, but maybe I should have. I thought it was kind of funny to have supper in the cotton patch! They got my order wrong, which was sort of nice. Gave me more time to draw. Had to send it back again because instead of fixing me another plate correctly, they just scraped off the wrong stuff and sent the plate back, dirty and cold. By the time I got mine, everyone else was ready to leave. So I brought my food home and ate part of it later. Wasn't too good warmed up, so it ended up going in the trash. But, I got a pretty good drawing, I think!

The last sketch is of some kind of object, hanging over the door to another part of the Longhorn Tavern, a fairly new place in downtown Bryan. They used to be out by the auction barn on north Hwy 6 going toward Hearne. But, they recently moved into the old Coca Cola bottling plant in downtown Bryan and the old building on the highway was torn down. At night, the dining room with all the old license plates, etc. and the room with big windows, was closed. The slilding doors were partially opened, and it was very dark. Some VIPs came in and the waitresses showed them into that room, which was then very light!

I thought that this object looked like it might have been one of those old railroad signal lights, of some sort.

I drew while we waited.

This place has huge amounts of food, cooked like it should be. Like we used to get in the old days! There wasn't any way that any of us could eat that much food! But we were really glad to see that.

It's very disappointing these days, to order southern fried chicken, for example, and all you get is this tiny little chicken patty, lightly fried, with hardly any batter. In this place, they have big plates or platters, filled with chicken fried steak, gravey, homestyle french fries. Glasses are big, rolls are big. Steaks are huge. You do get your money's worth!

Of course, I'm usually more interested in sketching than in eating. I always end up having to take most of my food with me.

My little sketchbooks, pencil case with pens, pencils, eraser, sharpener, water brush, little spray bottle, a set of travel watercolors, and my camera, in my purse, make me prepared for any wait time!

And they are ready to go for tomorrow.

I hope that you, too, will be going out to sketch tomorrow. People all over the world will be doing this.l You can start looking at the results on the Sketch Crawl website later tomorrow. Some countries have probably already started.

Remember, it's FREE and open to everyone! You can draw where ever you are, with a group, by yourself, someplace interesting or at home doing laundry!

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Monday at noon, the Brazos Valley Art League will meet at the Art Center in College Station. There will be an artist's demonstration of encaustic painting.

I need to update their events for March. I received the newsletter, but, for some reason, it won't open.

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