Through The LaSalle Hotel Coffee Shop Window

Texas Reds Festival

View Through LaSalle Hotel Coffee Shop Window

8.5" x 11"

pencil

This is another sketch from the 19th World Wide Sketch Crawl last Saturday. The Texas Reds Festival was getting off to a big start when we started our crawl in downtown Bryan.

This was the view looking out the LaSalle Hotel coffee shop window, where Pat and I sat at a table cooled off a bit. This wasn't all of the festival, by any means. It was merely the view that I could see through the window beside our table. The whole downtown area was involved.

There was a long tent that started in front of us, then went down the street toward the Palace Theatre. A long, covered table held some kind of goods. I really couldn't see what it was, though. I'm not sure if it was food, drinks, or wares that vendors were selling. There were children, and one had a balloon that floated toward the top of the tent. People were strolling by, looking, while workers pulled out things from boxes under the tables, and arranged them on the table.

As we left the coffee shop, to go look for the George Bush 4141 locomotive behind the Carnegie Library, a man, pushing a stroller with a small child in it, was stooping to pick up his wine glass and the shards of glass left when it was dropped and broke on the concrete sidewalk. In my drawing, I just showed the glass, with a little wine still in it, on the sidewalk.

Now that the Texas Reds Festival is over, people are looking forward to next year. The event seemed to be a big success with lots of good food, activities and entertainment, drinks, and things to look at- and attendance was good.

And we look forward to the next Sketch Crawl. Maybe in September? The date hasn't been set, yet.

My sister and I are planning a mini-sketch crawl, on our own, in Calvert, tomorrow, for a little while.

Take a look at the Sketch Crawl site to see some of the work that has been submitted from around the world. Robin Cheers has posted some of her sketches from the beach on her blog. She was on vacation, but participated in the crawl. You can find links to the Sketch Crawl and to Robin Cheers' blog on my sidebar.

Wishing you good sketching, painting, swimming, golf, tennis, barbequeing, picnicing, or whatever makes you happy this weekend. To borrow from Marvin Zindler.

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Here's a site that some of you may enjoy. If you like to use the computer to play with color and design, take a look at http://www.colourlovers.com/.

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If you are interested in genealogy, there is a new pilot program that might be of interest to you. It is through the LDS Family Search site. You can go to their site and click on a link in the upper right hand corner that says Pilot Program, and that will lead you to a page where you can search. Or you can go to

http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#p=2;c=1320964;t=searchable;w=

Since it is a pilot program, it is not available all the time. There are times when they are working on it.

Also, all the records are not there, yet. They are asking for people who are willling to help them transcribe. That information is available on their site.

It seems to be a wonderful project! I found a lot on there, and have barely scratched the surface.

I started out looking for Texas Death Records, but, soon, found that there were other things there, including some census records, passenger lists, and a few marriage records. There are more states than Texas, too.

This is going to be such a valuable tool for those researching their family history.

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Sketch Crawl Yesterday

Here are some of my sketches from the Sketch Crawl in downtown Bryan yesterday. There was a lot going on that I would have liked to have seen during the Texas Reds Festival, but the heat just got to be too much.
It took us forever, it seemed, to get to the Frame Gallery because of the streets being blocked off. More than had been planned, we learned. We ended up with my daughter dropping me off and I had to carry my chair, art supplies, and purse to the gallery.
Pat met me at the Frame Gallery after 9 a.m. After a little visit with Pat, Greta, the owner, and Sarah, her beautiful dog, we decided to venture on toward the LaSalle Hotel, where we hoped that others interested in sketching might meet us.
Walking a couple of blocks doesn't sound like that big of a deal, but you must understand that Pat has trouble walking, and I need a new pair of knees, and can't see worth a hoot from a distance due to wet Macular Degeneration and cataracts.
We put my things in her car, which she had parked before the baricades went up, and drove, as we had been directed, thinking we would find close by handicapped parking. We were told that a shuttle or tram would pick us up and take us to where we needed to go.
Since every street had barricades, we drove around the west, south, and finally on the east side of town, we found one volunteer who would move the barricade and showed us where handicapped parking was supposed to be. We found it at the BTU building, and walked to the street to wait for a shuttle. We saw people who were walking with someone in their party who had an electric cart or chair to ride around in. We asked a volunteer about the tram, since it was getting hot even under the shade of a small tree. They had not seen one all morning and didn't think there was a tram. They explained that parking was across town at Blinn college, and buses could be ridden to the festival. That wouldn't have helped us.
Beside the BTU building, a fire truck was parked and a first aid tent was set up. They had golf carts to ride in with their medical supplies. The volunteer asked the EMTs to take us to the LaSalle Hotel in one of their carts. So Pat rode on the back seat, and I rode up front with a very nice young EMT. They explained that, when we got ready to leave, we could ask a volunteer to call them and they would come back and pick us up. They took us to the LaSalle courtyard and we found the coffee shop.,Pat could get her coffee and we could cool off, while looking for other crawlers. We didn't see anyone else who looked like they might be ready to sketch, and, by that time, we were just ready to sit somewhere and cool off!
We sat by a big window of the lovely restored hotel. Outside the window was a long tent with various food items. Behind the hotel, there was smoke from the grills for the cook off. Further down the sidewalk at the Palace Theatre, a stage was set up and there was music playing. Directly across the street at the Carnegie Library, a stage had been set up with bales of hay for seats. The big grape stomp would take place there later.
We took a few photos with Pat's camera. When those come back, I'll post some to show where we were for the crawl.
I did a sketch of the street where we finally got through the barricade and called it "You Can't Get There From Here". I also sketched the area by the door, across from me, in the hotel. By this time, it was already 11:30.
We walked over to the Carnegie to see the George Bush engine, 4141, that was parked on the tracks between the Carnegie and the Bryan city library. There is a shaded area with a little garden between the Masonic Lodge, with a barber shop downstairs, and the Carnegie Library. Concrete seats and low walls provide a nice place to sit among shrubs and pink and white Crepe Myrtles. I thought that this would be a nice place to work, so we picked out a bench with a good view of the engine and the Library and the Childrens Museum, the old City Hall. All kinds of activities were going on in the area of the library and the museum with a rock climbing wall, something to do with bungee cords, etc. Inside the library, there were programs like the chemistry road show. And we could hear music from performers in that area, too.
I pulled out my sketching things and started to draw 4141 among the Crepe Myrtles while Pat decided to take pictures. The heat was bothering her a lot. Roaming mascots like the HEB bag of groceries and a baseball, the mascot for our new baseball team, the Bombers, stopped to have their pictures taken. A very nice young police officer stopped to see what we were doing. I explained about the sketch crawl and gave him information to pass on. As he left, he shook our hands. We all laughed as he said that we had now shaken hands with Buck Rogers. Sure enough, his name was B. Rogers. I wonder if he got teased about that, or if people expected superhero level things of him, when he was growing up.
Pat took a couple of pictures of the back of the library, with a blossom of Crepe Myrtle hanging down, the train, the mascots, etc. I got enough of the train drawn as a sketch so that I can do more with it later. And we agreed that we needed to go somewhere and cool off. I wasn't sure about a restaurant where we could sit down and draw and cool off. I'm sure there was something, but, with my blurry vision, I couldn't find a sign, and, too, the tents in the middle of the street were blocking my view.
We went back to the LaSalle coffee shop and asked a volunteer to call the Fire Department to take us back to the car. They did and the Fire chief arrived in his little golf cart. A young woman was also there with one of those gator things, a golf cart with a pickup bed on the back. Pat rode with the chief since his vehicle had a top and more shade, and I rode with the very nice young woman. There was some discussion between the hotel people and the city people about who was supposed to be providing tram or shuttle service between the handicapped parking and the festival.
We got back to a very hot car, and thought of where we might go. I told Pat to just head down Texas Avenue, and we should see a sign of some place. Whataburger seemed close and had a big sign, so that is where we stopped. We told them that they were lifesavers! Pat had lemonade and I had a sprite. But, what I really wanted to do was to sketch some more.
So, I sketched Buck Rogers, since that was a fun memory. And the cup with the wonderful cold drink!
We decided to go home, and, I thought that I might go out and sketch some around where I live, after it cooled off, later. Pat brought me home and I decided to just sit in the cool and scan my drawings and darken them a bit. You can tell something about our day from my sketches. The scan of 4141 didn't work out so well, though. The paper was too big for the scanner. I guess it let light in, or something. As a result, it has a green tinge on one side of the paper.
It never did get cool, though. When it got dark, it was still 94. I learned on the news that it reached 99, which, of course, gave us a heat index of over 100. Pretty hot, but, as long as there was shade and a little breeze, and something cold to drink, I was okay with it.
I looked at some of the posts on Sketch Crawl http://www.sketchcrawl.com/ as people have been posting their results. When I last checked, there were posts from 12 different countries and 16 states in the U.S. There is some very nice work, much of it much more finished than mine.
I estimate that I must have spent maybe an hour or so actually drawing, but I did get some things down that I could do more from later. It was all pretty quickly and loosely done.
Sweden had some nice work and photos, and it seemed like a great place to be that day. It was cool there!
Barbara sent word that she, Lynn, and Virginia Vaughan were among those doing art during the Sketch Crawl. Virginia did a workshop in Rockport on that day, so they painted the Cove, and trees, the sunrise, etc. You can read her comment under my last post.
I haven't heard if anyone else in this area was doing the sketch crawl.
If you want to be involved in the next one, you can go to the Sketch Crawl website and get more information, register for your area, if you want to. If you are in this area and want to participate, that will be great. We can work as a group, or you can work on your own, start your own group, or whatever you want to do.
I just think that there are an awful lot of things out there that need to be recorded through art.
I sent out information to area newspapers, and Greta was on "Brazos Arts" on KAMUfm, talking about it. I only saw it used in a couple of calendars. And, just try to send anything to the local paper or tv station by e-mail. Doesn't seem to work very well. Boxes are full, e-mails bounce, or there are no sections online where things I am interested in can be found. Online is best for me, these days, since I can't drive, and gas and things like stamps have gone up so much. I guess that I should have just mailed out press releases.
Maybe next time.
The next sketch crawl should be in 2 or 3 months. That would make it August or September.
I would love to hear if you participated in the Sketch Crawl where ever you are! And, if you are in a surrounding area, I would be thrilled if you would start a group in your town or city, to help Draw the Brazos Valley.
To do the sketches above, I used pencil, on the train engine, on watercolor paper. The others were all done on sketching paper using a Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen, superfine. I really like the way that pen works, and it is a permanent india ink pen. They come in a variety of sizes.

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Happy sketching, or whatever it is that you love to do. Get ready for a super week to come!

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Please sign my guest book at the bottom of the page, if you haven't already. And check out my group, Art-By-Cecelia.

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If you see something of interest, let me know. Click on the Contact link.

Sketch Crawl Today

Brazos Bankful

sketch

8.5" x 11"

pencil

This is it. The day when we all need to be out drawing things around us-all over the world. The 19th World Wide Sketch Crawl has arrived.

Here's the plan for Bryan:

Meet at the Frame Gallery in downtown Bryan about 8:30 or 9:00. Sign in there so we will know who is participating.

Those who need coffee and may want to get together as a group, might meet at the LaSalle Hotel. There, people can decide where they want to work.

Spend the morning and afternoon sketching. Some may want to stay in downtown Bryan where the Texas Reds Festival will be going on. Others may want to spread out in other areas of Bryan/College Station, or across the Brazos Valley.

At the end of the day, those who want to may like to meet back at the Frame Gallery to discuss experiences and share their work. Since entertainment will be going on, some people may like to stay on and sketch the rest of the Festival.

In Calvert, people can meet at Mud Creek Pottery to check in and decide where to work for the day. They could meet back there at the end of the day to share what they have done during the day.

I'm anxious to do some work, and to see what everyone else sketches tomorrow. Hope that everyone has fun tomorrow.

I tried to get the word out to others in our area through press releases to newspapers and tv while Greta Watkins appeared on "Brazos Arts" on KAMU fm radio.

Hopefully, the weather will be beautiful and everyone will have an enjoyable and productive day.

The sketch above is one that I did last year while we were going for a drive in the area of the Brazos Bottom. The Brazos River was full to the top of the banks and there was concern about flooding. It didn't flood at that time, though.

So far, this year, it is hot and getting really dry here. Thankfully, we have not had the bad flooding in this area like they are having in the Midwest, since they built the dam on the Brazos at Waco. We did have one bad flood back in the spring of -04, but that was more localized after around 20 inches of rain-15 of those in about 3 hours time. A couple of earthen dams broke, which made things worse. I hope that we never have those kind of problems again. And I am really sorry for what is happening to the people and the land to the north.

The above sketch is a plan that can be used in something more finished later.

Get out your sketching things and join us in drawing something today!

And if you are near downtown Bryan, enjoy the big steak and wine festival. I was hoping to see Big Otis who is one of the performers, but I realized as we were eating supper, that he was appearing on Friday night, not Saturday. But there will be lots of other things going on.

Have a great weekend!

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The First Year

My Assistant, Simba

Where I Like To Work

This blog is now one year old, with my first post published on June 4, 2007. One hundred and ninety five posts later, I hope that I have brought you something that you can enjoy, relate to, appreciate the art work, or even have a few laughs.

It has been nice to get the feedback and to know that someone out there is looking at and appreciating my efforts.

I have a lot of people to thank for all their help in getting me started. I won't make an Academy Awards type of speech, though. I just want to mention a few people, without whom, I would never have been able to get started.

Jeremy has to be at the top of my list of those who helped me to get started. Without his encouragement, patience, and technical expertise, I would never have been able to do anything on a computer!

Kevin is one who deserves a great big Thank You, too, for all his encouragement and the example he set for me. Kevin appeared via the internet, just when I was scared to death about getting a shot in my eye, and having that dreaded diagnosis of Macular Degeneration. He was so patient and helpful as I went through that. It always helps to know that others have encountered something and what they went through. And, about the time that I was starting my blog, Kevin started a Google group for those who wanted to discuss things about Cannon County, Tennessee. I would have never known about things like tomato gravy and chocolate gravy, otherwise! He and Virginia were a lot of help when I started my Google Group.

Virginia has also been a big factor in my starting this blog. Her encouragement, ideas, and inspiration have been so helpful to me over this past year. I wish that I were half that creative, energetic, and talented!

Nancy, Mary, and Myrna are just three of the many artists who are so inspiring and generous in sharing what they have learned.

Barbara, with her support of everything from advice to supplies, transportation, and treats, deserves a lot of recognition for her help.

Jami, with all her energy and willingness to help, and words of encouragement, is someone else who has made this blog possible.

All my readers who have offered comments, joined my group, sent e-mails, purchased my work have all made a difference in creating this blog. Without them, sometimes we have to wonder if anyone is even looking at what is written or created.

And, of course, there are those who listened intently to my "little stories" and encouraged me to write them and share them. That includes the car salesman who, although very young, seemed very interested to hear about how things were when I taught in his hometown years ago! I was just killing time, trying to think of something to talk about. I was so surprised when he actually seemed to enjoy what I was saying, and others came over to listen.

The people on various lists who have shared ideas and offered technical support have been very important in my work during the last year.

I have to say a big thank you to all those who have provided me with material, from family to old friends, and classmates, and people who lived around me. And, to those who have sent me information and pictures, and those who jogged my memory with their own stories.
It may take a village to raise a child, but it also takes a village to create a whole life-and a book or a blog.
Thank you to you all!

I thought that you might like to see where I like to work, these days. I have a corner of a room set up, with a northwest window, and lots of shade from a Crepe Myrtle and a big, old oak tree. Behind my chair, there is a long work table, more book shelves, a tv set, a couple of tables, another writing desk and, oh yes, a small bed! I can just roll out of bed and start to work, or fall into bed when I get tired. Works out very well.
If I have something very large to work on, I can use a wall, or spread out on the kitchen island, which is also a nice place to work, providing someone doesn't want to cook something!
The big plus is that it is all close to water, the bathroom, food and drink!


I hope that you will continue reading and sharing with others. And that, if you haven't already, you will subscribe to my blog to get updates as they are added. Of course, I would like you to let others know about my blog, too, and ask them to subscribe.

Thank you so much for your kind words, your support, your interest, and your purchases over the past year. I look forward to the next year! Hope that you do, too!

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Art Fest- Downtown Bryan-Friday night.

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Texas Scottish Festival

This Weekend

June 6-8

Arlington, Texas

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19th World Wide Sketch Crawl

Saturday June 21

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My First Clay Head

This is a photo of my first attempt at sculpting a life sized head from clay. I thought it came out very well, and it did win some awards when I showed it.

This was something that I just taught myself to do, and I really did enjoy it. With more study, I learned quite a bit. At the time of my first efforts, I had no access to a kiln, and didn't know such basic things as the fact that the clay needed to be hollow, dried, and fired. Instead, I used aluminum Sculpt Metal on the outside, in several layers, when the clay was thoroughly dry.

That all worked very nicely, until I was moving and the head got dropped down a flight of stairs onto a concrete sidewalk. No more sculpture. At least I had a couple of photos.

Since then, I have created more heads, and it is one of my favorite things to do. Alas, I do not have access to a kiln again, so I guess my sculpting days are ended. I do have several heads that I did, however. Sometimes, it would be nice to get my hands in some clay again. But, I don't think that I have the strength that it requires, now.

One thing that I learned is that working three dimensionally really helps to achieve that illusion when working in two dimensional techniques.

I'm having a bit of a problem again! I was trying to fill up the extra space at the end of this post, that appeared when I scrolled down to see how much space I had left! LOL! I'm still looking at it as if I'm typing on a typewriter. But, no matter how much I backspace, that empty space at the bottom just gets longer and longer, and my paragraphs are spacing too much. As I go back and backspace to pull them closer together, that bottom space gets bigger and my paragraphs space out more. There must be a logical solution to this problem! This has happened before and I finally just gave up and left the big space!

Scroll on down to see the next post about the Texas Scottish Festival! I promise, it's there, although a bit far down the page!

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Vision-Sunday Afternoon Band Concert

Sunday Afternoon Band Concert

7" x 10.5"

watercolors

It seems like a perfect thing to do on a Sunday afternoon. Go to a band concert in a lovely place. A park is great, as is an auditorium.

My young grandson escorted me to a concert by my favorite band at Rudder auditorium in Rudder Tower on the Texas A&M University campus last month. (Which is also one of my favorite places to go.) Both the symphonic and concert bands were going to present programs during the afternoon.

Having played flute in the Calvert High School band for a few years, I have an appreciation for good band music. The former director of the A&M band, Joe Tom Haney, was also our band director in high school. So we had some excellent training.

As I dressed to go over to campus, I was watching the news on tv and knew that Shep Smith from Fox News was broadcasting from the Flag Room in the MSC, next door to Rudder Tower. I really wanted to go watch him, too, and, hopefully, meet him.

We also heard on tv that Bill Clinton was flying in to make a speech at Reed Arena about the same time as the concert. A busy day here.

As we drove past the airport on our way to campus, Clinton's plane flew over us as it landed. We knew because of all the police cars, waiting and circling around the area.

My daughter let us off by the MSC and we went into the Flag Room to see Shep Smith. I could hear him, and I could make out some people at a table across the room. But I couldn't really see much because of the bright tv lights! I checked out the art gallery door in the Flag Room to see if they were open on Sunday. They were. I thought we could return after the concert and look around there, if Shep was already through broadcasting.

We entered the lobby of Rudder and I almost had a panic attack! I couldn't see much. Dark carpets and low lighting in places. Thank goodnes my grandson was with me and that he is able to read almost anything! There was a sign placed on a stand in the middle of the floor, showing which auditorium the band concert would be in. I couldn't see it until I was just a few feet away. It was printed on maroon cardboard with black letters!

Then there were two flights of stairs to walk up. Carpet was maroon or dark blue in the building. No lights on the actual steps, but the landings were lighted. I was leaning over trying to find each step, and, at the same time, having pain in my knees from my worn out joints! People around me were walking easily while I was complaining, "Why don't they have elevators in this nice building!"

I couldn't help but wonder why, with a big architecture department at the University, this very public building was not made more handicapped friendly. I'm not that bad off, but I'm sure that others who do have more serious handicaps, and didn't have a young person to help them, would not be able to function in the building is, as lovely as it is.

(I have since learned that, there is a number to call to let them know that you are coming, if you have special needs, and they will have someone to assist you or show you where to go to avoid all those stairs.)

And, then there was the restroom situation. We were on the second level, but all the restrooms are on the first floor. That meant that, at intermission, I had to climb the stairs again. And then, I couldn't read the signs to know which was the ladies room. Signs were placed high on the wall, too far for me to read with my poor vision. My grandson escorted me to the area, but he was a little embarassed about going to the area of the ladies room. A man was there, waiting for his daughter to come out, and he showed me which door was the ladies room. I felt really stupid that I couldn't even find the restroom, and I was in a hurry, too!

We entered the auditorium and took the first seats near the door. To go closer to the stage meant climbing down more steep stairs. I noticed a woman on the floor near the stage, in one of those little electric carts. I decided that there must be another entrance somewhere that would allow people to sit close to the stage and not have to climb all those stairs.

My escort was a little gentleman and sat through the concert. A few times, I asked him to read the program to me, and he did. (Some of that was just to discuss the instruments and the music.)

The music was excellent and that should have been enjoyable. But all I could think of is that, one of these days, I may not be able to see the band at all. It was hard to sit there and struggle to make out instruments or what the musicians were doing.

Oddly, I could see the director and his platform fairly well. I could make out the percussion section with men in bright red or orange shirts. I could see one on the left who may have been playing a xylaphone or a kettle drum, just from the way he bent over and moved his arms. Another played rhythm instruments and chimes. Another either played a kettle drum or some kind of drums. He seemed to be using his hand flat.

Other than that, all I could see was a golden halo in the back of the orchestra for the baritones or bass horns, that same golden halo on the left for the trumpets (I think!), and the same halo for the trombones and possibly some other horns on the right.

I could see some knees in front of the trumpets. One set of knees seemed to be covered by a blue and green floral patterned skirt. Next to the skirt, there seemed to be jeans and next to the jeans, there appeared to be another blue and green skirt. But what instruments they played, I have no idea.

A hand with a part of a flute was near the director, toward the center on the right. A yellowish pattern was next to the director, in the first row, on the right. I couldn't tell if this was an instrument case, or some kind of air cast a person might be wearing.

On the left, I could only see a foot wearing a sandal.

There was a light area around the director, I suppose from a spotlight. But that blended into the purple spot that I see , and darkness. Only the few things I have mentioned poked through that darkness. At least that is the way that it looked, through my eyes.

"Will I be able to just sit and relax and enjoy listening, in the future, if it comes to that? Can I enjoy anything without being able to see it correctly?" I couldn't help but wonder as the director put his energies into conducting and the young people in the band worked to give us their best efforts. "Why can't I just sit back, relax, and enjoy being here and listening!"

I thought of the park and the old band stand there and how it should have been used more over the years. It was so wonderful when the Houston Symphony played there one spring. And the big highlight, for me, was when the band from Ft. Hood came during the Sesquicentennial. What a thrill that was . It was even nice when our Trojan band would play in the bandstand.

And I dreaded having to go back down those stairs to the lobby! I felt sort of lost and that I should be showing my grandson things instead of the other way around. I could recognize things and knew generally where to go, but I feel so foolish when I can't find or read signs, or recognize which way I should go.

The concert ended and I walked sideways down the stairs. My grandson and I walked across the fountain area, through a little dust devil, back to the MSC and the Flag Room. TV lights were still on and people were sitting around in the "living room", as they often do. We sat for a few minutes, too, but the tv personalities seemed to be gone. I thought they must have rushed over to Reed Arena to do a story on Clinton being there. Or maybe it was a supper break.

We went through the art exhibit in the gallery and looked at work by, and from the collection of, actor Anthony Quinn.

I've written about that in a previous post, so I won't go over that again.

I'm sure that, now, I have lost my center vision due to wet Macular Degeneration. (The cataracts in both eyes don't help, either.)

But it was a bit odd that I could see the band director so well, and he was in the center of my vision. I guess that it has something to do with the lighting in the auditorium. When the normal lights were on, I could see the band members entering and getting ready to play. And I could see their instruments.

If you would like to read more about my experiences with Macular Degeneration, look for the older posts that are prefaced with the word "Vision". Also, I have listed some of the sites that I have found that deal with AMD in my sidebar under "Eye Sites".

I painted "Sunday Afternoon Band Concert" from a sketch I did after we got home from our visit to A&M. I used Winsor Newton watercolors on 140# Arches watercolor paper.

Please let me know if you see something that you are interested in. Most of the art work on my blog is for sale.

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Stork Update

If you are stork watching, or would like to, the nest in Przygodzic now has 4 eggs! Mama stork seems to be sitting on the nest every time I look, but they give the egg count at the bottom of the camera shot. There are now 4 little animated eggs there, so we know that the nest has 4 eggs in it.

You can check out the links under Stork Sites on my sidebar on the right.

If you click on Stork Cams, you can see a list of various places that have web cams or information on the storks.

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19th Worldwide Sketch Crawl Announced

Get Ready! Make your plans! Sharpen a pencil. Pull out your sketchbook (or buy a new one!). Dust off your watercolors, markers, crayons, pens, or whatever you like to draw with.

The date for the 19th Worldwide Sketch Crawl has been announced for Saturday June 21. I will be adding more about that on my blog, but I just wanted everyone to be able to plan for this.

You can check out the website at http://www.sketchcrawl.com/ or look on my sidebar under Art Helpers and click on that link.

I hope that we can get a lot more participation from this area this time.

You can read more about the last one in previous posts on my blog. You can also see some of the work that we created that day.

If you are interested, you can register on the Sketch Crawl website, or, if you are in this area, you can register, then post a reply under either Bryan, Texas or College Station, Texas and let us know that you are interested. (You don't have to, but it would be nice to know who all is sketching, and might be fun to get this together as a group.)

You can even post your own reply to get a group together for your area.

Remember that this is open to everyone-all ages, all levels. Beginners, professionals, students, teachers, professionals, families, groups, or individuals. People can work together or solo. The idea is just to draw that day, with people all over the world, working at one time.

I'm excited about it and looking forward to another day of drawing.

More on this later. I just wanted to pass on the announcement of the date.

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