Portland Urban Sketchers Workshop

I’m
just back from Portland Oregon, where Shari Blaukopf and I spent three
days with 26 participants painting on location. We did a wide range of
subjects, including heritage buildings, steel bridges, a Victorian
house, and even sketching the color and activity of the Farmer’s Market.

We
had some record breaking weather – reaching the all time high of 102
Fahrenheit. That’s challenging just walking around, never mind dealing
with the watercolor drying instantly.

It felt a lot like working in Belém Portugal last year. Everyone was happy to be in the South Park
Blocks for our final day sketching under the trees.

There’s more photos of the event up on our Montreal Urban Sketchers Facebook, or the USK Flickr stream.

On to
the demos! I approached things in a similar manner to the recent Santo
Domingo workshop. First demoing the drawing stage, then walking through
the three passes Tea, Milk, Honey.
Between washes, I’d make rounds helping people with their own pieces.
So we had about three hours in each location, but more than half the
time was running around looking at sketches and giving what tips came to
mind.

My favorite of the demos was the Telegraph Building. A classic
subject that gave good opportunity for lit shadows filled with reflected
color.

As
we approached the Burnside Bridge, it suddenly occurred to me “whoops,
this is a terrifically difficult subject”.

Besides the bridge itself,
with all its ironwork, there’s an entire city on the opposite bank. But
we had a game group of artists, very much up to the challenge. Everyone
handled it with panache. It was a great example of how to simplify on
location. I’ve been saying lately,  “Drawing on location edits itself”.

If
you start with the most attractive part of the composition and work
outwards until you run out of time – the stuff you didn’t have time to
include obviously wasn’t very compelling to you, and therefore didn’t
really need to be in the picture in the first place:)

Locals will
note the complete absence of the convention center and the office blocks
behind the bridge. Also that the supporting girders aren’t really drawn
– only indicated. I got what interested me – those two concrete piers
with their minarets and oddly castle-like bases. I managed to have time
to sketch a barge that passed by in moments, but somehow never really
got to drawing the freeway on the far bank.

That’s what an artist can do, that a photographer cannot. We draw what we see, not simply everything that’s there.

My
personal favorite location was the Skidmore Fountain. It’s exactly my kind of
subject. The sculptures on the fountain, the colonnade. Great subject!

We
hit this spot on a Friday, as it’s the location of the hugely popular
Saturday Market. The next morning, the square we’re standing in will be
completely packed with vendors booths and tourists.

What I didn’t
realize is, they start setting things up the day before. So we had the
extra factor of workers building giant metal tent frames all around us.
But, that’s just part of what makes location drawing exciting!

So – Thanks to Linda Daily
who invited us out, and everyone who came to the workshop! We had a
great time putting this on, met a lot of awesome people. I’m sure we’ll
be doing more workshops next year. Like all of the events in the USK
workshop program, we’ll be donating 10% of the profits back to Urban
Sketchers.org as part of the educational program that brings local
students to the annual Urban Sketchers symposium.

It’s great to be able
to give that bit back to the sketching community, at the same time as
having all this fun!