portland and its bridges

A couple of weeks ago I spent a lovely weekend away in Portland, Oregon, my first trip back there since the Urban Sketching Symposium in 2010. Portland is a sketcher’s paradise, and it’s also a beer-food-comics-books-and-bridges-lover’s paradise. Also, if you love walking around in the rain, the rain is sweeter than other rain. I like spending time by the river, and gravitated there as much as possible, so here are some of the bridges and river-y things that I drew. Above: the Hawthorne Bridge, sketched on a particularly wet Sunday, from just outside the rain zone (I was beneath a flyover), while boat crews paraded about the water. Below, a boat moored by the banks of the Willamette, with the Burnside Bridge in the background.

Steel Bridge is a beautiful structure, in my opinion, and I drew it alongside the Urban Sketchers back in 2010 (I may be wrong but after she met and sketched the mayor I’m pretty sure it was renamed after Liz…). I sketched it in the rain. I didn’t have much cover and was holding my book up; the rain wasn’t heavy but I still had to be quick. The drizzle did stop for long enough for me to finish up.

Finally, below is the Broadway Bridge, sketched in Monday morning sunshine. While I like rain, the bluer skies were welcome, and it was calm and pleasant on the riverbank. Well apart from the sheriff’s boat that was searching for something in the river to my right, but otherwise it was very soothing. Getting away for the weekend can be very relaxing. I should go more often…

by Pete Scully