CINCO De MAYO (on the fourth...)

Hello All!  We have been invited by the people in charge of the Pasco Cinco de Mayo festivities to come out on Saturday, the FOURTH of May, to downtown Pasco to draw at the festival.  We will start at 10:00 am and draw until noon and then stop and have a taco or 2!

Show up when you'd like (earlier if it's hot!) and meet at noon on the extreme SouthWest corner of the Pasco Farmer's Market area and we'll share our drawings and have some lunch (should be plenty to chose from!).

RSVP if you think you'll be there and I'll let Ana know how many of us she can hope to run into somewhere throughout the morning.

Think of the COLORS!  Think of the interesting goings-on!  COOL!

"Third Saturday Sketchabout"

This is the "Cable Bridge" which spans the Columbia river between Pasco and Kennewick, Washington.  This bridge replaced the old "Green Bridge" that was built in the early 1900's and was here when I was a high schooler.  After they build the Cable Bridge, next to the old Green Bridge (a two-laner), there was considerable community conversation about what to do with the Green Bridge.  Some said tear it down, other said put it on the National Registry, others said they didn't really care.  while the conversation went on, and on, the old Green Bridge just up and fell into the river one day.  Problem solved. 

"39th World Wide Sketchcrawl"

The 39th World Wide Sketchcrawl began at 8am for me this morning when my grandson, Aidan's, baseball team had a game.

The sun was nice, but the wind was cold, cold, cold!!

I dressed in multiple layers, wore my heaviest coat, and draped this blanket over my back, and still nearly froze while doing some sketching of the kids and the field.

The kid sketches are like many I've posted here and elsewhere, so I haven't posted them here.  In fact, I quit sketching after a while but then remembered, hey, this is a WWSK day, so I reopened my sketchbook and sketched out the view straight in front of me.




It's this one: the view behind the 1st baseman from my point of view.


Since I had announced the WWSkcrawl would begin at 10am this morning, I left the game before it ended so I could meet whoever might show up.


I parked in the parking lot where we were to meet-up and positioned my truck directly across the street from the third sketch down.


What is now Edward Jones was, a long time ago, a very popular men's clothing store, "Lantor's Men's Clothing."  I bought my first pair of Levi's in that store when I was about 14 years old.


The sketch was done with colored pencils, something I never, never, do.  I still don't know why I used them.  The watercolor set, brushes, and water was right there in my bag, but for some unknown reason I used the colored pencils instead.  I don't like it. Wish I had used the watercolors.  Oh well.


The last sketch is an old house that sits on Clearwater in west Kennewick.  I had a burrito at Tony's Taco Truck and spotted this old place out my windshield.


The house sits in the midst of an old trailer park and a small forest of huge sycamore trees that were there when I used to ride my bike up and down Clearwater....late '50's.



I'll bet it never thought it would go worldwide.

I had a good day sketching.

Oh, yes, LaPoynte was the only other person to show for the 10am sketch, but he quickly disappeared. I guess he got cold, too. 

SUSHI & SKETCHING!

 "JAMES BOND ROLL" - as good as it sounds - with a little pile of ginger.

I loved the soft pastel colors and the organic shapes on this plate!

This white shaved stuff is always in the neatest little pile, topped with parsley 

and green wasabi on the side...

This, too, made for a lovely little still life.

Before Osaka moved in I spent 2 full days hanging red paper lanterns solid all over their ceiling.  

When Ok and her husband (the owners) saw what I had done, 

they were a little shocked and overwhelmed, adding their own 'stuff' to the walls.  

Personally, I think the lanterns were enough...

(That's Ok behind the counter - the short one.)

"Osaka Teriyaki & Sushi Bar"

This morning Nancy and I met at her Osaka Teriyaki & Sushi Bar here in Kennewick.  Before the sketching began, we ordered a plate of sushi and some hot tea. 

Like any self-reliant urban sketcher, once the food was delivered to our table, we got out our sketchbooks and started drawing. 

Fortunately sushi doesn't come to the table hot, so we didn't have to worry about it getting cold. 

After the quick sketches, we pulled our chopsticks from their wrappers and started consuming this wonderful food.  It was as good as any I've had anywhere.  Mmmmmmmm.

My second sketch is of the two people sitting at the far table, beneath a large red, Japanese lantern.  At first drawing I wanted the lantern to be the focal point, so I made it larger than it really is.  Then as I got into the sketch and as Nancy offered a few pointers I began to realize the focal point should be the people at the table.

So after some lifting of the yellow color in the window, especially at the top, adding color to the wall and darkening it toward the bottom, and darkening the area below the table, and darkening the shadowed end of the benches they were sitting on, some of the focal point moves toward the people.  But I think most of it remains on that oversized lantern.




The bottom image is the plate as it was delivered to our table.  The sushi here is as good as you will get anywhere.  Certainly it is as good as any I have had anywhere, including the sushi I enjoyed in Japan a few years ago. 

Definately a place to return to!!   

MERCER WINE LABEL

I wanted to submit our wine label designs to Mercer this weekend, so if you have something you'd like to submit, please forward it to me at nancyjthurston@gmail.com. THANKS!  Nancy

"Kennewick's Grain Elevator on Clearwater"

 

This old grain elevator was at this same location when I first laid eyes on it in 1957. Then it was the westernmost building on Clearwater Avenue, in Kennewick, WA. Due to population growth and consequent growth west, it sits near the middle of town these days. Newcomers find that hard to believe. It also was an actual grain elevator in those days, the trains still run right along side it, but today it's mostly a cell phone tower.

Richland Library, Richland WA, Lobby

My first attempt at a big vertical drawing..A challenge!

Richland Library

TOTALLY forgot my paints, which forced me to be true to the drawing.  Dang, it's easier when you can throw me off with color...  This perspective was so tough.  The ceilings are so high and the people are so little - but it really helped me watch exactly where things were.

For this one, I just used my pencil - again, something I rarely do.  The kids moved so fast I had to throw them in quick but the books were great!  I do like the ease of the kids though...

"3rd Saturday Sketchabout - March 2013"

Looking down one of the aisles in the library.

We met this morning at the Richland Public Library at 10am for a couple hours of sketching.  At noon we regrouped, shared our sketches, and had a very interesting conversation about our work. 

Afterwards we went to McKays Taphouse for a lunch, more sketching and conversation.  (The Italian sandwich I had at McKay's will not be the last.  It was wonderful!!)

I offer these images for viewing.

Nancy, Dave, Jay and Greg enjoying themselves at McKay's.

The noon sharing brought these sketches to the table.

Dave, Greg, Nancy, Jean, Jim and Jay.

FINAL - Eagle & Plow

Here are the final renditions of my 4 'EAGLE & PLOW' labels.  

I am planning on forwarding these and Jim's to Mercer Winery at the end of this month - around March 30 - so if you'd like to draw up a few labels, now's the time!  

Forward them to me and nancyjthurston@gmail.com.

"A Few Sketches from Earlier in the Week"

Over the course of the last few days, I have taken a number of opportunities to do some sketching. 

Usually I add color, but today being a rather gray day, I decided, for now, for these sketches, to leave them in monotone.

Maybe I should add some shades of gray/black color, just for emphasis, but no...not today. 

The top sketch is from a football game I attended last Saturday.  My son-in-law is one of the coaches of this "elite" team of 7th and 8th graders from the greater Tri-City area.

The middle page was done while I was sitting in
a local Subway for lunch on Tuesday.  I often use the corner table in this shop as an office space.  In addition to lunch and sketching, I was working on end-of-year reports for a local school retirees association of which I preside this year. 

I got a lot of work done there, listened to some iPhone music.  Some of my very old albums from as far away as high school have landed on the iPhone.  Great stuff.  If you're into the '60's.

The bottom sketch is a quick study in perspective

I did while my wife was in one of the stores looking for a special type of dog food.  Perspective is gradually becoming a little more clear to me.  One thing that has really helped is a book I recently purchased by James Richards, "Freehand Drawing and Discovery."

4 Options for EAGLE & PLOW

Here are my 4 options for the Mercer label.  I have spent a lot of time on these and even now, there are some problems that will take even longer to address.  On 2 of these the '&' sign is too far to the left and needs to snuggle in but that would mean doing the entire thing all over again.  At this point, this is enough of an idea if the Mercers would like to use them and I can tweak more if needs be.

The winning designer gets a case of the "Eagle & Plow" wine each year the label is used, so it's a fun prize!  I am thinking, if I had the proper tools to be a graphic artist, these things would be so much easier on my computer than by hand.  I guess I prefer the fine arts and the graphic arts programs would require a lot more time for me to learn than I'm willing to spend.  There's only so much time in a day you know!

 Number One

Number Two

Number Three

Number Four

If your interest is tweaked and you'd like to have a go at the contest - DO IT!  Submit your designs to this website and I'll forward them on.  GOOD LUCK!

EAGLE & PLOW Wine Label

Spent hours today working on this wine label.  This is the third try and so far, I like this best.  

If only plows were more attractive or maybe if an eagle and a plow went together but, DANG, try putting an eagle on a plow or by a plow or even DRAW a plow.  

A Plow?!  

Inside the Pasco Courthouse

Here is my drawing from yesterday's Sketch Outing. 

This is a beautiful building; full of great challenges for perspective and detail!  

This darn little thing took me at least 1.5 hours - maybe more like 2!

We had Mexican food for lunch afterward - Viva la Pasco!