Guitar Player on the Steps

Turning sketches into paintings. Guitar Player on the Steps is 8"x10" in oils.

Portland Sketches, Mostly Musicians

Keeping up my weekly routine of sketching at the markets in Portland on the weekend. I sprained my ankle so I had a painful time getting around, which meant I couldn't spend as much time as I would've liked. In any case a captured a few decent ones.

First up is the didgeridoo (?) player, who I have not done justice to:

 Kids and adults alike are endlessly fascinated by this man. His sounds make sketching easy to fall into.

I then traveled over to the main stage, where a pretty good singer-songwriter was crooning. I caught her on her last song, so the sketch didn't go very far:

The last one I did was the best and unexpected. I was just waiting for the bus for 20 minutes and happened upon a decent sketch of a Portland street:

Summer is still here! Soak it up!

More Sketches of Portlanders

These busy summer markets in Portland are a free education in life drawing. I can't think of a better place to capture real, beautiful scenes.

There was a graduation ceremony at PSU, so the flower stand was especially busy and full of flowers:

At the Saturday Market, there was a band that called themselves The Homeless People, who were playing their way back to Oakland, CA. They were really enjoyable to listen to. This little brunette that's not in the picture was playing the washboard and singing with some serious soul:

Apparently, there is a big chess tournament in Portland this weekend, which is where this gentleman was on his way to. For $100 you could play a woman who is one of the greatest female chess players, Susan Polgar. She was ranked the number one chess player in the world at the age of 15. 

Paintings to come.

Sketches of Portlanders in the Summer

I spent the day yesterday trolling around the city, searching for scenes to sketch. There was no lack of subjects - the public spaces were filled with people playing games, playing music and enjoying the beautiful weather. I started my journey at the Velo Cafe stand at the PSU Farmer's Market, where they drip the coffee to order:

Coffee in hand, I then searched for musicians, which are easy to find at the farmer's markets. I sketched this jazz band for a while:

Then took it down a notch to sketch this acoustic guitar player, named Wesley. The floating figure on the right is the adorable dog he had with him that I gave up trying to fit into the sketch:

 Then I headed down to Pioneer Sqaure, where I found people playing chess on a tall podium. The guy who seemed to keep winning was Chery, a former football player from England and competitive chess player:

There are some truly fascinating people in this world. Till next time...