West 14th

I've been wanting to draw this house on West 14th for some time.  I did this for the woman who lives there.  I just sent it off to her, and I hope that she likes it.  It's an absolutely spectacular sight that I get to see on a regular basis.

Sunday Sketch Outing

It was great seeing so many sketcher friends, old and new, out Saturday morning.  I had planned to sketch the Terminal Tower, but after a couple of attempts, I changed my mind and drew the buildings at the southern end of East 4th.  It was a great morning, and the rain held off until we were all pretty much done for the morning. 

Bottle Car in Steelyard

This is an old bottle car from the days of the steelyard, before Steelyard Commons shopping center.  I draw down there on occassion, because there's a lot of these types of things down there, and it's very close to where I live.  So, I can pop down there whenever I have just a little bit of time.  I also find there is a wide variety of things to sketch. 

As I wrote in the journal page, there was a lot of controversy when they'd built Steelyard Commons, with it's Wal-mart, Home Depot, Target, Old Navy, and such.  This piece of land was the home to steel manufacturing that had closed down over the years.  People were upset, because essentially, stores that sold cheap foreign made items were moving onto land where people had lost their jobs in large part to cheap foreign made items.

Now, you hardly know that there was a controversy.  People are down there shopping all of the time. 

Zygote Press

Zygote Press is located in a warehouse on East 30th, right near I90.  They are a co-op studio for printmakers, and there are some awesome artists that work in there. 

I find that while I am sketching, I meet so many people with their dogs.  All of the dogs are friendly and well-behaved.  This morning, I met a man who was walking is pit bull, seemed like a bit of an older dog, or a dog that was just not too happy about being out in the heat.  The dog was in the fenced area behind where I was sitting, and every so often, I kind of sensed that he was back there to see what I was doing. . . . Or, if I happened to have treats.

Another thing that I had thought about this last week was the state of Cleveland as a city.  So many people have the impression that it is run-down or unattractive or dangerous.  I just don't see that.  I see the city the way I draw it.  Sure, it maybe cutsey, but this is the way I see it.

League Park

This past Saturday, we met up at League Park in the Hough neighborhood of Cleveland.  It was a great morning to sketch, but I do understand that many of you were already headed to Parade the Circle that afternoon.  It was still great to see some out enjoying some sketch time in the sun.

I sketched this from the opposite side of Lexington.  This structure and the wall along East 66th are the last remaining pieces of the actual stadium.  The grounds are being kept up enough to use, but no diamond to actually play ball on.  Some pretty incredible things happened here.  I will leave that for when Jeff posts his sketches, because he's way more knowledgeable on the subject than I am.  But, there are efforts to restore the stadium, and you can read more about that here.

The area around the stadium is being revitalized through different housing programs, including the opportunity homes.  It's really starting to look pretty good around there.  With those efforts, I hope all of the new neighbors to League Park will push to bring it back to life.  It would be incredible to have some ballgames out there. 

Eggshelland

It was a chilly morning, and a few hearty souls gathered at Eggshelland. I lasted about 40 minutes, before I had to head back to my car and crank up the heat. It was a good day to sketch, otherwise, though. No snow, right?

We had to strike to capture the Eggshelland display, though, because it's only up for about 2 weeks. This year's theme, which is not evident from the sketch, was Old Friends and New. There were several clusters of characters. The first was the critics from the Muppets, and then a cluster that had Miss Piggy, Fozzi, Gonzo, Kermit, Beaker, and Animal, and the last new cluster was Mario and Luigi of Nintendo fame.

Several of their yearly characters, a chick, bunny, and such, were laying on the ground instead of propped up by the big tree. They looked a little weathered, probably from the severe wind we'd had. The only one standing up was the owl that you see in my sketch.

Art Supply Store

As every good location sketcher needs, here is my favorite art supply store. It's at the Greens of Lyndhurst on Mayfield Road near Brainard. I pick up a lot of stuff there, markers, paints, brushes, paper, pencils, erasers, and more. Because it's on my way to work, I stop there far too often! :D

Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine, Euclid, Ohio

Chagrin Falls

Here is the first post for the Urban Sketchers Cleveland. Unfortunately, it's not a sketch of Cleveland!! It's from a suburban village called Chagrin Falls, which actually has a stream and falls right down through the middle of it.

Now that it's actually summer, we should have some good posts coming soon. Keep an eye out!