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.

Bradgate

While my wife ran an errand, I did this pencil sketch of a nice house in the West Park area of Cleveland.

Pencil Sketches

 

Here's some sketches that I discovered tucked in my clipboard. They're 8b woodless graphite pencil on loose bond paper.

Warehouse District

Here's a sketch from yesterday of St. Clair Ave. in the Warehouse District. I used to work at the end of W.9th st. in the building that sits 2 feet north of the Main Avenue Bridge. When we first moved in, only one building had been restored in the district. Now they're ALL restored, except for the building I worked in!

Who were you?

Hello,
Someone emailed me the other day about coming to the Cleveland area this upcoming weekend.  They were looking to meet up with people to sketch.

Unfortunately, my gmail account ate the email, and I can't reach you.

Would you please email me again at urbansketcherscleveland@gmail.com?

Thank you!

I usually start out with 3 or 4 thumbnails for composition, about 1" x 2".

I decided on the centered version of the Terminal Tower with just one tree, 

tried to draw jets that were in a flight path above us, but erased them.

Great day for sketching and a good turnout.

Here's an earlier sketch from Grove Court near W. 25.

My first contribution to Urban Sketchers!

I liked the red pick-up with the blue sign.

by Cristina Bruce-Kaiser

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. 

Join Us for a Sketch Outing!

Saturday, October 5, 2013 at 10:00am
Meet at the corner of Ontario and Huron in downtown Cleveland
From this vantage point, you will be able to draw the Terminal Tower, the arena, or the ballfield from a unique perspective.  You will also be able to see down in the industrial flats.  This even is rain or shine.  If it does rain, there is a great overhang of the Q arena to hide out from the rain, or there are many places to go indoors to sketch, including Tower City and Colonial Marketplace.

Normally, we draw about 2 hours, but people are more than welcomed to draw more or less.  We also have many people who show up early or late to the sketch outing, so don't let anything stop you.

There will be so much to draw! 

There is plenty of free street parking on Saturdays downtown, but if you'd rather park in a garge, there are many in that area as well. 

Feel free to post any questions here, or email them to urbansketcherscleveland@gmail.com

Look forward to seeing you!

Cleveland Botanical Garden

The roof was a bit of a challenge, because of all of the unique and unexpected angles to the glass panels.  It was a nice morning before a lot of activity started up around the Botanical Garden, Museum, Natural History Museum, and Western Reserve Museum.  Just had a few joggers and a couple dog walkers pass by that morning.  I am probably going to give this another try in the future, maybe even from another angle.  It might be one of those things that I try to draw over and over and over, trying to perfect it.

Checking In

 

Hi all, sorry I haven't posted lately! I've been doing a lot of garden plein air painting. Here's two urban subjects I worked on recently. Hope everyone's well!  That's the Artcraft Building on Superior Ave. downtown in the first sketch.

Chautauqua Institute Landmarks

From my sketch-a-day class at Chautauqua Institute located in upstate New York, used General's Woodless Graphite on heavyweight sketch book paper. A wonderful way to spend a summer afternoon. Not quite Cleveland, but a short 2 hr drive East.

At the One World Festival

The Cultural Gardens along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard deserve their own sketchers, but at the One World Festival last week, I captured the more ephemeral decorations known as humans.

Sokolowski's. . . . YUM!

If you haven't been to this institution, GO!  The food is awesome, and the long line isn't as long of a wait as you'd think.

Wendy Park Sketchcrawl

It was great seeing so many cool sketchers out at Wendy Park last Sunday.  The weather couldn't have been better.  Lots of people stopped by to see what we were doing.  And, we enjoyed seeing the fishermen that were out having a great afternoon on the river.  The sight of my favorite mighty, mighty tugboat was a surprise.  It's amazing how that little guy whips the giant freighters around the sharp bends of the Cuyahoga River.

I know that the location was a little hard to find, and I think I lost 2 of you on the way in.  But, fromt he sketch, you can see how worth it the trek was.  And, now that you know where it is, you can go back anytime. 

It had been 2 years since I had sketched at this point, and oh, how it has changed.  The major difference is the Ernst and Young building, which is the building I sketched above in grey.  To it's right is a shorter building which I drew as grey windows and yellow concrete.  That's the aloft hotel, also new.

Garden Walk on Clinton & 65th

Here's a totally different take on the same house that Maureen described in her post below, I guess in my own mind I was flying above the house! I loved that everyone took such pride in their houses. My Mom grew up in that neighborhood and said it was always a nice street back in the 1940s.

This is a summer garden sketch that could have been from that house's backyard, but it's my own little container garden called City Pickers that I eat lettuce out of daily. Sketched on my iPad in the program Paper by 53 using a Jot Pro Stylus — really fun!

GardenWalk Cleveland 2013

A few of us met out on Clinton Ave for the GardenWalk Cleveland 2013.  This was part of the Detroit Shoreway district, and it featured many beautifully restored houses to visit.  The owner of this particular house had pictures of what the house had looked like before she'd fixed it up.  It was so nice to see someone that had the vision to save such a wonderful house.  She had drinks for visitors who happened into her backyard during the walk.  She even had a great vegetable patch behind her garage.  There were also houses that had chickens.  And, one house's entire backyard was a miniature railroad set up. . . . with a lot of dinosaurs! 

Sketch Outing Sunday, June 23, 2013

Join us for a sketch outing during Gardenwalk Cleveland.  We'll meet at the corner of West 65th and Clinton Ave at the Labyrinth Garden.  It's one block south of Detroit in the Gordon Square district.  There is plenty of street parking and free parking lots in the vicinity.  We'll meet at 2pm, and then we'll meet up at 3:30 or 4:00 at Sweet Moses Ice Cream shop on Detroit.  If you have any further questions, please post a question here or visit us on Facebook at Urban Sketchers Cleveland and post a question.

W. 25th & Meyer

I took artistic license to give make my composition more pleasing, used General's Woodless Graphite  on paper. It was a beautiful day to get out and draw. 

West 25th and Meyer Warehouse

Sunday was a great afternoon for sketching.  The sun was out, but it wasn't too hot.  And, you know, I do love when the bugs aren't out to annoy me while I'm sketching! 

Lingg

This is Lingg, a hip jewelry and gift store on Chagrin Blvd. in Woodmere.

This is very new to me........sketch with mini iPad. These are my new trials.  It's convenient, especially when you traveling

Museum and Waiting Room

I went to the Art Museum on Sunday and had a chance to check out their new galleries in the lower floor of the old building. It looks fantastic!! And the atrium is just an incredible space.

 

These four were done while waiting for a routine medical procedure yesterday. People in waiting rooms make for great sketching subjects and the lobby made for a fun perspective study.

Ventos at BayArts

Here's a pencil sketch from last summer done in a Bob Moyer watercolor workshop. Beautiful day!