Cleveland Skyline from the Cuyahoga River

Sketches from Windows on the River overlooking the Cuyahoga. Great to be back at Windows, wonderful memories of my daughter's wedding. Tried something new...black & white Prismacolor on mid-tone colored paper.

Merwin's Wharf on the Cuyahoga River

Quick Sketches

It was a wonderful sketch outing at Merwin's Wharf, next to the closed Columbus Bridge. Here are some quick thumbnail sketches. On the left are a series of two minute sketches (1 x 1.5") and at the right are 15-20 minute sketches (3 x 2.5") using General's Woodless Graphite on sketch paper. Plenty of interesting activity on the river and the patio.

Merwin's Wharf Sketch Outing

A great turnout today on such a beautiful early fall day.  We gathered at Merwin's Wharf which is a restaurant that is owned by the metroparks and sits right on a sharp bend in the river.  Everyone found such fun things to sketch, and it seemed like no two sketchers faced the same direction.  I actually found this scene from the parking lot.  Several others sat along the river.  It was great to see some new faces out sketching.

Let's hope that we have weather like this for one more outing the last Sunday of October. 

September Sketch Outing

Sunday, September 28, 2014
2:00p-4:00p
Merwin's Wharf restaurant
1785 Merwin Ave, Cleveland, OH
Meet at restaurant entrance

Please join us for our September Sketch Outing.  We'll be meeting at Merwin's Wharf restaurant along the river.  It's owned by the Cleveland Metroparks.  Since we plan to sketch from their patio, weather permitting, it would be best if everyone orders at least a drink or food.  There will be other places to sketch in the general area to sketch, if you decide to not stay on the patio.  If it were to rain, we will sketch inside the restaurant.  Of course, you can choose to sketch inside if you want, regardless of the weather.

  I will post more specific directly this weekend, as the Columbus Ave bridge is still closed.  Please watch here or on our Facebook page for more information. 

All sketchers, all ages, all abilities, and all mediums are welcomed to join us.  We love to give tips to those just starting out.  If you have any questions, please feel free to post in the comments. 

We generally meet up at 2pm, and then scatter to sketch what we find interesting, and then we meet up at 4pm for photos and show and tell.  You are more than welcomed to start earlier, come later, or stay longer.  It's very addictive once you start up.

This may be our last good outdoor sketching event before the cold weather sets in, so please consider coming out with us. 

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.

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.