Cuddly Bike Helmets

My sweetie came along to today’s sketchcrawl, enjoying his book while I painted the coffee shop scenery. We stacked our helmets together on the tiny café table to give ourselves more room. They were kind of charming like that, so I whacked out a helmet doodle in watercolors. * Mi esposito vino al sketchcrawl conmigo esta mañana. El leyó su novela mientras yo pinté el escanario del café. Habíamos apilado nuestros cascos encima de la mesa minuscula del café, y me parecían bonitos así. Capturé este bosquejo con aquarelas como un recuerdo. 

Trains, Planes, Trolleys and a Good Dog

We had many adventures about ways to get around this weekend. At the public library, we soaked in the excellent exhibit about Chinese American aviators--I'd love to go back and see it in more detail. We also visited the Architectural Heritage Center to see their historic photos and artifacts from Portland's original streetcars.

On Sunday, we went to an old ranch that had been converted to an amazing outdoor circuit for model steam trains--smallish, but big enough to to haul passengers. The adorable puppy did its best to out-cute the wee locomotives. Such fun.

Streetcar Grand Opening

 

It was a big weekend for train people in Portland! Grand opening of the new streetcar line on the east side of the river, and also the grand opening of the new Oregon Rail Heritage Center. Lots of fancy hats, plenty of Sousaphones, and a spectacular historic steam engine blowing her mighty whistle. * Esta fin de semana fue muy emocionante para las entusiastas de trenes! La cuidad de Portland abrió un nuevo sección de la tranvía, en el lado este del río, y también celebramos la inauguración del nuevo museo de trenes históricos. Habían muchos sombreros impresionantes, varias tubas, y una locomotora de vapor silbando en una manera muy impresionante.

 

Sand Chipmunk!

Last two sketches from my August trip to Cape Disappointment. I was gathering notes on the branches and bark of this shore pine that was growing right along the shore, when a chipmunk appeared! It sat right on the branch I was drawing, and we stared at each other ask I kept sketching...until it suddenly vanished as quickly as it had arrived. * Los dos últimos dibujos de mi visita a Cabo Deslilusión en agosoto. Quería observar las ramas y la corteza de un árbol de Pinus contorta que crecía justo al lado de la mar. De repente, ¡una ardilla rayada apareció en la rama que estaba dibujando! Nos miramos fijamente, y yo seguí dibujando...hasta que la ardilla desapareció tan instantáneamente como llegó.

The last morning in camp, I caught a few more branch and cone details, but with no surprise visitors this time. * En la última mañana en el campamento, capturé alugnas detalles más de los árboles...sin visitantes esta vez.

Cape Disappointment

Last month I was camping with my family in Cape Disappointment, Washington--lovely state campground there, peppered with shore pines (which was perfect, since I needed study them for the Mushroom Festival poster I was working on.) Woke up early to draw the tree, and ended up drawing tons of wonderful birds (and even a bunny!) that were all over the campground, taking advantage of the fact that most humans were still asleep.

That's one thing I especially love about sketching: it gives you an opportunity to hold still, and that can lead to amazing wildlife viewings that a person in motion would likely miss. (Nothing against hiking, but wow, the rabbit in the sketch above was hopping calmly around, just a foot or two from where I was standing!)

Watercolor Legacy

New watercolor sketchbook. Taking a moment to take inventory of all the tubes I own, here inside the front cover. (My "Moonglow" and "Payne's Gray" are floating around somewhere still; I will add them to the spectrum as they turn up.) * Para celebrar mi nuevo dibujo de dibujar—del estilo que tiene papel para aquarelas—decidí hacer un inventorio de mi coleccíon de pinturas de acuarela, en la guarda anterior del libro. (Todavía me faltan mi “Payne’s gray” y “moonglow,” pero los añadiré cuando encuentro los tubos.)

 

Though I purchased some of these under my own steam, quite a few of them are inherited from my grandpa, Chang Reynolds. It makes me happy to see the old packaging on the tubes from the ones that were in his collection.  I store all my watercolor tubes in his old wooden watercolor box, too. A nice legacy. *

Aunque yo sí compré algunos de estos colores, un gran parte son originalmente de la colección de mi abuelo, Chang Reynolds. Me alegro encontrar los tubos viejos, sabiendo que sigo la tradición de pintar con sus mismas acuarelas. Guardo todos los tubos en su viejo caja de madera, también. Una herencia muy bonita.

 

Chicken-Sitting

I have been taking care of a friend's chickens this past week. They like some time to run and hunt for bugs in the yard, there aren't a lot of fences to keep them from wandering off, so I've been shadowing them to make sure they don't run out into the street. For this visit, I tried sketching them as they darted around--more challenging than I had expected! * He estado cuidando a las gallinas de unos amigos. A las gallinas les gusta correr y buscar insectos, pero no hay una cerca que los contiene cerca de la casa. Así que siempre las sigo un poco detrás para prevenir que corran en la calle. El otro día traté de dibujarlas—¡era más difícil que había anticipado!

Drawing babies, babies drawing

Was hanging out with three darling one-year-old girls the other day. I brought colored pencils so I could sketch them, and of course let the girls do their own sketching on the same paper. The texture of the paper is a nice reflection of the dynamic force of this young trio: scribbly, crumpled, greasy, colorful, delightful. *

El otro día pasaba un rato con un trío de niñas de un año de edad. Traí lápices de color para dibujar las chiquitas encantadoras, y por supuesto ellas querían dibujar tambén. La textura del papel es un reflejo la fuerza dinámica de estas bebes: garabateado, estrujado, manchada de grasa, lleno de colores, exquisito.

Exquisite Corpse, Glorious Donkey

For my birthday weekend, we invited some of our Portland friends to eat pizza and play our favorite surrealist drawing game. The game is a variant on "Exquisite Corpse," but goes by many names--my favorite that we've come up with is "Glorious Donkey." Every player starts by writing a sentence at the top of the page, then they pass their paper to the right and the next player draws a picture that tries to match the sentence. Then the paper is folded so the original sentence can't be seen, and passed again. The next person then writes a sentence that matches the drawing, and so on around the table. We had about 15 participants, and we all laughed incredibly hard at the results. Here are some of the highlights! * 

Celebré mi cumpleaños el fin de semana pasado, invitando a algunos amigos en Portland a comer pizza y hacer un juego surrealista con nosotros. El juego es relacionado a “cadáver exquisito,”pero tiene muchos nombres—lo favorito para mí es “burro glorioso.” Cada persona empieza por escribir un frace en el papel. Entonces pasamos el papel a la siguiente persona, y esta persona trata de dibujar el contendio de la frace. Doblamos el papel para que nadie puede ver la frace original, y pasamos el papel otra vez—la proxima persona tiene que escribir una frace para el dibujo. Sigue así, con fraces y dibujos, por toda la mesa. Tuvimos 15 personas jugando, y reimos fuertemente al ver los resultados. Aquí tenemos algunos de mis ejemplos favoritos.

Bears

It was a few weeks ago now that I did these sketches of the black bears at the Oregon Zoo. A decadent luxury to spend hours just watching one type of animal. Especially when they are as lively, social, playful, and beautiful as these bears are. * Hace algunas semanas ya desde que dibujé estos osos negros en el Oregon Zoo. Que lujo, pasar horas simplemente mirando un solo tipo de animal el el parque zoológico. (Especialmente cuando son tan vivos, sociales, jugetones, y bellos como estos osos son.)

These sketches were part of my research for the poster for this year's Mushroom Festival, an event hosted by Mount Pisgah Arboretum in Eugene, Oregon. More sketches from that project to come! * Estos bosquejos son parte de mi investigación para el cartel que promoverá la feria de hongos, un evento organizado por Mount Pisgah Arboretum en Eugene, Oregon. ¡Compartiré más bosquejos de este proyecto en los días siguientes!