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Twin Cities Sketch Crawl Art

Everyone did some great sketches at Como Park. More pictures coming.

Click on pictures to make them bigger.

Laura Schmieg:





Roz Stendahl:



Roberta Avidor:



Ken Avidor:



Sarah Prentice:





Diane Wesman couldn't get to Como Park, but sent this sketch she did that day. This sketch was made on the west side of Bald Eagle Lake in White Bear Township.

SketchCrawl in the Twin Cities: Pages from Roz Stendahl

Above: the is the first page spread I did at Saturday's SketchCrawl. The left hand page has a column of text written before I got to the zoo. I started with a sketch in the center of the right hand page. (There are numbers on the sketches marking the order.) When we got to the Puffins in the Aquatic building they were having a pool party, flapping and diving about. But they did settle down long enough for us to catch a few views.

(Click on any of the images in this post to view an enlargement.)

Yesterday we had a group of 12 people join together for SketchCrawl. (There was also one supportive non-sketching friend who graciously took the photo Ken posted of the group.) Our game plan was to start at 10 a.m. at Como Park Zoo and Conservatory. I was getting out of my car at about 9:50 when Janice spotted me. We walked up together. At about 10:10 we were joined at the entrance by Mary. At 10:18 we decided to take off and let other people find us as they might. We headed off for the Aquatic building where of course there are PUFFINS! Hence the first page spread you see above.

I worked all day with a Staedtler Pigment Liner in my current journal which I made using Nideggen paper. This is a lightweight tan paper, which I love to paint on. I used Schmincke Gouache from a little travel palette (about 1 x 1.5 inches) that I carry around; and a Niji Waterbrush.

I was able to get 5 page spreads completed before leaving the zoo at about 3:50 p.m.
Below are the other 4 page spreads.

In this next spread I'm still working on puffins across the top of the page. I actually started the sleeping puffin sketch on the right hand page while holding up the left hand page because paint was still wet on the previous spread. Beneath the dotted line across the page you'll see PENGUIN sketches I made.


Janice and I then left the Aquatic building and caught up with Mary and bumped into PJ who had been working on her own the whole time. PJ was actually sketching zoo scenes involving people! After taking a bit of a rest and looking over everyone's sketches Janice, Mary, and I headed out to the herbivores. We split up there. Janice and I arrived late to the giraffes. The crowd, drawn by the male's amorous advances on the female, was so large we couldn't sketch. We knew we would be bumped by everyone pushing forward for a good view. We went on to the cats. We stood on one of the overlook decks and looked down into the outside enclosure where one of the male lions was sleeping 30 feet below us. (When people talked, you could see his ear move and catch their conversation.) (That's a piece of Gutenberg paper torn and pasted down into the gutter of my page spread. This is something that was done a week earlier. Something I just dealt with when I got to this spread.)


And then it was lunch time. As planned we met at the zoo's restaurant. This is when Mary, Janice and I learned there were a dozen folks participating! It was a short and funny lunch and then back to more sketching.

I made the mistake of venturing into the Primate house after lunch and it was so packed with people, and there were so many strollers clogging the halls, that I stood still for 5 minutes in one spot until I went rogue and started squeezing between strollers and other stationary folk. I didn't step on anyone's toes, and I got out of there, well, at least on to a less crowded spot where I could sketch gorillas and orangutans.


There wasn't much time left (we had all agreed to leave at 4 p.m. and reconvene at Cafe Latte to share our work). I went through the new tropics section, sketched some fish. With time to spare I had to sit down! I picked a bench that looked towards some banana trees with interesting flowers. I got out my Pentel Pocket Brush Pen for my final sketch of the day (the right hand page of this last page spread).

From the photo Ken posted you can see we all survived!

Twin Cities Sketch Crawl at Como Park

Our first Twin Cities Sketch Crawl was big success. We had wonderful weather andthere was a lot to sketch at the zoo and the Conservatory.

Afterwards, we got together at Cafe Latte.

I look forward to posting the great sketches everyone did right here on this blog.



From left to right arond the table: Sara, Kathleen, Roberta, Laurice, Ken, Pam, Roz (seated), Pat (standing), Janice. Three other sketchers joined us for part of the day at Como: Laura, Carol, and Mary.

Sketch Crawl 2009 / Roberta's MCTC Sketch

It's coming up, folks...

From the Roz Wound Up blog:

Date: Saturday, April 11, 2009—Rain or shine!

Time: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (come any time during that window, see below for additional details)

Location: Como Park Zoo and Conservatory (admission donation $2 suggested) in St. Paul, MN

Wrap Up Get Together Location: Cafe Latte on the corner of Grand Ave. and Victoria St., St. Paul, at 4:30 p.m.

How it works: Show up at Como Park Zoo and Conservatory any time between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Start sketching. You can do this on your own, come with a friend, or walk around until you see a group of us sketching and just join in with us. (If you come right at 10 a.m. you'll probably see a group of us going in and you can join with us right then.)

At 1:30 p.m. (in order to miss the lunchtime rush) we will meet as a group at the Zoo's restaurant (or just outside it if we are a really large group). (The restaurant is in the main building as you enter and pass into the Zoo. It's on the right, just after the information desk and you can't miss it.) We are going to meet at this time so that people can check in and see how it's going, split into new groups, and welcome new folks just showing up.

By 2 p.m. we'll go off sketching again and continue sketching until 4 p.m.

At 4 p.m. we'll all leave the Zoo (or conservatory if you have been sketching people and flowers) and head to Cafe Latte, where we will regroup at 4:30 p.m. You'll be able to purchase an early dinner, a snack, or a delicious dessert and coffee, in short, whatever you feel like. And we will share the art we've made that day and what is sure to be some lively discussion (the people I sketch with regularly are always lively talkers when the sketching is over).

So you can come for as long as you like, stay as long as you like, meet up with us for any or all of this.

Alternative: you can sketch out anywhere in the Twin Cities you want and still show up at Cafe Latte at 4:30 and we'll be happy to see you!

Roz has more details..

Roberta is really busy, so she asked me to post this sketch for her.

She sketched it at Minnesota Community & Technical College (MCTC). She forget to bring her journal so she had to use what was available... MCTC looks like a a great place to to sketch.

Click on picture to make it bigger.

After the Allergy Shots

I did this journal page just for you Ken! I'm trying to draw more buildings and it takes a pigeon to make me do so.

After my allergy shots (downtown) I went back to my car in a new ramp (new to me) with a different view. I saw this pigeon hanging out on the TCF sign. After awhile he flew up to the copper-clad roof. He wandered about for many minutes, going under the slanted overhang and coming in and out. I sat wondering what he was thinking.

What do pigeons do with all the time they have? Especially downtown pigeons? Yes, with the introduction of rehabilitated raptors in the Cities, there are some dangers, but downtown life once you get the window and car things down must seem like a stress-free vacation compared to suburban or rural life.

Then I got my journal out and started to sketch. It was warm (41 degrees) so the car was off (I know you'll appreciate that). It was amazingly dim in that ramp and that made choosing colors very difficult.

(The tab on the right side of the page is one of the pages I cut out when I start a new journal; it makes space for collaged items. People always ask me about this. There is nothing on the recto page yet, so I didn't include it in the scan; I need to go and find another pigeon!)

Since there are pigeons everywhere I think I have found the key to making myself draw more buildings!

The Metrodome Has Gone to the Dogs

The Metrodome had another indoor dog run yesterday. I never saw so many happy dogs. They don't get many opportunities to run around with other dogs since it has been below zero so much this winter.

I did a bunch of action sketches of dogs, but I really wanted to sketch a bulldog named Mabel. Mabel did not want to be sketched, but I managed get two sketches of Mabel, front and back.

Click on the photo to make it bigger.

Lake Harriet Kite Festival

It was 10 degrees when I sketched the Lake Harriet Kite festival. The ink in my pen froze and my fingers were numb, so I bent the rules and finished the coloring at home. Click on the picture to make it bigger.

Roz sucks it up and draws a car!

O.K. So I'm out with Ken and Roberta at Wet Paint. (They said they needed paper advice, but I don't really believe that; I think they were being sociable.) After the visit at Wet Paint we went down the road to Shish where Paul (a helpful artist/staff person at Wet Paint told us there was the best coffee in the area—I mention this in case you are coffee drinkers; I'm not—but I like Gyros so that's another attraction).

There we are at Shish, at a small window table, checking over our purchases and then eating, and finally, getting out our sketchbooks and so I decide, since I am sitting there with the King and Queen of scene sketchers, to broaden my view from the crack in the sidewalk. I boldly select a damaged car across the street (front end crumpled so badly bits have fallen off the hood so you can see inside, I guess that's because we don't use metal any more?). And just when I get going the driver comes out with a couple friends, they all pile in, not hearing my pleas from across the street and inside a building, of NO, No, no. (This action on my part causes the woman wedged in next to me to scooch further and further away from me.)

Then I learn something great from Ken. When this happens, wait until another car, similar to the first, comes along and work with it. This is helpful information because I am such a literalist, always drawing only those things in front of me (I rarely draw from my imagination). This is exactly like being at the zoo (which I do all the time; so this is a transfer of practice, a using of skills in a new area; it's growth!).

Since no other car was coming along I passed the time by working on the building and the fun shadows on the snow. And so it goes. I will draw more cars in the future. It wasn't that painful. Thank-you Ken and Roberta!

Grand Avenue in St. Paul

Roberta and I got paper and pen advice from our art guru Roz Stendahl at Wet Paint. Afterward's we walked down Grand Avenue a block to eat lunch at Shish. While we were digesting, we did some sketching. Roz did a great sketch of a car that moved befor she finished it. I am using my new 2009 journal (brown paper). Roberta also sketch on brown paper.

Roberta's sketch of people in Shish (click to enlarge the picture):



My sketch of a bike in snow: