SKETCHY-G

Portland - Urban Sketchers Symposium 2010 - Part III

2010-08-05T14:10:00.000-07:00

Here is my final post of my sketches from the Portland Symposium. Again I can't stress enough how cool it was to meet so many fellow sketching nerds. As Matt Brehm said it was like sketching woodstock!

Here is one whole side of the special edition long moleskine. It was all completed on the final day of the symposium. My hand was tired.

Here is an enlarged view of the skyline sketch. I went across the river to get the magnificent panoramic of the Portland skyline.

Here is a larger view of one of the sketches of a really cool industrial facility with a view of the Steel Bridge to the right side.

Here is an enlargement of the other industrial sketch. Fremont bridge just shows up on the far left side.

Yeah it was awesome!!!!!

Portland - Urban Sketchers Symposium 2010 - Part II

2010-08-02T20:26:00.000-07:00

OK, so I got back home and have finally scanned all of my sketches. I did A LOT! I filled both sides of the large format Moleskine Japanese album.

Needless to say this was an absolutely amazing event. Thanks to Gabi and all of the awesome folks at USK and PNCA who made this thing happen. I have never been around so many people who share my passion for sketching, it was truly a special time. I got to meet several folks whom have commented on my sketches on flickr and me on theirs. Such a cool thing. One of the most interesting for me was meeting Gerard Michel. I have ogled his sketches on the internet for nearly two years, and I got to finally meet him in person. We had some amazing conversations despite my speaking zero French and Gerard speaking limited english. We did a lot of pointing and gesturing, and somehow we both understood! Bottom line, when we got our sketchbooks out the language barrier all but disappeared. Many more experiences like this, I will share others in later posts. For now here are some of the sketches I did.

So here's sketch number one, right out of the box I'm out sketching with Frank Ching and Gerard! Talk about intimidating. But I think this one turned out pretty decent.

Here is sketch number two, Skidmore fountain

In the afternoon of day one I decided to do a couple of elevations of some interesting facades on condos overlooking Jamison Square.

After Jamison Square I headed down to Union Station and got this view.

The last sketches from day one I went out and did after the evening sessions were over. There were these three great churches just a couple of blocks from the hotel, I had to capture them.

Day two started with a trip over to the food cart block. Did a couple of quick ones.

An overall of one row of the food carts.

Day two concluded with this set from the afternoon session. A series of quick studies about 15 minutes each.

More to come, day three was quite fruitful.

Portland - Urban Sketchers Symposium 2010 - Part I

2010-07-29T22:20:00.000-07:00

PORTLAND 2010

The first ever Urban Sketchers Symposium is finally under way in Portland. I am so glad I made the trip. Day one is in the books. It was a great day, got to meet so many people in person that I have dialogued with for so long via flickr and USK. We had two super field sketching sessions and two exciting lecture sessions. Can't wait for day two tomorrow. Here are a few pics of some of the fun.

Frank Ching offers some sketching advice. It was really cool to meet him in person, as an architect I have admired and used his books for years.

More advice from Mr. Ching

Gabi getting his sketch on

Several of the urban sketchers in action.

A photo of my first day's sketching effort. One of the gifts all of the participants received was this awesome large Moleskine. I already filled up several panels, cant wait till tomorrow and Saturday! I'll scan these when I get home, for now a photo on the hotel room floor will have to do.

More to come......

Houston Part II

2010-06-26T20:33:00.001-07:00

I am finally getting around to posting the last few sketches I did from our vacation in Houston a few weeks ago.

NASA Building 20 - Houston, Texas

Minute Maid Park - Home of the Houston Astros, who put a serious whipping on my Cubbies the day we were there, dangit!

- Houston, Texas

Industrial Facility- Galveston, Texas

Industrial Facility, Galveston, Texas

Houston - Part I

2010-06-14T23:29:00.000-07:00

Last week we took a family vacation to Houston to visit my cousin and his family. It was a great time. Despite the heat and my hand sticking to the paper, I did get quite a few sketches done.

Here are a few for Houston Part I

Downtown Houston skyline

Sacred Heart Cathedral - Galveston Island

Beach house on Galveston Island

Beach houses on Galveston Island

JP Morgan Chase Tower - Downtown Houston

Toyota Center - Downtown Houston

Texaco Building - Downtown Houston

Moody Mansion - Galveston Island

Bishops Palace - Galveston Island

Patriotism Statue on Galveston Island

Industrial Facility on Galveston Island

Discovery Green Pavilion - Downtown Houston

Some sketches from Norman

2010-05-24T10:10:00.001-07:00

Here are a few sketches from Norman.

Hiland Dairy - Norman, OK

Campus Corner - Norman, OK

Evans Hall - OU

a few oldies a few newbies......

2010-05-17T11:11:00.000-07:00

I found a few sketches that I had missed posting earlier. Also a couple of new ones. Summer is here, I am committed to a quantum leap in sketch production. Stay tuned.........

Schwartz Ready Mix - Norman, OK
I found this one I had never posted.....

Another Schwartz Ready Mix - Norman, OK

Atlas Asphalt - OKC

MMMMMMM, Carrera GT

This is what happens when I am stuck in a long faculty meeting and have been looking at a bunch of Lebbeus Woods' work.

Hiland Dairy - Norman, OK.

It's been a while.....but I'm back!

2010-05-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

It has been a crazy few weeks. Trying to finish my Masters work, finishing teaching responsibilities and two large projects in the office. But as they say in theater the show must go on.

Imagination sketch

Schwartz Ready Mix Norman Oklahoma

Remember April 19, 1995

2010-04-19T07:26:00.000-07:00

Remember April 19, 1995

Today is April 19th. Not just another spring morning in Oklahoma City. 15 years ago the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was destroyed by a terrorist bombing. 168 innocent people died, Oklahoma City was changed forever.

In 2000 a beautiful memorial was erected on the building site. The memorial was designed by my friend and colleague Hans Butzer and his wife Torrey. Here are a few sketches I have done over the years of the memorial.

2010-04-08T09:50:00.000-07:00

Several sketches from the last couple of weeks.

One more sketch from our Dallas trip...

This is the Temple B'Nai Israel in Oklahoma City

OG&E facility - OKC

Gravel Storage facility - OKC

Pre-cast concrete panel picker - Coreslab Structures, OKC

Coreslab Structures pre-cast facility - OKC

2010-03-22T08:13:00.000-07:00

I apologize in advance this is a looong post but I think you will enjoy it.........

So last week was Spring Break, and the weather was decent so with no classes to attend and my wife and kids out of town for a couple of days I got my sketch on a couple of evenings.

South Facade of the OKC Federal Building

Bishop John Carroll

Bishop John Carroll, bell tower and Naive
Bishop John Carroll entry and rose window

Bishop John Carroll - sometimes the architect in me just has to draw a 2d elevation.

Then latter in the week I got to get away with my lovely bride on a little mini vacation. We took a drive Saturday from the lake house to Dallas. Despite the bitter cold and wind we had a great time in Dallas, the Galleria and Ikea! Also I got to get my sketch on a little bit to!

Dallas Center for the Performing Arts

Nasher Sculpture Center

I know anyone who has ever approached Dallas from the north along I-35 has seen this HUGE feed mill in Valley View. Well of course it BEGGED to be sketched, so I obliged it several times. Martindale Feed Mill - Valley View Texas

Martindale Feed Mill - Valley View Texas

This great feed mill is just off of HWY 32 south of Madill, I of course had to capture a couple of views of it as well. Sorry, I forgot the name and did not write it down.....

Feed Mill - Madill, Oklahoma

2010-03-10T21:06:00.001-08:00

A few sketches from the weekend......

Oklahoma City Water Treatment Plant

Sabolich Prosthetics Research Center

Mausoleum - Fairlawn Cemetery

Land O Lakes Manufacturing Facility

Boldt Construction Headquarters

2010-03-03T09:05:00.000-08:00

It's funny, the busier I get the more I feel like I have to make time to sketch. It helps me relax and keep from going nuts in the midst of my insane schedule. So here are the results of the last week or two. Again more concrete plants, I know I have a problem, but I just can't help myself.

Schwarz Ready Mix - OKC

Ash Grove Cement - OKC

Lafarge Cement - OKC

Farmers Public Market - OKC

Trinity Baptist Church - OKC

Farmers Grain - Edmond, OK

Dolese Concrete - Edmond, OK

Dolese Concrete Plant - Edmond, OK
Collage

2010-02-18T09:50:00.000-08:00

Last week I got out to do a few sketches, the weather was finally more or less cooperative. A couple more industrial sketches. I just love these concrete plants and manufacturing facilities. Everyone is probably getting sick of seeing my sketches of them, but I just haven't got it out of my system yet. So I threw in a couple of churches this time to ease the strain on your eyes....

Concrete Plant - OKC

Warehouse and Elevator - OKC

St. Lukes - OKC

St. Lukes - OKC, I decided to do two sketches of this one trying to capture the dynamic forms in different light.

Church in Norman on Boyd

2010-02-07T19:43:00.001-08:00

A few more sketches from last week. Trying to get some sketching in before more snow hits tomorrow.........I am so ready for Spring, have I mentioned that??

Concrete Plant - Moore, OK

Fred Jones Manufacturing Plant - OKC

Sunshine Cleaners - OKC

Concrete Plant - Moore, OK

2010-02-04T09:18:00.000-08:00

A few new sketches from the last couple of weeks.....I can't wait for spring!!

Round Barn - Arcadia, OK

Dolese Concrete - Norman, OK

Oklahoma History Museum - OKC

Methodist Church, downtown, OKC

2010-01-18T08:06:00.000-08:00

This is a tough time of year to sketch, it's either cold or raining. I did manage to find a little sunshine and relative warmth over the past week though.

Dolese Concrete Plant - Downtown OKC

Land O Lakes Manufacturing Plant - North Western - OKC

Fred Jones Manufacturing Building - Downtown OKC

Prayer Garden - Mount Saint Mary's - OKC

Santa Fe Train Depot - Downtown OKC

Dolese Concrete - Southside OKC

Grain Silos and Elevators - Enid, OK

Classen Tower - OKC

Capitol Hill High School - Capitol Hill, OKC

2010-01-04T07:40:00.000-08:00

OK, so I took all week last week off from work. It was awesome. Just stayed at home and spent time with the fam. Despite the awful weather I did actually get to do a little sketching. I had to do most of it from inside my car, which I hate, it somehow seems separated still. Oh well.....the results are here.....

Stage Center - Downtown OKC

Oklahoma Cotton Oil Producers CoOp - OKC

Silo - Midwest City

Emerson Elementary School - Downtown OKC

Crown Heights Christian Church - North Western Avenue - OKC

Will Rogers Theater - North Western Avenue - OKC

Southwestern Bell Building - downtown OKC

This sketch is a little different. I was actually commissioned to do this sketch by my friend and colleague Blair Humphreys. His brother (Grant) and dad (Kirk) own and run their business out of the building in the lower left side of the sketch. He asked me to do a sketch of their building with their sign etc. and show some cool OKC downtown skyline in the background. So with a little artistic license on the positioning and angle of buildings this was the result. Happily Blair reported that Grant loved the sketch.
If you want to read and look at some awesome stuff about OKC, check out Blair's blog.

http://www.imaginativeamerica.com/

2009-12-23T12:16:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
I decided to post the sketches I have done for our family and firm Christmas Cards for the past several years.

2009-12-12T17:00:00.000-08:00

I went to campus for the last time this semester last week and did a few sketches.

Bizzell Library front entry

The Great Reading Room - Bizzell Library

Fine Arts Builidng

North side of the stadium

2009-11-30T08:02:00.000-08:00

Here are a few new sketches from around OKC, the weather is starting to get less sketch friendly...

Chesapeake Boathouse - Oklahoma River

Oklahoma Cotton CoOp

First Christian Church - back side view

Carlisle Food Services

Oklahoma Publishing Company

2009-11-23T08:05:00.000-08:00

So on the Urban Sketchers Flickr page, there is a theme week thread. Last weeks was power poles which was suggested by me.....so I did a few power pole sketches. Power poles/power lines have always fascinated me. I love their honesty in form and their linear regularity. Here is the link to the Urban Sketchers page.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/urbansketches/discuss/72157622748458672/

2009-10-29T13:10:00.000-07:00

A few new sketches, three from downtown OKC and one from Wynnewood, OK.

Hotel Skirvin - Downtown, OKC

Civic Center Music Hall - Downtown, OKC

Centennial Plaza - Looking towards City Hall - Downtown OKC

Refinery - Wynnewood, OK

Sunday sketches

2009-10-06T19:38:00.000-07:00

I spent Sunday doing more sketching around town.......

Urban Skyline Ministries - Steeple

Urban Skyline Ministries

HiLo Club

MD Products Manufacturing Facility

2009-10-01T13:11:00.000-07:00

I have always loved the look of industrial facilities, manufacturing plants silos etc. There is something beautiful about their raw simplicity of forms and materials. So here are a few sketches of some manufacturing facilities.

Sketching on 9.9.9

2009-09-10T15:24:00.001-07:00

OK, so I went out sketching yesterday on 9.9.9, and I had the intention of doing 9 sketches, because I am weird like that. But the rain and time caught up with me and I only managed 4 sketches. But still not bad for a relaxing after work sketch outing.

OKC Federal Building

Union Train Station

Church in Capitol Hill

Factory on south Robinson

Saturday sketching.............

2009-09-02T08:35:00.000-07:00

Saturday I got another chance to go out and do some more sketching, the weather was soooooo nice!

Lutheran Church, Robinson, downtown OKC

OCU, Meinders School Business

OCU

First Baptist Church - bell tower, Robinson, downtown OKC

2009-08-25T13:17:00.000-07:00

A few sketches from last week. Just some more of the stuff in our neighborhood.

Edgemere.....a composite sketch

First United Methodist on Classen

First Christian on 36th and Walker - "The Egg Church"

The churches get some color......

2009-08-14T09:06:00.000-07:00

I decided to go back and add some color to the church sketches.

Churches in the neighborhood

2009-08-10T12:56:00.000-07:00

Saturday I got to get out and do a little sketching...I decided it was time to sketch some of the churches in our neighborhood, there are some really good ones. I took E&H with me and their sketches are way better than mine.....here are mine, I haven't scanned theirs yet.

This is the steeple at Westminster Church on Shartel

John Carrol Catholic Church

First Presbyterian Church on Western

mixed media

2009-08-03T14:04:00.001-07:00

Sometimes it is necessary to combine hand drawing and digital manipulation to get an "architectural" look in a drawing. Here are a few examples.

Del City Veterans Memorial

Graduate work

Concept for River Park Landing

Concept for a museum

Highrise competition

Fun with letters and names

2009-07-23T21:39:00.000-07:00

One of the things I have done for a while is to make names with the letters sketched as buildings. I did some of these for my family a couple of years ago as Christmas presents. Just in case they are too abstract I put the name below each sketch.......

"P A R K E R"

"J O H N S T O N"

"H O G A N"

"G A M M O N"

"E M B R E Y"

"E M B R E E"

"A L E X A N D E R"

Skethes from Chandler Oklahoma

2009-07-20T09:23:00.000-07:00

Part of my graduate work has been to do an urban analysis of Chandler Oklahoma. Here are a few sketches from my last visit.

These are some WPA era steps that lead from 8th street in the neighborhood down to Tillghman park. This is the view looking up to the neighborhood. It is a real cave like feeling.

This is the old Phillips 66 station - currently under renovation.

Rt. 66 - Manvel Avenue - downtown Chandler

Feed production plant on the south end of town

Old First Presbyterian Church

Alley downtown Chandler

2009-07-14T12:45:00.000-07:00

FUN WITH TALL BUILDINGS!

I have over 25 of these Moleskine accordion sketchbooks. When fully opened they are nine feet tall. I have done a series of tall building sketches in these. They are fun and make you wonder what a half mile high skyscraper might look like.

I photoshopped myself in here so you can get a sense of the scale....

I know it is nuts but I also built a model of one of my sketches. It only stands at six feet tall. Here is a photo of the model photo collaged into the OKC skyline.

Here is a view of some of the sketchbooks, notice the way the line work shows up on the edges, creating a quasi section diagram of whats inside.

I have been fortunate enough to have my sketchbooks displayed at the OU College of Architecture, in conjunction with a lecture series.

I was also invited to display them at the IAO Gallery in OKC

And for several months a rotation of the sketchooks graced the lobby at TAParchitecture.

More OKC sketches.....

2009-07-06T13:23:00.000-07:00

Going back through some of my stuff......here are some more sketches of Oklahoma City architecture.

Oklahoma City University tower - NW 23rd Street

OKC National Memorial - 5th and Harvey

Stage Center - Hudson and Sheridan

Harding Middle School - 33rd and Shartel

Milk Bottle - 23rd and Classen

OKC National Memorial - Chairs - 5th and Harvey

Founders Tower - NW Expressway

Iron Star BBQ - 36th and Shartel

Chesapeake Boathouse - Oklahoma River

2009-06-23T08:35:00.000-07:00

Of course sketching buildings makes sense for an architect, but I also love PORSCHE.........

911 Convertible

911 Carrera

911 Turbo

911 Turbo

Carrera GT

Classic 911

911

OK so these aren't PORSCHE'S, but a little cartooning is fun sometimes too......

2009-06-19T10:36:00.000-07:00

After posting my sketches from our San Antonio trip I thought....hey why not post some of my other sketches from traveling around?? So here are some of my "travel sketches"

New York City - Grand Central Station

Oklahoma State Capital - OKC

Kimbell Art Museum - Ft. Worth TX

OKC Arts Festival

US Capital and Lincoln Memorial - Washington DC

Jefferson Memorial - Washington DC

Washington Monument - Washington DC

Museum of Modern Art - Ft. Worth TX

Oklahoma History Museum - OKC

Mockingbird Station - Dallas TX

Hopewell Baptist Church - OKC

Cistercian Monastery - Ft. Worth TX

Brooklyn Bridge - NYC

Grain Elevator - Henesey OK

I have not been able to travel as extensively as some people but as you can see there are plenty of things close to home to sketch.....but some day Italia!!

Sketches from San Antonio Texas

2009-06-08T21:44:00.000-07:00

Last week we took a family vacation to San Antonio. Between the outings to Sea World etc. I did manage to get several sketches done.

Embree and Hogan got in on the sketching action too.........

Mission San Jose

San Fernando Cathedral

Mission San Jose

The Alamo

The Riverwalk

Mission Espada

Mission San Juan Capistrano

Mission San Jose

San Antonio tall buildings

Arneson Theater

San Antonio Public Library

County Courthouse

Mission San Juan Capistrano

Mission Concepcion

Oklahoma City Analytique of Robinson Avenue

2009-05-07T20:32:00.000-07:00