Udvar-Hazy

The National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall is great, but tends to be a bit too crowded and filled with toddlers sprinting around.  The NASM Udvar-Hazy Center out in Virginia on the other hand is a huge facility with some incredibly awesome aircraft on display, and a much calmer space to sketch about.

You could return there a dozen times and never be lacking for a new interesting, fascinating, and awe-inspiring subjects to sketch, from the Discovery shuttle, WWII planes, aircraft from the birth of flight and every era of flight you can imagine.

And the conservation facility shows a bit of the process involved in restoring and maintaining the amazing pieces at the museum.

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

I had been interested in visiting F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre's resting place for some time, and finally found a good reason to as my sister told me their anniversary as coming up (the couple was married April 3rd 1920).  So the first weekend after we got ingredients together for some Gin Rickeys, drove out to Rockville, MD to a small church surrounded by commercial plazas and paid our respects.
We made a couple drinks for F. Scott and Zelda, but already there was a collection of pens, books, stones, flowers and coins left by other admirers with similar intentions.

Small Press Expo '13

So Baltimore Comic-Con was fun, but the real action came a week later in DC with the Small Press Expo.  If you are into comics, or just art in general this was the place to find every indie or underground comic creator you wish you've heard of. This expo is one of my favorite times of the year, made apparent by how I spent way too much money on art and comics.  So as with Baltimore, I thought I would put a page of SPX sketches together in a way that seemed appropriate.

Sketchcrawl #38. Three views of the Capitol Building. Part 3.

And finally, here are three views of the Capitol building.





Last Port-o-potty, I promise.

Sketchcrawl #38. Part 2.

The landscape of the National Mall changes quite a bit with the coming of the inauguration.     News trucks, t-shirt vendors, security, etc... Though not quite a Tardis, the Police box certainly caught my eye as an interesting addition to the surroundings.  And you can't miss the Port-o-potty's, and checking out CNN was just kind of fun.

Sketchcrawl #38 The National Mall, leading to the Inauguration. Part 1.

For this past weekend, we decided it would be timely to have our Sketchcrawl on the National Mall here in DC, as the Presidential Inauguration is happening shortly.  I got there a little early to get a sense of what was around, and there was plenty to see.  My first couple of sketches, as I waited for the other 'crawlers to arrive, aren't strictly Inauguration themed, but a couple of scenes of the Mall.

The East Wing of the National Gallery- in the midst of a face lift.


And a view of the Natural History Museum from Hirshhorn, across the Mall.

I'll post another batch in a moment or two...

Figure Drawing

Some drawing from a figure drawing session at the Arts Institute of Washington in Rosslyn, VA.

Albert Einstein Memorial

After I sketched Martin and saw how much attention he was getting, I thought I would give a little love to Albert too.

MLK Jr. Memorial

I may not be the first person to sketch the just-dedicated Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, but I was happy to go finally see it, see the very moved crowds, and get a chance to sketch it myself.

Congressional Cemetery [September Sketchcrawl]

A bunch of us were itching for another sketchcrawl, so we gathered up at Congressional Cemetery (near the Stadium Armory Station) this past weekend. We started by getting an extremely interesting tour of the grounds from former chairman of the board of the Cemetery Preservation Association & sketcher himself, Patrick Crowley. We had a great overview of the grounds, peaked into a vault or two and learned quite a bit about the cemetery and DC history. Add to that, there was an over abundance of subject matter to tackle.

After our tour I began the sketch below, and managed to halfway finish it before being interrupted by the rain. Now some of the other sketchers braved the rain better than I and made some beautiful work, but not I. So I took a break and walked around a bit, searching for a beautiful little statue Patrick pointed out on our tour. "Marie Estelle Krachmar" caught my eye with her broken legs, eroded surface (marble is vulnerable to acid rain) and the fact that everyday someone puts a coin in her lap. So I began sketching her when a there came a lull in the rain. That lull was short though, and ultimately I had to finish the sketch at home, but the group has talked about coming back on a sunnier day that may be more conducive to sketching outdoors. I'm looking forward to it.

Sâuçá Restaurant

The brilliant Sâuçá fleet of food trucks recently opened a brick and mortar restaurant just around the corner from my apartment. And not only is it as delicious as the trucks, with an even bigger menu, but I can now mosey my way over there anytime I like. They took over a fantastic building that has a great retro design to it, with a beautiful overhang that covers the patio, making it a fun subject to draw.

P.S. Get the Fish Taco or Butter chicken with a side of Yucca fries. And ask for a few of their many tasty sauces to dip it all in.

District Taco

Finally got to sketching the District Taco food truck in Arlington. The main reason I even head over to the Courthouse farmer's market on Saturdays is so I have an excuse to grab a breakfast taco from them. Orale!!

Sketchcrawl #30- The Library of Congress

We were at the LoC for our latest Sketchcrawl and while I didn't get to see or sketch the hawk in the reading room, there was an overabundance of decorative architecture, displays and statuary to sketch.

On The Fly

This is the last sketch I have from the Rally a couple of weeks ago. Technically its the first sketch I worked on, but I never got a chance to finish it up until recently.

On The Fly is another food truck in town, and it made a good choice coming to the Mall during the rally, as I never saw it without a line. Time dictated that I get moving towards the crowd and events, so I didn't join the line. On The Fly has a pretty good methodology, supporting local companies, using smart cars as trucks, eco-packaging, etc... they've got their green bases covered.

This sketch is also the first drawing I'll be contributing to the new Urban Sketchers > Washington DC blog. Please check it out to see more sketches by more sketchers from DC. They are indeed a talented bunch.

Wham Bam Pam!

Burlesque & Cosplay performer "Wham Bam Pam!" posed for the most recent Dr. Sketchy's figure drawing session at The Soundry, and put on a fun show. Not only treating us to some great costumes and poses, but she threw in a performance in the middle too. It was a lot of fun.

Curbside Cupcakes: Pinky

I browsed around the always fun Crafty Bastards Fair last weekend and lo-and-behold the Curbside Cupcakes [@CurbsideCupcake] food truck was parked out dispensing their tiny cakes of goodness. I sketched a bit and had a amazing dark chocolate cupcake, but apparently the raspberry lemonade flavor is the way to go. Find them and eat their goods.

Solar Crêpes

Another case of, "I didn't finish drawing before they were sold out" so I didn't get a chance to try Solar Crêpes' food this time either. Damn!

Sâuçálito Food Truck

Since drawing the Fojol Brothers foodtruck I've become a little obsessed with the concept of high-end food trucks in DC. I thought there were just a few of them, but it turns out there are dozens. Indian food, BBQ, Cupcakes, Crepes, Tacos, Bahn Mi, Diner food, Frozen yogurt, a Lobster shack on wheels- there are pretty much options for everyone. Plus most of these trucks have vegetarian and vegan options, which is awesome. So on my to-do list now is the task of sketching the food trucks of DC, and almost as important is to sample their menus.

So I tracked down (one of) the Sâuçá food truck(s) via twitter and managed to get a sketch, but I got there late and the truck was already sold out of its food. I'll find Sâuçálito again though, they have more than a few dishes I want to get my hands on...

Jamestown Giveaway

While I was in Fredonia for NYSSSA this July (missing the symposium) I made my way down to Jamestown, NY to do a little sketching. There are a lot of interesting buildings and alleys there and last year I had thought it would be a great place to do one of my "giveaway" projects, but time had gotten away from me and it never happened. This time I made sure to make a couple of detours to draw & place a few sketches around the city. I decided to frame 6 sketches (thanks IKEA for the cheap frames!) and place them near the sites I drew them by instead of placing them on car windshields like I usually do. I thought it would be interesting to hang them up on the street as I might hang them on a gallery wall. I forgot to give them all labels, but all of the frames are easily removable to anyone who might want to take one home. I don't really know if they'll all fall to the ground, get taken home, or still be there this time next year- I just dig that they are part of the landscape for a little while.

Sketchcrawl at Genesee Valley Park

I've been home in Rochester for a bit this summer, and consider myself lucky that Genine & Rachael have had 2 Rochester Sketchcrawl events within less than 2 weeks of each other. The latest meet up was at the Genesee Valley Park. My first couple of sketches were quite the massive failures-I hada hard time wrapping my head around those kayaks. I think Genine faired much better with them. But I found a couple of sketches in me after those... we'll call them... warm-ups...