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.

The Dying Gaul

Ricardo pointed out to our sketchcrawl group that The Dying Gaul was on temporary loan to the NGA, and gathered a bunch of us to go sketch it.  While the crowd around the sculpture was deep, everyone found a decent unobstructed view or two to draw from.

It is pretty interesting how unaware people can be of themselves as the step directly in front of another person looking at the same artwork.  I don't mean just those of us sketching (though I will admit it didn't help) but people who will stand so close to the sculpture itself that the 30 visitors behind them can't see a thing. Whatever. At least no one knocked him over...

Elizabeth

As far as pop culture figures who make good mural subject, DC has a pretty good knack for picking them.  Marilyn Monroe, Duke Ellington, Chuck Brown, and Frederick Douglas among others.  Well, earlier this season the Dacha Beer Garden opened up with a pretty spectacular mural of Elizabeth Taylor keeping watch over their beer drinkers down below.

This Site Is Closed Do Not Enter

Part of me just wants to say "presented with no commentary" and leave it at that, but I don't want this to be mistaken for some kind of libertarian protest or a complaint about park rangers like we've seen in the last week. I only felt as though it would be interesting to go check out the Mall and see how it looked when "barricaded". Now, if instead you want take this as a criticism of politicians not doing their job, go crazy. Especially those that instigated the shutdown then shamelessly postured in front of cameras to complain about it's results. Not that I feel like sketching those nincompoops.

Crafty Bastards 2013

Crafty Bastards was just a couple of weeks ago.  It's similar to SPX, as it's the kind of fair you walk into just thinking you're just going to browse, then walk out realizing you spent every bit of cash you had on you.  I swear I really didn't think I'd actually spend every dime on me, I thought I was just going to sketch...

H Street Fest

Inspired by Joel's sketches from last year, I checked out this year's H Street Festival. Food, weird cars, rollergirls, art and lots of people.  Sadly I missed an opportunity to try a faux-cronut, but otherwise a lot of fun.

I'm starting to enjoy putting sketches together in strip form.  It's taking me a little longer to put together and sketch, but I'm diggin' it.

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.

Baltimore Comic Con 2013

I've been living in DC for some time now, but only in recent years have I started braving the Baltimore Comic Con.  Unlike a lot of pop culture conventions, Baltimore is straight up about Comic. Books. A lot of comic vendors, spandex, writers, artists & illustrators, spandex, kids, toy, t shirts, did I mention spandex? A whole lot of fun.  So I thought attempting a bunch of sketches on a single page might be appropriate considering the subject.

700 Delaware

Sometime late last year street artist Hense came to DC to work on a former church south of the Capitol area.  The project had some minor controversy over whether this was respectful to the history of this particular site, but nonetheless it's pretty awesome and fun to see up close.

I certainly couldn't sketch this without involving all these great marks and colors, so it took me a little while longer than usual to finish the drawing.  I sketched the basic structure and a little of the surroundings on site, but had to color it at home... after running to the art store for a few more markers...
[You can check out more about the project at Design Boom.]

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...

Eastern Market

Reverend Valentine

Reverend Valentine has just begun hosting duties for the Dr. Sketchy's branch in DC, and yet she still finds time to head over to Baltimore to pose for a Halloween themed session too.  That's commitment to the movement.

Dr. Sketchy's DC with Eyrie Twylite

Dr. Sketchy's made its triumphant return to Washington DC last week at the Red Palace, hosted by Reverend Valentine with Eyrie Twylite posing for the group.  It was a lot of fun, and it is pretty nice to have a Dr. Sketchy's in town & within reasonable driving distance. Not that I am going to forgo the Baltimore sessions- heaven forbid.

Add to all of that, Crunkcakes was there with an amazing selection of their specialty cupcakes. Dear god I really wanted to win that half dozen...

Sketchcrawl #37 National Zoo

6-ish of us headed to the National Zoo for the 37th International Sketchcrawl. And while a few animals posed still for us many others seemed to ignore any requests for long posed by the group- instead insisting on walking, flying & feeding while the group was observing them. Good models are hard to find.
Alas, here are two sketches I managed to finish past rough pencil sketches.

Here are some lionesses enjoying the sun:

And a bird whose name I neglected to record:

Sophia Sunday

A couple of drawings from a recent Dr. Sketchy's in Baltimore featuring Sophia Sunday.

Marilyn

The Marilyn Monroe mural by the Woodley Park/Adams Morgan metro stop at Connecticut & Calvert. Commissioned (in either 1968, or 1981) by Roi Barnard of Salon Roi, and painted by John Bailey.

Rockefeller

NYSSSA SVA 2012 has come to an end, and sadly our very own Judy Powers has made this her last year with the program.  The faculty put together a portfolio of artwork as a gift to thank her for her years of work, and this was my contribution. She will be greatly missed!

This is the Rockefeller art building on the SUNY Fredonia campus, and although I. M. Pei is a very talented architect I could not finds a decent angle on it until I threw this sculture in the foreground.