three letter word for art

I don't drink beer, but I do like drawing breweries. Well, the Pearl Brewery in San Antonio at least. Funnily enough, I seem to sketch it every two years. The big windowless building to the left has since been demolished, though that can't be seen in the second sketch.    This last one I did while visiting SA for the holidays. The plan is to turn the brewery into a hotel, and it seems as though it's well under way.

Crockett St Bridge. A standing sketch. Immediately to the right, out of frame, was a Coca-Cola delivery truck, engine idling. I'd been sketching for a while before I realized two delivery guys were watching me from the cab. When I noticed them staring I thought they'd ask to see the sketch, but instead they turned away somewhat self-consciously and rather abruptly drove away. I kind of screwed up Linda's sketch, but I'm fond of the self-portrait. It's one of the few where I'm clean-shaven. Sheep skull. I find it difficult to elaborate on that description. La Tuna is an indoor/outdoor gathering spot/watering hole in San Antonio. The kitchen/indoor dining area burned down days after this sketch. That's I think four places I've sketched that were later destroyed, though I've heard it's already rebuilt. The beer is not mine, BTW. I'm not some kind of zealot or anything, just boring. I prefer Dr Pepper to Shiner Bock.

The once-shuttered Pearl Brewery is now home to a bunch of cool restaurants, offices and shops, as well as a campus of the Culinary Institute of America and apartments and condos.  But the best part of the area is still the part-gothic, part-industrial brewery building itself, and until now I hadn't given it the proper attention in a drawing.  There are plans to turn it into a hotel, and while I'm sure they'll retain all the 19th-century architecture, I doubt they'll keep all the cool pipes and fixtures sticking out of the sides.  So in the interest of documenting that side of the building I finally sat down the other day (in the shade) and tackled it.

I finally did a serious drawing of San Fernando Cathedral.  I'm still working up my nerve to do a drawing of the interior.  In Europe I don't think that would be a problem, what with the abundance of religious edifices there, but in San Antonio people treat this building with a great deal of reverence.  I'm afraid I'd get yelled at.

Built in 1892, Turner Halle (known as the Bonham Exchange these days)  is a beautiful old building in downtown San Antonio.  There's something very appealing about this old brick mansion with palm trees in front, and I've wanted to sketch it for some time, but there are few vantage points out of the sun or out of the way of tourists streaming down the sidewalks on their way to the Alamo.  Last week I bit the bullet and sat in the sun on the curb (I wore a hat) and got this one done.  on to the next...

The downtown San Antonio Starbucks (one of several, actually) has a second floor with an outdoor patio, but the railings and parapet make it difficult to sketch much of the view while sitting down, so I don't sketch there often.  A few days ago I finally bit the bullet and did a sketch standing up to get a better view.  This is that sketch.  Also, it's a watercolor.  

I'm forcing myself to get out and work in color, if only to get a little more comfortable with water media.  The color itself isn't the problem-- I've painted in oils so long that I'm fairly confident in terms of what I see color-wise.  It's just that watercolors are the exact opposite of oil paint.  Oil is forgiving.  You can add or subtract easily to cover up your mistakes, and you can mix right there on the canvas.  Watercolor requires a lot more discipline, and I just haven't gotten there yet.  We'll see...

It took long enough (3 months) but I finally filled my Urban Sketchers folding Moleskine with San Antonio.  This will be a long post, since I'm gonna put every spread in here.   It's actually four separate panos, all of which I drew on site in downtown San Antonio. The first is a 180 degree sketch of Houston Street just north of Alamo Plaza. The second pano is of Navarro Street and the Nix Hospital. The third is on Commerce Street and features the Aztec Theater. The fourth pano is only 90 degrees (I ran out of room) and was done in front of the old San Antonio Courthouse.  They are all stitched together by means of a transitional device I borrowed from Urban Sketcher Pete Scully --  a light pole or street sign is used as a divider between panoramas, and fortunately I was able to use what was already there.   First, the assembled panorama: Then split into 3 equal parts for easier digestion: And each spread in order: All in all, ...

I filled my old 8" x 10" Strathmore drawing pad, so I got another one.  I like the scale because it fits perfectly in my small mapcase bag.   First, the Commerce Building from my last Strathmore.  No idea why I didn't post this already, seeing as how I posted it on Urban Sketchers 3 weeks ago. This is a detail of the facade of the south side of the AT&T Building.  The east side has by far the most detail, but little in the way of shade to sketch from.  It's also a little bit intimidating.  The south side seemed more manageable.  Linda and I drove out to Fredericksburg for a day last week and I got this sketch done of the weird but cool  Admiral Nimitz Museum on main street.   There are a whole bunch of other cool buildings there I'd like to sketch at some point, but its difficult because the streets have diagonal pull-in parking, so there are no big gaps between cars to sketch the other side of the street.  Many of the be...

Stage three (Commerce Street) of the pano project is progressing much more more slowly than the first two, partly because my "shady" spot is really a blustery wind-tunnel of a site that makes for unpleasant sketching.  That and it's the most pedestrian-heavy area I've yet drawn, which means a lot of questions and curiosity from passers by, which, while well-meaning, make it hard to focus.  I have finished the Navarro Street pano, though, so here it is: details:

I've been asked a few times to post photos showing my sketching process, but it's always been hard to do because I'm usually alone.  This past weekend Linda came downtown with me and took some pictures.  Now you can finally see me spilling out of my tiny chair! Sketching on Broadway: the finished sketch: Sketching on the Riverwalk: and the sketch:

Since I've been doing the longer-term sketches in a Strathmore pad, I'm trying to do much looser, quicker sketches in my moleskine now, less than an hour.  Knowing me this could all come to an end at any time, but for now I'm having fun. a 15 minute sketch of the Koehler House on the campus of San Antonio College: This view is from the window of the Subway restaurant on Broadway.  Special appearance by my truck, on the right: This one was getting close to the hour limit, but still within the timeframe.  The Gunter Hotel (which deserves it's own larger, more detailed study):

Just a few from a recent Tuesday evening.  It was too dark to draw outside, but the museum is open late on Tuesdays.  Lots of people there in the evening, including a sketching group.  Need to do this more often.

I finally started working in my limited edition USk folding Moleskine.  It took me a while to think of how I wanted to use it, but I decided I would do a series of street panoramas here in San Antonio, Texas.  The first of these, on Houston Street north of Alamo Plaza, is (almost) done, but I should have room for two more in the sketchbook.  I did part of it during the sketchcrawl, but I wasn't able to round up any other local crawlers this time around. The next street will be Navarro Street in front of the Nix Hospital, which I've already begun. The Federal Courthouse and Post Office More Courthouse The Express-News building is in the background left, Emily Morgan Hotel foreground right The Emily Morgan Hotel Starting the Navarro Street pano The whole shebang