Yes, I know; sometimes, taking the mick is just too easy.

The afternoon of Day Two was a sketching trip to colourful Pioneer Square, with Gabi’s Urban Composition group. The Sun was casting golden light across the city, as it lowered behind the downtown buildings. There were people out with signs, protesting this and decrying that, most of them against the various wars going on at this period in history. This peculiar pair, however, were slightly separate to most; make what you will of their placard. I can’t say that I agreed with the bearded boiler-suited sandal-wearer’s slightly dubious and sinister assertions. Everyone’s entitled to their views.  So I wrote the lettering with a different blue felt-tip pen, which has the appropriate (and highly amusing) name of ‘Le Pen’. I did show them the sketch though, and they liked it too, even asking for a photocopy. Sometimes, taking the mick is just too easy, so I’ll leave it up to you.

I also sketched a fellow sketcher, Kalina (aka Geminica), one of the Portland urban sketchers, aka the ‘girl in the red hat’. She was sketching the action in Pioneer Square, as a huge screen ws erected to show a classic movie out in the open (I think it was like Three Amigos or Muppets Take Manhattan or something). Here’s a post by another Portland sketcher, Alanna, of me doing the sketching. Yes, I still wear that England shirt, even after that World Cup.

Hey, are you proud of me, sketching all these people?! I’m learning a few things. Prior to the field sketching session, I went to Gabi‘s very interesting lecture on the artist as reporter. Gabi Campanario is a staff sketcher-reporter for the Seattle Times – see his great column online at Seattle Sketcher. Here he is on the light rail – a load of us crowded into a train and started sketching each other like crazy – and you may notice his sketching stool, which is exactly the same one as mine (though his is blue).

I spent the evening meeting and conversing with some of the other Portland sketchers, a very nice bunch; you should check out the Urban Sketchers: Portland blog. The USk correspondent from Tokyo, Kumi Matsukawa, did a great sketch of me talking with local artist Bill Sharp, which you can see here. I hope one day to sketch with them all again, and perhaps capture more of the city’s colourful characters.