Connellsville House

Ukranian Museum

This was from the worldwide sketchcrawl back in October. It was a little chilly out, but the sun was shining bright. It was one of those days that if you sat in the sun, you got really hot, but then if you moved to the shade, you got really cold.

Templar Automobile

Petitti's Garden Center

Does this look like a very flat building? Well, yes it is just a single wall set up at Petitti's for decoration. It sat almost immediately as soon as you entered their store in Strongsville, just past the customer service/returns desk. Very cute, and it looks almost like one could build one of these if they were so inclined with ease. Not that my decorations have gone that far. . . . . Yet. . . .

Gene & Boots

Another Lincoln Park House

Tower City Center

Joined the Cleveland Sketchcrawl this morning. I started to draw the arches, and I'd meant to draw the 3 lower levels, but somehow, it turned into the upper level and windows. Maybe I'll go back later this week and try again. It was good to see Noreen and Mina again, plus met a couple of new people.

Cement Mixer

Mighty, Mighty Tugboat

. . . .and Another Connellsville Building

This building is across the street from the library. I have memories of going there for stuff for school when it was an office supply. There was another office supply store over near the Daily Courier offices. I do remember when we would go to that other office supply store that it was very old-school retail with a lot of stuff being behind a high counter. Not much self-service going on there until later years when I went to get art supplies for a class at college.

Hopefully when I go back next week for the holiday, there will be nice weather to go and sketch some spots. I have several in mind, including one in Perryopolis in particular.

Another Connellsville Building

My dad remembers this building as being a clothing store and later, a shoe store. I can't remember for sure, but I think when I was a kid that it was a pizza place that had a couple video games that we used to play.

West Side Market

Atkins Music Store

Politician: A Toy

I used to pass this all of the time on Chester Ave when it was further out of downtown, but now it's all the way down by CSU's campus. The mouth still moves constantly, but the wheels no longer move (which is good, because I really wrecked the wheels on this sketch).

But, it's still a great piece of public art. I didn't have time before it rained to do the fence that surrrounds it that has words like "Contradiction" and such.

More from Wendy Park

Cleveland From Wendy Park

Went to Wendy Park with Tabitha early this afternoon to draw. It was such a beautiful day, not hot at all, but very sunny with a pleasant breeze. Several people stopped to talk to us while we were sketching, including a woman who comes into my art supply store. Her and her friend were scouting out locations to paint next time they're there (they were painting closer to the lake while we were drawing close to the river). We also met what is quite possibly the nicest pit bull on the planet. We didn't catch his name, but he greeted us as if we were his best friends, and his owner said that Wendy Park is his favorite place, no matter how hot or cold it is. We petted the dog for a while, and he did a lot of licking of Tabitha's legs. Because she enjoyed the evening so well, she left this little gift for people who came along after us.

Ohio Technical Shop

PowerHouse

This was my second attempt at the Powerhouse. It's such an interesting building that I could draw it many times from many different angles. It was a beautiful day out when I drew this, and I actually enjoyed the sun. Usually, I constantly seek shade when I'm out drawing.

Tomato Plant

Not what you'd expected when you saw the title "Tomato Plant?" Yeah, sorry about that. Further sorry about the horrible pun.

This is another in my food politics series. Can you also tell that I'd read a book about tomatoes? Also, even if you've never eaten in a Mcdonalds' or planned to eat at one, they control a lot of the tomato market by requiring large pericarp (the fleshy inside) and small seed pockets (locule) to ensure the sliceability of a tomato. They also control the size, demanding tomatoes as big as their hamburgers. This also depicts the use of nanotechnology, ethylene, and wax.

Another One from Cedar-Fairmount

Another sketch from the Cedar-Fairmount sketchcrawl. This is one of the Alcazar Hotel at the corner of Surrey and Derbyshire Roads.

Cedar Fairmount

Yesterday was Worldwide Sketchcrawl day #28. We went around the Cedar-Fairmount historic district to draw. There was a couple of big drops of rain that fell in the morning, but nothing significant. Some people never even went for cover.

This house is at the end of Fairmount, right before it merges onto Cedar, and it is terrible hard to draw. It has a thousand angles and it actually curves in the back. This was my 2nd attempt at drawing it.

Coffee Table Things

Subsidy

This piece didn't really do what I wanted it to do. I'm doing a series of pieces on food politics. This particular piece is about how the government only subsidizes 2 types of crops: corn and soy. They consider all other farming to be "exotic" or "specialty." Meaning, that the government doesn't think that diverse fruits and vegetables are essential enough to maintain their mere existence. Not that they're doing all that great by corn or soy either.

Bobby C's Classic Barbershop

One of my favorite things about sketchcrawling is the people you meet when you sit in one spot for any amount of time. I met my friend, Blaine, downtown to draw in Mall C. When we got there, the sun was in our eyes. We decided to go to plan B, which is something I spotted when I took Tabitha (my Lil Sis) to the Bodies Exhibit. It is the coolest looking barbership ever.

In the historic Colonial Marketplace, it almost feels as if the shop is set on a stage. While we were there, we met Bobby C and his partner, Cosmo. We also met, Chris, a security guard at the Marketbplace, though he'd said that he worked in the Key Bank building.

"Tear it Down!"

You can click on the image above to enlarge it to read all of the writing. I hadn't planned to write that much, but a security guard for Quicken Loans arena had stopped by, and we'd talked for a while.

Not sure if you can see them, but there are 4 very tiny workers tearing down the banner. The proportion is about right, because yes, the banner is THAT big. I believe that it's 10 stories tall.

New Project

This is a bad photograph, but this piece is too big to stick on the scanner like I normally do. I'm working on a large piece that is going to be part of a series about food politics. This is the beginnings of one of the pieces. It's the capital building, if you couldn't tell. There's going to be more going on which I can post later.

For the last couple of years, I've been reading a lot about the American food system. My belief is that the entire system from farmer to consumer is broken (and, yes, I believe that the consumer is broken too). The thing that really amazes me is that even though I know so much about what is "good" and "bad" in the realm of food; I continue to make "bad" decisions when deciding what to eat. Why is that? Why do we do that? Why is most of our supermarkets full of unhealthy food choices? Why is it that you go to a drug store to get things to help your health, yet they offer the worst possible food choices avaible? Shouldn't a drug store offer healthy alternatives? Or, do they have a vested interest in us being unhealthy?

Lots of quesitons I've been asking while I've been doing this reading.

And, that's not even getting into the waste of it all.

Okay, was that depressing enough for you this morning? If so, just click on the picture and enjoy the bad photograph of my drawing.

Security Cameras

Yes, just disguise your security cameras witha potted plant.

New York City

Went to see my friend, Deb, in New York. We sketched the area near Madison Square Garden while we were waiting for the train.

Long John Silver's

It seemed silly to draw a Long John Silver's, but there were interesting angles that proved challenging from this perspective. Plus, I have a soft spot for LJS's, as you can see in the story. I'm not sure of all people who were raise Catholic have such an affinity for this place, but I certainly do.

The other reason that I drew it was because I was out to draw, but the weather looked menacing, and I wanted to draw something from my car. So, I parked across the street at the closed Value City store and set up in my front seat. The closed Value City is weird, because they were rather overly optimistic when predicting how many parking spaces they would need. It's the largest ever parking lot for a single, stand-alone store.

Great Lakes Science Center

Did this after getting bothered by the tiny red bugs over near Hornblowers. I didn't worry about bugs here, but I did worry about a seagull dumping on me and some sunburn. Neither happened. There was a nice breeze, but the sun was pretty unrelenting.

Light Bistro

Hornblowers

I went up to the lakefront to draw on Friday morning. When I set up in a little area adjacent to the parking lot for Burke Lakefront Airport. I had to keep moving, because there was an infestation of these tiny red bugs. There were big bugs, but those weren't nearly as bothersome. My goal quickly became to finish the drawing and not take any bugs home with me.

I finally moved closer to the steamer to do the color, and there seemed to be much less bugs there. While I was drawing there, the new owner of the steamer stopped by. He told me about how they were doing renovations for their software company there. Then, Lolly the Trolley came by, and I didn't immediately realize, but they had stopped the tour to see what I was doing.

Cleveland Cultural Gardens

I had to make two trips to the Cleveland Cultural Gardens in order to do both of these Chinese lions that stand guard at the Chinese Cultural Garden. I sketched the first one, and then a huge, dark, scary cloud moved over head. I went to Koko's Bakery for lunch, and I inked the first lion while eating my rice bowl (which explains the sauce you may see on the paper) and free custard tart. Koko's is great for this. I think if they think you've waited too long for service or your food, they give you something for free (though, honestly, I don't think I've ever had an excessive wait there, even when they're swamped, so maybe they give you something free if they recognize that you're a repeat customer?).

I did the other one later, when I couldn't stay home a second longer due to how hot my apartment was. Yet again, they turned off the a/c! My apartment gets very hot because the sun beats on me from about 3pm until the sun goes down in the evening. So, I went back to the gardens to enjoy the nice breeze outside that wasn't coming in through my windows.

Lincoln Park House

I don't often get people who want to see what I'm doing while I'm out drawing, but the other day, I did. I had parked near Lincoln Park in Tremont in order to draw the bath house. When I got out of the car, I looked up and saw this house. I quickly blew off the bath house, and I decided to draw this instead.

Shortly after I'd started, a guy came out of the house and came over. He was very happy to see that I was drawing his house, because he'd thought the house next door was "nicer." It wasn't to me, the one next to it was pretty boring. I told him, "But your house is purple!" He said that his daughter likes to sketch, and he might bring her over. He did, and she said something like, "That doesn't look like our house." Her father tried to make nice by saying something like, oh, it sure does, look at that, it looks just like it. Oh, well, remember? I said, "Everyone's a critic."

The nice thing was, as I'd went to move on, his daughter was in their yard holding a sketchbook which was very nice.

Progressive Field

I still call it Jacobs Field. I think it's an Ohio thing, where no matter how many times people rename something, they continue to call it by the original name. I also still call the arena "The Gund."

Second, this was an odd angle for drawing the baseball stadium, but it's what I could see from the shade. The overhang above the seats was the hardest to get the angle right, but that's the part that worked out the best, in my opinion.

Not many people were around here early Sunday morning, so it was nice and quiet for drawing.

Tower City

You can click on the picture to read more about what I drew. I'm a little surprised at the slope of the foreground parking garage, but it was angled, and it wasn't actually straight to begin with.

St. Andrew Kim Korean Catholic Church

I stumbled upon this church when I was leaving Tremont a couple of weeks ago. I loved the church with the statue of St. Andew Kim in front. Sadly, I had difficulty with the statue and the first attempt looked like he was giving passerbys the thumbs up (like the Jesus from the movie "Dogma").

I apologize to anyone who can read Korean, because I did my best at copying the characters from their sign.

Euclid Beach Park Arch

Euclid Beach Park is something that is always fondly spoken of by people who had a chance to go there. I imagine that it was like how Kennywood had started, which is the park that I'd enjoyed as a child and teen growing up in PA. But, sadly, Euclid Beach Park didn't last past the 1960s, and this is the last remaining piece of the park. It's been restored (I think more than once), and it's being watched now by security cameras.

I had a great aunt that had lived in Euclid, in fact, I may still have a relative living there from my mother's side. My great aunt was single, worked for TRW for a very long time. When my mother's last aunt passed away, my mother sent me her TRW service awards (a couple of pins, a bracelet, and for some reason--a giant magnet). I never met her, but I do feel a kinship to her. She sounds as if she were very fiesty and independent. I have to imagine that since she had lived in Euclid, she'd spent some lovely summer days at Euclid Beach Park.

Cuyahoga River Drawbridge

1st Annual Cleveland Asian Festival

I hope if you live in Cleveland that you spent last Saturday afternoon down at the 1st annual Cleveland Asian Festival. The food, performances, shops, games, everything was great. Even the parking was pretty effortless, as most people parked within 2 blocks of the festival, and most parked for free. Even the rain didn't dampen the great afternoon.

We had arrived right in the middle of the lion dance demonstration, but was able to find a standing spot right next to the stage where we could see one of the lions perfectly. They were so playful and charming and funny. Though, I caught a piece of candy in the face, because I didn't expect them to start spitting candy and the first lauch was in our direction. They also launched oranges and one shredded a head of lettuce in its mouth and flung the shreds at the crowd.

If you didn't go this year, make sure to watch out for next year's!

Algebra Tea House

Another drawing from Little Italy Monday evening. This is after my friend joined up with me after she got done at work.

While I was doing the color, I was saying how I didn't have a purple marker, and I really needed one for the door. I must have said it more than once, because my friend had said, "You know, there are people walking around with real problems, but they don't realize how good they have it. Because, they probably have a purple marker in their pocket."

Little Italy - Late Afternoon

I went sketching in Little Italy after work yesterday. Now, I know it may sound weird, but it was my moment of "Ahhhh" yesterday. I'm always a get up early and go kind of person, so realizing that I can go late in the day was new for me. Especially, because I could have drawn until about 9pm outside.

I did this one while waiting for a friend to get off from work at 7pm. It's not perfect, by far, but the colors are nice. The problem that I'd had was that this was my new sketchbook, which has different paper that my old one. For some reason, when I use Tombow marker for color, I can't go over it with Micron pen. Then, I had a Pitt brush pen, which I mistakenly decided to use for the vines.

Larchmere Chapel

Sunday Morning Sketching

Sunday morning sketching in the Larchmere neighborhood. It is unusually loud there for some reason, even though there wasn't hardly any businesses open yet.

Never Postpone Your Location Sketches

Never postpone your location sketches, because you never know when a landmark will be gone. Watching the news tonight about the fire that is overtaking the old Masonic temple on East 55th reminds me of the times I've driven by it, and had wanted to draw it. There was something that had appealed to me about it, but I put it off. I liked the 3 arches on the front, which might have been windows at one time but currently held signage.

I'll do it some other time. Not now. I'd thought.

If you want to draw something, don't wait.

Cedar Lee Theater

Another thing from the Worldwide sketchcrawl last Saturday. I did three total that morning/early afternoon, but the one below of boommodern was my favorite. This one is just a little off for me in the perspective department. And, for some reason, I didn't realize that there was a giant wall behind the marquee.

Riverside Cemetery Chapel

It was a lovely morning. Luckily, I got out before it got too cold and windy, or at least all of the trees blocked the wind for me.

Lolita

I like the colors on this building, but I should hvae taken a little more time. I was sitting in the shade, the wind kicked up, and I got cold.

Worldwide Sketchcrawl 5-15-10

Great morning and early afternoon with a great group of sketchcrawlers in the Cedar/Lee neighborhood of Cleveland Heights. Peggy from Heights Arts greeted us to the neighborhood when we first arrived at 10am. We sketched for 2 hours and then took a break at Phoenix Coffee where we had a bit of a show-and-tell. We spent the rest of our time sketching across the street from the Cedar Lee theater.

Here's one of my sketches. I'll post some more when I recover from all the sunshine :D