Sunday, August 21, 2016

Tacoma Sizzles with West Coast Sketch Crawl

8/20/16 brush pen, watercolor, colored pencil (Union Station)

That headline isn’t really metaphorical. We’re having a heatwave this weekend in Northwest Washington that warrants an “excessive heat warning,” according to the National Weather Service. But that didn’t stop well over a hundred sketchers from showing up for the Fourth Annual West Coast Urban Sketchers Sketch Crawl in Tacoma!

8/19/16 brush pen (Portrait Party)
Festivities began Friday night at the opening reception, which included a portrait party (a few minutes to sketch someone you don’t know, then move on to another person). The highlight of the evening was, of course, the huge door prize giveaway of literally hundreds of dollars’ worth of gifts from generous art supply stores and other vendors. Many thanks and kudos to Frances Buckmaster and the Tacoma team for procuring a gold mine of donations! I don’t know which city will be hosting next year’s WC sketch crawl, but I’d say they have a pretty high bar to meet!

The weekend’s main event was an all-day sketch crawl Saturday and a half-day on Sunday around Tacoma’s highly sketchable museum district. Although the event didn’t officially begin until 9 a.m. Saturday, I was already on the sidewalk by 7:30 a.m. to get ahead of the heat. By mid-day, I had captured two sketches in the still-comfortable shade – one of the majestically domed Union Station building (which I sketched about a year ago from a different angle) and the second of the University of Washington’s Tacoma campus stairway.

8/20/16 brush pen, watercolor (UW Tacoma campus)

I don’t know if anyone officially counted heads, but here’s the photo of the Saturday mid-day sketchbook sharing!


4 comments:

  1. Sounds like a great success in spite of the heat. It's been hot here too but my nemesis, wind, has made it a bit easier to take if you have enough clips to hold the sketchbook together :-)

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    Replies
    1. It was a terrific event! Ah yes, clips -- a sketcher's best friend!

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  2. Sorry you had to contend with the heat, but it doesn't look like it slowed anyone down. Good job!

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  3. As a first time sketchcrawl participant, I can say it was SO well organized and there was a wealth of sketchable places. The variety of sketches done was amazing! It was a great day!

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