Portland, Part 6: Yard Sale

 

9/20/25 Aaron 

When I travel, I wouldn’t typically put a yard sale on my agenda (I rarely shop at yard sales even when I’m home). But when a yard sale is promoted on Instagram by a man who has 227,000 followers, it must be special – and when it’s scheduled in Portland for the very weekend that I would be in town, how could I resist?

Aaron Draplin is a well-known graphic designer, co-founder of Field Notes Brand, collector of vintage ephemera, and an all-around great guy. I’ve met him several times at various events (such as this one in 2018) when he was selling his own products as well as Field Notes. His yard sale promised to have all of that, plus the usual old stuff that people typically sell at yard sales.

I got in touch with Portland friend Cindy, who is also an urban sketcher and user of Field Notes. We were already planning to attend the Portland USk outing together; why not swing around to Aaron’s yard sale together afterwards? It turned out that Andrew, another member of the Field Nuts group on Facebook, was also shopping (and muling rare Field Notes for other Nuts). 

Cindy and I pose next to Aaron's bright orange van. (Incidentally, the "Hell Yeah" patch on my cap is a Draplin Design Co. product.)

A meeting of Field Nuts: Tina, Andrew and Cindy (plus a regular nut)

Digging through Aaron’s old stuff was fun enough, but the highlight of the visit was a complete surprise: Seeing three Nuts in attendance, Aaron offered to give us a tour of his studio! I was humbled and awed by his generosity in allowing a bunch of Nuts into his personal space where he does his design work, stores his vast collection of vintage things and, of course, stashes his own stash of Field Notes. What a treat to see some extremely limited notebooks, including the early prototypes that eventually became Field Notes. Cindy, Andrew and I were dazzled!

Aaron's workspace and some of his collectibles and other cool stuff

Aaron's personal stash of Field Notes.

Aaron graciously autographed Field Notes for each of us Nuts.

I’m sure you’re wondering what I took home that day. Tempted by much but committed to my newly downsized life, I resisted most of the treasures (see image below for what I couldn’t resist). It was definitely the most fun I’ve ever had at a yard sale!

Years ago in a group live chat with Aaron, I remember he mentioned that he still had his old set of Prismacolor pencils from his design school days. I had been secretly hoping he would be selling that set. Unfortunately, the only vintage colored pencils I found were the handful at right, which included some coveted Design Spectracolor pencils. 

Portland, Part 5: Walk-Sketches and My Sketch Journal

 

9/22/25 St. Patrick Catholic Church, Alphabet District, Portland

(My Portland series was interrupted by more exciting news, but now it resumes.)

As I did last year in Portland and this past spring in L.A., I stuck with my daily walking routine even when I traveled. On days when I had a fairly packed agenda, I didn’t always sketch on the walks, but when I had time, I took along my A5-size Hahnemühle sketchbook in case I wanted to use color.

I would simply set off in a direction from my hotel, then turn a corner at some point, eventually working my way back to the hotel. Along the way, I sketched whatever caught my eye. It’s absolutely my favorite way to sketch on location, especially when traveling: Wander aimlessly until I’m compelled to stop and sketch. I love the sense of discovery coupled with the urge to draw!

9/23/25 William Temple House, Portland

The two color sketches shown above were among my favorites of the whole trip. Both buildings were discovered when I turned a corner I hadn’t walked before, and suddenly there they were, demanding to be sketched – and I was delighted to oblige.

As always, many of my sketch journal pages also document food and beverages consumed. Meals are always part of the fun of travel, right?

9/18/25 Lacey and my drive to Portland

9/19/25 Breakside Brewery, Portland

9/19/25 Hachi restaurant and Breakside Brewery

9/20/25

9/20/25 Scottie's Pizza Parlor

9/23/25 My last Portland neighborhood walk and a rest stop where I had lunch on the drive home.

Portland, Part 3: Hollywood Theatre and Sellwood-Moreland

 

9/20/25 Hollywood Theatre, Portland

When I wasn’t touring Portland with family or sketching with USk, I went out on my own to explore areas of Portland that I had not sketched before. One was the magnificent Hollywood Theatre, which I had seen once years ago when Greg and I were driving through the city on our way to somewhere else. I couldn’t remember its name or neighborhood, but I had always hoped to get back to it someday.

Serendipitously, I was driving through the Hollywood neighborhood on my way to somewhere else again, but this time I made note of the location. When I went back later to sketch it (top of post), the afternoon light was getting low, and the ornate façade looked even better than it had in the morning.

9/21/25 Sellwood-Moreland neighborhood, Portland

Moreland Theatre

A friend had mentioned the Sellwood-Moreland neighborhood as being both walkable and sketchable. It’s a charming neighborhood that still has many traditional homes, and other former residences have been transformed into coffee shops and other small businesses. I did see signs of old houses being taken down and replaced by multi-story developments, but those were the exception instead of the rule.

While the morning was drizzly, I sketched some bright yellow trees from my car (above). When the rain stopped, I took a long walk up and down the main drag and eventually sketched the Moreland Theatre (at right), which was celebrating its centennial anniversary.

Although I didn’t see any turning maples, this neighborhood had lots of trees that were glowing bright yellow when the sun eventually came out (below). Walking and sketching – my favorite way to explore a neighborhood when I travel (or anytime)!

Sellwood-Moreland

Portland, Part 2: Eastbank Esplanade with USk

 

9/20/25 Eastbank Esplanade with USk Portland

A highlight of my Portland visit was joining USk PDX at the Eastbank Esplanade for the group’s regular monthly sketch outing. On my visit last year, I missed the regular outing, but Vicky had kindly organized an ad hoc meetup just for me. This time, I got to meet more sketchers and enjoy the fantastic view from the Willamette River’s bank.

Reminding me of the Ship Canal in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood, the Eastbank Esplanade is a popular path for walkers, runners and bike riders. I sketched a few buildings on the skyline, the Tillicum Crossing Bridge (distinctive in that cars are not allowed), and the USS Blueback submarine that is part of the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. With the short time remaining before the throwdown, I walked away from the busy path and spotted a sketcher beneath some trees that were just beginning to turn.

As I always say whenever I travel, the single biggest benefit of being part of the Urban Sketchers community is being able to meet up with other sketchers wherever I go!

Many thanks to co-admins Ali (left) and Amy (next to me) for organizing the fun outing!

Reunited with Vicky!

View of the Tillicum Crossing Bridge, USS Blueback and Portland skyline from Eastbank Esplanade

Portland, Part 1: Touring with Family

 

9/19/25 Portland Japanese Garden

As mentioned yesterday, I spent several days in Portland, Oregon, last week. The primary purpose of these (now annual) trips is to visit my brother and his wife. We were able to spend quite a bit of time together on this trip, which I appreciate more and more as I get older.

Since I wanted to put priority on simply enjoying the experiences with them, I didn’t sketch as much as I might have if I had been alone. Still, as fast as I am, I managed to get at least one sketch at each location that we visited together.

First up was the fabulous Portland Japanese Garden (which I last visited during a family reunion in 2017). While in Seattle I’m gearing up for leaf-peeping season, Portland still felt like summer (up to 10 degrees warmer than Seattle every day), and the garden’s lush foliage was still mostly green. I seem to sketch the koi whenever I visit, and this time I also sketched the moon bridge over the central pond (top of post).

Still mostly green

9/21/25 OMSI resident

Another favorite Portland stop is the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, which I spent more time sketching during a 2014 visit. This time, my only sketch was a live Madagascar gecko in the natural history and paleontology area (at left).

Potentially the most interesting and unique experience I shared with my family involved birds. Every autumn, a huge flock of migrating swifts roosts in Portland for a week or two before moving on. For many years the birds chose a certain elementary school with a tall chimney as their roost of choice. This year, however, the swifts moved to a different location – another school with a tall chimney, Abernethy Elementary.

The return of the swifts is a much-anticipated event that locals celebrate almost like the Japanese tradition of hanami during cherry blossom season. Families pack picnics and spread out on the school grounds before dusk, eagerly awaiting the birds. Then right before sundown, the swirling spectacle begins as the thousands of tiny birds dive into the chimney for the night.

We arrived shortly before sundown and found a place in the grass. Just when the swifts were expected, though, a large murder of crows passed through the neighborhood on their way to their own roost. A few dozen swift scouts showed up, and some dove into the chimney as expected, but the rest of the flock never came. We speculated that the scouts spooked by crows sent out a memo that the flock needed a different roost that night.

Although we were disappointed not to see the spectacle we came for, I still enjoyed being there on a lovely, warm evening, participating in and sketching the crowd’s festive atmosphere (below).

9/21/25 Waiting for the swifts

Rewards Aplenty in Portland

 

9/13/25 My new laptop

I made a short visit to Portland last week, and I have lots of sketches to share from that delightful trip. The week leading up to my departure, however, was taken up with a long-dreaded, onerous task: Making the transition from my old laptop to a brand new one. Typically, this task is time-consuming and tedious but relatively easy to manage. The difference this time was that the new machine runs Windows 11, which added a whole new level of onerous, sometimes aggravating tedium.

By the time I left for Portland, I was in celebration mode for conquering most of the Microsoft beast (still one task to go). Before I launch into all my Portland sketches, I’m starting here with a celebration croissant. By pure happenstance, the hotel where I always stay in Portland is within walking distance of the bakery that purportedly makes the best croissants “this side of Paris” (one reviewer said): Ken’s Artisan Bakery. After trying two, I must concur that the croissants are at least as good as Rosellini’s in Seattle, which are the best I’ve eaten outside of France.

9/19/25 Ken's Artisan Bakery

Always one for further pastry research, I needed to also sample Nuvrei, another acclaimed bakery not too far from my hotel. This one came recommended by my nephew-in-law. The chocolate croissant there was excellent but still not quite as good as Ken’s.

9/21/25 Chocolate croissant from Nuvrei

Some readers may recall my personal Portland donut tour last year. Since the city is not necessarily known for French pastries as it is for donuts, I didn’t feel compelled to sample and review all the best croissants (though if I had found one more bakery nearby, I would have been tempted to call three enough for a proper comparison). I did, however, go back to Blue Star, the winner of last year’s donut tour, as a fitting final reward for courageously wrangling my operating system.

9/22/25 Apple fritter from Blue Star Donuts

Portland, Part 4: Diary Comics/Walk-Sketch Journal

6/23/24 My lunch at McMenamins Olympic Club in Centralia on the way down to Portland.

What’s the difference between my sketch journal, my walk-sketches, and my diary comics? Nothing, apparently, and it became especially evident in my sketchbook while I was traveling. I think the only distinction was in my mind while I made transitions from one to another as my processes and approaches morphed along the way.

6/23/24 Portland

Travel gives me an opportunity for intensive sketching that I don’t have during my usual daily routines and responsibilities. That intensity encourages a full integration of “destination” urban sketching (such as Ole Bolle, which has been on my “to-sketch” list ever since I found out about it) and more ordinary sketches of the type I make when I’m home. Away from home, everything is fresh, even the mundane, and it all feels part of my “travel journal” (which in this case, a three-day trip, was just my usual daily-carry Uglybook).

6/24/24 Lunch with Cindy (sketch of us from reference photo) and my takeout dinner

One of many reasons I chose to stay at the Inn at Northrup Station was that I knew from prior stays that it is in a very walkable area of the Pearl District. Just as I do at home, I took a daily walk around the neighborhood and sketched along the way. And when I travel, it’s only natural that I want to document more things like meals, which made it easy to make sketch journal/diary comics pages. (Almost all sketches were made from life except as noted.)

6/24/24 Portland (streetcar sketch from reference photo because it was always on the move)

When I make a series of small sketches as I do with my comics approach, it’s faster and therefore easier to cover more ground while traveling. This is something I discovered in 2019 in blistering Amsterdam. I talked about it again when an insightful urban sketcher made the samediscovery when she traveled. Doing it regularly at home leading up to the trip made it completely effortless while I was on the trip.

6/25/24 Pearl District

As I’ve said before, the best way to prepare for travel sketching is simply to sketch on location regularly when you’re not traveling. 

6/26/24 From my last neighborhood walk in the "alphabet district" before I hit the road again.

Incidentally, you’ll note from my journal pages that I went to Powell’s City of Books, a can’t-miss mecca for book lovers visiting Portland. Hell-bent on downsizing my stash of everything, I nearly had to tie my hands behind my back to resist books I wanted, but resist I did. The only thing I succumbed to was a pack of three small notebooks with vintage colored pencil and color-mixing images on the covers.

Portland, Part 3: USk Portland at Tanner Springs

 

6/25/24 Tanner Springs Park, Portland

Another highlight of my trip down south was meeting up with Urban Sketchers Portland. Vicky Porter, a sketcher I had met at a couple of USk symposiums as well as Sketcher Fest last year, kindly organized an ad hoc outing for my visit. We gathered first at Ovation, a Moroccan coffee shop near Tanner Springs Park, then spent the rest of the time sketching in or near the park.

Sunny and growing hotter by the minute, the morning drove all of us toward shade, which was cooled by the ongoing breeze. Most of the others chose to sketch inside the park, which includes a unique, humanmade pond filled with lily pads, other vegetation and small fish. I tried to make a tonal study contrasting the reflective water, stairways, an unusual barrier wall and the geometric walkways, but I had trouble separating the tones of the various types of shadows. It was a good challenge to attempt, though.

After that, I walked around the park and made a few small street scenes, including a couple of Portland’s many bridges.

A few scenes around the park

Many thanks to Vicky and USk Portland for coming out to sketch with me! I learned that a number of Portland sketchers will be coming up for Sketcher Fest next month, so Seattle USk will have an opportunity to reciprocate.

I know I say this every time I travel, but the single biggest benefit of being a member of Urban Sketchers is being able to find fellow sketchers to meet with no matter where I go – whether it’s the other side of the world or just across the state border.

Tina, Vicky, Cindy, Leslie and George at the throwdown

Leslie, Vicky, Paula and Tina at the park