It's been too long since I posted on our Urban Sketchers DC blog. At last here are a few recent sketches from trips on the metro and waiting rooms. I am looking forward to the sketch crawl at Artomatic 2012 in Crystal City this Saturday!

Dusk of H St.

Smith Commons on H St commission the street artist Gaia to make this stunning mural on the side of their building. Pretty awesome. Had to draw it.

This got some other murals in town on my mind, so I am going to try and sketch a few more of them before I leave for the summer.

Dance Africa @ Brookland Art Lofts

rhythm

 

An ongoing series of events in the neighborhood of Brookland all month. Check the link: http://www.danceplace.org/top-news/artland/

Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, in Northeast, is the tallest building in District (after the TV towers and the Monument), and one of the largest churches in the world. This sketch is from a visit in 2009. The Byzantine-style architecture is quite different from what you see in the rest of D.C.

Sitting Buddha

Sitting Buddha, 14th century Tibetan, at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in DC.

Ice Fisher Bombardier Vehicle, Metis Tribe, Saint-Laurent Canada, Washington DC Museum

Lakota Tipi 1890 South Dakota, Native American Museum Washington DC

Lobby of the Native American Museum Washington DC

White House Washington DC

Waterfront SE

We intended to go into Nationals park to have our sketchcrawl during the ballgame, but had a hard time finding each other!  So when I finally ran into Matt we decided to stick to the waterfront and sketch a bit there.  I finished one sketch, but only got through a little of the other.

Artomatic 2012

Artomatic registration has begun.  And as is tradition, the website is overwelmed by thousands of people trying to sign up so access to Artomatic.org is spotty at best (but getting better.)

If you are any sort of art-maker or performer that lives in the DC area it is in your GREAT interest to participate.

This year it is being held in Crystal City (Arlington, VA) from May 18th until June 24th in what is said to be the largest venue yet for the event.  It costs $110 to register, you are required to put in 3 volunteer sessions & do your part to promote the event, and install you exhibit space yourself.

Do it.

Seriously.

Now.

Columbia Heights Alley

So the original plan was to go to a couple of bookstores around the city and put prints of this sketch in the pages of as many copies of "The Art of Urban Sketching" as I could find. (Not an original idea, as fans of the Post Secret blog & books do this too with their anonymous confessions.) It turns out though that none of the bookstores actually had any copies on the shelves, so no-go on that idea. Instead I went back to the alley in Columbia Heights where I drew the original sketch and found some spots to give them away or hide them for people to find.

I found a couple of windshields to drop the envelopes.  Some that drove off before I got a picture of them,  of course not without a few funny looks as they picked up what I left for them.

When I felt like too many eyes where on me to put the last few envelopes on some windshields.  I found some bicycle baskets to drop them in.  A couple that also came and went before I got a picture off.

The original sketch