The Ugly Buildings of Washington, DC.

Washington, DC has many internationally-known landmarks, which draw visitors from all over the world, and are the subjects of countless photos, sketches, paintings, and gaudy tourist souvenirs. A quick mental flash of our city brings to mind grand Presidential monuments, gleaming government buildings, and a big spire in the middle towering over all of it. However, being a day-to-day local, the touristy structures of DC are common place for me, as opposed to their complete opposites; the ugly buildings of Washington, DC.

Here is one of them, located in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood. You'll never see it on a postcard, but walk past it every day, and you'll notice the bright red pipe running up the side of this building, matched by the big red sign at the bottom, all set against an otherwise white building with a subtle windowed-grid of dark browns and dusty blues. I was hoping to color this all in, but I sketched it with a cheap gel pen, and coloring over the lines with markers on a humid summer day here in DC would have turned this all into one big smear-fest!

USk Barcelona

I just returned from the 4th International Urban Sketching Symposium in Barcelona. I had a really wonderful time there: I got to meet (and learn from) many artists whose work I'd been following online for years, and got to sketch in a beautiful city. I filled several sketchbooks, and this is only just a small sample: the curious can find the rest on Flickr.
While the city has some amazing architecture, and I learned a lot from the workshops, I think my favorite sketches were the informal ones where we sketched each other between (and during) sessions.

And now that I'm back home, I'm looking forward to going out and practicing what I learned here in my own city.

4th At Lake Tahoe

I missed the fireworks.

 No affiliation.

 

Buds

  Cabin view

Gratis

 

Untitled

 

 

Mt. Top

 

Window

Eli's Kosher Deli

This is Eli's Kosher Deli, located here in the DuPont Circle neighborhood of Washington, DC. Eli's is DC's best, and only, kosher restaurant. Not to belittle Eli's, though; the food is quite good and the staff very friendly. I eat there often, and never leave disappointed. Eli's is housed in a building architecturally typical of the neighborhood's homes and businesses, and from the urban sketching point of view, presents tons of lines, shapes, and details to work with. I was hoping to capture the whole building and then color it in, but I work with a tiny 4" x 6" sketchbook and a cheap gel pen, so not only did the actual restaurant on the ground floor not fit onto the page, coloring over the lines with my markers would have turned this into a major smudged ink-fest.

Nationals Park

Yesterday I went to see the Nationals play the Rockies.  This did not turn out too well for the home team (they lost 7-6), but I still enjoyed being there for the crack of the bat, the half-smoke from Ben's Chili Bowl, and the experience of being in the crowd.

Bayou in Foggy Bottom

From a sketching perspective, this building in Foggy Bottom is a complete mess, and that's why I wanted to sketch it, knowing full-well that any semblance of accuracy needed to be downgraded from exact to relative in order to come away with a plausible rendition of the building. Of course, that was the easy part; actually doing the sketch was the challenge. Working in intervals of 15-20 minutes during lunch and two one-hour sessions after work, I had to fight against illegally parked delivery trucks blocking my view (twice!), random rain showers, curious onlookers, and some guy sitting exactly in the spot I established to draw from.

Oh well, this isn't rural sketching in the quiet peaceful countryside; this is urban sketching in our neurotic and ever-moving city called Washington, DC!

Sketched with a cheap gel pen into a 4" x 6" sketchbook.

Meet the sketcher: SILVER SPRING, MD > Jason Pearlman

An X-ray of my head would reveal a brain comprised of two left-halves. Though uncommon for artists, it probably explains why I’m such a good production designer. Of course, too much perfectionist pixel pushing can wear an artist down, so I make time during the work day to spill ink on paper as well.

I sketch people during my commutes on the Metro, I sketch buildings and urban details during my lunch breaks, and I scrawl away aimlessly during breaks from wrestling with digital files. I draw with fountain pens, cheap gel pens, and markers into small sketchbooks, garnering strange looks from people in the process, because artists apparently belong in New York City, not Washington, DC.

I’m from a family of artists; my great grandparents were in the jewelry trade, my grandfather was a cartoonist during the Great Depression, and my father was a draftsman. I've been drawing all of my life, earning a BFA in Illustration from FIT, and working as an illustrator, designer, and production artist. I also rocked my kindergarten art show, where my unusually detailed and realistic rendering of the local garbage truck made center-wall, cementing my life as an artist and ruling out any chance of me ever becoming a doctor or lawyer.

Blog: jasonpearlman.wordpress.com
Website: www.jasonpearlman.com
Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/jasonpearlman/sets/

Old Town

I did some sketching today in Old Town Alexandria. A couple of people stopped to talk to me while I was working - one had done a sketch of Prince Street from the other direction. There was a jazz festival going on a block away, down by the waterfront, which I could hear from my sketching stool. I enjoy sketching to live music. On the way back to my car, I passed a saxophone player on King Street.

"Conversations"

Our own Matt Malone who along with his studio partner Kurtis Ceppetellli make the group Duly Noted.
Having seen their collaborative work before, I highly recommend checking out their upcoming exhibit opening June 1st. at the Selman Gallery.  3305 8th St. NE, Washington DC 20017.

SPHERE NUMBER 6

During the 39th Sketchcrawl I started working on this sketch but I came back 2 more times in order to get it done. This is the Sphere Number 6 by the famous Sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro located at the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden Smithsonian at the Mall. This sunk garden even when it's in the mall most of their amazing sculptures are hiding from street level view. It's a fantastic space to visit and explore at the same time relaxing. I admire Pomodoro's work and I would love to sketch more of his sculptures around the world. The sphere is made out of metal and it has this great cut outs with amazing details that are things of beauty. Many people that walked by called it the death star, well I call it the great detail sphere. Those 3 times that I came the weather was warm and sunny. It took me a total of 5 hrs adding all the 3 visits. I used black ink.

MLK MEMORIAL VIEW FROM THE TIDAL BASIN, WASHINGTON DC

MLK Memorial view from the Tidal Basin. During the 39th world wide SKetchcrawl we went to the Cherry Blossom Festival here in Washington DC. This is an annual event where the city celebrates the beginning of Spring. The Cherry Blossom trees came from Japan during 1912 and it has become a symbol of this city. It's also a symbol of friendship between the U.S.A. and Japan. From this view you can see the Tidal Basin, the MLK Memorial and in the back the Lincoln Memorial. It was a warm windy sunny spring day in DC. This sketch took me almost 2hrs and I did it with pink, purple, red, orange, brown, and black ink in order to catch the warm spring colors of the Cherry Blossoms.

Sketchcrawl at the Tidal Basin / Mall

For the 39th World Wide Sketchcrawl, the D.C. sketchers met at the Tidal Basin near The Mall. Since this was the prime week for the famous cherry blossom blooms, the entire area was packed, but our sketchers finally got situated and did their thing. The weather was great, and since I've missed the last few Sketchcrawls I was happy to be able to attend this one.

First up, my sketch of the Jefferson Memorial from across the Tidal Basin. I think I was the only sketcher who did not use any color, but I still included a few cherry blossoms in this one:

Here is a photo of my view while sketching!

While I was there waiting for the rest of the group to head back toward The Mall, I did some blind contour drawings of the MLK Memorial which was right behind me while I made the last sketch:

We walked around for quite a bit, but ended up at the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden, where I drew this bronze statue (Seated Yucatán Woman by Francisco Zúñiga):

It was a fun day, and I'm looking forward to the next one!