Lunch Time Sketch Roundup

I keep a second supply of sketch materials at the office so I can go out on my lunch hour on sunny days.  Recently I bought a second camp stool so I could keep one there all the time, and thus not be limited to views near a bench (which I'd pretty much already exhausted).  

It takes about 5 minutes just to get out of my huge building, and another 10 or so to find a good sketching spot, leaving just half an hour to draw.  This means that most of the time, I dispense with any preliminary pencil work, and dive right in with the pen.  If I want to add color, it must be done quickly!

On Monday this week, I thought about my Campus Sketch Tour, and about how unattractive the building I worked in was -- it's the Health Sciences complex on South Campus, built in the 1940s in a blocky style and added on to over the decades in the same boring, blocky style.  The front of this complex was not something I was keen to sketch.

So I decided to walk to West Montlake Park by the yacht club, from which I could get a view from behind, across the canal.  It still wasn't very attractive.  Oh, well.

And the buildings were mostly hidden by trees.  I will have to rethink how to tackle the Health Sciences Building!

On Tuesday, feeling a bit tired of drawing entire buildings all the time, I opted to sketch a detail of the older architecture on campus.  This is just one small section of the main door of Guggenheim Hall:

I felt that I didn't really have enough time to do it justice.  Sketching on campus on the weekends is probably a better idea, but at least my lunch time outings can provide some reconnaissance.

On Wednesday I wasn't in the mood to sketch, and went on a long walk instead.

On Thursday I did an ink sketch of Gerberding Hall, the administration building off Red Square.

When you get closer up, you can see gargoyles on this building.  I remembered exploring it many many years ago, and discovering that you could get a glimpse of one really close through a third-floor window.  I had an extra 20 minutes or so that day, so after drawing the outside of Gerberding Hall, I went inside to find that view again.

I traipsed up the wrong staircase, and back down, and back up the right staircase, and wound up having only about ten minutes left to sketch, so it was very briskly done:

The forecast is for rain off and on all weekend, so I must find some indoor sketching spots.

Happy Rainy Friday!