Took a drawing class this weekend called "Anatomy of the Boat" at Mystic Seaport, taught by J. Susan Cole Stone of the Mystic Art Center. It was meant to be mostly plein air, but Saturday's relentless rain drove us all indoors. We started off with sketches of catboats in a small building:



During a very brief break in the weather, we sat by the water and drew the little wooden rowboats (dories, I believe):



But sure enough, the rain started up again; I chose to go with some of the class to the youth education building, from which we could see the sailing class getting ready for a race. Sketched the sailboats quickly with pencil and Pitt markers:



Sunday proved to be much sunnier. Started off with a pencil sketch of the Liberty:



Then it was back to the little dory boats -- this time I tried out a very rough watercolor paper and added watercolor (yes, I know, the boat in the foreground shouldn't be quite so pointy):



Finally, I used a small box of watercolor pencils for this sketch of the Breck Marshall; probably not the best medium, but I made do:

Spent much of last week in Portland, Oregon, attending the AASFE (American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors) annual conference. Spent the weekend taking in the sights in and around the city. Here's a quick one done while waiting for dessert at the restaurant clarklewis, colored later with watercolors.




This one looks up Oak Street in Hood River, where we stopped for lunch during our driving tour of the Columbia River Gorge and Mt. Hood. The weather could not have been more perfect the entire time we were in the state!