Squiggles at the Arvada Center (Arvada, CO)

 

Meet Squiggles. Squiggles is the 'mascot' of the Arvada Center for Performing Arts. 

I've lived in Arvada for almost 20 years now. The Arvada Center is the crown jewel of Arvada. It's awesome. I took my first adult art class there (medium: chalk pastels). My kids have taken dance, orchestra, acting, etc. My wife is a volunteer usher. We've been season ticket holders for years and have seen countless performances there over the years. You can find at least one of us there several days a week.

Squiggles is on the west side of the center. Kids love to play on Squiggles any time of day. My kids, even as high school students, still sit on Squiggles with their friends. 

Squiggle's tail is very long. I'm actually sitting on one of their humps. I climbed up on it and did this sketch. This is one of the rare times I did the watercolor first then the ink.

Climbing up Squiggles, no problem. However, in my advanced age (43ish), I had a really hard time getting down. I actually had a kid help me down which must have looked very strange to their parent. 

Auraria's Mercantile Store (Denver, CO)

I love this little section of the Auraria Campus. Golda Meir officed on that block along with so many other historical events. I had a morning to kill, so I went down to do this little restaurant with a couple of fellow USK Denver folks. 

When we got there, it was peaceful and serene. The restaurant started getting busy mid-morning as they were setting up for an event. Fortunately, I had gotten the structure done before they erected a canopy in front of the restaurant. 

This is one of the first sketches I used a white marker to do the brick. In the past, I always just used black ink to show the bricks. This always bothered me because the mortar is white. I've had a lot of issues with those white out markers (sometimes dripping a big drop on my scene), but I'll keep playing with them since they are great for adding some detail after the sketch is done. 

See those darn tents!

 

So Many Cranes (Denver, CO)

After doing the Auraria Mercantile, I wasn't quite ready to go home. I had just purchased this little 3x5 sketchbook and this was actually the first sketch in it. 

It's always a challenge to start a sketchbook. 

First, there's a lot of pressure when looking at a fresh book. I read somewhere to put a dot on the first page and call it a polar bear in the arctic. I now do that in all my books. Second, figuring out a sketchbook vs your framing sometimes takes a little practice, especially when you aren't used to the size. This seemed like a fitting start though.

The bushes were framing this scene. There were cranes all over the place. Having never done a single crane, I figured what the heck, why not do three that were overlapping!

Security and the police came by since I looked a little funny sitting on a stool in this little area where homeless people probably had been a problem in the past. Always fun to show off your work to law enforcement!