Open Air in Market Square!

No, no, no....it isn't going to be snowing this Saturday! I just wanted to show a cool picture of the Market.

We'll be sketch crawling through Market Square, which is directly across from the West Side Market. We will meet at the corner of Market Ave. and W.25th at 10am. For this month, Karen Sandstrom will be leading the crawl. As many of you know, my wife and I are expecting our first born and the due date is actually August 1st! From the looks of things...we might not make it to Saturday. So...Karen has agreed to lead the crawl.

As always the Cleveland Sketch Crawl takes place the first Saturday of every month, from 10am - 12noon.

Next month, on September 5th, we'll be crawling through the lower level of the Detroit Superior Bridge. We've done this location for the crawl before and it has been a huge hit! The Cuyahoga County Engineers open this lower level of the bridge up 3 times a year to the general public. It really offers some unique perspectives of the city and the river. Plus there are exhibits from Cleveland's Street Car past.

check out more about these tours here

On September 12th, the 7th annual Sparx City Hop will be taking place from 12noon - 12midnight. Over 8 different neighborhoods around and in Downtown will be connected by free trolleys! This is a perfect time to sketch crawl through the city and explore.

You can park once and explore the Warehouse District, Gateway District, the Quadrangle, St. Clair Superior, Asiatown, Midtown, Tremont, Ohio City, and the Old Superior Viaduct in the Flats!

check www.cleveland.com/sparx for more information

July 11th Sketch Crawl Rained out

Due to the severe storms and torrents of rain this morning, the sketch crawl has been cancelled. If anyone went to the E.14th and Euclid entance to Ingenuity, I was there till about 12:20. I hope I didn't miss you. Of couse, now it's sunny out side... Ahh Murphys Law of summer.

Next month the Sketch Crawl will be at the West Side Market. Open Air in Market Square will be taking place...it should be a great crawl!

We will be back to our normal time (10 till 12noon) on the first Saturday of the month.

See you then!

-- Post From My iPhone

Sketch Crawl at Ingenuity

First - I need to start off with the "I-can't-believe-i-didn't-update-my-blog-on-the-July-Sketch-Crawl-date-and-location" apology. So.....i'm sorry for my delay in letting you all know.

Just for the month of July, we have bumped our Sketch Crawl to the second week of the month (which is tomorrow). The Crawl will be taking place this Saturday at a special time, from 12noon - 2pm. We will be sketch crawling our way through the Ingenuity Festival! Those participating in the sketch crawl will receive free admittance into the festival. This will provide a unique and challenging environment to sketch in...more than just stationary items....crowds and activities as well!

Meet at the entrance to the festival at the intersection of E.14th and Euclid (near Star Plaza in PlayhouseSquare).

To check out the festival and all there is to see and draw...click here

Environmental Sketching at Wendy Park

I am really excited about this Saturday's sketch crawl. Not only is Wendy Park a unique and relaxing location, but it is one of those hidden locations that feels like you are a part of something special because you are there.

The park represents one of the key portions of parkland along the lakefront that will be connected by the Ohio & Erie Canal's Towpath Trail. Wendy Park itself has a master plan for redevelopment, but it still offers a completely different view of the skyline than most Clevelanders have seen and is an interesting contrast to the industry that surrounds it.

Getting there
As I mentioned, Wendy Park is hidden. Click on the map below to get a view of how to get there.

Sketching the USS Cod

The USS Cod was a great location to sketch. Intimidating, but a great location! It is hard to believe that so many men would patrol on that sub.

Paul Farace and some of the "crew" graciously hosted us for a tour of the sub and told us the history and background stories of restorting this WWII relic. I spent the majority of my time sketching the Galley (that's kitchen for all ye land lovers). Don't ask me my I just lapsed into Pirate.

It seems like I've been posting more pictures on this Cleveland Sketch Crawl blog than sketches. I promise to change that. I have to scan in my sketches. Which reminds me, if any of you that have attending the Cleveland Sketch Crawl haven't sent in your sketches, please email them to me so that we can send them along to the locations we've been. I know that Paul from the USS Cod would love to see our renditions of the COD.

Cleveland's floating WWII musuem!

This Saturday, May 2nd, the Cleveland Sketch Crawl will be touring the USS COD...the World War II Submarine that is docked near Burke Lakefront Airport. As always, we'll meet at 10am. The COD is located off North Marginal Rd. Get off the shoreway at E.9th and then turn towards the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, you'll want to turn right onto North Marginal Road. You'll see the COD on your left hand side.

The USS COD is a great tour if you've ever been able to take it. If you haven't, you should definitely be part of this month's Sketch Crawl....because that is were we are going.

The USS COD is a WWII Submarine that had 7 war patrols in the Pacific Theater. The 312 foo submarine is a perfect example of the type of submarine manurfactured during the war in order to aide in the war effort. She was launched on March 21st, 1943. To find out more stories on the sub...you'll have to make sure you are a part of the May 2nd Sketch Crawl!

Next Month's Cleveland Sketch Crawl: June 6th
We'll be touring Wendy Park on Whiskey Island. This is a bit of a different location for sketching because it is more of greenspace than an urban location. However, there are great views of the skyline (from a very unique perspective), you can sketch the old Coast Gaurd station, the yaht club and the ships coming into the river. It really is a unique place. Click here to find directions to the park

As usual, the Cleveland Sketch Crawl is from 10am - 12noon on the first Saturday of each month. Anyone who loves to sketch is welcome, no matter what your skill level. While the focus of the Sketch Crawl is drawing....we do have photographers and other artists that attend.

Old Stone Adventure

To say that Old Stone was amazing, would be an understatement. Beth Giuliano was the best tour guide (even if she didn't think she had all the stories down). I thoroughly enjoyed the day.

To start off, there was a choir practicing for Easter when we were in there (if you are new to reading this blog....yes,....i did say EASTER. I am one of those "Holy crap i forgot to post" bloggers), so the atmosphere was amazing. Beth started off the tour in one of the more modern chapels in Old Stone, but after that, we headed towards the basement of the old building....which was really cool. You could see the old stones from the original foundation (the first church on the site burnt down in the late 1800's). Very interesting.

But the most interested part of the day, was when Beth unvield the keys to the bell tower. At first we werent' sure if we'd be able to get up into the tower...because the key didn't seem to work. But one of the gentlemen on our crawl that day worked the key for a bit and was able to open the door. Eurika!!

From there, we climbed up a series of levels (i think it was about 5 different sets of steep stairs and laddars) till we reached the room with the clock mechanism. We weren't sure that we could make it to the clock though because some of the levels were pitch black. We had to wait for our eyes to adjust and then press onwards. All the climbing and exploring was worth it. We had some awesome shots of the Public Square and Terminal Tower....and just the ablility to explore such a historic tower was cool in itself.

Honestly, i didn't get much sketching done that day....i slipped into more of my exploring/photography mode. But hey....it's all good at the Cleveland Sketch Crawl.

Next month we'll be at the USS COD, right on Northcoast Harbor. Check out some pictures from the day.