Bryan/College Station, Texas [Results]

Saturday January 10th 2009
granny c
Real Crawler
Real Crawler
Posts: 119
Joined: Thu Mar 20, 2008 2:58 pm
Location: Bryan, Texas

Bryan/College Station, Texas [Results]

Post by granny c »

Murphy's Law was at work for me on Saturday. If it could go wrong, it did. I had planned to meet in downtown Bryan at the LaSalle Hotel, if anyone wanted to get together, then go to the Frame Gallery to register. I don't drive anymore due to Macular Degeneration and cataracts, so I have to depend on someone to take me places. We don't have public transportation since I live out in the country-too far to walk anywhere. (There is some in town for students at the University). My sister couldn't come from her home 4 hours away, this time, but she did do the Sketch Crawl on her own in Port Lavaca.
Stomach flu is going around and I woke up fighting nausea. My 22 year old cat was diagnosed with renal failure and diarreah and vomiting go along with that. It was late morning before I got her settled.
My daughter said she would drive me to a restaurant that I had put on a list of places I thought would be nice to go for Sketch Crawl. Since it was a cold, windy day, I thought the fireplace, rustic atmosphere, and view of a little creek would be a good place to spend time and sketch. The barbeque place looked like something typical of Texas. My daughter, her two sons, her friend and her son, and I had lunch and sketched at Rudy's Barbeque in College Station.
Ashton drew a little, and the other little boy started to draw a dragon for me, before we all had to leave. Susan said she wanted to watch me draw, and I hoped that I could encourage her to draw as well. But, her son also had the stomach flu and she was busy with him, and talking. My oldest grandson was also just getting over the stomach problem, but he had to have lunch and go to work.
I thought I would be able to go to downtown Bryan at some point. I sat down to darken some of my sketches and my crew drove away without me. I guess that was best since the cat was sick again. I spent the rest of the evening working a bit more on the sketches I started at Rudy's, between taking care of Bitsy, the cat.
I haven't heard if anyone else showed up, although there were some inquiries.
Hopefully, next time will be better.
It was cold in the restaurant as they were just opening. The fire in the rock fireplace was not going, which made it feel even colder. My food got icey cold while I was trying to draw it, so I took my barbequed chicken home to warm up. I wondered what the deal is with cold barbeque sauce on the tables in bottles. I've seen this in several places in recent years and thought it must be a custom from the north. Why put cold barbeque sauce on your hot meat. The taste isn't very good, and it makes your meat cold. I've always seen a pan of hot "sop" on the barbeque pit, grill, or stove, used to baste the meat as it cooks, then put on the barbeque when it is served. And, of course, there is extra to warm up the meat and to dip your bread in. That's the Texas and southern way. I guess it is just easier to put it in a bottle on the table and then they don't have to bother with keeping the "sop" warm for people or warming up their meat as it gets cold. Rudy's has two kinds of sauce-one called "Sissy". Since I don't like cold barbeque sauce, I didn't use any, but my daughter said that even the Sissy sauce was too spicey and hot, to her, this time. Since I took my meat home, I ended up putting my own sauce on my meat for supper!
Another thing that happened was that I dropped my soft cover sketchbook and every page got bent. So, when I shade things, a line appears on my pictures, diagonal across the page. You can see that line very well in the picture called "Whoop". It isn't supposed to be there, but I couldn't get rid of it. I'm thinking of a hardcover sketchbook next .
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Sick Bitsy-Bitsy does not like to take medicine or be bothered. She has been hiding out on a chair under the table ever since she went to the vet. I started my day with cleaning up after a sick cat, trying to catch Bitsy, and trying to get medicine into her. Pencil
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Rudy's Barbeque-A Texas barbeque place with good barbeque, a fireplace, and lots of local atmosphere seemed like a good place to spend time and sketch. Pencil
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Susan - wanted to watch me draw. Since she likes to paint, I hoped that she would join in Sketch Crawl, but she was busy with lunch and William, her son who did not feel well. Pencil
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Ribs-Ashton sat across from me. He dangled a piece of brisket over his head before it disappeared into his mouth. I thought that would make a cute picture, but it was over too fast. I asked him to hold up a piece of meat so I could look at his hand, etc. He grabbed a rib. Not the same pose, but cute, anyway. I did a pencil sketch and added watercolors, later. Although I thinned my color down so far that I could barely see color on the paper, the yellow scanned too strong. It doesn't look like this on the paper. My original pencil drawing was very light, too. So light that I had trouble seeing the lines when I started to add watercolors. I used a small Strathmore watercolor sketchbook and my travel set of Winsor Newton watercolors for this.
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Ashton's Cup - Ashton took time to draw his cup, after he finished eating his barbeque. Pencil
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My Lunch- Plates at Rudy's are a piece of butcher paper. The juice of my meat bled through the paper while I drew and I was sure that my meat was bleeding-not done- when I saw the red checks in the tablecloth through the paper! I had a piece of brisket, some chicken breast, and a baked potato with just butter, salt, and pepper. I had a Sprite to drink. They have little paper cartons with tissue type paper to put extra food in. And, of course, plastic ware utensils. At least these knives do actually cut your meat. The meat is always tender, which is important. Like everywhere, prices have gone up. Each table has several crates with two large bottles of barbeque sauce, a small bottle of really hot sauce, and salt and pepper. Pencil
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Whoop!-As I looked around Rudy's for something to sketch, I spotted the Blue Bell ice cream freezer beside a column. There was a container for utensils on the freezer. A sign draped over the front of the freezer advertising breakfast tacos. At the base of the column, there seemed to be a little pile of dirt on the floor. It looked like someone had used their finger to write the Aggie "Whoop" in the dirt. There were several young men going around the restaurant with brooms to catch anything that might be spilled or dropped, so I thought this might be a little bit of a prank by one of the student workers. But, considering the other rustic decor that reflected Aggie tradiditons, I decided that this was probably something made into the floor. Pencil
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No Smoking- I could see the window. I could see the fireplace. I could see the dark wall between them, but I never did see the No Smoking sign. My grandson was laughing as he told me about the No Smoking sign beside the fireplace. We thought that was a funny place to have a No Smoking sign. Did that apply to the fireplace, too! :thumbup: You can see another Aggie tradition with the TAM letters in the fireplace. The thumbs up signal is another Aggie symbol. They do the thumbs up sign and say "Gig Em!" I had to sketch this to remember the funny thing that Ashton told me about at Rudy's. I had to depend on his good eyes and description, though. Pencil

You can see my pictures on my blog at http://cecelia-throughmyeyes.blogspot.com/ or on Flickr.
Last edited by granny c on Wed Jan 14, 2009 10:50 pm, edited 3 times in total.
mhimeswc
Sensei Crawler
Sensei Crawler
Posts: 369
Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2008 12:41 am
Location: New Jersey

Re: Bryan/College Station, Texas [Results]

Post by mhimeswc »

I enjoyed your commentary, as well as your sketches. I'm glad that you were able to overcome all those obstacles and still have a fun day of sketchcrawling.

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