St. Petersburg / Tampa, Florida

[OzonaLori]

I am eager to participate in the next sketchcrawl this summer (June 21st), and since i haven't seen anything posted for the Tampa bay area, I thought I'd go ahead and organize one.

Right now, I am just putting this up to see if there is interest. It will be hot by then, so I will choose a location that will allow for some sketching indoors as well as outdoors.

Here are some possibilities:
Downtown Dunedin- (Pinellas Cty.) charming area, also on the Pinellas Trail, one block away from a marina and the Gulf of Mexico- lots of possibilities
Ybor City- great architecture, especially the older Cuban buildings
University of Tampa campus and Henry B. Plant Museum


Other ideas are welcome!
I will respond to anyone who is interested. I have a few students from some of my classes that will probably be up for it as well.
Lori

[OzonaLori]

I think I have decided that downtown Dunedin would be a great place for the crawl. Dunedin is in central west Pinellas county, just north of Clearwater.

Lots of sketching diversity there. There is a park right on the water there that offers cool breezes and shade even when it is hot. We can sketch the boats in the harbor there, the playground, the cute gazebo... the pier is also a fun place to sketch from if the sun isn't too hot. Sometimes there are pelicans and egrets there.

There are also a few restaurants there that might to be fun to sketch in/from:
Bon Appetit- looks out on the Gulf of Mexico from the A/C dining room. Sometimes you see dolphins.
Casa Tina- lots of cool stuff to sketch inside their new location- this is a Mexican restaurant with a good number of Vegetarian choices. They have a lot of "Day of the Dead" and other cool authentic Mexican decorations all over their funky dining room
Cafe Alfresco- looks out on the Pinellas Trail- a great people-watching spot.

The buildings are fun and have character; there is also an old train station that has been turned into a museum. Outside, there is a railcar to sketch (it is actually a little store inside).

There are places to get in out of the heat- the restaurants, shops, museum, galleries- I can contact a few places and ask if they mind if we come in and hang around to sketch. I am sure they won't because the summer is the slow season. With permission up front, no one from the group will feel weird going inside of the places I can list and give you when we first meet up that AM.

Anyone game? Contact me by PM to be notified of the specifics. I will post again as it gets closer.

[OzonaLori]

Well, the Crawl is only a week away, but those of us who are doing it here in the Tampa Bay area are getting excited!

I did press releases on the SketchCrawl, and several papers have called to let me know that they will be running something about it next week,, prior to the Crawl. One paper, the tbt* (Tampa Bay Times, part o of the St. Pete Times) interviewed me for a short article and had me send them some photos to put with the article. That runs next Friday, so I am sure I'll have a lot of calls and questions at the last minute, with people interested in the event.

Anyway, it will be taking place in downtown Dunedin on Saturday the 21st. We are getting together at 9 AM at Pioneer Park ( Main Street and Douglas) at the band shell area to meet each other, and I will have some maps of some of the downtown highlights, if anyone needs it. I have a few out-of-towners coming in, so I know the maps will help them.

I have tons of info and pics of the area posted on my blog, so if you are interested, check it out. I know that we will have a great day!
http://pencildrawingandhowtodraw.blogsp ... -june.html

Hope you can make it!