Museum visit

I could have stayed at the Wells Fargo Museum in San Francisco all day just drawing things. For some weird reason I tried to sketch one of the stagecoaches. BAD IDEA! I don't even draw cars because they end up looking like sausages....with wheels. I think the vehicle's red exterior did it. Red is my favorite color and I had to try to sketch it.

Eating in

My sketch group visited the Pyramid Brewery in Berkeley recently. The place also has food. However, I was nether hungry nor thirsty. I just focused on draw the restaurant employees and guests.

Ukulele player

Argh, I'm having technical difficulties - I'm to blame, of course - so I'm hoping that this will work. This is a quick sketch of a ukulele player I did while attending a ukulele workshop earlier this month.

digital sketch

Even though I haven't been posting regularly lately, I still leave the house armed with my sketchbook, pencils, pens and erasers --  well as a mini watercolor kit and water brush. Come to think of it I was wondering why my handbag is so heavy. I have added a new sketchbook to my arsenal but I won't be toting that around all over town because it is a Kindle Fire tablet. Small that it is I just can't stuff anything else into my purse.

Back to digital sketching -- it's become my latest obsession. As soon as I discovered that I could download drawing apps to the Kindle I was on my way. It is different than drawing on paper -- I'm still trying to remember how to use this tool and that other tool. So I may be posting my digital creations along with my "old school" sketches.

On Nov. 2 I attended my first Day of the Dead event with a sketching group in San Francisco. I saw altars dedicated to deceased loved ones, skeletons, with and without bodies, a parade or procession with music and dancers and crowds of people -- usually crowds make me uneasy but my curiosity got the better of me.

My first digital sketch is that of an altar. I'm still experimenting with the color tools so I didn't use them as much. It was fun, invigorating even. I will be using every spare minute exploring and practicing to see what else I can do as a digital sketcher.

I was in a waiting room on Tuesday (8.14.2012) when I decided to sketch this potted plant on a nearby table. (Ooops, that is my finger peeking out of the corner.) I enjoyed having a moment to relax after a crazy busy day.

another yerba buena sketch

This is a more broad view of the Yerba Buena Gardens. Many of the folks who came to the gardens seemed to be there for the sun, or to read, make-out or sleep. A good number probably came for the free music program. Oddly enough I drew almost everything except the musical entertainment. I'd like to think that it was the hot sun that prevented me from walking close to the stage to draw the singers and musicians. But I think it was because the focus of the program was on opera that I didn't go in for the close-up. (For that matter I wouldn't go up there to see that Beiber/Bierber? dude perform either.)

yerba buena gardens

I joined another sketch group called the SF Sketchers on July 7 at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Gardens. I am seated under a tree and sketching people who are sitting on or have sprawled out on the grass as a music program goes on in the background. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

historic building in Berkeley

I had passed this building for decades and never knew what it was until my Tuesday evening sketching group decided to draw it a few weeks ago. Since 1976 the building belong to the Marmot store which sold some specialized items for the outdoors-person. However, the store closed recently and is it in kind of a sorry state. When it was built in 1923 the building on Adeline Street - next to the 5th String store -  had been the site of the Hull and Durgin funeral home. But more than that it is an example of storybook-style architecture, a reflection of old European design right smacked dabbed in a business district many decades younger. I did a real close-up sketch of one of the building bulbous towers. From a distance it is a striking structure.

at Oakland's Lake Merritt

Earlier this month I joined my Tuesday evening sketching group at Lake Merritt. We were actually sketching at the beautiful restaurant, the Lake Chalet Seafood Bar and Grill on the Lakeside Drive side. Talk about a picturesque setting!!! There were so many interesting subjects to sketch I didn't know where to start! The restaurant hovering gently over the lake, diners sitting at tables on the deck surrounded by water, people walking on the nearby trial.  But what caught my eye was a gondola gliding on the lake. So I followed it, somehow managing to put some images in my sketchbook. And of course I couldn't resist sketching the geese near the shore. (And yes the water appeared more green than blue to me.)

Oakland Municipal Rose Garden

I joined another group of sketchers on June 2 whom I found on meetup.com. I had never been to the Oakland Municipal Garden - and I am a longtime Oaktown resident! It took me about an hour just to find it and another hour to find a parking place. Unfortunately I only met one other sketcher from the group. Tired of walking and looking I found a bench in the shade and sketched this little scene. That's probably more than you needed to know...right?

On Saturday, April 24, I attended the 35th Sketchcrawl in San Francisco. Sketchcrawls are drawing marathons in which participants basically spend the day sketching in differerent locations. I had planned to sketch with my Tuesday Evening Sketch Buddies BUT... due to circumstances beyond my control I didn't meet with them. So I went on my own, starting at the MacArthur BART station. I walked down the Embaradero to the North Beach area and then eventually to Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39. Then I walked back to the BART station. It was great exercise -- goodness knows I need it. But I didn't need it all at once...I could barely move my legs the next day. LOL

I spent a good deal of time at Washington Park in the City. This sketch developed very slowly. How slowly? Well at least six different people sat on this bench as I drew the tree. :0

I tried a quick sketch of one of the city's landmarks, coit tower.

I ended my visit to Washington Park with this sketch.

Sketchcrawl 35

Pier 39 -- YAY! I even got to see the lounging sea lions. I've got to work more on painting water but I hope you get the point.

It has been a while since I last posted. Life got crazy sad again. There was a death in my family last month and I flew to New Jersey to be of some support. As I traveled I scribbled in my little sketchbook along the way. The sketching -- along with the Good Lord -- made the journey tolerable. And it kept me sane.

a couple of february sketches

Today is Leap Day and as good a day as any to resume post new stuff. I've been drawing the Cathedral of Christ the Light for years now and here is one sketch I can live with.

Speaking of the Cathedral I have been visiting the new "Citylights Cafe" that opened recently at the cathedral plaza. I sketched a hot breakfast - and I mean hot! This is an open-face bagel smeared with a delicious jalapeno spread and topped with tomatoes. UmmmUmmm!

waiting at the pharmacy

What better way to spend my time while waiting. (I think I've worked out the problems with my posting.)

january sketch program

This month my Tuesday Evening Sketch group decided to begin the year by sketching something every day. Now maybe I can make sketching a habit - something I do without thinking like breathe.

church and food

Happy 2012! I've been drawing and sketching like mad so far this year thanks to a sketch-a-day activity proposed by my Tuesday night sketch group. By the end of this month I shall have 31 sketches. The first sketches I did were so lame that they will never see the light of day. I only posted two sketches for the eight days of January that I felt ok about.  Appropriately these sketches are about two major elements in my life - church and food. The bell is circa 1902 and rests outside Sacred Heart Church in Oakland. I didn't quite capture it but I was close. The pears are in the kitchen at my house growing riper but the minute as I type this. Yes, I know I should be eating them instead of drawing them but my appetite for drawing is stronger than my appetite for eating.