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.)