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SketchCrawl #22
April 11th, 2009 was held in Chinatown, San Francisco, CA. Unfortunately I was unable to attend 🙁 however I was able to do some sketching locally in downtown Santa Rosa.
First of all, it was a quiet Saturday perhaps because of the Easter weekend. The first couple of sketches were done while I took our little dog for a walk, the cherry tree blossoms were dancing with the wind, and while standing there looking I noticed a branch that kept swinging up and down as the wind made its presence known, after a couple of sketches my dog grew impatient so we moved on.
The rest of the sketches were done in downtown Santa Rosa. On the way to our destination, while crossing the street I sneezed, and to my surprise a passenger in a passing SUV said bless you which surprised me, because there have been situations where I am next to someone and then sneeze and they don’t say anything, or you say that to them and the same. That small token set the tone for the day!
I decided to sit at the edge of the park and observe / sketch people as they were walking by. It was quite an interesting exercise, people walked pretty fast, most had unhappy faces with no smiles, not one single person stopped to look and most seemed deep in their thoughts.
It was actually quite a challenge to sketch them because they were moving pretty fast (probably rushing to prepare for Easter) and while there were people sitting at a nearby restaurant patio, I decided to stick with the challenge of drawing moving targets.
The following events caught my attention so I decided to make a note of them. A couple went by (I didn’t sketch them), it was a woman with a man on a wheelchair who had a red rose on his lap, I thought that was interesting, perhaps it was for his mother, or perhaps it was for his wife, his sister maybe? where are they going? to eat at that restaurant? maybe they are meeting someone there? who knows!!! I found myself exploring the different potential options, which made this a lot more enjoyable than sketching buildings and landscapes which I typically do.
I also noticed a person drawing in the park, as I turned to see if there were other subjects behind me. He appeared to be using colored pencils, and yes I was curious to see what he may be doing.. I guess it is human nature, but opted to concentrate instead on my own sketching.
It was a great day!
The following video was created by Goro – this is what SketchCrawl is ~ Enjoy ~
22nd SketchCrawl San Francisco from Goro on Vimeo.
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SketchCrawl #20
Saturday October 25th was SketchCrawl #20, I decided to stay local a few days prior to the big event.
Since I was staying local I figured it would be a great time for my little dog to spend extra time outside, and perhaps sketch a few things that have caught my attention when I take him for a walk.
I used a micron pen for the first sketch, it is always a little ‘scary’ using a pen because you cannot erase if you make a mistake. I figure by using a pen I would force myself to just sketch and not pay attention to perfection.
After the sketch was completed, i figured I should also add color, I was also curious to see how this sketchbook would handle water. Below is the result.
Where shall we go next?
The second sketch I did was that of an oak tree, but I didnt finish because my little dog was just too impatient, hehe his idea of going out was not one of staying in only one place.
Below are links of some of the materials i used, my portable watercolor (student grade) is a different model.
I buy most of my materials at Blick.
micron pen
Winsor & Newton Cotman Watercolors
Niji waterpen (love these)
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SketchCrawl #17
Last Saturday was Sketchcrawl #17, as always what a wonderful way to spend time, this is like my typical musing about the wonders of the universe except with pictures 🙂 An activity that bounds one to earth, to pay attention to that which is around us.
My initial thought was that the location wasn’t as glamorous as San Francisco, and/or that there may not be enough subjects to focus on, however once I got started I realized that if you stand still and open yourself to the surrounding area, there are quite a lot of interesting things to sketch.
