There was some comfort in making art this past weekend, in being with our South Bay Sketchers/USk family including our friend Liz Steel, who was visiting from Australia.

We sketched at History San Jose, and after all the drawing and chatting there we gathered at the recreated O'Brien's Ice Cream Shop for treats.





I had family in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh; I remember thinking how lovely it was when I was there many years ago. The city was family, too, for many of us East Coast Indian Americans: we'd drive hours on the Pennsylvania Turnpike to visit the S.V. Temple in Penn Hills, to attend events. I'd like to go back some day and draw this lovely city, with its funicular and bridges and rivers (the Monongahela, the Allegheny, the Ohio).

If we stop making, if we stop creating, they will have won. #StrongerThanHate

It's only four hours away, so why did it take us so long to go back to the Sierra Nevadas and Lake Tahoe? The last time we were there was during our cross-country roadtrip, in 2015.

Better late than never, and October is the off season (after the summer crowd, before ski season). We stopped in Truckee, California, for lunch and then headed straight to Sand Harbor State Park across the border in Nevada, with its fabulous boulders and Caribbean-teal water.







My favorite spot, though, was Fallen Leaf Lake, southwest of the built-up resorts of South Lake Tahoe. It was like suddenly being transported to Alaska. It was pristine, and largely deserted, and beautiful.





I would love to know what these two men were doing with all this equipment (and one was in a wetsuit), but I just had to draw them.



What are your favorite places near Tahoe?

Well, not really trainspotting, but rather spotting things from a train. This is what I saw and sketched as I rode the train from San Jose to Oakland two weekends ago: mounds of salt. Where does all this salt go? Is it part of Cargill's salt works in the Bay Area? Possibly; I have no idea, but it was fun to get some more Inktober drawing in.



I colored the sketch with a waterbrush (yes, my favorite Pentel Aquash L) and one of those Daniel Smith watercolor dot cards I seem to accumulate from USK symposium goodie bags and sponsor giveaways. I think this was the Jane Blundell palette. The dot cards are a great way to test out new pigments and color combinations.

I'm so honored whenever people ask me to do a commissioned sketch or painting. I can only hope my interpretation of the subject comes remotely close to capturing what's in their head and heart. Here's one I did recently of Ocean Beach in San Francisco.



Lots of love from me to those who love this special place.

Sometimes life gets in the way of Inktober. I've still been drawing in the margins, but this month has been overfilled with Big Work Things. So I snatch minutes here and there.

Waiting for a Lyft car...



The view from Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve...



A stylized cactus...



A head, from TV...



A rooster, from a photo I took in Kauai...



Sometimes ambition is bigger than reality, but don't lose hope. The month isn't over yet!

Yep, the turning of the leaves means only one thing for us sketchers: Inktober time has arrived! Thirty-one days, 31 drawings. Post with the hashtag. Use the prompts provided by the website or do your own. Anything goes. This year, I may take a week and do a series of themed drawings. Or not. Will see where the muse tells me to go.



Today's effort was a hodgepodge of the stuff lying on my coffee table. Props if you can figure out what everything is.