sketchcrawl

San Pedro Square with South Bay Sketchers

Sunday, February 24, 2019

Along with Suhita Shirodkar, Srivani Narra Ward, and Steve Krapek, I'm a co-organizer for the South Bay Sketchers Meetup group. (Are you in the South Bay? Come join us!) Yesterday we organized a sketchwalk at San Pedro Square in San Jose. The weather was lovely (for a change), and we had a great turnout.



I chose a minimal kit - a Unipin brush tip fineliner, waterbrush, and Cass Art's quarter-pan watercolor set, with a Strathmore sketchbook.



Started off with a sketch outdoors as I was waiting for stragglers to trickle in.

190223 San Pedro Square 1

To warm up, most of us went indoors to get a hot beverage from B2Coffee and to sketch the new Three Sisters bar. I only sketched one of the paintings, but here's the story behind it.

190223 San Pedro Square 2

190223 San Pedro Square 3

This last one was done in the five minutes before we all met back up at noon to share sketches!

190223 San Pedro Square 4


workshop

Upcoming Class in San Francisco

Monday, February 18, 2019



Are you in the Bay Area? Get ready for spring/summer sketch walks (yes, the rain *will* someday end) with this dynamic workshop! First, we’ll learn to use line to simplify an outdoor scene and lay out balanced compositions. Then we’ll go over how to add vibrant watercolor to bring your designs to life. Weather permitting, we’ll use these techniques to create a progressive series of sketches as we explore the local area. A premium sketchbook, fineliner, and kit of hand-poured watercolors are included in the class fee.

We'll cover:

-How to choose a focal point, and where to place it on the page
-Drawing expressive lines to depict urban scenes
-Mixing a range of colors from just a few primaries
-Using notes of color to unify your sketch
-Creating a narrative with your sketches

Spaces are still available. Sign up now.

Speaking of San Francisco ... a few weeks ago I was up there to take some headshots and I took advantage of the time to dash off a few quick ink sketches of the views from Crissy Field. I colored them in later with watercolors; you can probably tell that I didn't keep my water clean, as the colors got mighty muddy. Lesson well learned!

190127 Crissy Field San Francisco

190127 Golden Gate Bridge San Francisco