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.



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.





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

Four days in and around Lisbon. Gorgeous cloudless weather. So many amazing artists I'd only known online -- in one place. And nothing to think about all day but "What shall I sketch next?"*

*Okay, those of you who know me can probably guess that I was also scouting out where we'd eat next, too. Turns out it's NOT so hard to be vegetarian in Lisbon after all.

But on to the important stuff. Here's my visual diary of our workshops and Sketchcrawl.

We started with a bit of anthropology -- a study of urban ethnography in tiny Largo de Barao de Quintela. At first glance, not so visually interesting, but we were in the midst of a veritable turf battle among pedestrians, vehicles, recycling receptacles, fire trucks, dogs. So I sketched one perspective first, and then turned around and drew another.





The Environments workshop had us peering down a steep staircase toward the typical Lisbon sea of terracotta roofs and pastel walls, with the castle looming in the distance.



Then we ducked into a little cafe, to capture some interior life.



We began the second day with a panel discussion; most of us were already walk-weary from the cobblestones lining the alternately soaring and plunging terrain.



In the Contrasts workshop, we negotiated stairsteps on Rua da Bica alongside iconic yellow-and-white trams, painting as they ferried passengers up and down.



By that afternoon, I was cranky-tired and not in a drawing mood (sorry, Cityscapes workshop!). But after dinner by the docks, I had enough energy for a sketch of the scene in the twilight.



Our last day began with "Light of Lisboa" -- an attempt to force the brilliant light of the city onto our sketchbook pages. First, in graphite:





And then, in watercolor:



We closed the symposium with the 32nd Worldwide Sketchcrawl, in Praca do Comercio.









Only one question remains: Where will next year's symposium be???

Had a lovely time sketching in Providence on Saturday with the talented Bill Dennis and Ashley Tanno. I've posted my sketches here, but you can read all about it and see photos on Sketchcrawl.com/forum.