Last weekend I taught back-to-back sketching workshops in the South Bay. One was for winners of an Art in Action fundraising auction, and the other was for some Google colleagues.

The morning session was in Palo Alto, near the sculpture garden at Stanford's Cantor Arts Center. We found a shady spot to set up, and I had the group do several warm-up exercises. We practiced thumbnails, talked about using a waterbrush, and considered how to draw people. Quickly. Because they move.



Initially I'd considered holding the workshop at Baylands, but there's absolutely no shade out on the trails so I'm glad I chose the Cantor. Here are a few thumbnails I did as I scouted out locations:



The watercolor set we were using was made by Yarka. For an inexpensive student-grade set, the colors are quite rich. Below is a study I did to practice using them, from a photo I'd taken in Manchester at last year's Urban Sketchers symposium. It's a beautiful city; we all fell in love with it as we drew its cinnamon brick and shaded canals, and it's heartbreaking to see its people go through so much pain right now.



For the second workshop, I was providing the sketchbooks (I sprang for ones that were adequate but not too expensive), so I spent some time getting used to the paper beforehand. I chose Strathmore's Sketch (200 Series), which has 50 lb paper. It's for dry media, but I figured we could get away with a little bit of watercolor.

To test it, I took it with me when we rode the mini steam train at Berkeley's Tilden Regional Park a few weeks ago:



And I experimented with watercolor washes.



I also used it at Artspan's sketch meetup at Huckleberry Bicycles in San Francisco. I'm pretty terrible at drawing bicycles (sad, I know, given M. does this) so it was a good chance to practice. The "models" (including M.) got to choose any bike they wanted and held poses for about five minutes. Just enough time to make a mess.













By the day of my workshop, I was pretty comfortable with the thin paper. Here's a quick demo I did for the participants, of people lounging in the park near the Mountain View Public Library. It's amazing how a little color can bring simple gestural lines to life.



At the end of the afternoon I was exhausted -- but very happy that both sessions had gone well. Next time, I won't be scheduling two workshops on the same day!

Our property is adjacent to Santa Teresa County Park, so we sort of have a really big backyard.



Here's my painting of a tree in the park (oil on panel). When I started painting it, there were cows on the hill. A few minutes later, they were gone. I'll just say I left them out so I can title it something clever like "Where Did All the Cows Go?"

I entered the Santa Clara County Plein Air Art in the Park competition a few weeks ago. The location chosen was Martial Cottle State Park, a relatively new park in San Jose about six miles from me. I entered both the two-hour Quick Draw event, in which artists were given access to the Martial Cottle Life Estate (a restricted area within the park) and the main Plein Air competition.

The acrylic painting above won 3rd Place in the Plein Air competition, and my Quick Draw watercolor painting won an Honorable Mention. I don't have a picture of the Quick Draw painting yet, as I had to turn it in right away for judging. I'll post a picture of it once I get it back from the county.

Here I am at the Martial Cottle Park Spring Celebration, where all the paintings were displayed last weekend (thanks M. for the picture).



It was wonderful to meet other plein air painters in the area, including Kevin Kasik, who has participated in Los Gatos Plein Air before. He advised me to approach it like a sporting event -- eat right, get lots of sleep, etc. Great tips!

...to sketch. OK, yes, it's sad that I've lived next to a golf course for two years and am only just discovering its pleasures. I still don't know how to golf, but it's really fun to draw other people practicing their swings and putts.

First time in San Diego! Only spent a few days there, but it's a lovely city, and we'll be back. The painting above was done on location in Point Loma, at Cabrillo National Monument. I used Cobra water-mixable oils, which I bought at the Plein Air Convention & Expo. Loved the consistency -- they don't feel as stiff as the W&N Artisan paints.

In my sketchbook, I tried to capture little vignettes of the city over the time we were there.

At Breakfast Republic in Liberty Station:



A quick sketch over lunch in the Gaslamp Quarter:



A sketch of the harbor from the patio at the Sheraton:



Sketches from the car as we drove around:



Lots of sketches of La Jolla Cove, since we stayed to see the sunset:













The Firehouse Museum, as we ate breakfast near the farmer's market:



On the drive back:

Finished this one today! I started the final stretch by creating some "sky holes" in the tree foliage and breaking up the masses.

I used some inexpensive new brushes: a synthetic filbert and a bright. I'm finding that these Taklon and nylon brushes are ideal for acrylics as they glide across the panel and enable soft edges.

The recent rain has caused an explosion of wildflowers in California. Yesterday, we decided to take a day trip to Carrizo Plain National Monument, just east of San Luis Obispo. The swaths of gold were truly spectacular. I sketched the blooms near the salt encrusted Soda Lake. M. took a photo of me as I was working.



I sketched this on Bee Paper's Super Deluxe Mixed Media sketchbook, which has been recommended by several sketchers as a good, reasonably priced workhorse surface. While I've been happy drawing on Bee's Pen Sketcher's paper, the Mixed Media one just isn't my jam for ink & watercolor work. Its weight and tooth feel more suited to dry media.

Glad that a fellow artist has resurrected the long-neglected South Bay Plein Air Meetup group. Yesterday there were three of us at Vasona Lake County Park in Los Gatos. Since I was squeezing this session in between errands and appointments, I chose to do a quick painting in gouache on Canson Mi-Teintes Touch toned paper. The sun was hot and climbing, so the paint dried almost instantly. The whole thing took less than an hour from setup to signature.

My paintings of the hills behind our house are done and framed and up on the wall!



Golden Open acrylic on canvas. Really pleased with the gold floater frames from PictureFrames.com. Here's how they look in the room.

It's a wrap. Started out with sketches after breakfast at the office cafe.



Continued through the messy commuter hour.



Ended with the grooves of Open Mic Night at Hub's Cafe.





Thanks Marc and Liz for this fantastic challenge!

Switched to a Stillman & Birn sketchbook as I ran out of pages in the Bee Pen Sketcher's book I was using before.





Just 23 to go!

For today's installment of the #OneWeek100People2017 challenge, I sketched women, in celebration of International Women's Day.

I've now completed 52 sketches for #OneWeek100People2017! Drawing people makes you notice the characters all around you.

Today's haul: 25 sketches done in the #OneWeek100People2017 challenge! Lots of commuters on (or awaiting) various modes of transport: train, bus, light rail.

Move over Inktober. Here comes a mad March challenge from Marc Taro Holmes and Liz Steel: Draw 100 people in one week! That's ~20 people a day, starting ... tomorrow!

I warmed up yesterday by playing with my latest digital toy: the Adonit Pixel stylus on my iPad Air 2, using the app Adobe Sketch. I find Adobe Sketch to be more intuitive than Procreate, possibly because I'm familiar with Photoshop, and the stylus seems to play well with it.



Want to join? Find some people. Sketch. Share on social media with the hashtag #OneWeek100People2017. I'll be posting here, on Instagam, and elsewhere.

I'm delighted to have been juried into this year's Los Gatos Plein Air event. More than 30 invited artists will be painting in and around Los Gatos, California, from June 13-16, with a public sale and festival on Saturday, June 17. I'm excited and more than a little nervous to be in the company of such artists as Donald Neff, Mark Monsarrat, Marti Walker, and Suzi Long!



In past years, artists have generally been allowed to paint within a 15-mile radius of Los Gatos, so I've been using some mapping tools to see what's in the area. Last Sunday I walked around downtown Los Gatos, and this weekend I hiked in Almaden Quicksilver County Park, which has some great views of the surrounding hills. I'm excited to figure out my "shot list" of what I'll paint over the four days of the event.