Celebrating 10 Years of Urban Sketching

This weekend, I met up with my local Urban Sketchers SF Bay Area group to participate in the Urban Sketchers Global 24 Hour Sketchwalk to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Urban Sketchers group.

We met up in the park near the Apple store in Union Square and sketched for about 90 minutes before meeting inside. It was chilly, so we needed to get inside to thaw out our hands. Here is my sketch from the park looking towards the Ruth Asawa fountain. You can see our leader, Laurie Wigham sketching in front of me.

There were about 40 of us sketchers there that day.

Here are a few of my favorite sketches from that day.

by Oliver Hoeller - his style reminds me of Felix Scheinberger

Love this piece Uma created on her iPad Pro with her Apple Pencil -so inspiring!

This piece by Judy W. looks like a beautiful postcard. I love how she indicated the ice skaters with so few marks!

After the sketch walk, I joined a few sketchers for lunch in Chinatown at the Far East Cafe. I loved discussing art techniques, supplies, and urban sketching with some like minded individuals! Here's my quick sketch - largely done before our food arrived.

Every time I meet up with other urban sketchers, I get inspired to do more on location sketching. I am going to make more of an effort to get out there and sketch!

Did you participate in the 24 Hour Global Sketch Walk? I would love to hear about your experience and see your sketches!!

Urban sketching in San Francisco with Liz Steel & Jane Blundell

I've been so derelict in keeping up with blogging. So, I'm trying to make up for it today with several posts on what I've been up to lately. At the end of last month, I finally made it to an Urban Sketching meet up that was very well attended. I think there were over 80 sketchers at Grace Cathedral due in no small part to the visiting sketchers in attendance, Liz Steel and Jane Blundell!

I have taken Liz's online Sketchbook Skool klass as well as her in-person workshop at the Urban Sketcher's Symposium in Chicago in July - so I was happy and excited to see Liz again. Also, I've scoured Jane's website for her in-depth watercolor knowledge and saw her in Chicago as well at the Symposium. Other bonuses were seeing Suhita Shirodkhar, an urban sketcher from the South Bay, from whom I've also taken a Craftsy online course and an in-person workshop in San Francisco with in the past - and Laurie Wigham , who organizes the San Francisco Urban Sketchers group and got a bunch of us Bay Area sketchers together in Chicago.

We met at Grace Cathedral and sketched for several hours in and around the church. I arrived a bit late due to traffic, so I missed the interior tour and met up with the group in the park across the street. Here are my sketches from the day.

At the end of the meet up, we all displayed our sketches on the nearby bushes. There were so many sketchers, it was hard to see them all!

Suhita Shirodkhar and her sketches in the foreground (along with her kids' sketches)

Probably the best part of the day, though, was meeting a whittled down group of sketchers for an early picnic dinner at Lafayette Park, which had amazing views.

Here are my sketches - I made a conscious effort to try some thumbnail landscapes and also to sketch the sketchers with my brush pen.

Stephanie Bower's Watery Reflections Demo

During the Urban Sketcher's Symposium this year in Chicago, I was lucky enough to see Stephanie Bower's Watery Reflection demonstration at the Crown Fountain in Millennium Park.

Designed by Designed by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa, the Crown Fountain in Millennium Park is a major addition to the city's world-renowned public art collection. The fountain consists of two 50-foot glass block towers at each end of a sha… — Designed by Designed by Spanish artist **Jaume Plensa**, the **Crown Fountain in Millennium Park** is a major addition to the city's world-renowned public art collection.

The fountain consists of two 50-foot glass block towers at each end of a shallow reflecting pool. The towers project video images from a broad social spectrum of Chicago citizens, a reference to the traditional use of gargoyles in fountains, where faces of mythological beings were sculpted with open mouths to allow water, a symbol of life, to flow out.

Plensa adapted this practice by having faces of Chicago citizens projected on LED screens and having water flow through an outlet in the screen to give the illusion of water spouting from their mouths. The collection of faces, Plensa's tribute to Chicagoans, was taken from a cross-section of 1,000 residents.

The fountain’s water features operate during the year between mid-spring and mid-fall, while the images remain on view year-round.

Despite its name, Stephanie's workshop focused on reflections, not just in water - but, also in metals, mirrors, windows, shiny floors, and streets (wet or not). Stephanie passed out a handout that describes how reflections work and different aspects of reflections. With regard to how reflections work, she states that a simple reflection on a smooth surface reflects an image that is the same size and height as the object being reflected and is reflected straight down. She also reminded us that the vanishing point is always at your eye level line - even for the reflected image.

Stephanie showed us some amazing examples of her own work with reflections.

Stephanie's sketch with reflections on a shiny indoor floor

But, the best part of this demonstration, was, of course, watching Stephanie sketch the scene in front of us. She started with a quick value thumbnail sketch.

Though Stephanie says she doesn't usually take the time to always make a value thumbnail, it was helpful for me to watch her do it and remember to concentrate on values!

Stephanie then moved on to demonstrate her sketching method with reflections and reminded us to reserve a lot of white space - which she says is always the hardest thing to do! Unfortunately, I didn't get a great video of her process. Here was her sketch:

It was an amazing demo to watch - and I'm so grateful for Stephanie to take extra time in continuing her sketch for us. I can't wait to add in more reflections in my work. Recently, I thought of Stephanie's teachings when sketching at the Lafayette Reservoir.

My sketch of the Lafayette Reservoir - I think the reflections really does add to the whole sketch

I really enjoyed Stephanie's demo and intend to add more reflections in a lot of my sketches - and not just ones involving water! Stay tuned for my upcoming blog post on the last workshop I took at USK Chicago - Liz Steel's Lost and Found Structures!

Day 5 of the One Week 100 People 2017 Challenge

For my last day of the One Week 100 People 2017 Challenge, I started with a portrait inspired by the Sktchy app in gouache.

No. 80 - a Sktchy-inspired portrait in gouache

Then, it was off to the tennis tournament - where I sketched a lot of the players and ended up reaching my 100 by sketching the crowd watching the tennis in front of me.

Nos. 81 & 82 - Rafa Nadal & Caroline Wozniacki practicing

Nos. 83 & 84 - Rafa Nadal and Marin Cilic practicing their serves

Nos. 85 & 86 - Jo-Wilfred Tsonga and David Goffin practicing

Nos. 87 - 89 - Todd watching, Kevin Anderson, and a security guard

Nos. 90 & 91 - Kayla Day & Mariana Lucic-Baroni

And I made it to 100 people in 5 days! It was a great challenge that really made me focus on drawing people from life - and from photo references. I thoroughly enjoyed the practice and can't wait to do it again next year! How did the challenge go for you? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Day 3 of the One Week 100 People 2017 Challenge

Day 3 of the #oneweek100people2017 challenge happened for fall on International Women's Day. So, I decided to do a watercolor sketch of three lovely ladies in their pussy hats to celebrate. They are my nos. 41 - 43 for the challenge.

For the next several people, I decided to sketch people on the airplane from San Francisco to Palm Springs on our way to see the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.

I didn't get in my 20 for today, but with our travel, I decided to not sweat it and just add in more people to my goal for tomorrow at the tennis tournament. Are you participating in this challenge? If so, how is it going for you?

Sketching in the City

My daughter, Chloe, and I had a day to kill while our car was being worked on in Berkeley the other day, so we took BART to San Francisco and spent the day sightseeing, doing a little homework, and sketching.

We first stopped for a coffee and hot chocolate at the Ferry Building. Here is my sketch looking out at the ferry that came in from Marin.

Then, we walked towards Chinatown and stopped at this little playground in Sue Bierman Park.

Looking towards Pier 1 at Sue Bierman Park

We picked up some Pusheen items in Chinatown for my daughter - then went to Caffe Trieste in North Beach to do some math homework for her. She was not too happy doing her homework, but got to do a little more shopping afterwards!

Sketching People in Motion

I've been enjoying Marc Taro Holmes's Craftsy class, Sketching People in Motion, but I don't often get a chance to practice his techniques. I do, however, love to play tennis and watch A LOT of professional tennis players on tv and in tournaments in person, when I get the chance.

Today, I was watching the Citi Open on Tennis Channel and decided to get out my scribbler (3 x 5" homemade sketchbook) and test out my new water soluble Lamy black ink (in my Lamy Joy fountain pen) and my newest watercolor brushes from Rosemary & Co. and Escoda. Here are my attempts.

Monfils serving with Zverev hitting a 2 handed backhand behind him

Davis & Pegula hitting serves in watercolor

Pegula hitting a forehand in watercolor; Davis lining up a forehand in watersoluble ink

I find that what is key to drawing people in motion is to develop my visual short term memory as the pose I want to capture lasts for only a split second and is repeated every 30 seconds or so per game. I will need to keep practicing - but, lucky for me, it's the U.S. summer hard court season with lots of tournaments culminating in the U.S. Open AND including the Olympics this year!

How do you practice sketching people in motion?

Urban Sketching Practice

I have been trying to use the techniques I've learned in Marc Taro Holmes' and James Richards' Craftsy classes. Here are some recent examples:

Using a single line drawing with my extra fine Platinum pen, then adding darks with my Kuretake brush pen, finally adding watercolors

Sketching at a recent SF Giants game - it was cold!!

Just using my Pentel brush pen at dinner last night

Sketching my girls after dinner just using watercolors directly

Sketching at the Claremont Resort with just my Pentel brush pen

Urban Sketching using Marc Taro Holmes's Techniques

I have been loving Marc Taro Holmes's Craftsy classes, Sketching People in Motion and Travel Sketching in Mixed Media. I love how he understands the constraints of urban sketching - especially when people are moving, you're on vacation and your family wants to keep moving, etc. To sketch people in motion, Marc teaches us how to capture gestures quickly with pencil and then move onto fountain pens, brush pens, and watercolors. In terms of travel sketching, Marc teaches us to do single line drawings, then 5-7 line drawings (cinq à sept), use shading and brush pens, watercolors, and eventually, watercolors alone.

I recently practiced these techniques in my hometown, Walnut Creek.