Palm by Lake Merritt

I took a walk along Lake Merritt to the Oakland Public Library at lunch today to return some books and walked under this huge palm tree on the way. I snapped a quick picture and after dinner tonight, when I felt like plopping in front of the TV, I printed out the photo and did the drawing with a Pigma Brush Pen and then painted with watercolor. I had fun doing it while listening to a digital book from Audible.com. I’m glad I made the commitment to posting a drawing a day because this was a lot more fun than TV!

I also did these little sketches in less than 10 minutes on this morning’s commute to work. The guy sitting next to me on BART (SF version of subway) was watching me draw and halfway through said, “These are amazing!” as he saw the guy standing near the door take shape on my page. Usually nobody says anything when they see me drawing and I try to ignore them so I don’t get self-conscious. Since he spoke up, I asked if he drew or painted and he said no, but he does stained glass as a hobby. He said he was in the military and traveled a lot and liked that he could easily bring his stained glass work with him, which suprised me, as I’d think it’s fragile and heavy and would be hard to drag around. But then I was at my stop so I didn’t find out anything more.