Category: Berkeley

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Animals Berkeley Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Painting Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Sketching Taxidermy at Spenger’s Restaurant

The High Room Taxidermy at Spengers, ink & watercolor, 5x7.5"
The High Room Taxidermy at Spengers, ink & watercolor, 5x7.5"

Our Urban Sketchers group met Tuesday night at the historic, oldest restaurant in Berkeley, Spenger’s Fish Grotto. I called ahead to see if we could sketch in the room whose walls are covered with taxidermy animals and fish. The manager was very supportive of our visit, even though he was dealing with half the restaurant (which has many rooms, all full of seafaring and other historic artifacts) being closed for carpet cleaning that day.

I arrived a bit late due to continuing construction work at my house, and found the group sitting at a big table in the middle of  the taxidermy room (actually called the “High Room” because of the super high ceilings). Richard the manager had opened and designated the room just for us. Thank you Richard!

We are delighted that Berlin Urban Sketcher and illustrator Olga Prudnikova has joined us for the next couple of months while she is in Berkeley. She and the rest of our group managed to do many sketches to my one. You can see their beautiful and quirky sketches on our SF Urban Sketchers blog here and here.

Thank you Spenger’s general manager Richard, for your support and hospitality. We had a great time sketching and snacking on their famous creamy, thick clam chowder.

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Berkeley Drawing Ink and watercolor wash People Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Sketchy Holiday Wishes

Brennan's Bar Decked Out for Xmas, ink & watercolor
Brennan's Bar Decked Out for the Holidays, ink & watercolor, 5x7"

I hope your holidays are full of love and joy (and some sketching too!) The picture above is from Brennan’s Hoffbrau and Sports Bar, one of my favorite indoor places to sketch (and to eat—they have roasted turkey legs all year long!). Although our Tuesday night drawing group spread out to sketch at different tables in the cavernous space (a former train station) we all ended up drawing these same guys at the bar. Micaela did an amazing panorama of the whole joint including me sketching (seen here on our Urban Sketchers blog).

Big Guy and Photo of Prize Steers, ink, 5x7"
Big Guy and Photo of Prize Steers, ink, 5x7"

The “decor” at Brennan’s includes many old framed photos on the walls of men in suits showing off their prize-winning steers. This guy was as big as a steer and when he got up and left before I could finish drawing him at the table I added the steer photo to complete the picture.

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Berkeley Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Painting People Sketchbook Pages

Is Your Style a Mistake? How to Find Your Style as an Artist

Caffe Trieste before the band, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Caffe Trieste (she's saving seats with her backpack) before the band (then six people crowded around those 2 tiny tables, sitting on laps), ink & watercolor, 7x5"

Caffe Trieste was crammed with people when we went to sketch  and listen to the wonderful Randy Craig Trio—probably double the little café’s legal limit. The title of the post: “Your Style is a Mistake…” comes from a  Robert Genn quote that I noted in my journal below:

People at Trieste and Genn note
People at Trieste and Genn note

How to Find Your Style as an Artist

In an interview, Robert Genn was asked, “How does an artist find their own style?” His answer was brilliant. He said (paraphrased here) that typically what makes your style yours, what makes it unique, is the thing you do “wrong;” it is the way you break the rules intentionally or just don’t do something “correctly” that defines your style.

In other words (mine), quit hating and start embracing those wonky lines that won’t behave, that paint applied differently than those artists you aspire to emulate or the hard edges or soft focus or pale washes… Keep studying and learning and practicing, but appreciate what you can do now and cherish those quirks. (Talking to myself here!)

Randy Craig Trio guitarist, ink & watercolor
Randy Craig Trio guitarist, ink & watercolor

You don’t have to be perfect to be wonderful and neither does your art. As a matter of fact, “perfect” art (in my opinion) is boring art.

When you make mistakes, think about how you’ll do it differently next time, but also look for the bit that worked even if it’s just a small passage. For example in the sketch above, the music stand didn’t work at all, nor did the singer I cropped off on the right, but I did a much better job with the guitar this time than I did last time I sketched at Trieste.

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Berkeley Drawing Food sketch Ink and watercolor wash Sketchbook Pages

Making Tortillas at Picante (and eating them)

The Taco Maker, ink & watercolor, 5x7"
The Taco Maker, ink & watercolor, 5x7"

Picante was quite crowded on our Tuesday night sketchcrawl. Sonia arrived early and saved us a booth but since I was last to arrive, my seat faced the wall, without a view of anything to draw. I decided to wait until after I ate to find a spot to stand and sketch the tortilla maker. She was amazing, in constant motion, pulling dough from the bowl, rolling a ball, placing it in the wooden press, squeeze, put on grill, move the tortillas around, squeeze another.

Fish Tacos and salad, ink & watercolor, 5x7"
Fish Tacos and salad, ink & watercolor, 5x7"

My dinner was delicious: fish tacos served on Maria’s freshly made corn tortillas and drizzled with avocado sauce. Yum! Picante is one of the best Mexican restaurants in Berkeley with a friendly, festive atmosphere and delicious food made with high quality ingredients.

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Berkeley Food sketch Ink and watercolor wash Interiors Sketchbook Pages

Awkward Tea and Sketches at Imperial Teahouse

Imperial Teahouse Evening Sketch, Ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Imperial Teahouse Evening Sketch, Ink & watercolor, 7x5"

The title is true: both the tea and the sketches were awkward. It was a warm November evening during our weird extended summer and the doors to the patio were open. But that didn’t diminish the smell of frying food and the annoying sound of constant chopping from the small kitchen. I totally botched the perspective when I drew the tables. The little girls look like they’re floating but they were sitting on a bench, also drawn awkwardly.

Cup of tea with lid, ink, watercolor & gouache, 7x5"
Cup of tea with lid, ink, watercolor & gouache, 7x5"

At the Imperial Tearoom, they serve the tea Gaiwan style: the loose tea floats in a cup with a lid but no handle (foreground above). To drink it, you’re supposed to tilt the lid and drink from the cup using the lid as a strainer. Awkward.

I’d recently given up caffeine so selected some sort of ginger, ginseng and weed concoction. Fortunately it tasted yucky so it didn’t matter how hard it was to drink. I was really just there to sketch, but the sketches turned out mostly yucky too. I added gouache to the teapot above at home to try to fix the anemic painting I’d done on site and to the saucer below to try to hide all the trouble I had with ellipses that night.

Tea with floaty stuff in it, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Tea with floaty stuff in it, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

When I ordered my tea I didn’t see prices on the menu, just the teas to choose from. When I paid the bill, I discovered the stupid cup of tea cost $6.00!

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Berkeley Drawing Ink and watercolor wash People Places Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Cheeseboard and Kitchen on Fire

Kitchen on Fire Tools, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Kitchen on Fire: Tools of the Trade, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

Don’t worry, nothing’s burning! “Kitchen on Fire” is the name of a cooking school in the heart of Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto. We ended our sketching evening there when it got too dark to draw on the street. The chefs were cleaning up after an evening class and were nice enough to let us hang out and sketch until they finished. I’ve heard classes there are a lot of fun.

Cheeseboard Musicians, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Freddy Hughes Band, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

The Cheeseboard Collective (PLEASE see wonderful sketches on their website here) has over 400 kinds of cheese and in the evening sells their pizza of the day to people who line up for it. They host bands who entertain the diners sitting on benches, at cafe tables or picnicking on the grass in the median strip of the street.

Be sure to watch this video long enough to see the two “Keep off the median” street signs and the guy using it as a back rest: pure Berkeley.

My first sketch of the evening was of this group of burly gentlemen below, enjoying their pizza crowded around a table in the dark, lit by streetlights and storefronts.

Eating pizza, ink & watercolor, 5x7"
Eating pizza outside the Cheeseboard, ink & watercolor, 5x7"

I had a hard time with the sketch. There were actually 6 guys but they arrived one at a time, and kept changing places at the table outside the Cheeseboard. I had a whole story going in my mind about how they were Greek or Russian furniture movers.

I thought they didn’t notice me drawing them but when they got up to leave they asked to see. I was mortified since I’d done them no favors with my rendering. They were very nice anyway, recognized each other in the picture and laughed as much at themselves as at my sketch.

Then the guy on the left told me he was an artist who loves to draw and he was very encouraging. That’s the nice thing about sketching in public. Nobody ever criticizes your work, no matter how bad you think it might be.

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Bay Area Parks Berkeley Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Painting Places Sketchbook Pages

Funky Tilden Carousel Sketches

Tilden Park Carousel, ink & watercolor 5x7"
Tilden Park Carousel, ink & watercolor 5x7"

I almost didn’t post these sketches from the Tilden Park Merry-go-round because I was so frustrated drawing them. But I think it’s interesting to see when others post things that challenged them so here you go.

I try to find something positive in work that doesn’t succeed overall. The one above was the last one I did as I was leaving. I really like the trees in the background and most everything else EXCEPT the messed up shape of the building that houses this wonderful 100-year-old carousel.

Carousel structure, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Carousel structure, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

I did the one above sitting on a bench inside the building trying to sort out the perspective and the way the whole thing fits together. Meanwhile the smells of burning popcorn and greasy hot dogs were making feel rather ill. I really struggled but in the end I think I got the understanding of what is a merry-go-round and how it works, though you can’t tell from this mess.

Carousel quickie, 7x5"
Carousel quickie, 7x5"

Another one that I struggled with. The little girl calmly rides while the horse seems to be expressing my struggle. And boy are the perspective and ellipses way, way off!

Get me out of here!
Get me out of here!

Another quickie with the horse expressing my feelings: “Get me out of here! It’s too hard to draw!” My friend Cathy did some nice sketches of the carousel, posted here on our Urban Sketchers blog.

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Berkeley Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Life in general People Places Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

4th Street Berkeley Sketches during New Apple Store Grand Opening

This Old Band on 4th Street, 7x5", ink & watercolor
This Old Band performing on 4th Street, 7x5", ink & watercolor
Waiting in Line at Apple, Waiting to Play in Front of Peets, 2 page spread
Waiting in Line at Apple, Waiting to Play in Front of Peet's, 2 page spread

When the new Apple Store opened in Berkeley, I played hooky from my plein air group’s scheduled paint out and went down to 4th Street in pursuit of sketching opportunities and one of the free t-shirts Apple was giving out to the first 1,000 customers.

When I arrived an hour after the grand opening, the line was barely one block long and moving quickly. By the time I sketched a few people and balloons (above) I was in the store. I got my shirt, bought a gizmo for my gadget and went across the street to Peet’s Coffee.

This Old Band
This Old Band playing on 4th Street

I enjoyed an iced coffee at a sunny table on their front patio as “This Old Band” set up to play. The music was wonderful, with a sweet, sensitive, gentle feel to it including some Otis Redding, The Drifters and other great oldies played by talented musicians.

There were some interesting (?) conversations going on around me.

Peet's Patio People, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Peet's Patio People, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

This guy was actually sitting at a table with another woman beside him on his right blabbing away, but he seemed more interested in this one.

A chubby, balding, dorky-looking, baby-boomer guy sitting behind me pompously talked non-stop about his life as a rock star and the book he was writing about it. His wife never said a word, and the guy he was talking to was obviously someone he was paying to help him with the book, though he barely got a word in either.

After dropping dozens of famous stars’ names who he supposedly shared a life with, he admitted it was “Better to be a Has Been than a Never Been.”

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Berkeley Ink and watercolor wash Places Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Monterey Market and Berkeley Horticultural Nursery

Monterey Market Sunflowers, ink & watercolor, 5x7"
Monterey Market Sunflowers, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

My Tuesday night sketch group met at North Berkeley’s Monterey Market to sketch just before the produce store was closing. My friends started indoors while I stood and sketched the buckets of sunflowers in the parking lot, using a handy shopping cart as my table.

Berkeley Horticultural Nursery, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Berkeley Horticultural Nursery, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

When the store closed at 7:00 they joined me in sketching the sunflowers. Then I walked around the block to the entrance of the wonderful Berkeley Horticultural Nursery. I saw this crazy Dr. Seuss-like plant along their fence and had to sketch it. Each fuzzy orange-red flower grows out of a stalk that comes up from the flower below it.

The next morning I called Berkeley Hort to ask about the plant. The guy who answered went outside to check and told me it is a Leonitus Lenorius or “Lion’s Tail,” a drought-resistant, sun-loving plant.

You can see Micaela’s market sketches here and Cathy’s market, melon and sunflower sketches here on our Urban Sketchers blog.

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Berkeley Building Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Painting Places Shop windows Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Cafe Rouge, 4th Street, Berkeley

Cafe Rouge at Sunset, Ink & watercolor, 5x7"
Cafe Rouge at Sunset, Ink & watercolor, 5x7"

We were all a little late for our Tuesday night sketching. We met by Peet’s Coffee and then wandered off to sketch what caught our interests. It was cold out and the sun was setting but Cafe Rouge looked warm and inviting with their red chairs and umbrellas.