“Sea Breez”, Grounded Boat at China Camp Village, ink & watercolor 5×8″
I think I broke my record of getting lost when I went to a paint out at China Camp. The first three times I apparently confused my GPS when I entered my destination as cross streets and it delivered me to three different neighborhoods in San Rafael instead of the state park. Finally I arrived at the 15 mile long park but missed the turnoff to our painting spot and drove all the way through and out the other side into yet another nice San Rafael neighborhood.
Plein Air Painter and the Old Pier at China Camp Village, ink & watercolor, 5×8″
At least the road through the 1,514-acre park offers beautiful views of the San Pablo Bay waterfront, a salt marsh, and meadows. At China Camp Village where I made these sketches, there are many remnants of the 1880s Chinese immigrant shrimp-fishing village of 500, including one lone, 85-year old surviving resident who was going to be evicted when the park was to close July 1 due to budget cuts.
In April my sketch group decided to sketch things starting with “A” but I kept going with it. I had a lot of fun finding things about the people I sketched that started with A. Click on any of the pictures to see them larger with my notes in slide show format. As you’ll see from the times in the notes, I was working some long hours the past couple months which is why I’m so behind on posting. When time is limited I always choose painting over posting.
A Is for Anxious Guy
A Is For Age (and no teeth), ink sketch
A is for Avoiding Annoying Rap Music
A Is For African American on a Windy Day
A Is For Asian and African American. (Overheard: “You’re a fake human being.”)
A Is for Abject Poverty; Well organized homeless guy with shopping cart.
Back to Albina Street (Cathy sketching), ink & watercolor, 8×5.5″
We were fortunate to be invited back to the amazing Albina Street Victorian that I wrote about before here. The owners were so gracious to allow our entire Urban Sketchers group explore the house from top to bottom. They even served us lemonade and cookies in the garden.
I was interested in that curvy shape below the edge of the roof, a motif that is repeated throughout the exterior and interior of the house.
At the end of the evening we spread out our dozen sketchbooks for the owner to photograph for his scrapbook. I thought my sketch was rather boring but fortunately others in the group made up for my blah sketch. Cathy outdid herself with a half-dozen renderings of the rare and unique palms and other trees in the garden and Micaela captured some wonderful interior scenes.
When the others post their new Albina Street sketches on our Urban Sketchers blog you can see them here.
Temescal Clark Street Victorian, ink & watercolor, 5.5×8″
Although my wonky sketch makes it look rather spooky, this is actually a lovely, well-maintained home in the Temescal district of Oakland. I was sitting on the curb sketching at sunset and a woman walked by and said, “Oh, I just sketched that house yesterday!”
Temescal Alley Barber Shop door
We met for our Tuesday evening sketching in Temescal Alley, a historic semi-restored block of tiny shops that was formerly a horse stable. Temescal Alley Barber Shop is an amazing place with old-fashioned everything (except the barbers who are anything but old-fashioned). They were closing so I only had time to draw their door and barber’s pole but really want to go back and draw inside the shop.
Barber’s motorcycle, ink, 4×6″
Since all the other shops were closed I started drawing the motorcycle outside the barber shop. Then the barber closed up and drove off. So we walked down the street where we spotted the Victorian at the top of the post and sat down to sketch. We finished the evening at Scream, a tiny shop that sells tiny cups of homemade vegan sorbets, where we sat on a bench and shared our sketches.
View from Bull Valley Trail Staging Area, Crockett, ink & watercolor 5×8″
On the road home from the Port Costa adventure in my last post I spotted this barn and pulled off the road (this time actually managing to stay on the pavement!) into the Bull Valley Staging Area parking lot to sketch it.
When I finished I noticed a herd of cows grazing on the hill beside the parking lot and walked over to the fence to sketch them. As you can see, I know nothing about cows and these gals weren’t holding still for me.
Bull Valley Cow Scribbles, ink 5×8″
Then the strangest thing happened. A very old Asian man with very long whiskers and long hair, wearing only loose pants and flip-flops appeared in the cow pasture, walked up the hill through the cows and just kept on going until he disappeared. A guy with a camera was taking pictures of the cows and we looked at each other confused. We tried to figure out his story but could come up with nothing.
Burlington Hotel Cafe, Port Costa, ink & watercolor, 5×8″
My sketch trip to the funky little town of Port Costa got off to a rough start. On the way into town I spotted an interesting old school and pulled off the road to sketch it. Literally. Off the road. I didn’t spot the drainage ditch and my car ended up teetering with two wheels hanging and two wheels on the road.
Hanging off the roadBurly but nice tow truck guy
The tow truck driver was funny and took a movie of me and my car, dictating the facts of the case at the same time, I guess to prove to AAA that it was all fixed. I waved and smiled at his phone and said thanks.
Photo of Burlington Hotel Cafe
After my ordeal and late start I didn’t feel like setting up outside with the rest of my plein air group. I needed a place where I could relax and this charming café in the 100-year-old, disheveled Burlington Hotel was a delightful place to hang out.
A bunch of 20-somethings had stayed at the rundown, barely-renovated, bat-filled hotel for someone’s birthday and had drunk themselves silly slumming at the Warehouse (biker) Bar across the street the night before. Their hangovers and stories of their wild evening climbing fences along the railroad tracks provided amusement while I sketched.
A corner of the Albina Street Victorian, ink & watercolor, 8×5″ (sketched in ink on site, watercolor added at home),
Have you ever stood in front of an amazing house and wished the owner would appear and invite you inside? That’s exactly what happened to us when we were sketching the historic Albina Street house in Berkeley. The new owner (steward is a better word, and how he describes his role) bought the house just six months ago (only the third owner), and he and his family are clearly in love with the spectacular home and gardens with the huge variety of majestic palms and other trees.
He saw us sketching and invited us in for a full tour and made sure we were on the fourth floor roof deck to see the sunset. There were so many amazing architectural features (I know I keep saying “amazing” but other than “jaw-dropping” it’s the only way to describe the property), fascinating contraptions and attention to detail that I can’t even begin to list them.
Saints Peter & Paul Church, Ink & watercolor, 8×5.5″
We brought our lunches from Molinari’s Deli to Washington Square Park where we sat in the shade of a tree to eat and then sketch Saint Peter and Paul’s Church. I started in a smaller sketchbook first (below) and then decided to start over (above) in the larger watercolor Moleskine I’ve been using lately.
Saints Peter and Paul Church, 4×4″
Then we made the long walk to the Fisherman’s Wharf Holiday Inn for the Tease-O-Rama sketching. From there we walked down to Maritime Museum where I stamped the page (above) with their National Park rubber stamps when we arrived at Aquatic Park.
San Francisco Bay from Aquatic Park, ink & watercolor 16×5.5″
Above is the last sketch of the day, my view sitting on the stairs at Aquatic Park, across the street from Ghirardelli Square, the Sketchcrawl meet-up spot.
Golden Gate, Marin County and Aquatic Park (left side of spread)
Above is a bigger picture of the left side of the spread, looking out towards the Golden Gate Bridge on the left, Marin County in the middle, and people playing at Aquatic Park.
Marin County, Alcatraz and the Balclutha (right side of spread)
Behind the big ship Balclutha on the right (part of the San Francisco Maritime National Park), is Alcatraz. On the left is the ferry, taking people from San Francisco to Larkspur in Marin County. The bay was full of sailboats, kayaks and even people swimming on this unusually warm and sunny spring day.
I feel so blessed to live in such a gorgeous area with an incredible variety of people, places, and scenery! I’m also very grateful to both Enrico Casarosa who started the International Sketchcrawls and Gabi Campanero who created Urban Sketchers, and the opportunities their organizations offer for us to enjoy the art of sketching together.
Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School was holding a free Tease-O-Rama drawing session during the afternoon of the Sketchcrawl at a Holiday Inn. The models, all burlesque artists, were beautiful, with surprisingly natural bodies from heavy to thin, and without any apparent enhancements except makeup and feathers (and maybe wigs; their hair was just a little too perfect).
They were in town for a burlesque convention so the hotel was filled with people from this interesting subculture. Some looked quite ordinary when they changed out of their costumes (I was in the restroom when two ladies did that). Others were extraordinary in a variety of ways, costume or not (head to toe tattoos for example).
First pose of the day, ink & colored pencil, 8×5.5″
They really knew how to pose like pin-up girls and hold that come-hither look. The poses were each 15 minutes which was perfect. There were about 50 artists in the plush conference room, sitting audience-style in chairs, so I couldn’t get out my watercolor set. I just had my pens and a red watercolor pencil I borrowed from Cathy.
Least favorite model/sketch, ink & colored pencil
The model’s outfit above was actually white but so was her skinny body, which was kind of boring to draw. I used a Micron Pigma pen and black and yellow Pitt Artist Brush Pens and Cathy’s red pencil.
Miss Redd, in green, ink. (Watercolor added later) 8×5.5″
I was delighted to discover that I could to do a competent job at not only drawing the models, but also fitting them on the page. If you do any figure drawing, I’m sure you know how easy it is to end up with no room for the feet (or worse, the head)! Frequent drawing practice and study has led to my being able to better see the angles, shapes, negative space, and plumb lines within the subject, which makes drawing easier. Yay!
The next model was way too creepy for me: a guy wearing a rhinestone-studded gas mask, a sequined g-string and black leather body straps. My sketch buddy Cathy had left after the first model, wanting to be outdoors, and I decided this was a good time to join her.
More sketches from the beautiful outdoors in the next post.
Waiting with flowers at MacArthur BART Station (sketched standing on the platform and color added at home)
Sketchcrawl 35 was fantastic! The weather in San Francisco was unusually beautiful, warm and sunny and there was so much to see and do. I’m posting the sketches in three parts since what we saw in each part of the day was so different. Part I covers the trip into the city through lunch.
Reading an Actual BOOK on BART (paint added at home)
So rare to see someone reading a real book and not just fidgeting with their digital whatevers.
He reminded me of Jay from the movie Clerks
The guy in the sketch above reminded me so much of the slacker Jay from the movie Clerks I had to post this photo of him and Silent Bob below.
Jay and Silent Bob in Clerks
Thank goodness for the Internet or I would have been saying, “Doesn’t he look just like that guy in that movie….” and had no photo to show you.
Cathy and another sketcher at Caffe Trieste in North Beach (sketched and painted on site)
Cathy was sitting at my sidewalk table sketching someone behind me so I sketched her while the group gathered at Caffe Trieste, the starting point for the sketchcrawl. There was scaffolding over the entryway, which provided an interesting drawing challenge.
Molinari’s Deli where we bought lunch (sketched in the store, painted at home)
Cathy and I bought lunch for later and then stood in opposite corners of the store to sketch the counter guys at Molinari’s Deli in North Beach. (Click the link to Molinari’s to see the picture prominently displayed in their store of their salame with the Pope). They turned up their radio for the end of the Barcelona vs. Madrid soccer finals. It was fun hearing the super-excited announcer yelling the play-by-play in Spanish as a player ran down the field, made a goal and won the game.
Part II will be my drawings from Dr. Sketchy’s Tease-O-Rama and Part III is more in North Beach and Fisherman’s Wharf.
Jana Bouc, Artist 