Recently I was at the venerable Claremont Hotel on the Berkeley/Oakland border for a meeting. It’s a grand old structure, mostly white, at the foot of the East Bay Hills.
I did make some pencil guidelines first on this one; that perspective was tricky!
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Saturday was the 13th SketchCrawl, and we had our first official East Bay Crawl. About 30 people showed up to sketch in and around the U.C. Berkeley campus.
The weather was outstanding, and there were lots of great subjects to draw. We met at 11:00am at the West end of campus near BART, and worked our way around and through various buildings. We had a brief meeting at 2:00, and then about 15 of us met up at the Cafe Strada at 5:00 pm to share coffee, sketches and tips. It was a great group of friendly sketchers. […more below]
The Life Sciences Building has T. Rex and Pterodactyl skeletons, as well as other interesting bones to draw. The Anthropology Museum was also open and provided sketching material, but I wanted to stay outdoors in the beautiful weather. I had forgotten how beautiful the campus can be, and I went to school there and live only 1/2 mile away! I will definitely be back there for more sketching soon.
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Last weekend was cool, but sunny. A friend and I took a hike in the East Bay hills, in the Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve. From the top you can stand in one spot and see San Francisco, Mt. Tamalpais in Marin, and Mt. Diablo to the East all at the same time. That’s hard to do from the ground!
The park is the site of several small dormant volcanos and an old rock quarry. It’s a geologist’s dream. There are also at least four man-made rock and grass labyrinths. Here is a view looking down on one, with the Bay and Mt. Tam in the distance.
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Recently I was in Seattle on business and managed to sneak away to do a few sketches. The new Olympic Sculpture Park is beautifully situated above the water and brilliantly designed. It features stunning views in multiple directions and plenty of expansive space in which to set off the works from striking angles.
There was a sign saying that the Oldenburg was not to be photographed, but it didn’t say anything about sketching. 🙂 Some teenagers were admiring the sculpture but had no idea what it was supposed to be: I explained, but I don’t think they believed me!
The Pike Place Public Market is another interesting site full of sketching possibilities. It is a bustling place, filled with stands overloaded with prime specimens of every imaginable kind of food. Just looking at those vegetables will make you healthy! 🙂 Sadly, I only had time to sketch it from afar, looking down Pike Street.
Related Post: Produce Market
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