The view from my car, parked on Shattuck Avenue, in North Berkeley at twilight.
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The view from my car, parked on Shattuck Avenue, in North Berkeley at twilight.
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I recently attended the Berkeley Symphony and sketched the musicians during the performance. As I’ve done in the past when sketching in a theater, I did the ink work in the dark and added the watercolor later on.
Initially when the lights came up these sketches looked like a bunch of squiggles. But as I began to paint what I could recognize, more and more hidden shapes – arms, bows, violins – revealed themselves.
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True to the “Crawl” part of SketchCrawl, Lisa and I recently spent a day in Napa sketching and visiting champagne wineries. We had a great time! We started at Domaine Carneros, where it was sunny and the views spectacular. Quite sketchable, and the champagne is divine!
We moved on the Mumm Winery and on the way stumbled upon an estate filled with thousands of tulips. It was absolutely stunning and we went back later for pictures and further investigation. By then it was raining, so we did our tulip sketches later from photographs.
We finished up at Domaine Chandon, tired but determined to sketch!
It was a wonderful, adventure-filled day. The weather was dramatic and the bubbles divine. It was Lisa’s idea to make the trek, and I must say it was inspired! She is moving to Texas now, in fact she’s on the road today, so our sketching adventures are on curtailed for now.
I will miss you Lisa!
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Last Sunday Lisa and I joined the intrepid San Francisco SketchCrawl group on a chilly grey morning at Ghirardelli Square, where over 60 artists turned out to sketch in and around the Fisherman’s Wharf area.
It took some fortitude to sketch in the windy open areas, but we were rewarded late in the day when suddenly the sun came out. By the time we all meet back at the starting point to share our sketchbooks it was downright balmy.
We had a great time exploring and sketching both indoors and out. I took some photos of the event as well, and Lisa and I finished the day in civilized manner with Irish Coffees at the Buena Vista Cafe.
SketchCrawl is an inspiring event which takes place several times a year. All over the world artists spend the day sketching, on their own or in groups, and then share their work online. It’s great fun and a good way to get yourself motivated to really do some drawing. Keep an eye on the SketchCrawl website for the next event and come on out!
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