UC Berkeley sketches

UC Berkeley, dip pen, colored ink and watercolor, 9x12in

I did a little sketch crawl around the Berkeley campus drawing and enjoying the beautiful spring weather.

Save the Post Office Rally, Berkeley

Save the Post Office, dip pen and colored inks, 9x12in

Many people gathered in front of the Maudelle Shirek Building to protest against the closure of the Main Post Office in downtown Berkeley. The rally was followed by an official public meeting. 

Last light in Point Reyes Station

Point Reyes Station, pencil, pigment liner and watercolor, 9x12in.

It was getting dark and cold in the town but since I had not done any drawing during the day I stayed a bit later than usual and tried to capture the last light in the windows.

Poultry and Pork on the Hook at 99 Ranch Market

Fish at 99 Ranch and Shop Girl at Ten Ren's Tea Time

We made our annual pre-Chinese New Year sketching visit to 99 Ranch Market and the Pacific East Mall with some new sketchers who joined us for our monthly Urban Sketchers First Tuesdays sketch night.

I headed first to the fish department and we ended the evening at the Ten Ren's Tea Shop (both above).

Pork Bung Gut $6.50/lb.

After the fish, I went where the Peking Ducks hang and was surprised to see a small pork carcass hanging there too (on the right above). I drew it first, and then found myself in a race with a woman taking down the ducks to clean up for the night. She won the race and I ran out of ducks so I copied the menu instead.

You can read more about the evening on my blog, JanasJournal here with links to previous visits, and be sure to see my friends' great sketches from the evening below and linked here: Susan's,  Micaela's, Cathy's, and Ceiny's.

The Pub on Solano

The Pub, pigment liner and watercolors, 9x12in

 It was warm and cozy indeed. Great place to become a usual customer and get to know interesting people.

Cold Night, Warm Fire

We sketched at The Pub on Solano Avenue in Albany, a combination neighborhood bar and tobacco shop.  They pride themselves on not having a website--and on encouraging patrons to talk with one another around the fireplace over beer or coffee or wine.  

They've been there since 1983, and I've passed by countless times, noticing customers sitting outside on the elevated deck under umbrellas, but I'd never been inside.  Another benefit of being part of this sketching group!  

Plates & Ale at Pyramid Brewery

Sketching People from above and Apricot Ale, ink & watercolor, 5x8"

I started the evening by sketching from the second floor looking down at Pyramid Brewery. Then I got hungry and joined the group in a booth. I ordered the Apricot Ale the menu recommended with my Blackened Salmon dinner and sketched it while I waited for my food.

Plates at Pyramid, ink & watercolor, 5x8"

Wedged into a corner of the booth I drew what I could see from my seat.

Flights of Mind, Berkeley Public Library

Cakes and Ale

Tickle Your Tastebuds: Gaumenkitzel

Sketching the Pastries

 When we visited Berkeley’s very colorful Gaumenkitzel Restaurant, they offered us a large “community” table where we could sketch and snack all evening. After most of the other customers had left, one sketcher pulled her chair right up to the pastry case to get a better look. Gaumenkitzel means “Tickle Your Taste Buds.” Just saying the name feels tickly on the tongue.

Susan's Beer

I sketched the back of Susan’s beer while she drew the more decorative front. Click their names to see more sketches from the evening by Ceiny and Cathy.

Time and Books Fly at the Berkeley Library

I was so  late and rushed into the Berkeley Library to join my sketching group. I was stopped in my tracks by the wonderful flock of books above the students in their carrels and computer stations. The installation, "Flights of Mind" by Vita Wells , temporarily hovers  in the atrium of the Berkeley Public Library through February 24, 2013.  Please see fellow sketchers' posts on this blog and visit  the library to experience the installation yourself!

Soledad Barrio y Noche Flamenca, Zellerbach Hall

I brought my sketchbook to sketch the interior of Zellerbach Hall but when the show started I decided to do blind contours instead. I liked the results and I also did one for the second half of the performance. It was a great show. At home I added some color pencil to the figures that I could recognize.

Noche Flamenca, Art pen and
colored pencils, 9x12in

Noche Flamenca, Art pen and
colored pencils, 9x12in

"An Illustrated Journey" Now Available

I’m excited to announce the arrival of “An Illustrated Journey” by Danny Gregory. I was one of 40 artists, illustrators and designers chosen to collaborate with Danny on this book about travel sketching. I  received my copy today and have just flipped through the pages of the new book. I can assure you'll see some familiar Urban Sketcher's work. Pick up your copy today!

Berkeley Main Library

"Flights of Mind" is an installation by Vita Wells in the atrium of the main library in downtown Berkeley.  The piece, a flock of flying books, "celebrates possibility and community across space and time" and will be up until Sunday 2/24.

Looking up through the installation at Susan drawing the exhibit from the second floor.

  

Looking through an interior window to a replica of a lantern and restoration of ceiling beam stenciling from the original 1931 Art Moderne-style building, designed by architect James Plachek.

Lining up for Coffee

Waiting and Watching in Line at Peet's Coffee, Ink, 5x8"

I love the way the big guy seems to be furtively watching the pretty girl in her shiny black tights. In reality they got in line at different times.

One of the things I love about living in the Bay area is the wide variety of people you see, dressed however they please, with either no concern about fashion or a style all their own. I fit right in!

99 Ranch Market

When we visited the market I brought a large Moleskine sketchbook and a black pen. I added color later. Knowing that the paper does not take watercolor very well helped me add only accent colors and not paint the whole sketch.

Pliny the Younger

Each February, Russian River Brewery in Santa Rosa releases their award winning beer, Pliny the Younger. In 2009, Beer Advocate magazine declared it one of the best beers in the world, and the buzz has been growing ever since. Beer lovers line up for hours to get their hands on a 10oz glass of this gold colored bliss. But to my thinking, “it’s just a beer, isn’t it?”

Well, yesterday my friend Phil and I decided to taste the beer for ourselves and made the 10 mile trek to the brewery. We drove up at 1 pm to find a block-long crowd, so I got in line while Phil found parking. The aroma of malt drifted in the air. I had a flashback then of high school days, and the excitement of standing in line for rock concert tickets.

We took turns waiting and sketching. During my shift, I chose to capture the action at the pub’s entrance.

An hour later, a group of hula hooping women arrived to entertain the patient crowd, boom box thumping hip hop as they twisted and rolled to the beat. Two hours later we arrived at the patio gate entrance, each patron’s ID carefully scrutinized, even grey haired men. After receiving our bright yellow wrist band, hand scrawled with the word Pliny, we entered to find yet another checkpoint just inside. “Would you like to put your name on the list for a table?” The hostess asked us. We had come seeking beer and lunch; now, approaching dinner time, we decided to go with the flow.

“There should be about a 45 minute wait,” the hostess informed us. At this point, we figured, what the heck?

At first the crowd and noise overwhelmed, but we soon settled into the rhythm of the place. The bar was surrounded two people deep, but somehow we made it up to order two coveted Plinys. Raising chilled glasses, we toasted our diligence and each took a sip of the golden liquid. “Delicious!” I proclaimed and Phil agreed. Pliny the Younger is a triple hopped pale ale with a creamy head and the freshest hops I’ve ever tasted with none of the bitterness I expected, but instead balanced and silky smooth with citrus notes and a bright, flowery nose and the hint of a caramel finish.

A woman, introducing herself as Merry (“as in Christmas”) Sue, asked if she could set down her glass on the counter beside us. We all traded notes on the beer and on what we’d experienced to taste it, agreeing that it was worth it.

Thirty minutes later we ordered a pizza, a plate of spicy wings, and another round of Pliny. The first bite of pepperoni and sausage dotted pizza revealed perfectly fused crust, sauce, and cheese. The hot and tangy wings left my mouth watering, and we devoured these too, using Pliny to cool our mouths.

As afternoon turned into evening, we paid the bill knowing it was time to head home. But considering the time it took to get in the brewery and how much fun we had while here, it seemed a shame to leave so soon.

Penniman House at Shadelands Museum

Penniman House at Shadelands Ranch Museum

While I was in Walnut Creek I stopped at the Shadelands Ranch Museum to sketch. It's a massive and complicated building so before I tackled it, I started with the water fountain below as a warm-up.

Water fountain and thumbnail sketches

On the left of the water fountain I did little thumbnail sketches to try to figure out how to fit the house onto my paper. More about the day on my blog, JanasJournal.com.

99 Ranch Market

This huge market in Richmond has an abundance of Asian foods and, at this time of year, Chinese New Year decorations and sweets.  Lots of people come here to shop. . . and to eat dinner.

Sue Johnson lamps

There are so many wonderful, unusual lamps, in all sizes, shapes, and colors - it's almost overwhelming. I had to concentrate on one small area of lovely lamps.

a little Taiwanese shop near 99 Ranch Market

Taiwanese Puppets

I did the ink drawing standing in front of their window, and painted it later using a photo for color reference. These particular puppets are handmade, hand-stitched, hand-formed clay head and hands. They are all characters from stories. 

My Taiwanese friend said until fairly recently, there were small traveling companies of puppeteers who would tell the stories in serial, presenting sequential parts in one small town after another in Taiwan. His father's generation used to sneak out to the towns before and after them in the circuit so they could see more of the story! Now they are on tv 24/7.

99 Ranch Market

 

A visit to the fish market may have you considering veganism and a PETA membership.

 

Ten Ren's tea and ginseng, El Cerrito

Ten Ren's El Cerrito, 9x12in

Ten Ren's is a great place to draw. They have lots of colorful jars and boxes and a very interesting tea table were we sat while sipping a good cup of tea. The staff is extremely friendly and as compared to the hallways of the mall it was nice and warm.

I used pencil, pen and ink, watercolors and gouache. I muddied the colors and I ended up rubbing and going over with gouache. My sketchbook has good paper and the page survived.

Norman Rockwell Exhibit

There was a wonderful exhibit of Norman Rockwell's paintings at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. Watching the visitors was as much fun as seeing the paintings. Many of them would have been perfect subjects for one of the Saturday Evening Post covers.

S. F. Cable Car Museum

Ticket Machine and Street Lamp, ink & watercolor, 8x5"

We rode BART and a cable car to the Cable Car Museum in San Francisco to sketch. I had to first draw some of the antique street "furniture" on display—an old Cable Car Ticket Machine and a street lamp. The tickets were only 25 cents then. Now they are $6.00 a ride! 

Cables that still power the cable cars, ink & watercolor, 5x8"

The museum was built around and above the massive cable system that still runs the cable cars. The guy in the sketch above stands on a platform about 20 feet up to supervise (?) the cables that run through multiple sets of huge gears in the basement level of the building and then go out under the streets to pull the cable cars up the steep hills. 

Cable Car Museum, ink & watercolor, 8x5"

It was extremely LOUD in the museum so it felt great to get outside and sketch the  museum from across the street. For more sketches of cable cars and the museum, click here to see Cathy's.