Serrahna Boutique, Oakland

I used my complete palette to color the sketch from our night at Serrahna. The colors were overwhelming, a real delight and it was hard not to buy something beautiful!

Serrahna, ink, gouache, watercolor, 9x12in.

more Owl & Company Bookshop

This is a gem of a store. Piedmont Ave, Oakland near Cato's Ale House.

I wanted to spend even more time actually reading or at least browsing...next time!

Owl & Company Bookshop

Small but incredibly well-stocked used bookstore on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland.

Owl & Company Bookshop

Owl & Company Bookshop Interior

Owl & Company Bookshop cozy corner

Sketching in Graton, CA (Last November)

The town of Graton, just north of Sebastopol California is home to several notable restaurants including Willow Wood Cafe and Mexico Lindo. This morning our group of nine met outside the Cafe, artists lining Graton Road well into the afternoon. After huddling around a bench to review each other’s work, we enjoyed a tasty late lunch at Mexico Lindo, followed by a quick stop to check out local artists’ work at Graton Art Gallery. What a great day!

Joann Fabrics and Crafts

There were so many items to sketch, but the dress makers form and juxtaposition of sports fabrics and Hello Kitty materials caught my eye. Please see fellow sketchers' previous posts from Joann's.

Lunar New Year Celebration at the Oakland Musuem

Cymbals, drummers and dancers from the Lion Dance Opening Celebration of the Year of the Horse.

Meet the Sketcher: Susan Ford

Sibley Volcanic Preserve

With the exception of the company of my dog, sketching around town used to be a solitary experience, until someone turned me on to the Urban Sketchers. Sketching is even more fun when you do it with others.

I also enjoy hiking and sketching with other plein air painting groups. There are so many beautiful places to discover in Northern California.

Hayward Japanese Gardens

Lately I've been making a series of bird portraits, at once anthropomorphic and realistic.

Owl

See more bird art and sketches on my blog at http://susanfordland.blogspot.com

JoAnn's Fabric & Craft Store

JoAnn Framing Department

I was attracted to the display of frames which were very colorful.

Joanne Fabrics

Birdhouses - just a few!

Gnomes? Elves? Santas?

Joanne Fabrics has a huge variety of things to sketch. Fabric stores are sort of like general stores now, as few people sew. The gnomes (?) I finished coloring in Photoshop, which I guess makes it not "real" in a way, but it what's real anyway?!

Another Sketch from Cato's Ale House

Good sketching at Cato's with folks. Please see previous posts from fellow sketchers.

Small Japanese paper doll

Japanese paper doll, pigment liner and watercolor, 8x5in.

I found this small (5cm) paper doll that my mother bought at a crafts fair. She was told that it was made by a lady in the outskirts of Buenos Aires where many Japanese immigrants settled to establish nurseries and flower businesses. I was curious about their history and from what I read most of the came from Okinawa. There is a  bilingual newspaper and several cultural centers.

Cato's Ale House, Oakland

Lara at Cato's 

It was crowded at Cato's, although you wouldn't know it from my sketch. I got tired of drawing people from afar. It was more fun to talk with and draw the other sketchers who turned out that night.

It was our open sketch night (first Thursday of every month) when everyone's invited to come sketch with us. It was a sketch party!! We kept commandeering more and more tables. After a couple of hours, we shared our sketches on a big tabletop, shining phone flashlights down upon our drawings in the dimly lit room.

Yet One More Sketch from Looking Glass Photo

Lighting Equipment

Time, time, time.  Hoped I'd get to sketch some vintage camera equipment.  You know, like maybe an old large-format bellows camera on a wooden tripod? Right.

To the young photographers working at Looking Glass Photo, 'vintage' is a Nikon single lens reflex circa 1960's . . .  and me.

Flor del Ceibo, Erythrina crista-galli

Flor del Ceibo, ink and watercolor, 8x5in.

The "Ceibo", Erythrina crista-galli is the national tree of Argentina and the national flower of Argentina and Uruguay. It´s easy to identify them when they bloom by the deep red-violet flowers.

Carmel Mission

The Mission in Carmel  was founded in 1771 by Father Serra. It was teh headquarters of the California mission system of 21 missions. It was first remodeled in the 1880s and then remodeled again in the 1930s, a 30 year project. Father Serra is buried under the main alter.

Little Japanese vases

Japanese Vases, pigment liner and watercolor, 8x5in.

I enjoy looking at these delicate tiny vases (5cm tall) and just in case they break I sketched them.

El Tero, Southern Lapwing

Tombow marker and watercolor, tiny.

From Wikipedia: the Southern Lapwing (Vanellus chilensis) is a wader in the order Charadriiformes. It is a common and widespread resident throughout South America, except in densely forested regions (e.g. most of the Amazon), the higher parts of the Andes and the arid coast of a large part of western South America. This bird is particularly common in the basin of the Rio de la Plata.

Tero, Teru, Tero-teru are the common names given by the guaraní people and they are onomatopoeias of the sound they make.

Some More Sketches From Looking Glass Photo and Cameras

Camera Stand

It was fun sketching at the Looking Glass  Store!

Old Horns
Perhaps from a truck?

Citroën

Citroën, Tombow marker and watercolor, 8x5in

Perhaphs the cutest car ever made, at least for me. It looks like a frog and it runs jumping up and down like a frog. It`s fantastic to drive in muddy roads. I am not sure when it stopped being made but in Argentina it`s a cult item. This one was just painted with anti-rust paint.

Oh, I forgot to mention, in this case it`s a convertible.

Looking Glass Photo

 The staff at Looking Glass Photo was very welcoming to our sketch group. I asked them to show me the oldest camera they had in the shop and they brought me an original Nikon F to draw. This very heavy (film) camera was introduced in 1959. It was so durable it became known as the hockey puck. It was the camera used by photographers covering the Vietnam war and the first space launches in the 1960s. (Original price $186.) I also found a great lens and light meter in the resale cabinet to sketch.

Musée Mechanique

The very large and creepy Laughing Sal has terrified San Francisco children for generations. This sketch doesn't convey how truly weird she is. While I was sketching her, people would come by and put money in the slot to see her rock back and forth, waving her club-like fingers as a recording played echoing maniacal laughter.

The sketching group went to the Musée Mechanique in Fisherman's Wharf, with its collection of (mostly) antique penny arcade games and mechanical marvels.

These were both "Jolly Jack" puppets, from different cases, but their lumpy handmade faces (paper mache?) had very different personalities. They both had boneless slumping bodies and bizarre smiles, though. The longer I looked at them, the creepier they got.

On the bus on the way home I started drawing the woman on the left but she got off before I could do much. Fortunately the woman on the right stayed put longer.

The Raven Theater and Ravenous Cafe

Few things are more entertaining than seeing a live performance at a local theater followed by a cozy dinner. With television and the internet dominating today’s casual entertainment crowd, it’s a real pleasure to get out among the living and experience true 3D without the glasses.

The Raven Performing Arts Theater supports performances ranging from Classical (Philharmonia Healdsburg ), jazz (Healdsburg Jazz Festival), blues (Charlie Musselwhite), rock (Big Brother and the Holding Company), and variety shows such as Healdsburg’s home grown “Mr. Healdsburg” pageant. The Raven Players, Healdsburg’s resident theater group, also perform here, mounting ambitious and successful productions like Cats, Miss Saigon, and Chicago.

Performances like these are sure to work up an appetite, and next-door’s Ravenous Cafe is the perfect stop before or after a show. Seating up to 22 guests, this intimate spot features a menu that changes daily but often includes the ever popular crab cakes, fish tacos, and the famous Ravenous Burger.