Fun and Funky Crockett, CA

Crockett's main drag, view from deli, ink and watercolor 10x8 in

Inspired by a wonderful urban plein air painting workshop and demo by one of my favorite artists, Randy Sexton, I sketched the main street in the funky little town of Crockett that houses his studio, Epperson Gallery and a tattoo parlor. Randy is one of the nicest gentlemen I've ever met, as well as a highly skilled and talented painter, and a gifted teacher. (More on JanasJournal.com)

Sketching at the Laundromat

Solano Laundromat, ink and watercolor 10x8 in

Here's a quickie from sketch night at the laundromat, a favorite place of mine to sketch. I'm glad I have my own washer and dryer so I don't have to go there to do laundry, but I do enjoy the perspective challenges and patterns of rows of rectangles, circles and black and white shapes, as well as the little still life of soap and baskets.

Susan's Dinner at Gaumenkitzel

Susan's Dinner, graphite and gouache,7x9 inches

When we met a Gaumentkitzel for sketch night I'd already had dinner so just ordered a decaf and sketched Susan's dinner instead. I added gouache at home. Here is Susan's sketch and photo of the same meal and here are a bunch of sketches from this charming and friendly Berkeley restaurant.

Pallet Space, Junk Shop

Sketching Miscellaneous Junk at the Pallet Space, ink and colored pencil

The Pallet Space is or was (I think it was going out of business when we were there) a sort of storefront flea market fully of "treasures and trash" where we had fun sketching random junk one evening. 

Tacubaya on 4th Street, Berkeley

Sketching from under the awning in front of Tacubaya on 4th Street, Berkeley, ink and watercolor 5x7 inches

Sketchcrawl 46: Bernal Heights, San Francisco

SF Bernal Heights Sketchcrawl, ink, watercolor, gouache, 7.5 x 11"

It was great seeing old friends and my regular sketching buddies on a beautiful day in San Francisco for Sketchcrawl 46. I got there late (as usual) so I sketched in one spot and drew what I could see from a bench in the shade on the porch in front of the Bernal Heights library. More about the day on my blog JanasJournal.

Oakland Aviation Museum P-51 Mustang and Helicopter

P-51 Mustang 3/4 scale replica

I thoroughly enjoyed sketching at the Oakland Aviation Museum. It was great being surrounded by so many flying machines.

Hiller Helicopter and a random sea plane (I think)

I was surprised how you could see all the rivets that held the sections of metal together. My mother was riveter in WWII and might have even riveted one of the planes. Even though most of the planes in the museum were actually flown, they looked so handmade close up.

Every Day in May 2014: Day One: Window (and Cat)

EDIM 2014 #1-Window. Ink, white Sharpie and watercolor, 5x7 in

May 1 means it's time for Every Day in May. Each year the Every Day Matters Group (Facebook) (Flickr) posts a list of cues and members commit to doing one drawing a day, all month long. Anyone can join and participate.

The cue for day one is "Window." My calico cat Fiona snoozing in her fuzzy bed, on a blanket, in a box from Costco, beneath the window in my home office, on a sunny (too hot) day was fun to draw.

Picante, Waitress at Work

Picante Service Area, ink and watercolor, 5.5x8 in

I used a Pentel Tradio Pulaman Fountain Pen for drawing at Picante Mexican restaurant. I love this pen with its smooth chisel tip. Since it isn't waterproof I could add washes of water to make the gray areas. But Picante is such a colorful place I had to add a little color too. I ordered delicious fish tacos but was too hungry to draw them.

Cato's Ale House, Oakland

Cato's Ale House, Oakland. Ink & Watercolor 5.5 x 10 in

When we planned the Urban Sketching evening for Cato's, a great old pub in Oakland, little did we know that a large group of Kaiser doctors were also planning a happy hour event that night too. The place was totally packed but a large group of urban sketchers made it work anyway. We gathered around several tables and sketched eaters, drinkers and sketchers (and in my case, dinner).

Urban Avians: Birds by the Freeway

A Family of Pigeons Living on the Freeway Wall

Snowy Egret at the marsh beside the freeway by Albany Bulb

While I was having my car’s oil changed at Toyota Albany I took a hike down to the SF Bay Trail to sketch. I followed a confusing bike and walking path that goes under the freeway and leads to the marsh on the way out to Albany Bulb, a spit of land homesteaded by the homeless that the city is constantly trying to reclaim. 

There were birds everywhere, including the beautiful, delicate white Snowy Egrets that always delight me and the pigeons happily (?) living beside the roar of traffic.

Trying to understand the basic shape and differences between the shorebirds

Empress Hornblower at the Northern Berkeley Marina

Empress Hornblower at Sunset, ink and watercolor, 5×7 in

The Empress Hornblower is part of a fleet of party boats moored behind a ritzy hotel at the northern Berkeley marina, an area long-time residents remember as the old Berkeley dump.

Before "ecology" and "global warming" were common words, cities dumped their garbage, old cars, construction rubble, etc. in the San Francisco Bay. As they filled in the bay with garbage, they created new land on which they built housing, freeways, and, when they finally closed the dump, parks and hotels.

World News Box at Clark Kerr Campus

World News on Clark Kerr Campus, ink and watercolor, 7x5 in

This bright red Chinese newspaper box on the Clark Kerr Campus immediately drew my attention when we arrived to sketch. Built in the 1930s as a residential school for the blind, the University of California Berkeley later bought the complex for student housing. Clark Kerr's beautiful, serene grounds and Spanish style buildings provide an oasis of sketching opportunities in the middle of a busy urban area.  

More about this on JanasJournal.com

Emergency Response After Propane Tanker Truck Overturn

Emergency response vehicles. Ink and watercolor, 7x5 in

A propane double tanker truck lost control and turned over at a freeway entrance/exit near my home around 3:00 in the morning. The emergency response teams evacuated people from nearby homes and businesses, including a nursery school, and then cordoned off two blocks on either side of the freeway. Oddly, they allowed traffic to continue flowing on the overpass right above the truck.

I didn't realize any of this was going on until I tried to drive somewhere and couldn't get on the freeway. I figured out another route, did my errands, and when I got home walked down to the scene with my sketchbook, paints and stool.

When I finished my sketch and headed home at 5:00 p.m. the fleet of emergency vehicles (including police, fire, utilities, and the Red Cross) and the small army of responders were just beginning to leave. Some of the evacuated residents were sitting on the curb, still waiting to be allowed back home. Fortunately nobody was hurt and the propane tanker didn't leak. I'm so glad I live outside the evacuation area; I don't know where I would have gone at 3:00 in the morning!

Washington Square Park in NYC's Greenwich Village

Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village

I've been posting pictures and stories from my art trip to New York City on JanasJournal.com. In today's post is the story of fellow SF Urban Sketcher Micaela's arrival in New York and our adventures getting to Greenwich Village. Here's a sketch from that day.

Flying to New York: Oakland and Chicago Airport Sketches

Waiting at the Oakland Airport

My flight to New York City was supposed to only stop in Chicago to unload and load passengers. But mechanical problems led to a wait in the Chicago airport and then changing planes.

Seat-back tray still life and sketches of people waiting at the Chicago Airport

But after getting on plane number two, they informed us it was no good either, and we had to again return to the terminal to wait for a third plane. 

More waiting at the Chicago Airport

You can read the whole story on JanasJournal here. 

Seeing Is Believing or Drawing Is Seeing? Zach's Snacks on Berkeley's Northside

Zach's Snacks on Berkeley's Northside, Ink & Watercolor, 5x7"

They say, "Seeing is believing." I say, "Going through life without drawing is like being nearly blind. Only when I stop to look in order to draw, do I really see!"

Berkeley's Euclid Avenue ends at the north side of University of California's Berkeley campus (the greenery on the right, above). This block has everything you'd expect for a street abutting a college: shops with pizza, beer, coffee, burgers, snacks, and oh yeah, books.

There is some great architecture in this neighborhood too, including this apartment building with a snack shop tucked away in a little basement room. I've probably walked past here a hundred times and never noticed the interesting features of this building, with porches, pillars, carved wood decorations, fancy brickwork, and cool old lanterns.

Only when I stopped to draw and started really looking did I see what was there all along.

Dream Fluff Donuts

Dream Fluff Donuts, Berkeley, ink & watercolor 5x8

Sketched from a table inside Espresso Roma across the street at the corner of Ashby and College Ave. in Berkeley. I used to be a donut connoisseur and knew all the donut shops in town but only ever sampled Dream Fluff's once. I stay away from donuts now except when it comes to drawing the shop.

Top of Solano, Berkeley

Top of Solano, Berkeley, ink & watercolor 5x8"

When Cathy said, “Let’s sketch at the top of Solano Avenue Tuesday night” I chose to literally sketch the top of Solano: looking up and drawing the tops of streetlights, buildings and trees.

It’s common here to refer to the “top” and “bottom” of streets when they’re on a hill, and 2-mile long Solano is on a slight incline as it runs from the start of the Berkeley Hills at The Alameda (just a street, but for some reason called “The Alameda”), down almost to the bay. I sat at a table outside a cafe and sketched the view at sunset. There are so many beautiful trees in Berkeley!

Lake Chalet Plumbing, Milk and Rocks

Lake Chalet (and Plumbing) on Lake Merritt, Oakland. Ink & watercolor, 5×7.5″

What attracted me to draw this scene wasn't the lovely Lake Chalet building; it was the multiple plumbing features on the grass that slopes down to the restaurant from the sidewalk where I sat to draw. And of course the antique street lights that circle the lake.

Milk Carton at Picante, ink & watercolor, 5×5″

 I struggled trying to draw these two milk cartons so issued a challenge to the other sketchers at my table to draw them too. We all had a different view of the cartons set in the middle of the table so it was fun to see the variety of approaches and points of view.

Drawing Rocks Practice on Sculpture at Oakland Museum, ink & watercolor, 5x7x5″

After a workshop on drawing rocks (part of John Muir Laws' Bay Area Nature Journal Club) Susan and I walked down to the Oakland Museum's sculpture garden, looking for rocks to practice on. The only rock-like object we could find was this clay sculpture.