Oakland Chinatown

Hing Wah Chinese Product on Webster Street - a bustling place with many shoppers any day of the week. A number of people stopped to see what I was doing. The mechanism on the roll-up door looked like it would be good into the next century!

Occupy the Farm

I wrote a long post a few days ago, but somehow it got lost it before I got it published. Here's the short version. Tuesday May 1, we visited Occupy the Farm, which is in Albany, CA on land owned by the University of California. This area is sometimes used for bio-testing of crops, and other times seems to lie fallow. It's currently being gardened by some people interested in the Occupy concept. A university spokeswoman arrived and warned us of arrest, but the police assured us we would not be arrested that day. We continued sketching as the sun was slowly falling behind the horizon. 

Occupy Cal

Although there had been an incident earlier in the day with a man pulling his gun at police at Haas School, it was unrelated to the Occupy movement. While we were sketching it was peaceful, and people were encouraging each other in non-violent expression.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Two sketches made at the Monterey Bay aquarium. It was fun to draw the flowing, repeating textures and patterns.

Drawing the same subject over and over again.

Do you ever draw the same subject over and over? I take my kids to a swim class pretty much every weekend, and I inevitably end up sitting in about the same spot ( to be near where they are) and sketch for about the same amount of time- 20 to 25 minutes. So now I have a whole bunch of sketches titled "Weekend Swim Class at Almaden Valley Athletic Club, San Jose"!

These 3 sketches are in chronological order, and while I sometimes think "not another pool sketch!" I think it's interesting to know a subject well from drawing it over and over- and to find interesting ways to look at the same scene.