Lunar New Year Celebration

Tonight is the annual Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco. It is often raining for the parade but tonight will be warm and clear so the crowds should be larger than the usual.  Started in the 1860's it is one of the few remaining night illuminated Parades in the country with over 100 units. In 2012 I posted sketches of the parade. A few weeks ago I went to the Lunar Flower Market, a fair in Chinatown that featured a smaller parade on Grant Avenue. The whole area was decorated for the celebration with red paper signs, banners and lanterns. These sketches are from that day.

Sketching on last day of 2013

Lots of activity in Oakland's Chinatown on the last day of the year.

Oakland Chinatown

Chinatown, Oakland, ink & watercolor, 5x8"

Early on the morning after Thanksgiving our Urban Sketchers group went to Oakland’s Chinatown for some sketching. It was business as usual in the busy produce markets, herb shops, meat and seafood stalls, and Chinese restaurants, with no sign of Black Friday.

I started in pencil because the scene seemed so complicated. It’s easier to get it “right” with an eraser but it takes so much longer to draw it twice, in pencil and then in ink and it looses some of it's verve. Plus I had to add the watercolor at home from a photo because by the time I chose my spot and did the drawing, it was time to meetup with the group.

While I drew, local people stopped to watch and give me encouragement, whether in excellent or broken English. My favorite was the plump, elderly lady who said something in Chinese, grinned, and gave me a big thumbs up. The amazing thing about sketching in public is that no matter how good or bad you’re doing, people always say nice, encouraging things.

You can see more of the group's photos from our morning in Chinatown by Sonia here, by Cathy here, and Micaela here.

Chinatown Market

Vietnamese Market
Chinatown, Oakland, CA
Nov 23, 2012
Please see postings by fellow sketchers.

 

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!