Alviso Slough

Alviso is a small, distinct community in the northern end of San  Jose.  I sketched where the  Guadalupe River and Coyote Creek converge into the Alviso and Mud Sloughs out into the SF Bay.

Historically, Alviso was the boating and shipping port of San Jose. Steamboats travelled between Alviso and San Francisco. Now elevated pathways with gated doors cross the sloughs for hikers and birdwatchers.

Fishermen visit the sloughs as well. (I got sketchier at the end of the day!)

where they love...for a living

She is on the phone and does her nails as we sit down next to them. We are waiting for a bus to leave San Jose airport. She and the other girl next to her are also waiting for something. They look bored and hardly talk. They are friendly to each other, but aren't friends. After a while, two middle aged men approach from the airport terminal. One in shorts and a polo shirt, the other in slacks wearing a baseball cap -  'Betty Ford clinic' .  The men grin and excitement is apparent in their eyes as they approach. The girls put on a professional smile as they welcome their foreign visitors. 'Let's go and get a car.' 

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Animals, animals, animals!

Our local zoo, Happy Hollow Park and Zoo, in San Jose brought some wild animals to the library. We just HAD to go! Here are a few of our furry ( and scaly and feathered) friends:




And, we went to San Diego Wild Animal Park over Presidents Day weekend. More sketches, made as we walked around the Park.
Strange striped beasts:


I love the flamingoes. If there is a sketching equivalent of 'photogenic' they are just that.


Lots more sketches on my blog or my flickr stream

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.