Cafe Sketching

If you are an urban sketcher, you probably find yourself sketching in a cafe at one time or another...after all, it's a perfect opportunity to observe people.  A prefect place to make a quick sketch over a cup of coffee, or with the luxury of some time, a wonderful place to develop more of a story.   I encourage beginners to sketch in cafes, since you can usually find a quiet corner to be fairly discreet.  Amazingly, I've yet to have anyone ask me to leave, even when I've taken my time to finish a sketch...I'm very thankful that instead I'm either politely ignored, or encouraged with another cup of coffee or kind words! 

Saturday mornings over breakfast... or at the opening of the new Civil Coffee in Highland Park...

Breakfast on the road in a neighborhood cafe with the regulars in the desert town of Twentynine Palms...or back home in Los Angeles, at a local cafe or the wonderful Grand Central Market downtown...

At G&B Coffee in the early evening at the Hill Street entrance to the Market...

Pasadena...

Greeting the New Year at the Autry Museum...

More Catching Up!

More catching up here with sketching people around town--in cafes, at meetings, museums and other places...              

At newly opened Blue Bottle Coffee in Echo Park above...

Below...quick sketching at a bakery in La Canada and Lamill Cafe in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles...

A couple of sketches from the Highland Cafe, out on the sidewalk in Highland Park...

...and cafe society back at Lamill in Silver Lake...

If you're a  sketcher, you probably sketch in meetings!  Here, at Otis College...

Faculty...and students too...

The Rodin Sculpture  Garden at LACMA is a favorite place to sketch...occasionally someone stops to look at a sculpture, or has a picture taken mimicking the gesture, but most visitors seem to breeze by...

And the Sculpture Garden at the Getty Center...

Nothing better though, than sketching musicians...my talented friend Christina Ortega performing with her band at a fantastic Dia de Los Muertos celebration concert that she also produced in Pasadena, California...

At the Drawing Club...

I don't find my way to The Drawing Club at Gallery Nucleus nearly often enough these days, and miss it!  The best models in Los Angeles make regular appearances there...and always great themes.  Bob Kato and his crew create a wonderful environment with music, lighting and a background...not so many props as the old location, but the mood is there just the same.

Here are a few drawings from (fairly) recent visits...most all of these drawings are some combination of watercolor and gouache with pencil or crayon.

Larva as a wonderfully cinematic Cleopatra...

Debra brings the look and the attitude of 1950's glamour...

From some Sunday sessions...

Sarah Streeter is radiant in a Pre-Raphaelite theme (I often like my thumbnails better than drawings I spend more time on).

Mark is a very dignified character from the era of John Singer Sargent, and Larva sets the mood in an Edward Hopper-inspired theme...

Sketching People in Singapore...

Last year I was honored to teach a workshop at the Urban Sketchers Symposium in Singapore, "Light and Dark with a Punch of Color"...exploring Notan (Japanese word for the harmony of light and dark) in composition.  So, of course there was lots of sketching en route and in Singapore with the wonderfully generous and welcoming community of sketchers there.  Here are some of the sketches focusing on people...

Layover in Hong Kong...in the airport lounge, and getting ready to depart for Singapore...

My workshop location in Singapore was the Singapore Art Museum, a beautiful building formerly a mission school.  I sketched in an Italian-style coffee bar, and watched as a wedding photo shoot happened out the window...

After the Symposium, I was treated by my friend Don Low and his wife Kat to a wonderful afternoon at the zoo and evening at Long Beach Seafood, famous for the chili crab--a fabulous treat!  Don and I sketching here...

Next day, great fun sketching with Don, James Tan, Tony Chua and Teoh Yi Chie (aka Parka, known for parkablogs)...Marina Bay, spectacular Gardens by the Bay, and Chinatown...

Dinner at the Hawker Center in Chinatown...food in Singapore is so often a celebration...infinite variety and always delicious!

Next day, more sketching with more great Singapore sketchers in Kampong Glam...Somali Dasgupta, Francis Theo, Grace Liau and Dawn Lo...

My last night in Singapore...a late dinner at The Better Field, a little neighborhood bistro...