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...

Catching Up!

With the beginning of the new year, it's time to start catching up here!

So, I'll start by sharing sketches of people out and about from last year...
Some quick sketching...

A meeting at Otis College...




and sketching in downtown Los Angeles near the Central Library, where Robert Graham's "Source Figure" graces the top of the Bunker Hill Steps...

I began studying Notan (the harmony of light and dark) in preparation for my workshop for the Singapore Urban Sketchers workshop, so I did lots of monochromatic studies, including people in urban environments...

At Mission San Juan Capistrano...

...and at one of my favorite places to visit and sketch, Olvera Street, sometimes adding a punch of color for emphasis...

A pencil and watercolor sketch at Heritage Square on "Museums of the Arroyo Day"...

...on a Pasadena street corner...

Sketching at another favorite downtown Los Angeles location, the Grand Central Market...

...And then back to Olvera Street, sketching the Aztec dancers who perform in the plaza...









And a surprise appearance of a tour bus and a news crew from Telemundo, interviewing the group La Adictiva from Mexico, in their elegant, shiny gray suits...I was caught sketching and was interviewed in Spanish...sorry to say I wasn't at all sure exactly what was said there!

 More practice with Notan with some color added...

 

Spending a bit more time pencil, watercolor and gouache on tan paper to try to catch the flavor of this wonderful place.  Olvera Street is the oldest street in Los Angeles, and in spite of all the tourists who come and go, there is a feeling of community here.  

And finally, my favorite Olvera Street moment...late afternoon on Friday in the Plaza, and wonderful cumbia music begins to play.  Couples start dancing in the shade of the huge fig tree...

Quick Sketching

...people doing everyday things...

...having lunch on the weekend 

at the Getty Center, or at Gordon Biersch in Burbank...

...at Mo's in Burbank, where I went for a "calming restorative"--coffee and breakfast, actually, after visiting my accountant.  Jay stands at right chatting about the ups and downs of the entertainment business with a regular, and Kyle mans the front desk.  It's quiet before the lunchtime rush from the nearby studios.  Jay catches me in the act of sketching, and he very kindly comped my breakfast!

Men working in the parking lot at Costco, while shoppers come and go and I sit sketching while waiting for new tires...

 The 39th Worldwide Sketchcrawl coincided with the Downtown Burbank Art Festival, so the Los Angeles group met there on an overcast, gray morning...some local musicians in a great jazz band in front of a shopping center...










...and the great character model, John Tucker poses as a cowboy in front of the "Bank of the West" for anyone who wants to sketch him, as part of CTN (Creative Talent Network) which teamed up with the Art Festival

...and quick sketches with lunch of my fellow shoppers and some sellers at one of my favorite Los Angeles places, the downtown Grand Central Market...

The Grand Central Market...

To anyone who has kindly checked in here now and then, my apologies for getting so far behind!  It's definitely time to update...

One of the greatest places in Los Angeles
to watch and draw people is the
Grand Central Market downtown...
on the last couple of visits--"Economy Meats"
and Valeria's--where you can get
just about any kind of dried chile...

...fresh vegetables and fruit too!

More sketches of people out and about...

At the Grand Central Market in downtown
Los Angeles...

...as part of the urban landscape...

...and at Huntington Gardens...

More People...

At last taking some time to post more people sketched out and about!

The elegant Trio Los Brilliantes performing at a local Swap Meet...

Lunch at the Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles...

A restless morning crowd at a nearby cafe...

Lunch in Burbank with two big groups on a Friday sitting back to back, one from Disney, the other from Dreamworks...and at the Huntington--tourists and a plant sale...