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...

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...

People...

Some quick sketches from December and January...

waiting at the bank...

 a shopping break in Pasadena...






















A sketch from La Canada's animated post-Rose Parade display of its award-winning float (it doesn't hurt that there are a few rocket scientists living in La Canada...)

For the recent Worldwide Sketchcrawl, the Los Angeles group met downtown...lunch at the Grand Central Market, and sketching the ice skaters in Pershing Square before the ice rink goes down for the season...

and some very quick sketches at the LA Convention Center, during the Gift Show, LA Art Show and a meeting of Thoracic Surgeons...

Summer in L.A....

Sketching people in the Silver Lake neighborhood...

Looking down Sunset Blvd. at "antique" furniture for sale on the street, and the guys who load stuff into your car relaxing...

One thing I've learned about urban sketching, is that you never know what will cross your path!  I was sketching at the intersection of Sunset and Silver Lake Blvd. and suddenly around the corner a group of bicycle riders came whooping and hooting around the corner...without the usual bicycle gear!  Later I discovered that I just happened to witness the "Los Angeles World Naked Bike Ride".  What I especially noticed was the variety of shapes, colors, ages and sizes of the riders...

And some sketches from "Sunset Triangle", a tiny, green polka-dotted plaza at a Sunset Blvd. intersection in Silver Lake.  It's called "L.A.'s first pedestrian plaza conversion"...the bluesman was setting the mood at a little mid-week farmer's market with some casual riffs...

Shooting some hoops...

On a sunny afternoon, a group of men I took to be homeless gather on the green pocket park next to the Sunset Triangle plaza.  As I drew this, one man sang, "Who's gonna take me home tonight?"

In drawing homeless people, I don't want to take advantage of them...at the same time, on a day like this, it felt like to not draw them would be to ignore them...and they certainly have a presence here.

Occupy LA

These are a few quick sketches I made downtown

at the site of Occupy LA.  I did these on the day 

the city told everyone to pack up and leave by 

midnight...no one seemed to be in hurry to do 

that...and a few days later, the police finally came en masse to dismantle the encampment.  I felt I had to come see it for myself, and do what I do, which is draw..