Summer sketching at The Drawing Club

...always great to be back at
The Drawing Club!

...and, the "The Drawing Club: Master the Art of Drawing Characters from Life" is now available!  Bob Kato, the creator of The Drawing Club, has written a wonderful book showcasing many of the artists who have gathered there since 2002, and the book includes lots of great tips on drawing.  I'm pleased and honored to be a part of it.

Sara Streeter creates a wonderful
Midsummer Night's Fairie...

Keith as Ned Land from "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", and a trip to Oz with Daniella
as an elegant "Wicked Witch"...

Really Quick Sketching at the Otis Fashion Show

...Every year the graduating seniors of the Otis College Fashion Department put on a show...not just a runway, but a fantastic full-on show!  The students work with all kinds of industry mentors...and the show really moves!  I sketch as fast as I can to try to catch something...a feeling or a silhouette, and added most of the color afterwards...



Tumbling and dancing kids start the show...

followed by Eddie Bauer sportswear envisioned for the future...

 Fashion inspired by the wonderfully
vivid colors of architect Luis Barragan...

Dancing through the decades of the 20th century, in partnership with Western Costume...












...and the first time I've seen plus-size fashion featured in the show...Isabel Toledo for Lane Bryant...

Out sketching people...

in springtime--
at Descanso Gardens in La Canada...
on a warm weekend afternoon, the entrance is buzzing with visitors...

climbing on rocks
at the waterfall...

 ...in the Japanese Garden, a couple poses for a photo, and seems to merge into one...

...and on a quiet Memorial Day afternoon,
Descanso is a wonderful place to sit or wander, and remember...

A Few Drawings from The Drawing Club...

Not so many visits to The Drawing Club

lately...and I really miss it!  Here are a few...

John Mackey is a great

Chaplin...

...Daniella returns as the perfect Egon Schiele model...

...and Malo reposing in a Sargent-inspired theme...

Road to Palooza

...another great show directed by Stefan Haves, Comic Act Designer with Cirque du Soleil, this time at the Pasadena Playhouse.  It was a kind of modern vaudeville variety show, featuring artists who have starred in Cirque du Soleil shows around the world, mixed with local comics, magicians, jugglers, acrobats and musicians.  I loved trying to catch the action by sketching non-stop...

 Street performers greeted us in the
courtyard of the theater...

My favorite act was this very surreal, giant puppet-clown with impossibly long arms balancing his red balloon ball...on either side here, a troupe of "Stomp" style performers with percussive washing machines...

 A tap dancer extraordinaire, and broom-juggling "janitor"...

This guy was billed as the "world's greatest hula hoop artist", and I don't doubt it...

People

...in a panoramic sketchbook format, thinking of ways to create more of a story...

At the Getty Center...

India Sweet and Spices, a big Indian grocery store with a vegetarian restaurant...a picture of Yogananda smiles beneficently from behind the counter and a grandmother sits and watches all that happens.  All kinds of people shop in here for treats and delicacies, and watch musicals from Bollywood...















At the eastern end of Echo Park on Sunset is a great taco restaurant...Guisados.  Office workers from downtown gather here for lunch...

Olvera Street, the oldest part of Los Angeles...a great place for a post-Barcelona Urban Sketchers reunion with Shiho, Chris and John...

  ...and then in anticipation of teaching a sketching on location workshop at Descanso Gardens again, I spent some time in the garden, making small sketches, back to the basics of line, shape and tone (which I never get tired of!)