Oh frabjous day, callou callay! Sketches from the weekend.

I did more drawings. But still not as much as most of the Sketchcrawl horde. I'm enjoying the sketchbook scans of those who did the crawl this past Saturday posted on the Sketchcrawl forum. Congratulations all! Here's mine:





I thought of doing some photoshop colors on the pencil ones but decided that a watercolor wash on them at a later date would do them better. Keeping this purely non-digital. The one with the stumpy palm trees is proving great for research on a story I'm working on. The guy on the bicycle was not in the composition when I started, he wandered into it as I was doing the color wash and made for a better composition. The same happened to the tall tree against the sky one. A couple sat under its shade and made the image even more interesting. Love those great breaks.


The two ladies laying on the grass were instant subjects for all the crawlers. Actually, Sketchcrawlers make excellent subjects as well. They hold still for quite a bit of time and only shift to a new one when they finish their drawing. Long enough for you to finish yours.

This final one was done at the end of the day at the Japanese Tea Garden. We wandered in and I immediately had to go over that arched wooden bridge--the one that requires very long legs to span the steps--for good luck. I found this scene and relaxed into my final drawing of the day. Ahhhh.


Allabove drawings done outdoors, actual media: pencil, watercolor, Northern Californian sun and air. Does it every time.

I found some bloggers who did the crawl (one was with us in SF, and one from Canada). If you've got a blogpost of your sketches from the Skechtcrawl, just leave me a comment (please to leave a URL to link to) or write me an email so I can add a link on this post to your blog. Here's two to start:

The Firehouse Stomp
Go Gecko Girl

And the list continues...

Monkey Feather
The Iron Scythe
G. de Dios Sketch Journal
Laurent Beauvallet
Blob[p]:Gastrono-Me
Lydia Velarde
Pittsburgh Sketch
Elisa Chavarri
The Art of Erik blog

4th World Wide Sketchcrawl: What a blast!

"The Scourge of the Sketchcrawlers!" A scuffling horde of sunscreen flouting, graphite wielding, drawing junkies/zombies out to make plein air impressions of a neighborhood near you!

The biggest Sketchcrawl event yet. Enrico had outdone himself with this Sketchcrawl. More people showed up and, from what I can gather from checking in with people, they all did more drawings that in past Sketchcrawls. We've been pretty lucky with weather in all the San Francisco crawls. The sun came out to give us spectacular drawing sceneries, given how finicky the sun could be in the city we're pretty blessed. By the time I got there Dolores Cafe seemed to have been invaded by a monastic drawing order, taken up their outdoor and indoor seating, sketchbook and pencils already off to the races.

I took a group to the nearby park and we settled into warming up (literally, for most. By the end of the day a good number of us were a deep red from sun burn). Next we hoofed it the corner of Church and Market to regroup. Took the Muni to have lunch, walked to the Haight and then into the park for more drawing. Sketchcrawlers make the best subjects because they hold really still for a long time. After that, even deeper in the park we encountered a drum community drumming up a storm among a Saturday audience of picnickers and sun worshippers. Then it was off to the Japanese Tea house -- free after 5 p.m.--to draw our final, serene garden.



All that done we headed to the canvas Cafe where Terra had tables ready for the Sketchcrawl contigent to sit, eat, drink and pass around the sketchbooks for everyone to see the drawings of the day. The best part of the day. Amazing work from everyone. Thank you to all who came and braved the hike and goofy directions. We always mean to plan these better but that's part of the fun. This was the best Sketchcrawl yet and it was so good to hear that everyone had a great time drawing and hiking, saying that they're looking forward to the next one. So are we. Feeling this great after each one is done makes us wonder why we don't stage it more often. We'll be working on that.



Thanks again and don't miss out on the drawings. Check out the links below. Congratulations to all who attended and made this such an enjoyable Saturday to be alive.

Sketchcrawl Forum
San Francisco Sketchcrawl Forum thread

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Note: I wrote this post before the catastrophic events brought on by hurricane Katrina. Our thoughts and prayers to all affected. Our little community never misses the opportunity to help in these times. Watch for relief events to be posted here soon.