Concert

Storm Recovery - New Tree

This is the crape myrtle, planted two days back, to replace the catalpa that fell down.  I actually helped with the planting, which was more difficult than it should have been, because the stump grinder had left big chunks of roots that we kept hitting.  One of my neighbors who was also on the crew had to go and fetch an axe to clear the hole.

Lu San Garden

Walked down to the Chinese garden for a reception, announcing an upcoming series of jazz concerts. Had some snacks, and made a couple of sketches, while listening to some mellow jazz.

Tried my hand at one of the koi, who seemed to be extraordinarily interested in me.  Or possibly in my food.

But then it started raining, and I found another spot, under cover, and worked on a view through a window into a courtyard.



PAM

The suggestion was to do a drawing using only straight lines.  I tried it on a statue of Atalanta, forcing straight lines by setting that style.  And found that it was damned hard to do her curly hair, or the swirly flounces of her dress.

Next I tried a bust, with the straight line style turned off.  But still did the shading with cross-hatches.

March for Science

Got soaked riding downtown to meet with a few other sketchers.  

After coffee and breakfast we wandered out into the rain.   Which had settled down to, at best, a drizzle.   I hung out in front of the federal building all morning.

I started out doing the sculptures at the entrance while waiting for the March for Science to get started and reach us.

 I kept hearing the sound of kids playing.  But when I looked up, I realized that it was a single woman, having a loud conversation with her own reality.  I tried sketching her, which was difficult, as she couldn't keep still.

 


Then a motorcycle cop who was directing traffic out of the way of the march.  And stoically enduring the abuse of the aforementioned woman.

And finally, I caught Andrea lost in her own creative process.

Cherry blossoms again

One last try for the cherry blossoms on the waterfront.  Still blooming away.  But there's a rain of petals now, and a tinge of green as the leaves are starting to come out.

On this one I was trying for pen and ink for the tree and rocks, and for serendipitous splatters for the blossoms.

Granted, it took a while to find random splatters that I liked.

This was going to be a value sketch.
But the sun decided to leave us at this point and all of my shadows disappeared.

 

Finally, I remembered the brush that I'd brought to experiment with.  I used it to put down the vertical lines of the tree, and then used my finger to smudge in the faint horizontal lines of the bark.