The Sketchbook Habit

...is something I preach to anyone who wants to draw, and I try to practice it myself.  I don't go anywhere without one!  There are always opportunities--whether it's a few minutes or the luxury of several hours--to practice the kind of observation that sketchbook sketching is all about for me...

at a Pasadena car wash...

at lunch at Gordon Biersch in Burbank...

in parking lots in and around 

Los Angeles...

at Huntington Gardens...

















or a corner coffee shop in
Los Angeles...

a trip to the Getty Center...
































and a mini-vacation day traveling with sketching friends to San Juan Capistrano--a perfect day!

Workshop Sketching

Descanso Gardens in La Canada, California was once again a wonderful place for a workshop series, and fortunately had lots of shady places for sketching on warm summer days.  In preparing to teach workshops, I really enjoy the process of planning--going back to the basics of thumbnail sketching, thinking in line, and thinking in shape.  It's a great opportunity to experiment with color...adding just a bit for emphasis, or starting with color, then adding line...or no line at all!

Building a composition with warm and cool shapes...

Thumbnails with color glazes...

using color selectively...

...and experimenting with "pure color" layers (the new super-saturated QoR watercolor from Golden)

Summer Sketching on Sunset Blvd.

...from Silver Lake to Hollywood...

Sitting in the shade of a flowery alcove outside The Casbah Cafe at Sunset Junction...with a view of the Boulevard and the hills above the Silver Lake neighborhood...

Traveling west on Sunset to East Hollywood, I returned to a favorite place to sketch...Barnsdall Park with its panoramic views in all directions of the city, and the Griffith Observatory...

...and some sketching in Hollywood...at Sunset and Vine--almost hidden from the street by the giant ficus is a bell signpost for El Camino Real.  The old "royal road" runs most of the length of California, and apparently this section of Sunset was part of it--the bell markers are part of the history of California which I love seeing!

... and just down the street is a modern piece of history, and a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural monument...the Cinerama Dome...

Summer in the City

...with the arrival of summer, I'm finally back out sketching!

With a return to some favorite Los Angeles places...like the wonderful India Sweets and Spices for a spicy lunch and always interesting customers...

...and Echo Park...the neighborhood along Sunset Blvd....

...and the park in lotus season!  The light in summer is so beautiful, and wonderful to see the lotuses blooming again! 

Heading west on Sunset Blvd. to the Silver Lake neighborhood, returning to sketch at a favorite spot...Sunset Triangle--a tiny urban plaza with a farmers market twice a week...

 I've been so lucky in finding friendly staff people at corner cafes up and down Sunset Blvd. (so far!)...here at "Morning Nights" I'm feeling right at home...

Good to see there's still filming in Los Angeles!  Here's a film crew packing up for the day...

Back to the desert...

My favorite time to visit the Mojave Desert, Joshua Tree National Park and the desert town of Twentynine Palms is spring...though in a drought year the blooming isn't quite as noticeable, it's still a lovely trip...starting as usual with (passenger) freeway sketching...

...sketching in Joshua Tree National Park, where I never seem to get tired of drawing rocks...and drawing them in a variety of ways...

..wonderful to discover the ruins of an old mill...in the 1920's miners found gold here and called their claim "Wall Street", but by the beginning of the Great Depression, no more gold was found, and a mill was brought here to process ore from other mines.

Breakfast at the Country Kitchen in Joshua Tree...and painting on the outskirts of the desert town of Twentynine Palms...

Then it's time to return home...more freeway sketching!