Sketching in the Garden...

It's been great to teach two workshop series this year at Descanso Gardens.  The first, in February, "Sketching on Location" focused on the basics of drawing...seeing and drawing in line and shape, and the second in June (when the Gardens are most colorful!), "Sketching with Color".  I do a lot of sketching in advance to show students examples, and I love working my way through the basics...Descanso Gardens becomes a wonderful sort of outdoor "laboratory" to break down methods...and I always love learning from that process myself!

 I start with making lots of little thumbnails with fountain pen...composing and massing shapes

Always fun to add the visitors in the landscape...

Adding some color to ink thumbnails...

A little demo to show approaches to quick sketching with a limited palette (and limited time!)...

Some "notan" sketches in the Rose Garden with brush pen...

Experimenting with Inktense pencils--the gardeners at work making Descanso the beauty that it is...

Conversations in the cafe...

I love sketching at Descanso in any season...these are from the Rose Garden in February, when things are just beginning to bud...

And a shameless exercise in color in the Rose Garden at the height of summer color...

Sketching the Light

It would be easy as a native of Southern California to take the light here for granted...but I've found it's the thing that I always notice first in a scene--no matter the season.  

Some of these sketches were made with watercolor and gouache on tan paper--when I have the luxury of time to develop the story a bit.  I love working this way because it means intentionally painting the light...

Sketching over coffee in La Canada...

Or in Los Angeles...

Late afternoon with fading light in Pasadena...

 In Silver Lake in Los Angeles... 

At the Autry Museum...

Waiting for my car being repaired...a perfect sketching opportunity on a corner in Pasadena...

 The bell tower in front of Pasadena Presbyterian Church...

A quick sketch in Glendale...and more coffee and afternoon light in Pasadena...

Cafe Sketching...

...the perfect thing to do on hot summer days around Los Angeles!
From August and September...


Quick sketching with ink and watercolor on a Saturday morning at a bakery in La Canada, in the hills above Los Angeles...the bicyclists have already had their ride and the shoppers are just getting started...

...afternoon coffee at Lamill, an elegant little bistro in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles...

More leisurely sketching with pencil, watercolor and gouache on tan paper...Blue Bottle Coffee had just opened, but was already attracting a crowd in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Echo Park...

A morning sketch over breakfast at the Highland Cafe in the northeast Los Angeles neighborhood of Highland Park.  The lady on the phone stopped briefly in front of me as I sketched...

...and back at Lamill, this time enjoying the street-side view of Silver Lake...the business of the week is discussed on a Saturday afternoon...

Sketching in the garden

...at Descanso Gardens, in La Canada...where I recently had the great pleasure of teaching a "Sketching on Location" workshop series.  One of the things I enjoy most is the preparation.  I try out ways to do things with simple means--just with line, just with values, and move on from there...as I plan, I hope everyone who comes will discover something, and have a great time!

Japanese Garden Festival

...is an annual fall event at Descanso Gardens in La Canada...I went to a beautiful kimono show put on by the Los Angeles Kimono Club, and learned a few things about kimono dressing.  Sensei Fumi Akutagawa, a master of many traditional Japanese arts introduced the show by saying "kimono dressing is a learned art".  I sketched some of her students of all ages...boys and girls, Japanese and non-Japanese as they paraded across an outdoor stage under the oak trees, wishing I could capture more  of the detail!

I returned the next day to see the Kishin Daiko Japanese Drumming Group performing under the oaks...

 I was really struck by the joyous expressions of the performers, especially Paige, the leader at left...

Kids were invited out of the audience to get a quick lesson in drumming...

Some quick sketching at Descanso Gardens

...thinking again about the meat and potatoes of sketching...some quick studies in line and tone...

...before moving on to some color...the range between a warm yellow and deep Indranthene blue...

...and then more recently a large study of light and shade in a favorite spot, the Japanese Garden...

...and a few more studies in black and white...on the road to Santa Barbara...

 ...and from a cafe window in Pasadena...