A Passion for Passenger Sketching...

About 10 years ago I started sketching on road trips, whenever I had the good fortune to be the passenger.  They started simple and small with just pen and ink...a way to see how much I could catch of the scene rolling by at 65 mph.  Now, depending on the length of the trip, I work with layers--throwing down the first impression sketch quickly, and then adding whatever seems to work in the moment.  Of course, terrain that doesn't change too quickly makes it easier!














When you're traveling a familiar road, the fun begins when you see how you can sketch it differently every time.  Of course, it really isn't the same road...the season, weather and time of day can radically alter what you see...

A weekly shopping trip--up the hill above Los Angeles, and then down again...an opportunity to play and experiment.  I like to keep it simple sometimes, and other times keep layering until I've gone just a little too far!

Passenger sketching in town usually means drawing the traffic...

The greatest passenger sketching is on a nice, long road trip.  I travel from Los Angeles to the Mojave Desert several times a year, and count myself very lucky that I get to be the passenger--sketching all the way!  Here I'm working with pencil, watercolor and gouache layered on tan paper...

 Once in awhile, a vertical format--why not!

Driving through Joshua Tree National Park...splashing down some ink washes...

 The desert in December...golds and earth colors, and purple sky...

And returning to the city...

Road Trip: San Diego

Catching up here with a summer's worth of sketching, and a road trip in July to San Diego!

I was again fortunate to be riding "shotgun", which means I get to passenger-sketch my way from Los Angeles, except for occasional navigation duties...

Lovely to see a turquoise ocean as we passed through San Onofre...where you also see the decommissioned nuclear power plant peeking around some trees...

Balboa Park was our destination...which I loved visiting as a child, and it's every bit as beautiful and gracious as I remember it.  The San Diego Zoo is vast--with far more habitat than animal "exhibits"--just as it should be.  Some quick sketches here of the pandas, and the gerenuks...

Sketching a view here of the "Skyfari" and the lovely Museum of Man over lunch at the zoo--in the flight path of the airport,  so Southwest airplanes passed by frequently...

Balboa Park takes many more than a few days to explore...gardens, theaters and something like 16 museums.   The architecture goes back to the 1916 Panama-California Exposition--and the grand buildings along El Prado promenade are referred to as "Spanish Colonial Revival" style--with wonderfully over-the-top ornamentation...I want to go back and spend more time sketching the way they catch the light!  

My last sketching stop at Balboa Park was the lovely Botanical Building, next to a long reflecting pool.  It seemed to me that people were more caught up with their phones than usual...and discovered later that this was the day Pokemon Go was released--apparently the Park is full of them!

Leaving San Diego, just had to visit historic Old Town, as restaurants and shops gear up for lunchtime visitors...

And the road trip continues--home to Los Angeles...

Drawing on Location in the Desert

...in Arizona and on the way...Monument Valley, Sedona and Quartzsite...




on a long stretch of highway...

...a bumpy dirt road outside of Sedona,
and snow flurries in January near
Monument Valley...

There's nothing quite like
Monument Valley...

...a tour through neighboring Mystery Valley
that requires a Navajo guide...on New Years Day
--unforgettable!