Yesterday afternoon I took the bus over to Sacramento. I’ve not been there in a good long while, and I wanted to sketch stuff we don’t have in Davis, in this case a big tall cathedral. The Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, just off K St, was completed in 1889 and sits about a block or so from the State Capitol. It’s a Roman Catholic church, and on this day there was a big wedding while I sketched. The horse and carriage that wait at the bottom of the steps in this drawing were soon joined by the large wedding party and what sounded like a mariachi band playing Mexican music. I think there were other weddings that day because there seemed to be a decent contingent of brides and bridesmaids dotted about Sacramento; good weekend to get married I suppose. The weather, which was hitting the century last week, was in the mid seventies, much more reasonable for October. It’s always interesting to sketch on K Street, Sacramento. Interesting if you like people shuffling up and asking for a dollar, or like people cycling up and down the sidewalk on those scruffy little bikes people seem to have (not that I judge the scruffiness of a bike, my own being pretty scrufftastic, but at least it’s the right size for an adult). Yesterday was a little less so, as there was also quite a lot of police, many on horseback, likely keeping an eye out for the demonstration that was gathered before the Capitol (no idea what it was about, but it’s all politics these days). I sketched this for about an hour and a half and then had to say enough was enough. I was using an Itoya finepoint, only its second outing, but already the nib was wasting away before me. Those Itoyas have nice enough ink but buckle at the first sight of paper, especially watercolour Moleskine paper. It was only a buck.

After strolling down K and through the rather sad downtown mall (no longer a Westfield), I passed into Old Sacramento, where many people were gathering for some music festival by the river that evening. I was peckish however and popped into the River City Saloon for some garlic fries (and one of those nice shark beers). I did a quick brown pen sketch of part of the bar area, but I really must plan to go back and do a proper drawing of the whole thing, it really does merit a 180 degree curvilinear bar sketch, more than any other.