mission accomplished

February 26, 2010February 27, 2010Leave a comment

Last weekend in San Francisco, continued… After another stop at a trendy cafe, we walked up the slopes of Mission Dolores park to enjoy the incredible views over the city. I stopped to sketch the tower of the Mission school yet again, while behind me pit-bulls tried to mate with chihuahuas (please, I know what the offspring would be called, don’t go there). We left that image behind and walked up Church, and towards the Castro district, where I drew the corner of Market street while my friend searched for a 3-day Muni pass (he’d been looking everywhere, with no luck). He did find one eventually, at a magazine kiosk on Castro Street (I noticed one magazine had what looked like Cristiano Ronaldo on the front, but, um, it wasn’t about football). Why you need to know all this I don’t know, but it’s a fun enough story, and means I get to call this entry ‘mission accomplished’, rather than ‘mission impossible’, which is what I thought I’d call it at the time. To be continued…

missionistas

February 24, 2010February 24, 20101 Comment

We went to the Mission district of San Francisco. For those who don’t know, the Mission is historically a large Mexican and Central American area of the city, full of colourful houses and even more colourful murals. It is one of the oldest parts of thSan Francisco, one with a slightly sketchy reputation, but which is becoming increasingly gentrified and artist-oriented, especially on its western fringes. It’s also where the world famous burrito was invented. I was eager to find a good taco truck, and there was one down at Garfield Square, on the corner of 25th and Harrison, and we both sat and drew it; ‘Goza Goza Goza’ it was called; no relation to Gozer the Gozerian. That’s my friend Simon above, sketched by me on some airmail envelope paper I had in my bag. I badly wanted to show my guest from England a real Mission burrito. I think he was impressed. I think he was more impressed by the fact the spanish-speaking taco truck guy called him ‘Ese’ (a reference that went over my head, but don’t tell him). I think he was possibly most impressed by Philz Coffee on 24th; he was in there for a good long while, while they carefully constructed his perfect coffee, so I grabbed a sketch while waiting outside. I don’t drink coffee, as I have mentioned in these pages before, so the whole coffee seeking experience is lost on me. Give me a mission burrito and a pint of Anchor Steam any day! That day, in fact; we had much of it that evening. I love San Francisco.

in the city there’s a thousand things

November 24, 2009November 26, 20096 Comments

I added colour and some more pen to the drawing that I started the other day. I’m pleased with the result. This is a really cool and colourful corner of a cool and colourful city; the view from City Lights, in San Francisco’s North Beach, down Columbus, towards the Sentinel Building, the Trans-Am Pyramid, and the Financial District. I love it down there. This was drawn partly from a photo and partly from a similar drawing (so you wont see this on urban sketchers), both from a trip made last March, when it rained a little. I had just had a doughnut for breakfast. It was very good. I might give this away. Not to you, unfortunately; sorry. To someone else. I am however likely to be making prints at some point (my famous words, ‘at some point’). But I think with this picture I will, because I want one. Know any good print makers?

This was drawn with Copic pen on Canson watercolour paper.

life’s a beach

November 18, 2009November 18, 20095 Comments

A few more details to add, plus a colour wash, and this will be done. I have drawn this before, in cobalt blue; this one is entirely from the photos, rather than started on site and abandoned due to rain, to be finished at home. It is North Beach in San Francisco (but where’s the beach, I ask you?), the view down Columbus from City Lights. I like that Vesuvio place, I want to go back there some time. Those lines in the distance are the lights from an alien spacecraft that is beaming its little green people down upon the foggy city, where they will probably ride the cable-car and see the sea-lions at Pier 39.

flits from shop to shop just like a butterfly

September 3, 2009September 3, 2009Leave a comment

It was so warm and sunny on Saturday in the City. We went up to Grace Cathedral on Nob Hill (and like a nob I forgot the camera) to see the Labyrinth, before heading over to Fillmore Street to have lunch and look around the really cool shops they have there. My wife like ‘Seconds to Go’, a cool second hand store that is in the drawing above, and I loved ‘Paper Source’, a great store stuffed wit many different types of paper for all purposes; I bought some cardstock to make some cards of my drawings. They were very friendly in there.

I sat on the pavement outside Crepevine (where we had eaten lunch) and sketched the colourful street ahead of me. It’s a cool part of a very cool town. There are so mnay different neighbourhoods here. I could draw San Francisco for ever.

Also blogged over at Urban Sketchers.

bay windows

September 1, 2009September 1, 20091 Comment

We spent the weekend in San Francisco, staying in a suite at the enormous Hyatt beside the Ferry Building. The view from our enormous wide-screen window was incredible, the Bay Bridge and Embarcadero, and we had blazing hot sunshine on Saturday morning. We even saw Robin Williams at the Farmer’s Market. Naturally I chose to draw just a small segment of this view, looking out at the Bridge (above). Sunday morning saw fog roll in and add the familiar cool summer grey to the City, so I drew again, looking down at the perspective lines racing up at me.

Below is a photo I took on the sunny Saturday morning, the best part of the view (I never had time to sketch it), with the Bay Bridge rising above a light blanket of mist. What a stunning city.

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my fair lady

August 13, 2009Leave a comment

I painted the ladies again. Well I drew them first. San Francisco’s famous old houses, sloping down Alamo Square, with the City in the background.

The last drawing I did of the Painted Ladies was in sepia. I added colour this time. They are supposed to be colourful after all. This will very likely be for sale on my long-time-coming Etsy shop which is of course not yet ready. Keep your ears peeled.

I do love these buildings, but now when I see them I think of that awful Sleep Train Mattress Center commercial on TV (“a ticket to a better night’s sleep”), which uses them (or near approximations). the thing about those commercials is they always do these special holiday greetings for events throughout the year. They use the standard American commercial ‘Happy Holidays’ line at Christmas, fair enough. For Easter, however, they used the over-generic “Happy Spring”, Easter being a bit religious for them (though I can go into how the word and the bunny and egg-hunting have absolutely nothing to do with Christian religion). And yet, throughout March, they constantly wish you a Happy St.Patrick’s Day. Which is wierd, because that is a religious, Christian event (or at least it is in Ireland); it’s named for a saint. Sure, it’s an event for the Irish – though as we know, everyone wants to be Irish on March 17, so they can pretend to be an Irish sterotype and pretend they like Guinness (I’m London Irish, and I can’t stand Guinness). It’s just funny how ‘Christmas’ and ‘Easter’ are seen to offend on religious grounds in the eyes of commercial-makers, yet the saint’s day of a very Catholic country is not. Just an interesting observation. Anyway that’s what crosses my mind when I think of those adverts, and now, by association, these buildings. But I still love them, whatever holiday it is.

sketchcrawl 23, SF: part 4, the end

July 16, 2009July 16, 2009Leave a comment

Tired after a long day’s sketching? Just go across the city to a cool little place, get a beer, and keep going. I went to Eddie Rickenbacker’s on 2nd St (I have drawn the outside of it before), a place chock full of vintage motorbikes, hanging from the walls and the ceiling. I sat and drew a 1951 Whizzer Sportsman, in pigma micron 05. It was nice to draw sat in a chair, at a table. They have a humungous cat at that place, called Mr. Higgins (perhaps we were related; there are Higgins on my mum’s side). When it was time to catch the Amtrak bus I left, tired legs, I could sketch no more. Still, it was a busy and very productive day. I think on days like this I learn a hell of a lot. I went back to Davis, had a cup of tea, and started scanning my drawings in…

You can see all of my drawings for this day on the Sketchcrawl site’s forum.

sketchcrawl 23, SF: part 3, the castro

July 15, 2009July 14, 20096 Comments

And so onwards and upwards with the 23rd Sketchcrawl; the Mission gradually became the Castro, and I chose to sit right in the middle of the sidewalk and draw some very colourful buildings on Sanchez.

I used a Pigma Micron 05 for this. I have been using them more and more, rather than the 01s I normally go with. I sat patiently and drew this, and passers-by were pleasant and didn’t disturb, although one young couple did drop some litter, right next to me, a plastic fruit carton. I don’t like people who drop litter (and no jokes about dirty sanchez, please). I was going to add the colour to this drawing there and then, but sitting on the floor was starting to get uncomfortable (I was rather hoping someone might offer me a chair), so I added the colour when I got home.

Below is the Castro theatre itself; I sketched (in copic 01) this while leaning on a newspaper stand at Harvey Milk Plaza. There was a Silent Film Festival going on at the time (shhh!). The Castro is the main gay area of the city; if you saw the recent biopic Milk, about Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in the US, you would recognize the sights, including his old shop on Castro Street, while walking round. Up above the streets and houses, rainbows were flying high.

This was almost the last drawing of the day…but there is still one more to come…

sketchcrawl 23, SF: part 2, the mission

July 14, 2009July 14, 2009Leave a comment

After sketching City Hall, I BARTed it down to the Mission District. I love the Mission. It is actually illegal not to have a big burrito when you come here so I had one (it was ok, I’ve had better), and sketched this from the bus stop, at the corner of Valencia and 16th. The lack of sketching stool meant being creative with my seating choices, so the bus-stop was perfect. I always have to figure, when out urban sketching, that the odd street mental might come and start talking to me. As it happened, the random guy who started chatting to me this time (despite my headphones being clearly on) was actually very interesting, and an artist himself, and we had a chat about how drawing was really just a series of lines and choices. He also told me that Paul McCartney owned the rights to the song Happy Birthday to You. I didn’t know that. He probably made it up. I told him that when McCartney plays Beatles songs on tour he changes the lyrics of “When I’m Sixty-Four” to “When I Was Sixty-Four”. Of course, I made that up, but it could be true.

I strolled up 16th looking for another comfy spot to draw, and chose a really uncomfy spot on a narrow corner with negligible shade, in order to draw the Mission Dolores. Well, dolores means pain, and I suffer for my art.

I love drawing those powerlines, it’s one of the best reasons to sketch in the Mission. I don’t know if the One Way sign was put up by the Missionaries but it could be so (I will tell people it was, anyhow). Might make more sense outside a cemetary. Anyway, it was sunny, but windy, and so I held up the sketchbook for the obligatory handheld shot, and moved on towards the Castro. That’s the thing about Sketchcrawl, you just gotta keep moving. Well, I do.

More to come…