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SketchCrawl #22
April 11th, 2009 was held in Chinatown, San Francisco, CA. Unfortunately I was unable to attend 
however I was able to do some sketching locally in downtown Santa Rosa.
First of all, it was a quiet Saturday perhaps because of the Easter weekend. The first couple of sketches were done while I took our little dog for a walk, the cherry tree blossoms were dancing with the wind, and while standing there looking I noticed a branch that kept swinging up and down as the wind made its presence known, after a couple of sketches my dog grew impatient so we moved on.
The rest of the sketches were done in downtown Santa Rosa. On the way to our destination, while crossing the street I sneezed, and to my surprise a passenger in a passing SUV said bless you which surprised me, because there have been situations where I am next to someone and then sneeze and they don’t say anything, or you say that to them and the same. That small token set the tone for the day!
I decided to sit at the edge of the park and observe / sketch people as they were walking by. It was quite an interesting exercise, people walked pretty fast, most had unhappy faces with no smiles, not one single person stopped to look and most seemed deep in their thoughts.
It was actually quite a challenge to sketch them because they were moving pretty fast (probably rushing to prepare for Easter) and while there were people sitting at a nearby restaurant patio, I decided to stick with the challenge of drawing moving targets.
The following events caught my attention so I decided to make a note of them. A couple went by (I didn’t sketch them), it was a woman with a man on a wheelchair who had a red rose on his lap, I thought that was interesting, perhaps it was for his mother, or perhaps it was for his wife, his sister maybe? where are they going? to eat at that restaurant? maybe they are meeting someone there? who knows!!! I found myself exploring the different potential options, which made this a lot more enjoyable than sketching buildings and landscapes which I typically do.
I also noticed a person drawing in the park, as I turned to see if there were other subjects behind me. He appeared to be using colored pencils, and yes I was curious to see what he may be doing.. I guess it is human nature, but opted to concentrate instead on my own sketching.
It was a great day!
The following video was created by Goro – this is what SketchCrawl is ~ Enjoy ~
22nd SketchCrawl San Francisco from Goro on Vimeo.
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WonderCon 2009 and Kinokuniya San Francisco
This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend WonderCon 2009 and after that I took a quick trip to the Kinokuniya Store in San Francisco, CA.
Saturday was practically a 12hr day for me, from getting up at 7am to getting back home at 7pm, and a lot of fun and discovery in between.
I purchased a ticket in advance, so that saved me from standing in one of two lines inside of the Moscone Center. There was however a very long line outside that wrapped around the block on the way in. Good thing it wasn’t raining at that time.
What was it like? it was great, initially I didn’t see great costumes but as the day progressed I got to see some really cool stuff, like this transformer below.
From SFRichardT @ Flickr.
Another cool thing to watch was our good old friend R2D2 (a couple of droids actually) yeah they attract the attention of everybody old and young.
From veggierebel @ Flickr
The following site contains more info about these droids, www.artoo-detoo.net – now there is another way to be creative.
Mark Hamill
From bonniegrrl @ Flickr
Carrie Fisher
From Treaked @ Flickr
However I didn’t get a chance to see Sergio Aragonés, when I visited his booth he was not there. I recall I purchased a couple issues of the comic GROO (which I found yesterday along with my old incomplete collection of Thor – from 1984 – amazing that so many years have passed and I still have them)
Also from Treaked @ Flickr
As you can see this was one busy day! I also had a chance to attend a few panels / presentations and visit Enrico and his friends (in two separate booths).
Below is a copy of Mia by Enrico and a copy of Rose and Isabel comic by Ted Mathot – read both comics non-stop in one sitting, and now I want to know what happens next.
I have been following Ted’s blog for a while and just recently started to read some of his old posts. There is quite a lot of information there to learn from (thank you for taking the time to share).
Lastly, I managed to take a quick trip to the Kinokuniya store in San Francisco, with the only mission of finding those pencils (I was also out of time, so it had to be a quick visit).
I found both brands I was looking for but for the Tombow Mono 100, you have to purchase the whole box and they didn’t have the grade I wanted, so I just purchased (Mitsubishi Hi-uni) pencils, two for my wife and two for me… to try them out (2B and 5B).
That was one busy Saturday!
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Creative Genius: A different thinking approach
Yesterday I had the opportunity to watch a TED talk given by Elizabeth Gilbert, where she talks about the potential of genius existing outside of ourselves.
…and the fear that creative individuals encounter during their creation process, a potential different way to deal with that fear process.
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Art Materials: A Discovery
Greetings,
Ah those moments of discovery are priceless!
While reading a post about pencil geekery in Enrico’s Blog (Founder of SketchCrawl), I became curious about the pencils he mentioned (both the Mitsubishi Hi-Uni and the Kuru Toga).
Initially I set to see if I could find the Kuro Toga (mechanical pencil) locally but no luck, not only that but it seemed the places I looked online were out of stock. Eventually I engaged a person living in Japan and inquired if it was possible to sell/ship me two mechanical pencils, and after a week of waiting I finally received them…
I wanted to share my discovery even before I received them but fearing that my wife may read this blog prior to me giving the pencil to her (the pink one is my gift to her) prevented me from posting 
Up to this point the pencils I have been using for sketching have been those I purchased a while ago, a couple of sets and some single ones. In my room I keep three STAEDTLER (Germany) pencils (HB, 2B and 4B), while in my sketchbag I have two sets, the first is a 12 set of REEVES (England) sketching pencils (From 4H to 6B), and three FABER CASTELL (Germany) GRIP 2001. (HB, B and 2B). Of the pencils I carry in my bag the one I use the most is the FABER CASTELL GRIP 2001 (B).
Wow, if you are into pencils and mechanic pencils, that blog link (Dave’s Mechanical Pencils) Enrico posted is fascinating.. there is so much information, you can spend some serious time reading the various posts.
This Kuro Toga is the first mechanic pencil I have purchased in a very long time, unfortunately I don’t know much about the various other choices out there, (plenty to read in Dave’s blog) but it seems to be an interesting concept. I will have to use it for a while to see how I like it.
While reading the “other” blog Enrico linked… equally interesting, I became curious not only about the Mitsubishi Hi-uni but also about the Tombow Mono 100, same story as the Kuru Toga, local stores do not carry either of them, so looks like it will be a while before both my wife and I (I am sharing some with her) get to try either of these.
DickBlicks does offer a similar pencil to the Tombow Mono 100, will have to check that out too (Tombow Mono Professional).
Below are a few links (DickBlicks) of some of the products mentioned above.
Staedtler Lumograph Drawing and Sketching Pencils
Tombow Mono Professional Drawing Pencils
Faber-Castell Grip Pencil
If you know of a place in the Bay Area that sells the Tombow Mono 100 pencils, please let me know.
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San Francisco SketchCrawl #21
For me SketchCrawl events are more than the participation of the event itself, they are also opportunities to discover a little more of San Francisco and any other location I may be visiting. I believe I am not the only one participating in this discovery. I often hear people say “this is the first time I have been here” or “I always wanted to come here but for some reason have not.”
This last SketchCrawl was once again a discovery, I live about one hour away from San Francisco and after all these years of driving thru the Golden Gate and the Waldo tunnel (the tunnel with a rainbow painted on it) I just cant help to continue to marvel at the beautiful views from various locations as well as other structures / buildings. Strangely enough I have not fully explored all the areas of the city as much as I would like, however I hope to be able to spend more time doing so in the future, so that I can concentrate more on the actual event of sketching.
This time I thought it would be great If I could drive to the Legion of Honor museum, and perhaps sketch outside and around the area. I also read that if you pay to enter the Legion of Honor museum, you can also enter the de Young museum with the same ticket on the same day.
I spent some time a day or two before the event analyzing the area via google maps, to figure out what path to take to get to the museum, so I was technically all set to get there, except I didn’t really get there (oh, I drove by it on the way to the meeting point but didn’t stop – I ran out of time).
Back to the story… after I crossed the Golden Gate into San Francisco and was driving on Lincoln Blvd (part of the 49 Mile Scenic Drive) heading towards the Legion of Honor museum. I noticed a small parking area to the right of the road with what appeared to be a path leading to the coast, so I thought hmm since I have never been here… lets stop for a bit and check this area out. It was an opportunity to view the Golden Gate from the opposite side of Fort Point. The view is nice and there are a couple of trails, one leading down to the ocean.
I managed to do only two sketches, I spend a good portion of the day just enjoying the view, going down the trail with a sense of adventure and then working my way up a lot slower, meeting along the way equally challenged individuals resting, for once it was nice to be in the shade… no fog on that day.
Below is the view from the top of the trail, facing west towards the Pacific Ocean.
On the way down the trail there is a viewing area, where you are able to see most of the Golden Gate.
If you know of any other places to discover, please share!
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SketchCrawl #21
Here we are once again getting ready for SketchCrawl #21
Artist in 95 different locations will be participating on January 10th, 2009. I can’t wait to see all of the artwork of SketchCrawl. It is going to be great, it always is… I really enjoy viewing the artwork at the end of the SketchCrawl event both in person and online. It is always interesting to see how different people interpret and express on paper the same item and/or environment that you are also looking at.
I also wanted to share with you a picture of the “Official SketchCrawl T-Shirt” yeah! Very nice T-Shirt – Top Quality material and print, well worth the price.
For more information about participating locations for this and future events, please visit the official forum.
You can purchase the Official SketchCrawl T-Shirt at the following location.
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