TACO in the new year

Terrible Adult Chamber Orchestra was on today. It was the first session in 2018. 

The music played by the group today was beautiful, and with very few starting-overs. Somehow my sketching process was smooth, too. Although I usually kind of tune out while sketching, I do think my ears/brain is listening. When the orchestra makes more mistakes, I tend to have more errors in my sketches as well.

 Due to the arrangement of seating, I usually end up with more sketches with violinists or cellists. I do try to move around but it's just not easy to sketch the musicians sitting in the middle rows. I went to the far back today to sketch two trumpeters.

These images will be donated to TACO for their cook books or note cards for fundraising. Hopefully they will have a good fundraising year to keep their good work going.

Elephant Seals- A Close Look

James' father's wife came to visit us on her way back to Melbourne. We all like outdoors more than shopping outlets so an outing away from Silicon Valley was arranged.

James found out that it is now elephant seal's mating season and Ano Nuevo State Park, which is only 1.5 hour drive away, is a place for elephant seal watching. I thought it means we would stand on a view point and look down on the beach for elephant seals. Perhaps seeing some black moving blobs would be considered lucky. It turned out we got to walk right next to elephant seals. Well, 25 feet away at least but it was still better than looking for them from up high.

Bob, the docent, gave us a great tour. He actually was camping by the beach while volunteering as a docent. When it's time for him to go home, he will just pack up his trailer and drive away. Pretty nice set up in my opinion.

We immediately came to a group of male elephant seals fighting with each other. The docent said these are the 'losers' as they are younger or weaker and have lost their spot on the beach. Nature's law made them stay on shore even thought they won't find a female to mate this season.

 

 We then came to the beach covered by elephant seals. Pups are among them. I sketched a pair of mother and pup. The wrinkly black pup was asking for its mum to nurse. There was also a dead pup on the beach eaten by 2 crows. Life and death are usually not far away from each other.

On the way back to our car I sketched the state park visitor centre. I'd like to come back to this little gem on the Californian coast.

The Strip on a strip of paper

I had totally forgotten about this sketch. A good friend of mine sent me this handmade accordion sketchbook from Melbourne. I brought it with me on the road trip during Christmas. James went to play poker and I sketched the Strip from one of the pedestrian bridge. Not sure if you can see it but the far left corner is the Trump Hotel. We also went on the roller coaster. I don't remember being so nervous when I was young but I guess things change when you are almost 40.

My minimal-enough-for-me sketch kit

Tina from USK Seattle just began her minimal sketch kit challenge, so I thought I can write a post about my sketch kit.

I only just started urban sketching in August 2014. At the time I sketched people on the train as I commuted to work by train everyday. My sketch kit contained only a Uni-ball pen and a small Moleskine Art Plus Sketchbook. Then James bought me a WN Cotman Sketcher's Pocket Box set and a watercolor paint brush for Christmas. Boom, I fell in love with watercolours!

Fast forward. Now this is what I have in my sketch kit:

From right to left:

Raphael Softaqua brush Round #6

da Vinci 498 Casaneo Round Quill #4

Roymac 3/4" flat

Platinum Carbon Black desk pen

Pentel white gel pen

Duke 209 Bent Nib fountain pen (Great value for its performance!)

Pentel brush pen with Platinum Carbon Black Ink

A mechanical pencil

A mini spray bottle

Pentel waterbrush flat and round

Sketch bag with a rug

Oh, and underneath the pens and brushes is my Portable Painter Palette.

I found this bag at a stationary store in Japantown, San Francisco. 

You can purchase a belt to go with it and turn it into a shoulder bag. I just put it in my backpack.

I probably could have invested in some travel brushes but I've got a handy husband, who made me some caps with beer cans!

I'm quite happy with my sketch kit and the set up has been about the same for 15 months now. It traveled with me on road trips in the US, to Mexico and Colombia so it's fair to say that it works well. As for my sketchbook, well, I stopped purchasing sketchbooks because I prefer using Fabriano paper and there is no sketchbook made with it. Now I just use an A4 folder with plastic sleeves to carry my paper.

Will I modify the sketch kit and paper set up again? Probably. After all, buying and trying new tools/ideas is part of the fun of urban sketching.

2017 Christmas road trip

If I were in another part of the world, I probably wouldn't have put Las Vegas on my list to visit. But here we are in California and therefore Las Vegas became one of the destination of this road trip. The city, or I should say The Strip, is not much different from Tokyo or Taipei, where neon light signs dominate the streets and the sky. James and I visited most of the casinos/hotels on The Strip and a few of them are quite unique. We of course tried our luck in the sin city. The result was good enough for us to eat seafood buffet for 3 days.

 I was trying to capture The Strip during the day from our hotel room located on the 28th floor. Unfortunately I was overwhelmed and impatient so the sketch turned out to be an unsatisfactory attempt.

 After 3 days in Las Vegas, James and I were quite ready for some peace and quiet. We pushed on to the Grand Canyon NP and took a walk along the south rim. This sketch was a bit flat before I re-touched it with my Kuretake brush pen (water-soluble ink). Although the view was paler in reality, I think the sketch looks better with a stronger contrast.

Along the south rim of Grand Canyon

 I thought the Grand Canyon is amazing but I was blown away by the view in Death Valley NP. Like James said, it was ridiculously quiet. Not wind, no sound at night and we saw a magnificent sunrise there. A view that I haven't figured out how to capture with watercolours.

Desert view in Death Valley National Park