San Jose Capitol Flea Market

Not every flea market is a real flea market nowadays. James and I prefer the real kind: a market full of used stuff; piles after piles of junk in front of an old van; grumpy old man sitting on his tools and would only let you have a look at his treasure if you ask a right question; dodgy-looking people trying to sell you anything.

Capitol Flea Market is like that. I walked with James for the first part of treasure hunt. After a short break with some cheese quesadilla, James went back treasure hunting and I stayed near the food court for sketching.

I love seeing old couples dancing. No fancy tricks but relaxed, graceful and harmonious moves. I was quite happy with what I caught on my paper today. I think I enjoyed sketching the couples as much as they enjoyed dancing.

Santa Clara University- Mission Santa Clara de Asís

Californian Mission Bell

 It's been 7 months since I left Seattle and I finally got back to an Urban Sketchers' outing today with South Bay USK. The location was at Mission Santa Clara de Asis, one of the Hwy 101 missions. I learnt about the Hwy 101 missions from a friend who grew up in Los Angeles. Therefore when I saw the post about the outing, I told James that I had to go. 

There was an instructor talking about principles of perspective at the beginning of sketch session today so I spent a bit of time trying to get my perspective right. I omitted quite a lot of details in the background, including the church connected to the tower because I was more interested in the Mission Bell. The perspective didn't bother me too much but I had some trouble with the shadows on the building. I'm still trying to figure out how to mix the shadow color instead of just glaze over the first wash with gray.

Later I moved to another shady spot and noticed this woman kneeling in front of the statue of Jesus. I decided to capture the atmosphere between her and the statue. This sketch was done within 15 minutes.

By the time I packed up my gear, I suddenly realized that I was not with USK Seattle so I should have gone back for the throw-down 20 minutes ago (12pm)! Luckily most of the sketchers were still at the meeting spot and I got to see some of their sketches, but I didn't have time to talk with them. Oh well, maybe next time.

Lassen National Park, CA

A lone rock that was carried and dropped on the edge of cliff.
(Arches cold press)

James and I took a road trip up to Lassen National Park. We read that the park highway would be closed due to snow but we were still surprised to see so much snow when we arrived. After all, it's already July and we have had almost 3 months of sunshine so far.

A closed highway turned into a trail.
(Arches cold press)

The park is not big, but it didn't feel crowded with many visitors around. James and I did some sketching at the view point where a lone rock stands on the edge of cliff. Then he took off to hike on a trail covered by snow while I sketched on the closed highway. A couple of 'cats' and a caterpillar (not in the sketch) parked on the highway and the road was closed beyond that point. This is my first time seeing a snowplough and tires with snow chains so a sketch is required for sure!

(Strathmore 400 series watercolor paper)

On my way back to the car park I saw the road block and traffic cones. I liked the bright orange in contrast of white snow, blue sky and green pine trees. While sketching, quite a few people stopped and talked with me. One of them made a comment that my sketches act like my camera. I agreed at the time but that is only partly true. I think my sketches catches not only what I see but also how I feel right there, right then. Something I think only urban sketchers can understand.

(Strathmore 400 series watercolor paper)

The next day we drove to the coast. There we saw something that we haven't seen in the Bay area for a while- clouds, rain and fog! Luckily we got some breaks for sketching by the beach before driving back home.

I used Strathmore 400 series watercolor paper and Arches cold press for this trip. I'm somewhat familiar with Strathmore paper but this is my first time using Arches. Not sure if it's the paper but I do like the sketches done on the Arches paper.

Portuguese Beach, CA (Arches cold press)