There is a place in Liberty Station in San Diego where roller skaters of all skill levels gather. I went there today to practice sketching people in motion, which I did. But, after watching a bit, what I really wanted was to put on a pair of skates and fly around the park.
Today is our second day without COVID restrictions. It feels so good to be out and about again, although many of us are still clinging to our masks.
This morning I went to Balboa Park and sketched a bit. I worked on using a few brushstrokes to capture the movement and shapes of people.
Last week the winds were strong along the San Diego coast but very calm inland around my house. I set off for one of my favorite state parks, Torrey Pines, not expecting that I would not be able to keep a 22 by a 16-inch paper on my easel. I hid from the wind by sitting in the midst of the boulders that separate the road from the beach. The rocks dominated my view of the beach, and I liked how they mimicked the shapes of the bluffs that are further down the beach.
The days where we can comfortably stand in the sunshine and paint for hours in San Diego usually come to an end in June. So I went to San Dieguito Lagoon near the Del Mar Fairgrounds, and enjoyed the good weather, thinking that this might be my last day painting there for this season. I stood looking east across the wetlands because the color in the water appeared so rich from that angle.
The Fresno Zoom sketching group has many terrific models. One of my favorites is a young art student, Bobby Brown. It delights me when Zoom opens up, and I see him on my screen. There is something about his quiet demeanor and the emotion he projects that I find captivating. It makes me work hard to get it on paper.
Last night, all the artists in the Zoom group produced strong beautiful pieces that conveyed a message about the subject. Whenever that happens, it is because the model gives us something worthwhile to say with our art.
I was on Zoom with six friends from our critique group. I began to sketch one of them as she was focused on by the computer software. Soon another friend began to speak and the software shifted its focus to her. I continued sketching, using the second friend as inspiration, but the focus shifted again. And so it went until our session was over and I had this amalgam sketch of all six friends.
It was overcast and cool, but this did not discourage the dog beach enthusiasts from enjoying the beach!
