A young woman and her dog sat near us on the beach, sunning and eating together all afternoon. At first, I sketched her because she was nearby, but then, as I watched her, I noticed how much she liked her dog and tried to capture some of this relationship in these two sketches.
There is music wherever you wander in San Pancho, day or night. These two jazz musicians, performing from a corner of Su Made Pancha’s patio, were quite a treat.
I thought it trusting of this woman to put her cot so close to the water’s edge. As I sketched her, the waves came closer, but she maintained her pose and composure, never moving until well after I finished painting.
While painting the red kayaks last week, a woman came by, turned over a boat, pulled it into the water, and set off across the bay. Her confident air caught my eye, and I took quite a few photos. Later, I used one as a reference for this sketch.
The Thursday painters met in Coronado at Tidelands Park. Two red upturned kayaks caught my eye, and I painted them, simplifying the shapes and colors as I worked.
In the past week, I painted several times at Santee Lakes as I got ready to give a demo sponsored by the San Diego Watercolor Society that took place last Saturday. I posted my first two practice pieces on this blog the final week of December and am now adding two more practice pieces and the three pieces I painted during the demo.
This past Wednesday was cold and overcast, and the scene was about as close to a wintery look as we get in coastal California. Here are the two practice pieces I did that day.
I was expecting something similar on Saturday for the demo, but it was a much colder day with a much brighter sky and warm tones everywhere. Additionally, the lakes had been restocked, so the water had lots of fish, and the shoreline had lots of people fishing, which was fun for all of the sketchers. This next painting is the piece I demoed for the group. I was disappointed in it because it was tight, and the colors clashed, possibly a reflection of some nervousness on my part.
Fortunately, a lanky young man in a hoodie came along and fished near me, and I enjoyed sketching him.
And the day did warm up, as California days do, and I was able to capture some of that warmth in this sketch of three fisher people from across the lake.
Deliberate Sketching 