I wanted to capture it all- the light glinting on the waves, the sunbathers, the kids playing, and the beauty of the day’s ending.
While sketching away on the shore, looking at the swimmers, you can see which are together and the ways in which they like each other. These two were clearly a pair, and I tried to convey their delight even as I also tried to capture the beauty of the late afternoon beach.
I met up this morning with the San Diego Urban Sketchers in San Diego’s Old Town. A lot was going on, and eventually, I settled in and focused on a few elements, the flag pole, a little girl playing, people sitting in the park, and the buildings and trees that edge the square. It was an excellent turnout with tons of sketchers and sketches.
Here is another sketch from Bonita Cove, a shallow swimming area off San Diego’s Mission Beach. Again, the focus is on expressing the movement of people, wind, and water, although this sketch is drawn less realistically.
There is nothing like a day at Mission Bay’s Bonita Cove for beating the August heat with small children. Although the morning felt serene, there was also a lot of action in the wading area. I wanted to convey this movement of people, wind, and water in this sketch.
We were hiking late in the afternoon near Molas Lake, Colorado, and noticed a large black and white bird soaring high over the lake. The sweep of the bird as it arched above us was mesmerizing, and we took several photos and videos before it flew away. Then, feeling incredibly lucky, I used a photo and watercolor crayons to draw the bird against the mountain top. Later, looking on the internet, we decided it was a bald eagle.
I climbed up Telluride’s Bear Creek Trail a few miles and rested in an alpine meadow. I had paper, pastel pencils, and gouache along, but there was so much to look at and so many different angles to choose from that I ended up cramming the sheet full of the mountain’s abundance.
Deliberate Sketching 