Salesforce Tower going up fast!

A relatively quiet Sunday afternoon.  It had been a while since I visited this construction site, and it's pretty mind blowing how fast it has been rising:

Although my focus had been on the tower under construction, I was a little thrown off by the complicated angles and glass patterns on the building in front of the site.  In my attempts to de-emphasize it, I decided to knock it back in value, which in retrospect, I think I went too far.  The building (with the exception of the tinted glass sheath) was actually a bit warmer, and I should have just kept it as it was.  As a result, not only did I half-ass the other individual windows, but the buildings don't separate very well.  Meh!  Next time.

ink

...on location at Embarcadero Center looking down Davis.

A famous bridge

Not terrible I guess.

Worked a bit larger and tried to be a bit more disciplined about waiting for paint to dry and let watercolor be watercolor.  Still need to get better at planning.  And not get freaked out by so many girders.

Eviction in SF

Some good friends of ours are being evicted from their home of more than ten years.  They put up a sign in their window (much to the chagrin of the new owners of the building, heh heh!) reflecting that fact.  Stories of evictions are ever present in SF these days, hanging uneasily in the air everywhere you go.  It is certainly wrenching to witness it at close range.

I went to do a sketch of it, and it was kind of a bizarre experience.  It was a beautiful afternoon, people were idly lazing about in the park with their dogs, this cry of despair from the building hanging over them.  Did it give them pause?  Who can say.  One fellow was doing his qi gong exercises nearby, completely immersed within himself; not far from him, a homeless guy was sprawled out.  Truly, a microcosm of San Francisco today.

thought i had posted these...

...but i guess not.  from a couple of months ago...

October challenge

Instigated by my wife, we have resolved to do a drawing or painting per day for the month of October, much like the popular "Inktober" drawing challenge one sees around the interwebs.  My other self-imposed condition will be that everything must be from life, and painting is preferrable over drawing.  And yes, yes, here we are, 6th day of the month, and here are only five (I started a day late):

Stump Beach

A rare occasion where I managed to pause in our travels to actually paint on the spot!  As with sketches, the rule for me will be to work at much smaller size.  These were done after a beautiful hike in Salt Point State Park up in the Sonoma County coast.

The first turned out better than the second.  I think I'd lost my concentration by then, and also the sun was getting unbearably hot.

around town

SFAI

These are more sketches from my weekly excursions to the area area around the SF Art Institute  of late (North Beach essentially), done while waiting for my wife while she took a watercolor class.

The baked goods case of the Columbus Cafe:

Loading dock in the interior courtyard of the SFAI:

For these two below, I feel like I still ought to simplify and push the values further apart...hmmm...

Columbus Cafe again:

SFAI loading area stairs at night:

monument

...from a while back.  Market and Dolores.  It was sunny but really windy and, as I was sitting in the shadow of the swank new(ish) Whole Foods Market, my fingers went numb with cold.  Bad circulation I guess..

  

Totems and such

I've been fascinated by all the high-rises going up around town.  This is some pile driving equipment on 8th and Brannon:

Actually, it's a little manipulated from the actual site - I've moved some elements around.  I like the image as an idea but not terribly pleased with how it came out.  Plus I screwed up on the sky..:(

More skeletons

...of pending high-rises, that is..

Hyundai and hazards of plein air

It had been so long since we'd had consistent sun (at least in my neighborhood) that I was totally unprepared for how warm it was on the other side of town.  I couldn't really put on my sunglasses as it altered the colors of the scene too much, so I was blinded by the the white of the page (which ironically made color mixing a little hard). And then I was unable to finish my second color sketch (not shown here) because I noticed how badly sunburned my arm was getting.  Ouch...

more black and white thumbnails

I've been really enjoying these, especially after getting better control over ink flow.  However, I know I musn't be too enamored with the end results - they are only exercises after all!

night sketches

This was hard: hands going numb from cold wind, couldn't see my own sketchbook.  Still, I plan to do more of these.

more construction

This one really kicked my butt.  I'm fascinated by all the skeletal underpinnings of the new building, but it required a level of detail I found hard to get.  Looking at it now, I guess it still turned out ok after all.  All I can say is, thank goodness for gouache!

The bottom is a little curved only because the page in the sketchbook is...I have been too lazy to scan my sketches and have been just taking photos with my phone.

SOMA construction plein air

San Francisco is undergoing a huge building surge all about the city, with new office towers and luxury apartments going up everywhere you look, which is what brought me out to this location at First and Mission.  I think this is going to be Salesforce Tower?

Turned out all right considering I didn't bring a pencil, which would have been nice for tightening details.  Instead, all I had was a day-glow orange Stabilo pen that I got for free last year.  It turns out to be a nice tool for the under-drawing.  Thankfully, with a bit of gray and white gouache I was able to get some harder edges.

As always, there are unexpected challenges painting on location.  In this case, the crane started moving about ten minutes after I started, before I had a chance to note exactly how the light was falling on it and before I could make out some of the detail around the claw and along the arm.  Oh well!

I also mostly resisted the urge to tweak things once I got home.  Mostly..

Still cold

The sun has started peeking in on us for the first time in a month (it has been uniformly gray) so I thought I'd go out and do some painting...The sun was certainly nice, but with the wind my fingers still went numb after a while.  Plus, after I roughed out the drawing, the tractor moved away so i had to kind of paint based on what i rememberd. That's what makes plein aire so exciting! Whee!!!

sf botanical gardens

Not terrible, considering I wasn't completely prepared with my usual set up, and there were swarms of kids buzzing around the area at the time.  Need to work on cropping...