Dickens Faire

I went to the Dickens Faire in San Francisco the other day do some costume sketches.  A lot of fun, as people really go all out with their costumes, and stay in character!  There are definitely a good sized steam punk contingent there, but mostly it seems people try and stay realistic to the time period.  Originally I had planned to hit a model salon but by the time I got there (kind of late), it was finishing up, so I was relegated to trying to sketch moving targets of opportunity, relying often on memory.

Here are some more successful ones:

Bartender

Cad

Standing room only at the Adventurer's Club Lecture.

Rough gentleman

Victorian cellphone use

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.

from memory

Walking down into the Mission from Noe Valley a while ago, the light was kind of interesting so I tried to remember it and put it down later.

Finally slowly learning and remembering to slow down appropriately when painting; and particularly with watercolors..Some of this actually turned out to my liking.

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.