Sketchcrawl 17: Portsmouth Square S.F.

One of my more relaxed sketches on the crawl--as in, I was calm. The drawing seems to reflect this as well somehow. A detail of the sketch is here.

Another good and relaxing Sketchcrawl. Three day weekend and a Sketchcrawl called for Saturday. I must've been a good boy. Took the Bart over and met up with everybody at Portsmouth square. There was a good sized contingent there already drawing away. Enrico took a count and we had around sixty, give or take. A good turn out for what was a cold sunny day in San Francisco.



Had a great time. Didn't draw as much but meeting all you lovely folks for a day of drawing outside sure does a mind/body good. Our subjects were the good people of Chinatown who were there going about their day of congregating with friends, family and maybe take in a rousing game of cards.


From that overpass crossing Kearny St. I drew two elder gentlemen sharing a newspaper article. Great vantage point to see all the Sketchcrawlers, too. Click image for a lager pic.

The men and ladies of the square tended to be seniors and they had such character in their faces and garb. We've been here before for a Sketchcrawl and we don't seem to tire of the place. At one point our subjects turned their curiosity on us and looked over our shoulders to see what or who we were drawing.


An army travels on its stomach. True of our corps as well. Enrico, Bolhem and I hoofed if over to the House of Nanking. The chef took care of us after we fumbled with our menus--and that he did. The food was excellent! The tea arrived and we marveled at how luscious it looks with all the leaves and colorful buds. And it tasted great. Happy and full we sauntered over to Zoetrope for an espresso drink and dessert. Now that's what I call a Sketchcrawl.

I love seeing everyone's sketches at the end of the day, always a treat. Thanks to all who participated. See you at the forums and at the next Sketchcrawl.


Portsmouth Square
House of Nanking

Sketchcrawl Forums
Paperbiscuit Flickr albums

Nina starts the year

Photoshop drawing and color. Low-rez with a customized brush then scaled up. Something Don Shank showed me.


Monthly drawing? Maybe not a bad idea to have a regular drawing post, eh? I can gather enough for a calendar? The storms over the weekend had forced us to hole up in the house. I need to get the hybernation cobwebs out. Heck, need to work out.

My thanks to Claudio Acciari for continuing to post on my humble Oekaki board. He's such a consumate draftsman, it's not even funny. While you're at it, check out my very own Oekaki board. We've been losing comments to the ether lately and I've no idea what triggers it. I hope it fixes itself in the long run. I also posted the simple password for comments on the top of the page (under the banner of my oekaki page). That's just so the spam bots don't thrash my board with mindless ads for vulgar items. Sheesh.

while you're at it, maybe you want to leave a drawing on that there drawing applet--it's really quite a versatile drawing program for something free online. Most of the controls and options you would have been used to in other drawing applications are there. I can even custom make a brush. Too bad you can't save it permanently.



Claudio Acciari

OekakiBBS tutorial. I really should go through this myself(though that scary image can hinder the faint of heart).Scroll down the page for a call-out of all the tools.

Paperbiscuit OekakiBBS--in case you can't see the banner in the sidebar linking to the site, heh.