Sketchcrawl #19

I love Sketchcrawls! It's such a gift to allow yourself the whole day to just draw. Fort Point was the location this time, right under the bridge. About 40 people showed up. The weather was beautiful, as always. This was Amelia's last crawl before heading off to College.
We were merely the San Francisco contingent of the Worldwide Sketchcrawl. If you would like to see the results of what people sketched all over the world on Sunday, you can see as people post their work at www.sketchcrawl.com/forum/. Just go to 19th Worldwide Sketchcrawl, and then click on the city/country RESULTS post. I think it's fascinating. I'll put mine up eventually. Sweden posted some great photos along with the art. I want to go to Sweden. I loved Australia's. And I want to learn to sketch like Gabi Campanario in Seattle. That'll never happen!

I'm so HAPPY that Sib, Ross, Diane, Ruth and Ernie came down!!! I've always wanted them to come! Yay!

The North Bay/East Bay gang: L-R front row: Jeff, Amelia, Ronnie, Gerin, Ruth, Sibyl. Back row: Ernie, Ross, Nancy, Diane

That bridge is breathtaking from any angle...


Concentrating...


Summer in SF and no fog! Diane and Sib upon our arrival:


Amelia and "the man" Enrico Casarosa. Dig the blue hat.



I don't know where the time went. The day FLEW by, and I only did these two sketches!!





Afterwards, we went to Presidio Social Club for dinner, and then to the Ethnic Dance Festival at the Palace of Fine Arts. What a great day.

felted Popeye and Olive

I'm working on Wimpy now. I want to do Swee'pea, Eugene the Jeep, Brutus and Alice the Goon, too. They take a long time, though, so we'll see...

Robin's Nest Update

This is the same nest I posted a week or so ago. I was really surprised to see 4 eggs in it! Momma and Daddy Robin are not at all happy with us being anywhere near it, so I haven't peeked in since last time. The nest is only about 6' up in a tree; right outside the chicken coop. I can't quite reach my camera high enough to focus correctly.

(as Ry would say) "Good God Almighty!"

Thank you Youtube!Whew!
Ry Cooder, Santa Cruz, 1987. On vocals:
Terry Evans(in blue), Willie Green Jr., Arnold McCullen and Bobby King.

Sad Chicken story

Last Saturday I went out to Penngrove Hay & Grain and got 2 more baby chicks; an Ameracauna and a Barred Rock. They were 3 weeks old. Penny and Ginger accepted them immediately, and, at only one week older, took on the "mother hen" role of sitting on them when it began to get dark. After a couple of nights in the cat carrier safely in the garage, I thought it would be ok to let them sleep in the coop with P&G. I had nailed an extra layer of chicken wire around the base of the coop, because they warned me at the feed store that animals can reach right through chicken wire. Well, they were right. Something, - a cat, we're fairly sure, reached through both layers of wire and got the Barred Rock in the middle of the night. I came out in the morning to find her head and her heart in the coop, and a pile of feathers outside. Sickening. So as soon as I came home from work, I nailed another layer of chicken-wire to the outside. I'm still nervous, because for some reason, those silly chickens like to sleep right up next to the sides of the coop. I go out there right at dusk and move them further back, and hopefully they stay there the rest of the night. Chickens go brain-dead after dark; they typically can't even walk, so I'm hoping they stay put. And if they don't, hopefully 3 layers of chicken-wire will keep the predators' stinkin arms out of there.

Robin's Egg Blue

I didn't know Robin's egg blue was so vibrant, but here it is, the real deal. Right in our backyard.

New Job!

Tomorrow I start my new job! I'll be the graphic artist at Arcturus Marine in Rohnert Park. They manufacture parts for boats -- big boats! Stabilizers, Thrusters, and Hydraulic systems. Nice that there's still some manufacturing in Sonoma County! So it's back to the 'ole technical illustration, which I really love. Training manuals, specifically. Only this time it's on a mac with Illustrator, Photoshop & InDesign.

So bye-bye to my life of leisure, and hello 8:30-5!

Here's the url to the new company: http://www.thrusters.com/