Drawing in the rain and ... Portraits!

Since this weekend's event with the SF sketchers was later in the afternoon, I actually had the time to arrive in the city early enough to stop by somewhere else to paint first. Mission Creek Park was just a couple of blocks away from Arch Art Supplies, so I parked my car by the neighbourhood and strolled along the creek looking for good vantage points. 

I was planning to draw the other side of the creek (since I did the boat side last time), but on closer inspection, it is really just new condos and trees - nothing too eye catching. Then I spotted the bridge (on 4th street) and the view at the end of it gave a wonderful view of the creek, distant hills, and the criss-crossed ramps. Just as I pulled out my drawing supplies though, I felt something light and cold on my head and thought uh-oh... the ripples on the water surface really left no doubt that it *just* started to rain. I half debated to take shelter in Philz next door and just wait it out, but in the end decided to hell it, I'm going to draw in the rain and just see how it turns out. 

I hid under a medium-sized tree, which stopped the constant drizzle, but just had bigger droplets of water coming down once-in-a-while (hence the blobs on the bottom right corner) In the brief intermission between the drizzle, I was able to put in most of the details. The wet climate really made the reflections in the water blend in beautifully. As the drizzle started again, I quickly packed up and walked to my car in the awkward position of holding my watercolour pad upside down.

The portrait party at Arch was fun as well. We took turns posing for each other and it was a huge relief that I can finally stare at/sketch people without any fear of retaliation. It is a long-time weakness of mine that I could not sketch people in public without worrying about being discovered.