View that was worth the cold: Palace of Fine Arts

For an unsuspecting biker passing by, this might be most surprising scenery. Even as I was biking slowly down the quiet road looking left and right for the PFA (Palace of Fine Arts), which I have been to on one previous occasion, I was still shocked to see this view pop up on the right out of nowhere. So one naturally had to stop the bike on the spot and pulled out the painting supplies. Thankfully the remaining body heat from biking all the way from Caltrain station kept me warm until I finished this piece. All the tourists coming and going were complaining about the cold, and I was like, cold? what cold? It hit me though in half an hour that they were not joking about the cold...

I was supposed to find the SF Sketcher Meetup group, but I failed to get up in time for Caltrain (for a 10AM event, I needed to catch the 2nd earliest Caltrain at 8:15!) But I decided to come anyways and after finishing the first drawing, decided to go into the PFA and see if I can see any sketchers there. As luck would have it, the group just finished their walking tour and starting to sketch the palace. So I settled in too. The cold wind and my starving stomach tormented me, but sketching with a group was such a relaxing experience it was worth postponing lunch~

I usually keep a straight face when I'm sketching in public so that I don't get distracted by talking to passer-bys. But this a little boy came up to us, pointed to one of the ladies and said," look mom! There's an elderly lady drawing!" And then looked at me and shouted, "Mom, this little girl is also drawing!" Which cracked me up so bad I had to respond :P

The lady is definitely not elderly by the way...and I'm pretty sure I look at least high school...

More water! This time onsite at Coyote Point, San Mateo

Wheeled my bike over to San Mateo over the weekend in search of some good water scenes. Water in SF is usually rough, so I decided to take my chances at a closer waterfront park that has an enclosed marina in San Mateo. The park turned out to be much better than I expected. Weather is much cooler than South Bay even at 2pm (and sunny!) and area has many nice facilities (trash cans, water fountain, and washrooms) And hills also make the scenery much more interesting. Basically I just lean my bike wherever I want to draw (on a tree, on the rocks, etc) and start working.

 Quiet marina (save for the occasional Pokemon catching families walking by)

 Rocks, hills, and wind-blown trees, oh and plus people fishing on the rocks

More wind-blown trees and rocks. (At this point I decided I was too hungry to draw more)

Water practise

Finally brought myself to face one of my 2 biggest fears...water. Practise based on a photo of Vancouver's waterfront

Second time around: Fort Mason Center

This is my 2nd time drawing Fort Mason Center, this time sitting at a lower location because the wind is too brutal on top of the hill. I was looking for an excuse to sneak out of JPOP summit (happening in one of the red-roof pavilions) all day and I finally got my chance after 2pm. Usually the hottest most unbearable time of the day in South Bay, but only barely warm enough to sit still under the sun at Fort Mason. The wind almost flipped my drawing board onto my face a couple of times...

The view onto North Bay right after sunset (from Fort Mason). The fog has covered the city, but the remainder of the sunset is still visible under the cloud. The view was quite unusual, but it was too cold at the time to draw anything (plus it is really hard to capture on camera). So I memorized the scene and drew this snippet on my tablet a few days later.

Halfway home - Sunnyvale Community Center

This little pond (plus geese and ducks) is right about half way between my office and apartment. I never noticed this place until I decided to take bus to get from the nearby Caltrain station to home. (The bus does a detour around the community center) Perfect spot to rest and enjoy the sunset

Studies on Highway

When one ultimately runs out of subject to draw in a tiny town, such is exactly my case, one starts drawing things normally unthinkable. To me, that's the highway. True that they are never far away ever since I move to the US, but with buildings, flowers, ocean, and people to draw, I never had to consider the artistic potential of the highways....until last week, when I was itching to get some practise but was also starving and couldn't wait to start cooking dinner. Such is the dilemma, starve to death or draw the highway (since it's next to my apartment). The highway won.

I must look like an idiot standing in the middle of the overpass when all the cars whooshed past me lol

This is the view off the other side of the overpass, so the direction of sunlight is opposite

West Portal, SF

For some reason I can never predict the correct weather in SF ever since moving down south into Silicon Valley. And so I got off the train to a perfect Sunday morning...blanketed by fog and under 15C...with a skirt and only 2 layers

Hiding in the warmth of a local cafe (in West Portal neighbourhood) while carefully identifying which is my tea cup and which is my water jar before every brush dip.

Sketching (stalking the strangers sitting in front of me) at the Stern Grove Festival! Great music and surprisingly, calm wind and bearable temperature thanks to the trees surrounding the stage.