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.

After work duties in Shanghai

 Being sent to Shanghai during one of the not-so-humid/hot and not-so-cold months was a rarity. So I convinced myself to either get up half an hour early, or postpone dinner by half an hour to draw. (last time I only got to draw out of my hotel window because it was a burning hell outside) I did get stomachache and limped my way back to the hotel on one occasion, but it's that special opportunity that a Shanghai-nese actually get to stay near the Bund for an extended period of time. All worth it.

Somewhere on Jinling East Road, through which I basically walk from my hotel to another hotel (20 mins walk away) to catch the shuttle to work. The scenery was so interesting that I was really sad when they arranged additional shuttles to my hotel a week later... Honestly I never got to see any of the shop fronts open (it was too early in the day), but there was a lot of hustle and bustle on the street, parents sending kids to school, people getting to work, lining up for the pharmacy, etc 

The Customs building and former HSBC building. I basically walked a block out of the hotel, poked my head onto the bund, scribbled into my sketchbook, and quickly left. It was Friday of the long weekend, but I still needed to work that Saturday...;A;

I totally overestimated myself when I started working on this one. My brain just didn't have the processing power to process both the demands of my eye-hand coordination, and the dire warnings from my stomach. In the end my stomach lost, so I spent the next hour lying motionless on the sofa

Not quite on location: Studies on film scenes