Worth it for the redeye: Pier 3 + Hornblower

In order to attend this SF sketcher meetup at Pier 3, I negotiated at length on the phone with the travel agent to book a redeye flight to Japan. The dilemma was (1) I really want to attend the meetup on Saturday (2) My boss wants me in Japan Monday morning. As it turns out, all the flights to Japan depart around noon in the bay area, meeting the 2nd requirement but invariable crushing my sketching plans. In the end, I convinced the travel agent to book me on a midnight flight out of Los Angeles, arriving in Japan 5am in the morning on Monday... god knows why the redeye is only available in LA, but it certainly saved my day (or weekend rather) Onwards to enjoy the nice and sunny day at the Piers!!

The tiny yellow boat caught my attention as I was walking to the meeting point. (It almost killed me, however, when halfway through the painting, the boat sailed away with a group of passengers...it did come back after 15 minutes lol)

Onto the Hornblower boat. I was originally only planning to draw the buildings lining the Pier (between Pier 3 and 5), but there still was a bit of time left when I finished and it looked like the painting could naturally extend itself to the Hornblower moored next to it. I thus quickly proceeded to block in the sky, hoping that the blues match~

Verdict: definitely worth enduring the redeye!

The lecturing continues: Fort Funston National Park

Honestly I was a bit skeptical when the SF meetup group posted "Fort Funston National Park" as the next sketching location. A national park in SF is the last thing I would expect, given the population density and limited space. But...it turns out this tiny national park still managed to squeeze itself along the west coastline of the peninsula, and also offers quite a unique landscape. I really had no idea what to expect when I parked my car and walked towards where everyone else was. The grassy field drops down to a sheer cliff with patches of sand and grass all the way until the shoreline at the bottom. You could barely make out the people down there or the distant horizon.

Access to the beach is through the stairs (completely overrun by sand) in the middle of the painting. It really wasn't as scary as it looks once I got down there, but boy was uphill a battle trying to find traction in all the loose sand!

After sitting near the cliff finishing up my first painting, I nudged inland a little bit to focus on the resting hang-gliders. As I was about to put on the finishing touches though, I noticed from the corner of my eye, someone waving furiously at my direction and trying to mouth something. Through his body language, I could sort of grasp that he wanted me to move out of that location. Since there was another sketcher nearby who was still painting, I decided to finish this one up and then move out of the grass. But there were indeed orange cones behind where I was sitting, so I moved a few inches so that I'm behind them. Unfortunately a few minutes later, the same man walked up to me and started to voice anger that I still haven't cleared the area and that it's a hazard for landing gliders. A bit confused at this point, I explained that I though the orange cones are the boundaries, and since I'm now already out of the circled zone, where exactly is the forbidden area? The man quickly lost his patience, taking my questions as defiance to safety. After being thrown questions to the likes of "it's like drawing on the highway, will you draw on the highway?" merely because I asked why people walking through the area is okay but sitting is not okay, I quickly concluded the ineffective conversation and announced my intention to depart. As I was slowly packing up my stuff, another man walked up and apologized for the previous guy's attitude and this time politely explained why I couldn't stay where I was. However, at this stage the anger had really rubbed off on me and I just threw him an impatient "Yes! I AM packing!". (You see, anger and impatience are indeed the worst communication tools, even creating a domino effect on me)

The second person eventually came back again when I started doing the first panorama on my sketch book and explained that the hang gliders just weren't used to having sketchers in their territory, given that most people just walk through and walk downhill. Even though he was nice and considerate, there was still this uneasy feeling as I left the park. It is reminiscent of the various unfriendly encounters w/ authority I had when sketching in Japan (unfortunately most are confrontation from the start too...)

Looking across the parking lot, there's also a nice view of the TV tower in the distant.

Picking a shadow to hide: Los Gatos Creek Trail

On one scorching afternoon (Back in early June), I headed straight for the shades of Los Gatos Creek Trail on my bike (and hid there until the sun was down) 

I rarely draw on near square paper size, but it was a nice change!

Braving the heat: again in the Philippines

Catching up on a trip to Manila in mid-June. Since I was staying in Makati (downtown / financial area) this time, I decided to stroll around instead of attempting to uber to farther destinations (my previous traumatic experience was still fresh in my memory) Besides the heat and humidity, there was really nothing to complain about (or be afraid of) in the few blocks around the hotel. There was a decently-sized supermarket, in which I was dismayed to find that no Asian, aka Japanese / Korean, snacks were in stock. Given the all-too-obvious abundance of Japanese cars on the street, I really thought that the snack industry would have an equal influence. There were, however, digestive biscuits on sale, an excellent item for the long commute back. I was definitely the odd one in the queue with only the biscuits and a bag of mango slices, where everyone else looked like they're preparing for an imminent typhoon... Seriously, everyone in queue had at least one full shopping cart, and the couple before me had almost 20 cardboard boxes full of groceries (heck there were 4 people helping them process, 1 load the conveyor belt, 1 scan the items, and 2 stuff the boxes)

The view is through the arched breezeway of the Philippine Exchange Plaza, a cool refuge from the scorching sun outside. The park in the foreground (Ayala Triangle Gardens) was also very nice and quiet, too bad that I ran out of green paint so the leaves looked more subdued than they really were... It really didn't come to me that I could just mix blue and yellow to make green, until a week after I returned...missed opportunities haha

Parts of town: Haight Ashbury

Summer of love event was a good excuse to visit Haight Ashbury again, I remember quickly walking through the streets during my apartment hunting a few years back. This time the organizer of the sketch Meetup found a perfect spot to enjoy the street view, outside a busy grocer. The street is extremely busy on the weekend, but the benches are surprisingly empty (even after I went back after the meetup to finish up the painting) 

 I was still paranoid about painting people without their knowledge (somehow I feel more intimidated here than the more crowded places like Singapore) So instead of drawing the guys chilling at the table next to us, I twisted my body to draw the scene across the street (my seat is actually facing in the direction of the street)
I was extra impressed by myself that I could negative-paint the letters without any pencil under drawings!

I saw the church (St. Ignatius) while riding the N-train into Haight, so I tried finding it again after hopping off the train. The green in the foreground is part of the Panhandle.

Coast to Lakes, roadtrip in Ontario: The Main Course!

The trip itself was planned around the visit to Algonquin Provincial Park, but we still lingered a bit in Gravenhurst and tried looking for wine to no avail (since all liquor stores, save for a few in downtown Toronto, were closed for Victoria Day) We could cross the border at Niagara Falls to get some, but that would be decreasing valuable time spent in Algonquin Park, so no! 

View on Highway 60 heading into the park. It is truly a highway built for the city folks, since it takes a huge detour to connect Toronto and Ottawa through all the cottage country. Traffic was heavy on the opposite side, since it was the last day of Victoria Day long weekend, which makes me even happier heading in! This is my first and probably last attempt at drawing in the car though...even though it is a good way to pass time and stay awake, but I got car sick before I can finish it properly

The next day on the Big Pine Trail. This one was split through the middle (probably by thunder?) The look was pretty stunning

This is the only one that I had some proper place to put my tools (okay, I put them on a rock...but at least there was a rock!) This is the view in front of our cabin, with some canoes to use and a pier to set out into the lake. This time we finally canoed to the shore on the far side (helped by the windless morning)

A final one done just before sunset on the last night. More memorable than the scene itself was how the black flies swarmed over the car right after we parked (probably thinking it is a big moose or something), after which we quickly decided not the open the window/get out of the car.

Coast to Lakes, roadtrip in Ontario: The Lakes!

 Water was an unavoidable subject from the 2nd day of the road trip onwards, because we were either looking at lakes, rowing in the lake...or getting rained on!

Lake Erie flowing into Lake Ontario at Niagara Falls. Canadian Horseshoe Falls on the right, American Falls in the middle, and Rainbow bridge on the left. The steam blocks the view from time to time, but this time I had the luxury of relaxing in the hotel room sofa perched high above ground and sipping hot tea, while waiting for the wind to blow the steam away. Niiiiice

Scribbled together a quick one at Gravenhurst's Steamship pier before the drizzle set in. Since my last visit was nice and balmy weather, I was totally unprepared of the freezing wind...so the boathouses to the right was left undrawn...The steamships are (left) RMS Segwun and Wenonah (right). The water itself is Muskoka Bay. And...they're both off season, since I still chose early Spring to revisit...oh well, at least Segwun is not under renovation this time.