Storefront - Loleta Lumber

A clear, warm day at the end of June when I drew this small pencil sketch of closed-up storefronts along Main Street in Loleta, CA. The nearly overhead sun cast strong shadows from the contours and ledges of these buildings. 

Pencil on Paper; 3.5 x 5.5 inches

View of Bird Walk Marshes, Bodega Bay

A sketch I did this afternoon of Bird Walk Marshes on the edge of Bodega Bay .

Pencil; 3.5 x 11 inches

A warm, cloudy afternoon, with sounds of sea lions barking from Doran Beach.

View of the Golden Gate from Crissy Field

Here is an earlier watercolor sketch I did of the Golden Gate Bridge; this time looking from Crissy Field on a clear day.

Watercolor & Pencil; 5 x 8 inches

This page is from a sketchbook that I thought was lost during our last move, but recently found!

Cargo Ship Entering the Golden Gate Strait

Here's a small watercolor and pencil sketch that I did over the weekend.

Watercolor & Pencil; 3.5 x 11 inches

Low clouds covered the tops of the Marin Headlands and the Golden Gate Bridge pylons.  A small coyote trotted though the parking lot where I was drawing.

Sketching - Heat of the Day

This afternoon I was out sketching along the trails at Crane Creek Regional Park.  A warm day (92 F); I only saw two visitors and a ranger in the park.  Also saw a noisy hawk on patrol, and an enormous vulture, that flapped up from the tall grass, like an old raincoat, each time I passed by; interrupting its feast, no doubt!  

Pencil; 3.5x5.5 inches

I stopped on the trail to do this quick pencil sketch of a hillside in full sunlight, with a gnarled tree trunk on one side with the cool shadows of foliage on the other side, where the trail is heading. Normally, I wouldn't stand out in the blazing sun long enough to do a sketch like this, but from experience I knew that somehow the camera wouldn't capture the very thing that caught my attention in the first place.

San Francisco Rooftops

Here's a sketch I did over the weekend of a view overlooking part of San Francisco, with the Pacific Ocean shown in the upper right corner.  All the time I was working on this drawing, a steady grey overcast with minimal shadows prevailed.  Almost as soon as I was finished with the drawing, the level rays of the sun came below the cloud layer and lit up the scene with a golden light with deep shadows; something that reminded me of Corot's paintings of Rome, or something by Canaletto.

Pencil & Ink; 3.5 x 11 inches

Spring Lake Meadow

While sitting in my truck this afternoon, I painted a small watercolor of a meadow in Spring Lake Park. This is the same spot as my earlier painting "In a Clearing".

Watercolor, gouache, pencil & ink; 3.5 x 11 inches

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December Light - Pewetole Island

Watercolor study of Pewetole Island, located by Trinidad, CA.

Watercolor; 5 x 8 inches

Sausalito Twilight - Fourth of July

Here's a small watercolor study I did, working from a snapshot (taken from inside a moving car, heading northbound on Highway 101, after crossing the Golden Gate Bridge and leaving the Waldo tunnel).

Watercolor on Paper; Approx. 2.5 x 3.5 inches

Sketch of Main Street in Loleta, CA

From my pocket sketchbook. View looking north of the intersection of Main Street and Loleta Drive. Railroad crossing signal lights and tracks are shown at the lower right corner of the drawing.

Pencil on Paper; 3.5 x 5.5 inches