The 41st Worldwide Sketchcrawl meets The Big Draw LA!

The Los Angeles Sketchcrawl group, led by my fellow Los Angeles correspondent, Shiho Nakaza, met in Old Town Pasadena at City Hall.  As Shiho said, we were also part of the month-long celebration of drawing in Los Angeles, the Big Draw LA, one of 79 events going on all over the city, and we had a great turn-out!

The Robinson Memorial sits across from City Hall.  I’ve always wanted to draw these monumental bronze heads, and the Sketchcrawl was the perfect opportunity!  Jackie and Mack Robinson were outstanding athletes at John Muir High School in Pasadena, and both went on to stellar careers.  Mack won the silver medal for the 200-meter dash in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, and Jackie Robinson famously broke the color barrier in major league baseball in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers.  I thought the positioning of the heads interesting–Mack stayed in Pasadena and his portrait faces City Hall, while Jackie faces east, towards Brooklyn, NY.  I love the way these heads are surrounded by the beginnings of fall foliage…

Pasadena’s City Hall, which has been a backdrop for many films and TV shows, is an elegant 1927 building.  I focused on the entrance with equipment being set up for a later event…

City Hall is a very popular place for wedding photos with its lovely courtyard…a quick sketch here of a photographer in action…

…and a “group shot” of some of the days’ sketches on the City Hall steps…