Line to Color Workshop in Orange County

May 1-3,  Frank Ching and I went to Southern California to give our Line to Color Workshop.  This workshop was initiated through the Orange County AIA Emerging Professionals Program.  It was also opened up to the community through the Urban Sketchers Workshop Program.  We ended up with a great mix of architects and non-architects…from beginners to experienced sketchers.  All in all it was a wonderful weekend with perfect weather for outdoor sketching.

On Saturday, we spent time at Mission San Juan Capistrano sketching and painting the mission.
This was the 7th of 21 Missions that were founded in California by Franciscan monks and Spanish soldiers between the years of 1775-1776.

Local sketchers from Los Angeles,  Virginia Hein, Shiho Nakaza, Chris Ruiz-Velasco and John Banh took the train from Los Angeles to the Mission San Juan Capistrano and met up with us. Check out their blogs and facebook posts for their sketches of the day.

These are two watercolor sketches I did toward the end of the morning  and afternoon sessions of the ruins of the Great Stone Church.

The ruins of the Great Stone Church were the result of an earthquake in 1812.  The Church was never rebuilt but became the home for swallows who built their nests in the arches of the ruins. Each year like clockwork the swallows of San Juan Capistrano would migrate to the mission in March  to build nests and then migrate south again to Argentina in October.  While the church ruins were being stabilized the nests of the swallows were removed.   The swallows rebuilt their nests in other areas of San Juan Capistrano.  Today you don’t see the swallows that help make that Mission famous, but there are projects that are in process to help lure the swallows back to the mission.

On Sunday, we sketched and painted in Laguna, California.  Sunday morning we started off sketching at Main Beach Park  and then walked along the Promenade to Heisler Park getting a sweeping view of Laguna where participants were able to get some great sketches of Laguna.

Sunday afternoon we went to Lumberyard Mall to have our final sketch crawl.  Lumberyard Mall was actually the home of a lumberyard in the early 20th century.  The buildings that are quasi French Normandy style architecture create a quaint village atmosphere.  It has been converted to offices, boutique shops and cafe’s.

Gail’s Sketch of Lumberyard Mall Plaza.

Line to Color Workshop Heisler Park,  Laguna CA.

Photo of Frank Ching’s sketch with signatures of our participants.

We all left the weekend excited and energized about sketching.  We had such a wonderful group of talented participants.  The local Orange County group have eagerly started a sketching group and hope to see it develop into another USk Group.  We look forward to seeing their continued work.