By Gary Amaro in San Francisco Unusually small turnout for the sketchcrawl this time. We met at the Ferry Building on Embarcadero, which I’ve drawn many times before, so this time I went to check out the nearby sculpture SOMA by Flaming Lotus Girls which is said to represent two neurons firing in communication and apparently glows at night. Later in the evening I stopped by Academy of Art University on Powell Street, where I teach, where the students were well underway in their 24 Hour Comics marathon. Such focus and creativity and enough participants to fill Bradley Hall, our ballroom turned drawing theatre. For sure a better turnout […]
A 1906 film shot from the front of a cable car shows a trip down Market Street through all manner of traffic, pedestrian, horse-drawn, cable, and auto, and heading straight for the looming tower of the Ferry Building Terminal. Four days later, the great earthquake destroyed much of the city, but the Ferry Building remained. These days, the Ferry Building is a public market of little shops, at least downstairs. Upstairs, it seems to be mainly offices. Which I know because I was asked to move again while sketching, making my streak a perfect three for three so far. Initially, the security guard at the top of the stairs asked my business and […]
Class meets twice a week for six hours a session, and at a different location each day. For our second session, we practiced our meeting up skills in this beautiful downtown park with only minimal wrangling. Having warmed up with a couple of passenger portraits on the BART train, I settled atop a high concrete planter to draw my assistant, Jonathan, here seated by some papyrus rushes and drawing a local tai chi group. This time it was a park official who asked me to move, but, fortunately, I was about done with that part of the drawing and so moved on to add the side of the Metreon building. Many people come to relax on the grassy […]
This summer I am excited to be teaching Location Drawing and Painting for Academy of Art University, San Francisco. My students and I will be sketching and painting at points of interest all over town and even in the East Bay. Everyone starts with a brand new sketchbook and will fill at least 100 pages with observational drawings and sketch reporting by the time the class finishes in seven and a half weeks. I will be posting mine here. For our first day, we discussed perspective and then drew up and down Powell Street (where the Illustration Department is headquartered) and in nearby Union Square. The top piece here is the view […]
With the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) workers strike going into its second day, commuters need to find alternate means of transportation to get around and to cross the bay. Here at the ferry terminal at Jack London Square, beneath the giant cranes of the Port of Oakland, we are standing in line waiting to board the ferry while passengers from the City disembark. Next stop San Francisco. Gabi, feel free to use this for the week in sketches slideshow.
