sketchcrawl

Yesterday was fantastic.
I knew that the 4th World Wide SketchCrawl was going to happen August 27th. I had known about the previous three SketchCrawls by following Enrico Casarosa and Ronnie Del Carmen's blogs. I wanted to come. REAL BAD.
I at first wanted to go alone, but ended up inviting two great friends along with me, and I'm glad I did. I had so much fun yesterday, it was incredible.
We started out the day by meeting the SketchCrawl crowd at (a very crowded with artists) Dolores Cafe. When we were walking up to the door I saw Ronnie and I knew I'd be seeing Enrico, two idols whom I've met only once at this years' Wondercon. It's strange meeting someone you've kind of "seen" everyday, on their blogs, but never actually had conversations with... And this strange feeling crept into my legs as we walked up to the door. I thought, How am I going to walk all day if my legs feel all giggly with excitement every time I see these guys?? It took a while to pluck up enough courage to talk to Ronnie, who was standing in front of us. But I said hello, and that I was here for the SketchCrawl.
Still giddy, but calmer than when we first got there, I hung about inside the cafe with my friends, then we migrated outside. Everyone was sketching. It was so cool. I got out my sketchbook and started doing a black and white dog that was sitting outside the door of the cafe.
After about twenty minutes, after my parents had left to go do their thing for the day, the group headed towards Dolores Park. I think there were two groups, Ronnie's and Enrico's. I was in Ronnie's group. We spent maybe a little more than an hour at the park, which was a very nice place to draw.
After that we walked up Church street and met Enrico and his group at Market street. It was lunchtime, and my two friends and I decided to go off and walk the whole way to Amoeba Music-our next meeting spot at 3:30. It was about 1:00 I think, when the three of us took off on our own. Enrico drew on the map I had brought, and that helped us a lot.
We ate at a really good burger place, called Burger Joint. Cute 50s style.
The time after lunch and on, I kept feeling like I hadn't been drawing enough. We even stopped to shop a little, and I got really fidgety in there. I wanted to be out drawing, and so far I had only two and a half pages of sketching.
Finally, after a while, we got to Amoeba Music and met Ronnie and Enrico at 3:30. We proceeded to Golden Gate Park, where I drew a bit more, then we walked for a long time trying to find the Japanese Tea Garden. That place was nice. Though it was crowded, it gave me a place to just sit down and draw. I ended up drawing something I thought would be way too complicated for me...it was this huge arched bridge. But I did okay on it, I guess... Didn't finish it though.
Next stop, Canvas Gallery Cafe. This is where the remembered Dan Lee liked to draw people, I heard. Lee had a gallery up on the walls, and so did many of his coworkers, including Ronnie, Enrico, Louis Gonzales. I believe they were put up for the book launch of In Your Face, a book of Dan Lee's artwork done in his free time. The book launch happened on Thursday of last week.
SketchCrawl had their own corner of the cafe for sitting, chatting and sharing sketchbooks. I was still embarrassed that I had not done enough drawings (in my opinion) and I was frantically (though now that I think about it, fruitlessly) trying to make my drawings more appealing by watercoloring them. Eventually I gave up and just decided to stop and enjoy them for what they are, or if that was not possible, enjoy other people's artwork around me. I saw Ronnie, who was sitting not to far from me, and he wanted to see my sketchbook. Wow. That's cool! Though now I wish he'd seen my other sketchbook I brought...I draw a lot better from my head most of the time, and that sketchbook is all from my head.
Anyway, he said he liked it, pointing at one drawing and said, "This one is good. It's very relaxed." That drawing is here; it's the one with the sketcher in pinkish pants, sitting cross-legged, green shirt and tan hat. I found it quite useful to have other people around you drawing too- sketchers make great -and still- models!
All in all, a great day. Perfect weather and perfect situations with people and friends and idols and everything. I will now be looking forward towards the next SketchCrawl event with great anticipation. I talked to Enrico and he had an idea for the next SketchCrawl day...but maybe I better let him explain it... :)
Enjoy the pictures!