2016 Dickens Fair

The Dickens Fair, 2017

In December Julia and I went to San Francisco’s Dickens Fair, which I’d often heard about but never attended. Despite being surrounded by a constant jibber-jabber of lame Cockney accents that would make even Dick Van Dyke wince ( ‘Cor Blimey Mary!‘ ) it was a lot of fun. Seen here are some sketches done in the PreRaphaelite Artists Salon, where … Read more

Monterey: Aquarium

Monterey Aquarium, 2015

Following my recent post about sketching Monterey Bay, here’s what happened when Julia & I finally got up early enough to use our Two-Day passes to the MONTEREY AQUARIUM. I’m such a shuffling and slow walker these days, so in the interest of getting to the aquarium as soon as possible, we caught a taxi … Read more

Dr Sketchy’s

Dr Sketchy's 2011

Last night, Julia and I attended a life-drawing sketch session at San Francisco’s branch of the famous Dr Sketchy’s anti-ArtSchool, held at the 111 Minna Gallery. It was a lot of fun. My understanding is that the models are always dressed and posed to a theme and this time it was “burlesque clowns”. Three 20 … Read more

Big Sur

Near Big Sur 2004

My current pocket sketchbook has a long history; it was purchased in 2002, drawn in sporadically until 2004, then lost and only just found again late last year. Consequently, there are OLD sketches amongst the new, such as these from a trip in 2004, when Bosco, myself and Chris (pictured below) went driving south along … Read more

Sketchcrawl #30

Sketchcrawl, Ronnie & Matt

Last weekend I attended my very first SKETCHCRAWL here in San Francisco and had a wonderful time out and about sketching and socialising with friends. Over the past year or so, I have been trying very hard to re-acquire the habit of going out and sketching in the real world. I used to do this … Read more