Balboa Park Sketchcrawl 4/16/11

Saturday, April 16, there were just 2 of us sketching in Balboa park from San Diego Sketchcrawlers, myself and Andy. This is only my second time sketching "on location". We met a little after 10 and were planning to sketch in the desert garden but it was rather warm so we retreated to the pergola of the rose garden. This is on the east side of Park Blvd across from the Natural History Museum and the Science Center. Here is a good map of the main Balboa Park area. The roses were exploding all over the garden. It was so beautiful there and of course it smelled divine.

I forgot to take a picture of the museums from this angle. But not to worry, Andy made a beautiful sketch of the flowers with the museum in the background. She really caught the character of the museum building.

I did a few sorry sketches in my sketchbook, of which this is the only one I will show. I know I shouldn't make excuses, but I realize now I really shouldn't be trying to do watercolor on drawing paper, no matter what the sketchpad label says. Most of the rose varieties were identified, but I couldn't find the name of this one.

I decided to make an ATC for my ATC a Day project as I had brought some watercolor paper blanks. I picked out a rose named Chihuly to use for my picture and sketched a little border around it. Thanks to Andy for suggesting the border, as I usually make a hash of backgrounds.

I took tons of flower photos; here is a picture of one of the Chihuly variety roses.

After Andy left about 12:30, I stayed a little longer in the rose garden and then went over to the main area of Balboa Park by the museums and botanical gardens. Saturday was the 31st World Wide SketchCrawl, see here for more info. I only found out about it from Rachel the day before so I thought I would make an effort to sketch more. I took lots of photos and sketched the top of the Prado theater (playhouse) from near the reflecting pond. Poor building, it would collapse if it was anything like my sketch.

I went back over to the rose garden and decided to sketch a pretty pink-lavender rose "Blueberry Hill".

I need to get a sketchbook with real watercolor paper, it's hard to do watercolor on this regular drawing paper. I just put a light wash for color. Here is a photo of one of the buds.

 

I walked around the rest of the rose garden and I fell in love with a rose called "About Face". The insides of the petals are a pale peachy yellow and the outsides are a darker ruddy peach. They are so beautiful, they look like they are glowing. This photo doesn't even begin to do it justice.

 Just before I left I had someone take a picture of me in front of the pergola:

When the sketchcrawlers met on April 1 (see a video here), Rachel mentioned a suggestion from someone to cut off the top of a sock and wear it on the wrist of your non-dominant hand to have something convenient to use to clean off your brush while painting with watercolor. I thought it sounded like a good idea, so I tried it out and I like it. Here is a picture. The end of it is just outside of the photo; it doesn't even go half way to my elbow. It's especially handy if you are painting in a situation where you need to hold either the palette or sketchbook while working, so you have no way to hold a paper towel or rag.

Go make art!