penpressionism

This is where this urban sketching adventure started.  At some point during 2013, I decided I needed to get back to my first true love – drawing and sketching.  I bought a moleskine classic sketchbook.  I got stuck in traffic on the way home. That’s how many days begin and end in Los Angeles. I sat on Santa Monica boulevard for a bit.  I stared at the ficus trees lining the sidewalk. I started sketching. I decided to scrap the pencil and eraser. I wanted to sketch without the   ability to go back and “fix” things.  I wanted to embrace whatever occurred without the pressure to decide continuously if corrections should be made.  I wanted to see every attempted line on the path to some unknown destination at which I choose to stop drawing. Most of the sketches in this sketchbook were drawn on location in Los feliz, Silverlake, and Hollywood.  One is a sketch of the San Francisco Chronicle building cut short when my hand became numb from the cold just before midnight.  A few are drawn from photographs from international travel from the past before I re- started sketching. I’ve seen some of the people in these sketches multiple times during my morning commutes.  There are multiple impressions of historic Los Angeles street lights that contribute as much to the urban landscape during the day as they do during the night.