the Otto Center Picnic Area in Balboa Park

This drawing was done while out with the San Diego Sketchcrawlers. We met at the picnic area across from the Otto Center which is part of the San Diego Zoo. It was a nice shady secluded area.

When the carousel opened, we TRIED to sketch that. It moved pretty fast which made it hard to draw but it was a fun ride! From the Carousel website:

The 1910 Balboa Park Carousel, adjacent to the San Diego Zoo, is a menagerie of animals and all but two pairs are original with hand-carved European craftsmanship. This carousel is one of the few in the world still offering the brass ring game for everyone taking 5 minute ride.

Meetup at Cesar Chavez Park, Port of San Diego

The video and my sketch.

Art Glass Mosaic Patio Art - Crow Raven - Handmade - Art Glass on wood

On Ebay
 Art Glass Mosaic Patio Art -  Crow Raven -  Handmade - Art Glass on wood
 11.5 x 11.25 inches
Crow Raven Art Glass Mosaic on wood.
Handmade by artist Lydia Velarde.
Dark grout
Mirror glass borders the crow.
Wood is painted black.
Wire for hanging.
Signed on the back with white ink, Lydia Velarde 2013
Weight: 2 lbs 12 ounces
Colors: green, blue and black with mirror on the border.

San Diego Automotive Museum - August 2014

Gorillas at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park

the gorillas, the 5 month old baby and a few watercolor sketches

Midland Animal Clinic

Heritage Park, San Marcos, CA

I had a hard time using the Dr. Ph. Martin's on location. It was still fun sketching and trying something new. I used a watercolor paper and it really soaked up the watercolors.

An Artist's Clothes

Sketching Turtles and Tortoises at the San Diego Zoo

Obon Festival at the Vista Buddhist Temple 2014

The Obon Festival at the Vista Buddhist Temple had Jodaiko, a collegiate taiko group perform as part of the festival's entertainment. What great practice for gesture drawing! This is my page of sketches done during their 30 minute performance.

Butterfly Garden or Nudist Colony?

Zoro Garden, a sunken stone grotto garden that was designed as a nudist colony during the 1935 California-Pacific Exposition is now a butterfly garden containing both the larvae and nectar plants needed for the complete life cycle of butterflies.

This was the location of our sketchcrawl to day with the weekday sketchers.

Pizza Studio

The Pizza Studio is located in The Spreckels Building in the Gaslamp area of San Diego, California. The building which opened in 1912, was constructed to commemorate the opening of the Panama Canal. My drawing was done in the outside seating area of the Pizza Studio while on an meetup with the San Diego Urban Sketchers Meetup Group.

Lydia's Portland Adventure

A 5 minute video of my adventures in Portland, Oregon while attending the 2nd Annual West Coast Urban Sketchers Sketchcrawl with Alicia Hallett, David Clemesha, and Dominique Eichi.

2nd Annual Urban Sketchers Sketchcrawl, Portland, Oregon

A 6 minute video and my sketches of the 2nd Annual Urban Sketchers Sketchcrawl, July 11 - 12, 2014

Rocky (the boxer)

This is my dog Rocky. He is part boxer and part something else. I think the other part is pit-bull but Gary didn't want to tell me so he said, "he's part boxer and part something else."

Misdirected anger?

San Diego County Fair 2014

Mission Trails Regional Park

Sketching with the San Diego Urban Sketchers at Mission Trails today.

figure drawing at north park

10 - 2 minute
watercolor background and watercolor pencil

2 fives and a ten
prismacolor brush pens from Stephen and watercolor

2 twenties
brush pen and watercolor

20 minute
watercolor and brush pen

20 minute
pencil and watercolor

Japanese Friendship Garden, Balboa Park

My incomplete sketch done while with the San Diego Urban Sketchers Meetup Group at the Japanese Friendship Garden. 3 x 4.5 inches.

San Clemente Quick Draw

This "quick" sketch was done at the San Clement Quick Draw today. We had to Check in, paint, and come back with a framed piece in 3 hours!

Waiting for a ride at A+

Veterans' Museum and Memorial Center

This is my sketch of the Veterans' Museum and Memorial Center done, while on a Meetup with the San Diego Urban Sketchers.

The building, the former chapel of the old Naval Hospital, was built during World War II. It is a beautiful neo-classical Spanish Colonial/California Mission design with thick walls and a red tile roof, a style that first took hold in San Diego during the Panama-California Exposition of 1915-16.

My day

Buena Creek Gardens, San Marcos, California

The Buena Creek Gardens is a beautiful nursery in San Marcos. They have beautiful garden décor as well as many paths and garden settings to browse through. It is a very lush, green and shady place to stroll and select plants and flowers for your garden. They specialize in unique and uncommon plants. This was the location of the San Diego Urban Sketchers Meetup on Sunday, June 8, 2014.

This is my sketch I did with micron pen and watercolor while on the meetup.

Michael's Bird

When I retired I had a list of projects I never finished. I would start projects, lose interest and move on to something else. This bird is one of the projects on that list. It is a paper mache bird I got out of the $1 bin at Michael's Craft Store. I painted it with acrylic markers. The photos show the top, bottom and side.

Busyhead House, Old Town San Diego

Heritage Park was the location of the San Diego Urban Sketchers Meetup this weekend. This is a county park located close to Old Town, San Diego. It measures almost 8 acres and was developed to preserve examples of  San Diego’s Victorian architecture. My sketch is of the Bushyhead House. Mr Edward Wilkerson Bushyhead was an early San Diego Sheriff, an early San Diego sheriff, chief of police and San Diego Union newspaper owner, built this Italianate residence in 1887.

My sketch is a 3.5 x 5.5 inch watercolor on Arches Watercolor board.

Life Drawing

2 minute poses

2 minute, 2 - 5 minute, a 10 and a 20 minute pose

2- 20 minute poses

 

I had a little frustration today because I used gouache from dry cakes (not tubes) and I didn't know the colors as well as I know my watercolors.

Old Poway Park

Old Poway Park is an old park in San Diego with many old oak trees. Its very grassy and shady but they also have a section with an old train barn, and other old buildings. The building I sketched from the picnic area is the back of the ticket office where you can obtain a pass for the train that goes around the park.

Mother's Day at Gary Cohen's Glass Ranch Studio

North County Society of Fine Arts at Karen's

The NCSFA was invited to Karen's beautiful garden to sketch.

Most of us faced all the flowers and gazebo for a morning of sketching and later a helpful critique.

Paper Mache Bowl

It looks like I started this bowl in 2012. I am finally working on it again.

I didn't plan the design at all and it shows. Nothing is lined up. It's careless.

Life is in Session

Coptic Stitch

I finally finished my large sketchbook (10 x 11.5 inches). I have been afraid of doing the Coptic stitch and talked to my friend Stephen about it every time I saw him, I looked at videos and read directions over and over. I was so proud when I finished it I showed him and he gave me his stamp of approval.

The nice thing about the book is it is made from materials that were given to me by artist friends. Davey Board: Kathy Przekopp, Cover paper: Doris Bertch, Craft paper: Diane DeMers Chen, Watercolor paper: Jennise Ashley and Francesca Albini. Thank you friends. I also used gesso on some old watercolor paintings for paper.

San Pasqual Valley

This sketch was done at a sketchers house with the San Diego Weekend Sketchcawlers. Her home overlooks the San Pasqual Valley which is the northernmost community of the city of San Diego. It is named for the Kumeyaay village of San Pasqual that was once located there. 

Bug

Spanish Village, Balboa Park, San Diego

The weekday sketchers (aka the Rachel group) met at Spanish Village for some sketching. This is my sketch of the day.

 

 Built for the 1935-36 California-Pacific International Exposition, the Spanish Village Art Center now houses 35 working art studios in a charming setting that re-creates the feeling of a town square in Spain.

Figure Drawing at North park

A fun morning with Rachel, Stephen, Andy, and Leon at North Park.