Illustration Friday: Pattern

This is an autumnal pattern I created before, and fits this week's Illustration Friday topic, "Pattern" - it's finally starting to feel like fall!

24th Worldwide SketchCrawl: Los Angeles

Here are some sketches from Los Angeles edition of 24th Worldwide SketchCrawl that took place on September 19, 2009. A group of sketchers met at Grand Central Market and Bradbury Building in downtown L.A. - both are buildings that are about 100 years old and are still in use. Angel's Flight, which is a set of trolleys across the street from the Market, sadly, are not operational - though original gateway is still there.

Here is the view of the bustling market. The grocers and shoppers were moving about underneath high ceilings with electrical wires everywhere, so there were lots of things to draw - it was a fun challenge to get the feel of this place on paper!

Outside of the entrance to the Market was a bike rack with sculpture of pigs' heads - I thought that was an unusual way to mark the entrance, so I sketched it here:

We moved on to the Bradbury Building, which has quite a rich history and was used in filming of the movie, Blade Runner. I can see why; the interior is very ornate, and the skylight bathes the whole place in a very theatrical light. I think my sketch caught only a small bit of its essence; this is one of those places I'd like to revisit and sketch some more.

...and, as usual, I sketch people all the time, so here are some sketches of people at the Market. It was a great way to spend a Saturday!

Illustration Friday: Welcome

This week's Illustration Friday theme is "Welcome". Actually, I'm not quite ready to welcome fall yet because the weather is still warm. Fall is steadily approaching as the days get shorter, though. (I thought the same thing last year and did another Illustration Friday artwork here.)