Sketch of the Week: Bike Night

I enjoyed the festivities at Bike Night at Hammer Museum in Westwood, even though I didn't bike that night. People in bike helmets, cool cycling gear and some with interesting bicycles were gathering at the outdoor bar - I even spotted another girl who was sketching! Her name is Diana and is a member of Los Angelopes group that builds custom bikes, like tall bikes that are twice as tall as regular bikes. I asked her how you would dismount a bike like that, she said you jump off - like an "urban horse". (I drew a tall bike at Ciclavia. And for an ultimate "Stoopidtall" bike that I witnessed there, check out this video). It was a good night of people- and bike-watching.

In another round of experimentation, I overlayed the background of this sketch with lots of passes of different colors to make it very dark to see how it would look. The paper in this sketchbook (Stillman & Birn Alpha series) took the beating well.