Parker's Lighthouse

I went to the Marina in Long Beach a few times this week. Today, I was thinking about joining an urban sketching group from San Clemente, but it's an hour's drive, which means two hours not drawing, so I decided to stay closer to home. I went down to Rainbow Harbor in Long Beach, California. There are loads of interesting things to draw, including boats and buildings, both modern and rustic. It took me a while to settle, and in the end I chose this restaurant, called Parker's Lighthouse. 

Parker's Lighthouse - Final sketch

I did a bunch of thumbnail warm-ups and three paintings. For the last one, Parker's Lighthouse, I took a few hours. It was a very complicated building. First I drew it in pencil, then I added ink, and then I watercolored the image. I took pictures between each step so I'd have a record in case I screwed it up.

Parker's Lighthouse - pencil sketch

Parker's Lighthouse - inked

I tried to get a photo of my drawing and the building itself in the background, but I couldn't get things to line up.  There must be a better way, since the sketching folks do that a lot. I did take a selfie, though it was from the other side of the building and across the water.

On my other outings, I painted boats.

In the Craftsy class, Sketching the City, Shari Blaukopf Encourages us to draw thumbnails before we begin to draw a longer sketch. I'd been drawing a bit to warm up anyway, so it was easy to take up the thumbnails. When I was in Rainbow Harbor, it took me a while to settle, and I did quite a few thumbnails.

(There was a man painting poles.)

Thanks for looking!