“When one travels and works with visual things…one uses one’s eyes and draws, so as to fix deep down in one’s experience what is seen.”
– Le Corbusier
“I think I’d like to sketch some boats next,” says my new friend Jerimiah, an illustrator and infographics designer, after we finish our first sketching session of the day.
It was actually Jerimiah’s wife Cara whom I met first, through this very blog, and it’s a West Coast SketchCrawl that has brought us all together today in San Francisco, along with 60-70 other sketch artists, designers, animators, professors – the list of creative professions represented goes on and on…and on.
Propelled by Jerimiah’s idea, we head behind Pier 1 to a line of benches looking out at the pewter gray Bay Bridge. Beside us, a group of fishermen cast their lines into the water, pulling up stingrays that flap their pliant bodies against the dock in protest.
But it’s the view in front of us that pulls at my gaze the strongest – towards the glistening bay, towards the expansive bridge whose cables rise and fall like a song into the opposite shore, and towards the chorus of sailboats plying the harbor, their sails swollen with the breeze.
Another artist from the SketchCrawl later joins us, a woman named Suzanne. She wears a flowered headband across her forehead and as she sits down next to me, wraps a hot pink scarf over her gray hair and below her chin, presumably to protect her ears from the wind that whips across the bay. We’re soon both transfixed by a particular boat that enters the scene – an old tall ship with four pristine white sails, instantly set apart from the smaller sailboats moving around it.
“I’m seeing things I’ve never seen, and I’ve lived here thirty years,” Suzanne says.
She soon leaves us, taking her flowered headband and pink scarf with her, but her words remain with me throughout the rest of the day.
Whether I’ve been in a place for thirty seconds or thirty years, I too never want to stop sketching – and more importantly, stop seeing.
It’s amazing how much we can take things we see daily for granted. I find that I appreciate Seattle more since I’ve lived in Portland. I love Portland and think it’s still where I belong (for now, of course), but I appreciate so much more now the little things like the cool breeze off of the Puget Sound on a warm day and sunsets from the house I grew up in…
Thanks for the new desktop image!
I love that you’re from Seattle, Carmel – I can’t wait to chat about it more with you tomorrow! And I also love what you said here about learning to appreciate the little everyday things – so, so true.
PS – You’re so welcome! I’m glad you enjoyed the sketch 🙂
My goodness that sketch is gorgeous. I wish I had talent like that. I really like the daily life scene there, and I miss San Francisco immensely. It’s been several years since I was there last.
Thanks so much, Anwar! I’m really glad you enjoyed the sketch – it was definitely a fun one to work on 🙂 And yes, there’s a special magic to the Bay Area, isn’t there? I’m looking forward to hearing back there in a week!
You are right, there is a special magic to the bay out there. Ahh you are just making me miss it more :). I lived out in the bay area a few years ago for a work assignment. It was only 7 months but it was fantastic and I definitely enjoyed my time (maybe not so much the cost of everything). Have a great trip back! Look forward to checking out the blog updates.
So sorry about that, Anwar, but hopefully the sketches I share here will help you re-live some of the magic 🙂 That’s awesome to hear you were able to spend so much time there – that must have been a great few months! Where are you based now?
Awesome sketches…and a very nice way to build connection with different places ..loved it
Thanks, Kavita! What you said about building connections with each place is exactly the reason I’ve fallen in love with travel sketching – it really helps me remember a place so much more vividly, and opens up the door to encounters with people I wouldn’t have otherwise met. I can’t recommend sketching enough 🙂