Southern California and Western Canada

 
We took a spring trip to California to visit our older daughter. Here are a few sketches. I have a long history of drawing signs. This group is in the Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles. I can read only a few of those words in Spanish.



More words in Spanish. I get the word terraza must mean terrace. It is the name of a restaurant in Palm Springs. Our granddaughter Roxy, age 11, drew it off of the menu.

The weather this day in Los Angeles was rainy, and windy with an electrical storm in the distant black clouds. Nonetheless, there was a traffic jam as cars were wending their way up to the Griffith Observatory. We parked down the hill and walked up. Here is our first view of the building. It is a fine public museum as well, and it was packed. And not just because we were trying to escape the wild weather.

 The building is really yellow. It can be a challenge to get the colors accurate through the process of scanning.

    

The view from the observatory was splendid. This is looking west, and the buildings are not downtown Los Angeles, but maybe a place called Studio City. How flat is the valley, surrounded by very rugged hills. And mountain ranges. The lumps are cars of course.

   

One day on our spring visit to Southern California, our daughter drove us east to Joshua Tree National Park. The trees are actually tall yucca and they were in bloom. I read that this type of plant grows a mere one inch per year. This one was about 10-12 feet high, or well over a hundred years old. The rock formations are fascinating to draw and climb. Nothing wobbled.

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Here’s another drawing by Roxy. We are both fascinated by rows of palm trees and unusual buildings. This is in Palm Springs.

   

On this day, the park in front of the Fashion Museum in LA was full of new students (I think) enjoying a free lunch and a lounge on the lawn.  The bodies of groups of people meld and merge into one large shape.

  

As another example of figures melding and merging with their surroundings, here is a drawing by Wyatt, our eight year old grandson. It is a profile portrait of his father who was himself preparing to draw a cartoon character, the Hulk. The computer screen is on the far left. Next up, a large box of crayons, then in the center his sister Roxy who was working on her own drawing. It is an excellent likeness of his dad, a less accurate vision of his sibling.

 

Our granddaughter Roxy loves basketball. Here she is on the far right. I was torn between watching the practice and gazing at the large, beautiful school gym mural.

The children clearly went out into their neighborhood to draw nearby buildings and landmarks. Since this is not her school, I do not know the history of the mural, but it was splendid, and double the size you see here.



While spending time with our one year old grandson, I sometimes use an art app on my iPad to draw colorful toys on the floor. I am continuing to learn new ways to make these digital images.


 
And another toy, about two feet high. It is meant for learning walkers to have bright shapes to keep their attention as they practice standing, and moving while holding on. It appears to be a robot in my rendition.


 
And one last grouping of colorful small toys on the floor.



A neighborhood playground is still nice to draw even if all the kids are in school. It is an extra challenge to draw on the iPad outside as the screen goes rather dark.


 
Another drawing during childcare time. This time a soft fuzzy baby blanket and a ball. The family’s floor is not really all blue and scribbly, just more exploration of my digital art app.