Goodbye CandleStick, Hello Levi's!

In 2014, CandleStick Stadium is going to be demolished. The Levi's Stadium, new 49ers home, will take over from the 2015 NFL season. SF sketchers paid our visit to capture this historical moment with our pen and paper. It's an honer to be part of this big history. Thank you and bye bye Candlestick! :)

Best quote of the conference!

This it the highlight of the Mozcon 2014 i attended besides all the great SEO tricks i learned. 



The Transcript:

I’m afraid the price for doing professional work is a good deal higher than you are prepared to pay at present. You’ve got to sell your heart, your strongest reactions, not the little minor things that only touch you lightly, the little experiences that you might tell at dinner. This is especially true when you begin to write, when you have not yet developed the tricks of interesting people on paper, when you have none of the technique which it takes time to learn. When, in short, you have only your emotions to sell.
-- F. Scott Fitzgerald


Simply brilliant.

Sketchcrawl #43 - North Beach SF

My First time sketch at North Beach area in SF. Parking wasn't too bad, traffic at bay bridge was. :)

We started from Caffe Greco, coffee was great, and met up with Laurie's crew at 2pm at Washington Park:


Then i moved to this cute corner cafe with trolly stand at their patio:

See you next time sketcrawlers in july at Portland! :)

New Sketching Project

I recently started a new project that I was committed to it 12-13 years ago. It was a casual conversation in the ADs Mag's conference room that Jully and me went together for internships. We said one day we'll draw a book for each other! She did a sketchpad book for me when i went to US the first time. Now is my turn to draw one to her for her wedding! :)

Sneak peak of the couple pages i did, hopefully I can finish the book before my beloved BFF, jully's wedding. and she won't read my blog until she sees the book......

We share the same philosophy in life.

We were talking while I drew this.....

a Tom's brochure, portrait practice.

SketchCrawl #42, Haight Street, SF

Haight-Ashbury is a district of San Francisco, California, named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets. It is also called The Haight and The Upper Haight. The neighborhood is known for its history of hippie subculture. (Wiki)

Yes, a hippie town reminds me of Ximending (西門町) in Taiwan. The difference probably is there are more younger people hang out at Ximending.

We started at People's Cafe, then explored around the whole haight street. Here are the 2 drawing I'd finished on spot. 


People in People's Cafe



The Haight Street Highlight: one of the million weird stores, the record shop, lady's legs, a tattoo place.

Another Star To Look Up In The Sky

Opa became another star to light up the sky, guiding us through the night. My heart missing a piece with the lost and gain a piece because of the love and memories you gave. Trying to bring you the joy thru my drawing. I'm grateful and felt blessed i'd shared it with you. bye bye opa.

Family Trip to PaRiS!

It was cold for couple of days. raining as well. The rich culture and arts enlighten and amazed us. Every little detail touches my heart. Even the Gipsy girls tried to steal my dad's wallets was part of the adventure. :)

Cetrue Pompidou, hasn't had a chance to get in. Got an hour of drawing time outside of the building. colored it when got back to the hotel. I think the temperature was about 7-8C that day.






Box of Maxim's chocolate



Mercede Car Museum. Drew them on the train to Paris. (1hr 30mins.)

Meet up @ Grace Cathedral, SF

The hill nearly killed me, but it was a fun and nice day to draw the cathedral. Lots of people showed up. Thanks Laurie again for organizing this amazing meet up. 

This is my 3rd attempt of Grace Cathedral, getting better?



Fountain at the park.




First attempt here.

Seth's Blog: Tenacity is not the same as persistence

Seth's Blog: Tenacity is not the same as persistence

Telemarketers are tenacious as well. We all are. achieving new goals in new ways when old one didn't work.

#41 Sketchcrawl - Chinatown San Francisco

Heading to chinatown for #41 sketchcrawl. I was 10 mins late, didn't see the normal crawlers, but still manage to get these 2 sketches. get the line works on spot, colored them after.

Bush-Grant China Town start point:



China Town Mural with street musician:


sidetones: 好久沒寫中文字，字好醜噢！:(

Once Upon a Time in Wonderland

Elizabeth F. Gamble Garden Center in Palo Alto, CA. A small and cute size garden near Palo Alto downtown area. Second time here for sketching. Big bunny makes me feel like I am in Alice wonderland, magic soon will happen...

Sketchcrawl #40, 1st West Coast USKers' Sketchcrawl

I love the idea of USKers' Sketchcrawl. I don't mind the confusion of urban sketchers or sketchcrawlers. We all love draw, sketch, and share our works. The passions and the inspirations that matter me the most. Thanks Jim from Washington state who I met at last year USK symposium, Santo Domingo. Without his initiatives and communication back and forth with the wonderful local sketchers, organizations, I wouldn't have so much fun drawing with 70+ sketchers the pass weekend. 

Time for sketches sharing:

warm up at the Ferry Building front island:

Cable Car at Market st. & VanNess:

Oakland Lake Merritt area the next day:

Lake Merritt, Lake Chalet Restaurant

Group photos:

 

 

Ben and Simone from Montreal. The farthest sketchers attended! Nice to meet you guys. 

Keep sketching!  Cheers!

You can see more work and event recap at 1st West Coast UrbanSketchers' Sketchcrawl blog. Or some artwork we've done at Flickr group.

If you want to join the Sketch events around the bay area, here are some more blogs to follow: SketchCrawl, UrbanSketchers-bayarea, SF Sketchers Meet up.

Sketcrawl #39

Yes, a little late update. 

Sketchcrawl #39 at castro, SF. 

Castro Theater, Hitchcock's "The Birds" was on that day. Using my Lamy fine pen with noodler black ink. watercolored after.

One of my fav USKers, Pete Scully, was there that day! You can see his amazing works at his blog. Honor to see them in person!

Ferry Building Cowgirl Creamery

Nothing better than a cup of handcraft blue bottle coffee and sketching for the day. 

Cowgirl Creamery cheese shop at Ferry Building, SF. 

Alamo Square, Six Sisters Victorian Houses

Right before join the new company, I got a little getaway to SF at a regular work day. no crowds, no traffic. Just me and a perfect nice sketch day.

Trip to SoCal

Friends and I had a last minute trip to SoCal since their baby is with Grandma & Grandpa in Taiwan. It's been a while that we go on a trip together ever since little Jamison was born. 
We felt young again! We went for the taiwanese food and some ocean breeze. of course some sketches.  

Santa Barbara Court House

Monks statues at Hsi Lai Temple (西來寺)

Thanks Patrick & Carrie, I had a blast. and we all miss you baby Jamison. oxoxoxox

USK Taiwan 2012

I visit / see my family once a year. Either I go back to TW or they come to US to visit me. It has been 7 years now. (wow, time flies..) This year I went back home and had an awesome quality of time with them. Families and Friends are just like my backbone that provide the ultimate supports. I feel I am blessed and loved. Every second bit of it. :)

It has been 2 years already since I attended the travel sketching class at PAL (w Steve Curl). I finally have the little (still not much) confidence to reach out to the sketching group in Taiwan and ask them if they would have sketching events during my visit. Professor Carton Chen was the one that organized the USK Taipei event (dedicated for me! super!) and we had a great great time. Not only I felt the honer to draw my hometown but also with a group of people shared the same passions and interests. :)


The traditional house - san ho yuan (three-section compound) in Taipei. It's rare to be seen in such space-limited, high-density population Taipei city nowadays.

The city park behind Guandu MRT station.

Space Shuttle Endeavour

Can you imagine how awesome when a laying-down-kinda-skyscraper aka retired space shuttle is slowly crawling through your neighborhood and you can see it by just peeking out your house window? Oh well. I cannot physically experience that awesomeness but I certainly can celebrate its achievements to all human beings by using my own way.  Drew it down! :) 

This sketch was done while doing its last historical flyover from north cal to south cal in september, 2012. 

Sketchcrawl SEP & AUG 2012

We were heading to Half Moon Bay for september south bay sketchcrawl. Thanks for Pierre's van ride so we could chat a little bit on the way to there. It was a perfect, not-too-windy day with lots of sunshine upon our shoulders. There was some boats selling fresh fish, crabs. Not too busy until we left around 3 pm, the in coming traffic was just bad for about 10 miles.....

First sketch: Half Moon Bay, Kayak co. "Getting ready"

Half Moon Bay, Kayak co. "Pre-training"

A quick 5 mins boat drawing.

Sketchcrawl on August, 2012.

This time we went to Stanford Mall @ Palo Alto for some sketching. Dedicated members: Conni, Pierre, LuLu, and me. Here are some results:


Kate Spade Store

Louis Vuitton Display Window

Vista House, Crown Point, OR

This Vista House at Crown Point Oregon is the main entrance if you are going to Multnomah Fall. You can get a very nice view of Columbia River from the top of the building. 

Fun Facts: Edgar M. Lazarus was the lead architect at the time. Vista House is an example of German “Art Nouveau” architecture.