Christmas 2024, my daughter hunted down and gave me a daily calendar I had been wanting and couldn’t find: The Muji Daily Calendar. And I drew faces on it all year round during weekly sessions with Drawing is Free and Pencils 4 Tea.
The calendar is filled, all the pages are torn out and on my wall. Here is a 4-minute film of them all:
And is a closeup of a few. I tried different things all year round. It was a lot of fun. It never felt like a lot of work (average sketch time? About 4 minutes).
I think I will work on more projects this year where little bits add up to bigger stuff.
I’m just back from a week away in Arizona. I loved traveling with the kids when they were little and love it even more now: it’s great ot have co-travelers who remember stuff I forget, keep tabs of luggage and flight times and carry the heavier bags! Also, they are great company!
The Sonoran Desert in winter is beautiful: the light mutes colors, diffuses shadows and turns the distant mountains a beautiful purple.
The bright green Palo Verde trees really stood out for me. You can see that they figure quite prominently in the sketch above and below. ( Above: near Tuscon and Below: near Phoenix)
The Museum of Musical Instruments in Phoenix is truly superb. I joined an introductory tour of the museum and sketched these snippets that caught my eye. There is so much to look at and hear that the museum offers a two-day ticket because it’s easy to get overwhelmed by everything you want to see! ( I think this is a great idea: wouldn’t it be great if museums like the Met in New York let you buy a multi-day ticket? )
In the town of Mesa, not far from Phoenix, we visited the Natural History Museum because the kids still enjoy “dinosaur museums”.
Just north of Sedona is an intriguing project called “Biosphere 2” (look it up and visit if you are in that part of the world). While the original mission was to test the idea of living in independent biospheres on the moon or Mars, this is now a place where many research experiments run, including ones in regenerating landscapes that get destroyed by volcanoes and regrowing coral reefs damaged by humans and climate change. I sketched a bit as I walked around, but you can see I didn’t get far…
In Tuscon, we joined a lot of people hiking up a local favorite trail on Tumamoc Hill. On the way down, I stopped to sketch the saguaro and the purple hills around.
This last sketch is from Sedona, where the hills are so orange, they make the vegetation look blue.
I’m back now, just in time to bring in the New Year at home in San Jose. Thank you for another year of following me here on the blog. I hope you enjoy seeing the world through my sketches. Wishing you health, happiness and many creative adventures this year.
I really like this drawing because it has something I have a hard time capturing in a sketch: the feeling of a slow, lazy day. Done on a lazy Sunday morning in Oakland, before the neighborhood woke up and got busy.
These next two pieces have a very different feel. The persimmon combines some of my favorite stuff to play with in my studio: printmaking and collage. And of course, color and texture.
And above, some experimental drawings made in charcoal, pastel, ink and acrylic in a session exploring light and darkness.
Everything about persimmons , their color, textures, leaves, and shapes lends itself to experiments: in color mixtures, different media, and printmaking.
Here are some of this year’s experiments, in no particular order. I enjoyed mixing random triads to capture the colors of these persimmon. And I layered in collage, printing and some painting into some of these piece.
I’m not in Mumbai for atleast another month, but I’m in an India state of mind already. It love drawing street life and people and I love that everything is over the top. No piece of fabric is left un-patterned and every color of the rainbow is visible in a crowd of people.
This lady in a boldly patterned sari sells vegetables in the market. Sketched on toned paper with ink and colored pencil.
This man stands in front of a old electronics store in Chor Bazaar (literally, The Thief’s Market)
It’s not always clear , even to me, what I’m doing or getting at. But it is always exciting to experiment. Here are some things that happened over the weekend.
I’m teaching two local in-person workshops in February and March 2026. If you want to refresh your basics, and step them up a level, these might be for you!
WORKSHOP 1: Sketch Your World: Learn Sketchbooking in a Day
This is a repeat of November’s sold-out, beginner-friendly workshop in Emeryville, California, in partnership with Draw Together Studio.You can pair this workshop with Workshop 2 (listing below) for an in-depth, 2-day experience.
Learn the building blocks of sketchbooking, including quick sketching techniques, composition, and storytelling. We will work in watercolor and pen & ink, and create sketchbook spreads to capture our day. The techniques you learn will enable you to sketch from life, both indoors and outdoors.
Date and Time:Saturday, Feb 28th, 2026 from 10 am to 4:00 pm with a break for lunch. Location: 5621 Lowell Street, Emeryville, CA 94608 Sign Up NOW
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WORKSHOP 2: Sketchbooking: Beyond the Basics
This is a beginner+ sketchbooking workshop in Emeryville, California, in partnership with Draw Together Studio. It’s best to register for the workshop in conjunction with the one above , because this one builds on the “Bascics” workshop. But if you consider yourself “Beginner+” then feel free to register directly for this one.
In this workshop, we will learn to sketch urban scenes that capture depth and distance and dive deeper into understanding watercolor. The techniques you learn will enable you to sketch complex urban scenes and mix beautiful colors that create cohesive sketches. You can pair it up with Workshop 1 (listing above) for an in-depth, 2-day experience, or if you feel confident that you understand the basics covered in Workshop 1, you can sign up directly for this workshop.
Date and Time:Sunday, March 1st, 2026 from 10 am to 4:00 pm with a break for lunch. Location: 5621 Lowell Street, Emeryville, CA 94608 Sign Up NOW ======================================
I am sure there will be “Persimmons on my desk” sketches in a while, but for now, here are some sketches I made sitting by the tree in artist Gay Kraeger’s magical home in the Santa Cruz mountains.
These two pieces are both in a toned paper sketchbook, but it took adding in the striking pink to the sketch (on the right) before the sketch spoke of the wonderful colors on the persimmon tree leaves.
Here are more sketches of those leaves.
And this last one is of the redwood trees nearby, done in some really fun mixed media that you can see in the image.
This very narrow, horizontal view is what I could see from my seat of the pass at a busy breakfast place, where orders arrived and were swiftly prepared by the kitchen.
And this vertical sketch is a floor full of cabinet doors, taken off their hinges so they can be painted.
Both are done on toned paper (same color, just shot in very different light). I’m currently using a toned paper sketchbook as my main book because it forces me to think of relative values, and simplifying and bracketing values, and I’m learning a lot. Sometimes, I miss the ability to paint in bright colors, but for the most part, I’m enjoying the more muted look this paper has.
Sometimes, I visit my daughter in Davis and ride the train back home. Usually, the train is almost empty, and I can pick the most comfy seat with the best views to draw a page like this.
So I expected another ride like that when I boarded the train on Sunday morning. To my absolute delight, this was a standing-room-only party train:! It seemed like everyone except me was a football fan, and they were all headed to the 49ers game.
So, of course, I drew them, asked rookie questions about American Football, asked them the names of players they wore the jerseys of, and admitted that the only 49ers player I’d ever heard of was Steve Young.
If I’m drawing and curious, and asking questions, people are willing to share a lot. They’re also forgiving when I (inadvertently, I was only vaguely aware this was a loaded question) ask whether the team is still the “San Francisco 49ers” if they’re based out of Santa Clara…
I love drawing like this: in the thick of things, not from a distance. Asking questions and finding out super interesting stuff. I learned a lot that day, not only from facts that were shared with me but also from witnessing the camaraderie of a train full of fans. I also now know most of the lyrics to this song that played on repeat on the train: Bang Bang Niner Gang
Sketch Away: Travels with my sketchbook