Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Around San Francisco

Through the first weeks of January I was host to my old pal Matt Cruickshank who was in town on an illustration gig.  Showing him around we sketched in almost every neighbourhood and sunk beers in all of them!  Here are the results of our intrepid expeditions on the streets of San Francisco . . .

Our first stop on New Year's Eve was Haight Ashbury . . .
Attracting too much attention from the pimps,pushers,winos and bums we retreated inside the nearest pub and drew the freaky folk from the relative safety of a bay window with a good view of the by-passers.





Sleepy Noe Valley has a different kind of vibe to the Haight-more push-chairs less crack addicts!



We climbed up to Bernal Heights for a 360 degree view of the city.


North Beach has a nice, laid-back feel too with of course the obligatory eccentrics.


Pier 39 is still home to the stinky, barking, bellowing sea-lion colony.  The gaggle of tourists watching them were even rowdier!

View of the city across the East Bay with the Bay Bridge passing through Treasure Island and the Oakland port cranes on the left.

See Crookies marvellous sketches over on his blog

23 comments:

  1. These are so cool!!
    Very inspiring, I think now I'll head outside to draw some passers-by myself.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fantastic post!! The balance you have in your ink sketches is amazing!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very nice, do you have any sketching
    processes? or are you directly using a pen-brush on paper

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey Matt, always good passing by for a visit, inspiring as usual.
    Coming to London give a shout.
    All the best

    ReplyDelete
  5. I always love seeing your sketches!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow, I've walked those streets, swear I've seen those same people, smelled those same sea lions.

    Really marvelous, inspiring work (as usual!)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow! Great works here! I love your stile...If you don´t mind, i'll link you in my blog.
    Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  8. A wonderful trip down memory lane- thank you.

    You nailed those Bernal Heights views perfectly!! That's a hard thing to do, to condense the view into an appealing design- I love the sweep of the road on your 3rd illustration.

    Superb work.

    Seen Elvis Christ lately?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wish I could've tagged along on your people watching trip. I always need people drawing practice and there looks to be an abundance of interesting subjects!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Beautiful work from both Matts. Lovely...

    ReplyDelete
  11. I love it Matt!! It's the first time that I post, but I love always take a look here. You are amazing!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. i love your sketches!!!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Really nice stuff! Missing SF now :P

    ReplyDelete
  14. Great studies- rekon you'll be going to CTN again this year?

    ReplyDelete
  15. great sketches! i like the skateboarder.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Nice pen and inks of my old stompin' grounds. Wow. Very expressive!

    http://crotchetycomics.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  17. Many thanks for the comments folks- appreciated!

    ReplyDelete
  18. i love all of them!!!

    ReplyDelete
  19. the black lines in your sketches are specially strong! great urban drawings!

    ReplyDelete