Sunny Santa Monica

[By Shiho Nakaza, Virginia Hein and Tina Koyama in Santa Monica, Calif.]

Tina: While visiting family in L.A. a couple weekends ago, I had
the fun and good fortune of sketching with soon-to-be-official Urban Sketchers
Los Angeles. On a gorgeous, blue-sky day that was a welcome respite from Seattle’s drizzle, we met at Santa Monica Pier, a popular attraction that draws
both locals and tourists alike. I had my pick of lots of fun sketching subjects
– crowds of people, colorful tents and food stands, a Ferris wheel, an historic
merry-go-round – but I knew I couldn’t leave L.A. without sketching lots of
palm trees (above).

I know I say this every time I have this kind of
opportunity, but I think the single best thing about Urban Sketchers is that
this worldwide network makes it so easy to sketch with others, no matter where
I travel. Many thanks to Shiho Nakaza and Virginia Hein for organizing the
gathering for my visit! 

Shiho: I enjoyed sketching with Tina along with Virginia and our
fellow local sketchers. It was a nice Sunday out by the sea without huge summer
crowds, with a wealth of things to draw: people mingling, a marching band
practicing, and tented event happening on the dock. 

Amid all the activities, I realized I have never sketched
the merry-go-round even though I’ve lived in this town for years. It was a
pleasantly warm day (and not too hot inside the carousel building built before
air conditioning was invented), so I decided to give it a try. The
merry-go-round celebrated its 100-year old birthday this year:

 I used Fabriano Artistico watercolor sheet sample, which
behaved as I expected, but I had to battle some technical difficulties with my
paints. I had dirty washes and paint not sticking to paper due to wax on my
paintbrush, so I switched to doing some color with 4-color Bic pen before I
could soap off the wax residue later. I’m still glad I made a record of this
piece of history.

 From Virginia: It was so great to have
Tina visiting us last week—and Shiho, myself and some of our other L.A. urban
sketchers met in Santa Monica on a perfectly beautiful day.  There’s
always something interesting going on at the pier…and on this Sunday, we were
met by a brass band from Santa Monica College, leading a crowd of charity
walkers…

We started sketching on
the sunny boardwalk, and I loved the movement of people against the
“forest” of palms.  That row of people in bright yellow t-shirts
were the walkers we’d seen earlier–fundraisers for the Aga Khan Foundation.

That sketch never got
quite finished…I heard dance music and had to go find the source–the
fundraisers were having a party on the pier!  I found a view of the stage
and began sketching over a chain link fence…

Tina came to
investigate, and the security guard (man in the “SAFETY” vest)
graciously invited us into the party.  We duly registered, and joined the
festive crowd!  I was seeing some messages I was needing and wanting to
see…

I wasn’t at all familiar
with the Aga Khan Foundation–with a little research and conversations with
participants and Sasha Rawji, the Marketing & Media Manager for the Aga
Khan Foundation of Los Angeles, I discovered that while the community that
follows the Aga Khan are American Muslims from all over the world, the
Foundation itself is non-denominational, with all kinds of local
volunteers.  They serve communities across Africa and Asia with childhood
development and health programs, literacy programs and more.  I found the
message “building better futures together” to be truly uplifting that
day, and felt pride in the diverse community of my city!