Sasa's Sketchbook

Usually you see old couples using these tricycles, the wife sitting in the back and the husband riding, very very slowly.

This tricycle owner delivers mantou i.e. steamed wheat buns. (Or maybe those are baozhi, which is the same thing but with some filling, usually pork.)

Changing of the tires. Finally I got to see how tricycles look from underneath...

Angry Birds is extremely popular in China. This is an Angry Birds stall in Ditan Park Temple Fair (selling furry toys).

It is time to prepare to celebrate Chinese New Year. This lady is buying some new decorations.

This guy uses his tricycle to make beer deliveries to restaurants.

Reddish brown highlights are very popular among Beijing ladies in their 50s.

The owner of this tricycle sells eggs and all kinds of rice and beans.

My obsession with Beijing tricycles continues, this one belongs to a sweet potato seller. The big rusty box on top of it is some kind of oven where sweet potatos are prepared.

Water delivery guy's tricycle. He has a pair of thick gloves attached to the handlebar, as many do in wintertime.

This little hutong street is my shortcut to subway station, walk it almost everyday. (Should have drawn 'sink' today instead of this but...)

Some more temple fair visitors.

People in Ditan Park Temple Fair.

This tricycle belongs to a woman who collected cardbord pieces from construction site waste piles.

I really liked drawing that 'recycling bike' earlier so decided to continue with more Beijing vehicles. This is garbage guy's bicycle. (ink, watercolor)

Decided to draw the same recycling guy's tricycle than in the Stripes post but from front this time. (Good that took several photos. I like to draw things on site but not always possible + bit shy of all the attention you tend to get.) Don't know what is in all those big bags, maybe plastic bottles in the first one. (Ink!)

This week's IF theme is 'stripes' so was happy to spot this recycling guy's parked tricycle + stripy bags. Illustration problem solved! (Ink, watercolor, colored pencil)

This is an 'electricity station' where you can charge your electric bicycle. Electric bicycles are very common in China but I personally hate them. They are quite fast & completely soundless + people riding them don't usually care much about traffic rules, causing a lot of dangerous situations. (ink, Chinese watercolor, colored pencil)

This is how the view from my window looks like when air quality is classified as 'hazardous'. Unfortunately the whiteness is not mist and 'the infinity' starts from less than a block away. (As a comparison: a clear sky day)

This is a part of China National Day decoration, which is in a street corner close to my home. You can find similar flower arrangement everywhere in the city.

The whole week has been holiday in China because of the National Day (October 1st). I also took some time off from drawing & painting and went to movies, bars, massage, hiking, China Open tennis tournament,... But now back to blogosphere!

I walk past this community center almost everyday but have never noticed that strange narrow blue building beside it. (Ink, water color)

Nanguan Park sketches (ink, water color)

Finally a sunny blue sky day in Beijing so I went to Nanguan Park to draw. (ink, water color)

While I was drawing people came to chat with me (as usual in China). One guy gave me a book he had just finished (the one in my bag with beautiful pink flowers in cover) called Miss Su's Marriage Affairs (苏小姐的婚事）. I think he was expecting me to give him the sketch in return but I didn't... Then there was another guy who came to ask whether I would marry his 28-year-old friend (and he was serious).

(ink, water color)

My first Illustration Friday participation. The topic was 'shadows'. (ink, calligraphy pen)

EDM #129: Draw people doing something

People playing table tennis.

EDM #127: Draw a skyscape

This is the view from my living room window. When the sky is clear like now, you can see the mountains surrounding Beijing. (Watercolor, gouache)

EDM #122: Draw something where shade is the prominent part of the subject.

I live by a school.  You can see a shadow of my building on the school  yard.

Doodling some flowering trees in Zhongzhan Park. It was hard to concentrate because it was so growded, people around me constantly. (But at least they are very encouraging when you sketch things like flowers or pagodas. When I try to draw everyday scenes like hutong buildings and electric wires, I always get a lot of criticism on choice of subject.)

I was in Beihai park yesterday. While I was painting this picture (with the famous pagoda), a Chinese lady was drawing me! She came to talk to me afterwards and showed me her sketchbook telling she had just started drawing. Her sketches were pretty nice: people, hands, furniture. We talked quite a long time, I am so greatful that finally my Chinese is in such a level that I can have real conversations.

Been busy: first in Finland for a quick trip and then a series of guests in Beijing. Now on my own again after 3 weeks of sightseeing, shopping, and socializing. Went to drawn nearby hutongs.

People buy leek and Chinese cabbage in Autumn and store it in cool places for Winter. Every floor of our building seem to have piles of those. (I also bought some leek but didnt store them in staircase.)

One more comment about taking photos of ink paintings. Because ink paper is so thin it is practically impossible to take decent photos of paintings unless they are 'double-papered' i.e. glued to thicker paper. That will be done by a specialist. I should start taking my better paintings to someone to do this.

Had a glass of red wine and a mushroom soup in At Cafe (or is it Art Cafe??) in 798 area.

This is my first Moleskine notebook, starting to get use to it. It is smaller than notebooks I usually carry, which is a good thing. But I really love spiral-binded books

(And need to start adding more of these 'normal' doodles, not just ink paintings.)

This is what I see from my living room sofa: a large office building. Most of the windows are black in the evening but there are still some people working. The shape of the building is quite special, it resembles the letter 'G' (but here you see it from backside).

A quick sketch while sitting in Cafe de la Poste doing my Chinese home work.

There is somekind of a hut and small garden in the rooftop of the neighbouring building. Never seen anyone there though.

In Starbucks studying Chinese. I would love to start going to some other coffee shop but Starbucks is the only one in Jianwai SOHO that uses soy milk so... 没办法.

The weather in Beijing has suddenly become very warm, we moved from Winter directly to Summer this year. I spent the hot May 1st day on Bogata's lovely patio.

Drawing outside is an easy way to get to practice Chinese. Especially the old people like to come to watch and chat. But they often criticize my choice of subject.

Yesterday was a really lovely day. Went to draw on the streets of a nearby hutong area.

Visited the Lama temple yesterday. It is so close to my home that I go there fairly often, I like the atmosphere.

This is how it looked like when I woke up last weekend, everything colored golden yellow by sandstorm.

The frescos in Fahai Temple are absolutely gorgeous! This is Vajrapani from the north wall.

Did homework in a nearby coffee shop + a quick drawing.

I drew this from a restaurant window while waiting for my lunch. I got interested in the two chairs outside this hutong building but I managed to draw just one before a car parked right in front of them. And the food came.

This is what I see when I look down from my living room window. A road, magnificient old trees, and this weird yard with some tents and miscellaneous scrap. I don't know whether there are people living in the tents but at least there seems to be some recycling activity on-going. There are these guys entering the gates, riding  heavy tricycles loaded with mountains of cardboard. They are probably working for Nine Dragons Paper, a paper recycler company owned by China's 2nd richest person.

Drawn from Cafe de la Poste while sipping rosé.

 Shared toilet in hutong area near Yonghegong. Shut your nose when inside.

(I don't know what is that blurry spot on the left. It is not visible with plain eyes but when the book is scanned, it is visible on every page....)

Had a lunch (spicy tofu and broccoli) in my favourite neighbourhood restaurant. On the opposite side there is this little fruit & vegetable shop. Bought potatos, sweet peppers, leeks + sweet-smelling apples that the nice owner recommended.

Back in Beijing!

This is an old drawing from Forbidden City. I started my first Sketch Book in Summer 2007 (after reading Danny Gregory's Creative Life) but I lost it in a robbery two years ago (almost exactly). This sketch is the only documentation I have left from that sketch book (I had just bought a scanner and was testing it with this one). Pity since it had some quite nice sketches + a lot of emotional value :((((

This is the view from my study: Small frozen river and a stone boat. People skating. (4th Ring Road & high buildings missing from the pic...) 

Seen from a meeting room window.

Participated 19th World Wide SketchCrawl by making these rather stiff drawings... It was so hot and I was tired after flying home from Singapore previous night that I didn't have much motivation... (excuses, excuses...) I wanted to draw kite flyers, that's why I chose Chaoyang Park but there were no one that day, no wind :(

(Drawing pen, Sakura coupy pencil - I like their plastic feel but haven't found a good use for them yet)

(Drawing pen, water color pencil)

A flowering tree in Chaoyang park (a cherry...??)

Here is the huge 30-floor building I live in. They have planted a lot of trees in front of it this Spring.  (EDM # 165)