Sketchcrawl at Hale's Ale Brewery

The spring sun shone on quite large group of urban sketchers outside of Hale's Ale Brewery this morning. I was hoping to spend some time outside to sketch the building and surrounding neighborhood, but ended up staying inside for the entire session.

Hale's Brewery interior, sketched from the steps

The brewery was a challenge to sketch due to its complex overlapping shapes and lines. I started my process by focusing on the basic shapes and placing them in the overall scene (ie. the phone booth, the row of storefront windows, the guardrail, the tanks, etc.) and not really worrying too much about perspective. Once I had these basic shapes down, I added some details (ie. pipes, railings, steel ladders, mullions, etc.) and slowly populating the frame with more lines. Lastly I incorporated hatches to create shading for depth.

Hale's Brewery interior, sketched from the entry lobby

Lunch with Frank

After finishing a couple of sketches, I headed into the bar with the intention to sketch some more. There I came across Frank Ching enjoying his beer. I ended up joining him for a quick bite and chat. He shared his sketching tricks and I shared the story of my college time back in Indonesia studying architecture and having bunch of his books on my desk as reference. Who would've thought that I'd be sitting here having lunch with the master himself.