Weekend in the City

The weather was awesome in the city this weekend! So we went wandering.

We did the wharf on Saturday, but I have to say I can never find anything to paint over there. Ended up down at the Ferry Building.

Then, since that was so much fun, went back into town on Sunday to try my new larger size (12×16″) hot press (smooth) block.

This is the El Capitan theater in the Mission. It’s awesome this building is still around, but it’s sort of cheesy that it’s now a parking garage :) Such is life eh?

So – I’m not sure what to say about the smoother paper.

It seems very suitable to hard edges and better detail. But its harder to control – washes leave ‘pools’ rather than blending. Erik tells me it’s great for gouache, as you can wipe back down to the washes. (Because the paper is less absorbent).

I’ll try that with another one some day.