Waikiki

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Continuous-Line Sketching Part 1

While on O’ahu I continued with continuous-line sketching.

I had originally wanted to keep a separate journal and only sketch with this freeing technique but I didn’t follow my own challenge and spread continuous-line sketches throughout my three watercolor journals that I brought with me to Hawaii and Australia.

I grew to love this method in proportion to by own leaning curve. I didn’t want to sketch this way on every sketch but sprinkle it about as the subject seems fit.

What I love about this technique is it is a puzzle; figuring out how to get to one part of the sketch to the other. You simply draw your way there, sometimes doubling or tripling back on already existing pen marks. And of course pencils are never allowed for Continuous-Lines Sketches (CLS).

My first CLS was of the famed statue of King Kamehameha in front of the ‘Iolani Palace in downtown Honolulu.

While I initially looked at the complex details of the building I let it rip with a single pen line and I liked the results.
The final continuous-line sketch with watercolor washes.

After sketching the palace I caught an Uber up to the Punchbowl Cemetery where the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific is located. The cemetery sits in a volcanic crater and many of the victims of the attack of Pearl Harbor are buried here.

I rendered the monument in a single, unbroken one line and I am pleased with the result.

Is this the most precise and accurate sketch of the monument? No, but is has something more, a feeling of spontaneity.

I had to continuously-line sketch the one view that says “Waikiki” more than all others: Diamond Head from Waikiki Beach.

I walked out to a stone jetty, in front of the lifeguard station and let my pen do the dancing. Instead of attempting to draw every palm leaf on every frond, I look for shapes not details (featured sketch).

A great way to end the day was to sit on my hotel room balcony with an adult beverage and my sketchbook while looking over the “Las Vegas” of Hawaii.

CLS view from my La Croix Hotel balcony.
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Waikiki First Day Birding

I arrived at my hotel an hour and a half early before check in so I stowed my bag and walked to the Waikiki Beach through Fort Durussy Beach Park.

There were tons of birds in the park, all exotic (common myna, zebra dove, red-headed cardinal, common waxbill, Java sparrow, etc.) introduced to this jungle paradise. But I was looking for one native. An all white bird with a solid black beak and black eyes. It perches and nests on horizontal branches in the park. This is the white tern!

This is not a lifebird, I had a far off and all too brief view of one on a pelagic from Kona on the Big Island. But I was soon to get stunning views of the “Angel” tern!

It is fitting to see this bird in Honolulu as it is the city’s official bird. In the Hawaiian language the bird is known as manu-o-Ku.

Searching for the white tern is pretty easy. Look up into any tree with lots of horizontal branches for a white bird and hope it’s not a feral pigeon!

White tern at the park next to my hotel.

There were lots of terns (or as it should be called the white noddy) to choose from.

I finally made it out to Waikiki Beach with stunning views of Diamond Head. So I had to sketch the view (featured sketch). With some sand in my shoes and a Mai Tai in my gullet!

A sketch from one of my photos.