I did a daily work commute to Culver City for nearly two decades. I thought I knew the area like the back of my hand and there were no surprises. How wrong I was.

The Culver City Stairs has been one of my recent discoveries. The name is a little misleading, because the stairs are actually 282 uneven steps leading up a hill to the Baldwin Hills Overlook. Standing at the bottom, it feels like you’re in Machu Picchu and about to climb up to the summit of the Temple of the Sun.

A more apt name would be the Culver City Steps – but that name has now been taken by the new retail development in front of the Culver Studio, that has sprung up since I left the area over four years ago.

Hiking Trail to Baldwin Hills Overlook

As well as the steep climb up the hill to the overlook, there’s an alternative hiking trail that intersects with the stairs multiple times as it zig-zags up the hill. No matter which route you take to the overlook, you get panoramic views stretching from the beach to downtown LA, and the mass of urban sprawl between.

I’m there for the exercise, but it’s also a good inspiration for improving my urban sketching skills. I’m not ready to sit and draw as people walk by (I’m not adept enough for that at the moment—my skills need sharpening), but I’m happy to take a few sneaky snaps to use back at home as inspiration for some not-quite urban sketches.

I liked the shape and colours of the heavyset man in the photo above and how he was shifting his weight to lumber up the hill. So as I walked by him, I spun around to take a photo to use for a pen and watercolour sketch.

I’m amassing a collection of hiking sketches, and will put together a post within the next couple of weeks to showcase my fellow Culver City hikers.

I’m in the creative stage of finding my art style. Part of the enjoyment of hiking this trail is spotting colours and shapes that appeal to me to photograph. I hadn’t realised how many people wear black and grey until I started looking for a watercolour muse and how unappealing that lack of colour is in a subject. Yes I know I can use creative licence to change the colours of their clothes when I paint them, but part of what I enjoy is representing what I see.

The photos are useful reference points, and at some point I’m going to stop taking photos and start doing pure urban sketching, and drawing what I see in the moment. But in the meantime, I’m enjoying the hikes as a good excuse to take photographs.