The San Diego Drawing Guild (SDDG) is a group of graphite, pastel, and colored pencil artists who meet weekly in the Foothills Fine Art Gallery.
SDDG is a diverse group whose artistic interests range from landscapes to flowers to portraits to more abstract representations. The group is unstructured, with no officers, and gathers for four hours each week to draw and enjoy the companionship of fellow artists. Members of the group, which has been meeting for approximately eight years, offer each other support, encouragement and loving critique and have become good friends.
When the pandemic required quarantine and the gallery closed, group members missed each other and the camaraderie they shared. They started meeting once a week on Zoom but the free 40-minute sessions just weren’t enough togetherness so they purchased a business account, costing each member $2 per week.
In this way, they were able to continue their friendship and encourage artistic progress even as everyone coped with the reality of the pandemic. In the Zoom meetings, they continued to share their lives, their art, their frustrations and their joys.
The artists of SDDG come from varied backgrounds, including medicine, nursing, engineering, finance and business, and midwifery. Several members work in colored pencil (as well as other mediums) and are members of the Colored Pencil Society of America. 
Five members (Gary Dyak, Connie Grace, Carolyn Kenny, Rhonda Anderson and Aida Masliah) have been accepted in the Society’s prestigious international show and some have won awards.
