Interbay Alleyway

  The last few days at Lunch I decided to try sketching an alley from several vantage points and media.

I recently discovered an English watercolorist named Edward Wesson

and I loved his scratchy graphic style.

He sketched an outline of the scene with a matchstick dipped in ink.

I tried that here and then also used a sharpened twig cut from the brambles in the alley.

Seattle Skyline

Recently, the constant rain has limited me to drawing in my car. I know Seattle enjoys a reputation as the rainy city. However, we usually get a few breaks throughout the day.

I am using this as an opportunity to draw the Seattle skyline. A variety of spots in Seattle host parking lots with great views of the city's iconic buildings.

My favorite spot is the Don Armeni Boat Ramp at Seacrest Park. The boat ramp parking lot has super wide and long stalls to accommodate boat trailers. These spots often go unused in the winter. This provides a sketch starved artist a perfect view of downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods.

Another great spot is the Hamilton Viewpoint Park directly above Seacrest Park. The viewpoint parking lot wraps around the northern tip of West Seattle, providing panoramic views of the sound, Elliot bay and downtown.

My final spot to draw the Seattle skyline is Volunteer Park. The parking lot for the Seattle Asian Art Museum offers a great view over the park's reservoir to the space needle beyond. I always thought this juxtaposition of the modern space needle with the natural style of the Olmsted park was a perfect metaphor for Seattle.

March Monthly Sketch Outing

Join us for the March Sketch Outing 
 

Sunday, March 16th: International District

10:00 am to 12:30 pm

Meet at Starbucks
505 5th Ave. South - right next to Union Station
Seattle

We will be meeting up with Stephanie Bower's Good Bones Workshop attendees. The International District has indoor options: Union Station, Uwajimaya, Wing Luke; plus lots of outdoor options, weather permitting. See you there!

 

 

"Sketches of Paris" opens Thursday, March 6

This Thursday is the opening for "Sketches of Paris", an exhibit of over 60 watercolor sketches from my 3 months in France last summer on the Gabriel Prize architecture fellowship. Prints of the sketches will be available for sale. I'm working like crazy to get it all ready!  Hope to see you there~~

"Sketches of Paris"

Stephanie Bower

MITHUN Threshold Gallery

March 6-April 25, 2014

Pier 56, Seattle WA

Opening Reception -- Thursday, March 6, 5-7pm

Wintergrass

The "Friday Sketchers" ad hoc outing was to sketch at Wintergrass, a local bluegrass festival.  There certainly was a lot of jamming in the hall ways! 


Two musicians in a jam session.


My first sketch of the day.... a concertina player in the lobby playing by himself.  He got up and moved but I had enough done that I could finish it.


Bass player in a jam session.... just drew her.

Here's the group!

L to R:  Gordon, me, Angie, Lynn, John, Tina, Francisco, Rachel, Wanda (a friend of mine visiting from Portland).  Angie and her father, Francisco, were new today!  Welcome! 

Catching a Historic Fishing Boat

2/26/14 Vintage fishing vessel moored at South Lake Union.

We made it in the nick of time.

Ever since Greg and I read the article in The Seattle Times about the fleet of vintage wooden fishing schooners that would be mooring at South Lake Union for a couple of weeks, we’ve been wanting to get down there – I with my sketchbook, he with his camera. But the weather has been so consistently wet and cold since then that we were afraid we’d miss them before they made their journey to Alaska. Today – temperatures in the 50s and sunny – was our opportunity!

When we got there this afternoon, though, we didn’t see any of the fleet of nine ships, some more than 100 years old. We stopped in at the Center for Wooden Boats (which currently has an exhibit about these historic fishing vessels) to ask if they had all left. It turned out that just one ship, the Kristiana, was still moored there, and a staffer pointed it out.

I regret that we missed seeing the full fleet, but I’m happy that I was able to sketch at least one. The Kristiana was built in 1945, among the youngest of the commercial fishing schooners that are still working hard to bring in tons of halibut and black cod (which I eat a lot of, so I’m grateful) each year.

The rain is supposed to return tonight, so we really did get there in the nick of time.

Two fer

Today was the first outdoor sketch of the season!  It was blue sky, sun and 54 degrees.

It is also two for one.

First, it's another for my series of Renton public art as it is a newly installed sculpture called "Going Global".  The artist is Benson Shaw.

Second, it fits  the Urban Sketchers' weekly theme of "signs", as it is a new "Welcome to Renton" sign.

I sat in the sun on the sidewalk next to a very busy main street.  It was so warm all I needed was my light fleece sweater.  Fortunately, I did not have an experience similar to the sculptor's.  When he was installing it, an out of control car came "careening over the cub and smashed into a pole"!  

The Seattle Bouldering Project

I recently discovered Urban Sketchers Seattle through their Facebook page and attended my first monthly outing last week.  February's sketchcrawl was at The Seattle Bouldering Project. It was the perfect venue for a rainy Sunday and a great way to hone my craft while meeting other like-minded and talented artists.  I look forward to next month!

Sketches were drawn on my iPad using the Paper app by FiftyThree and a Pogo Connect stylus:

MOHAI Sketcher in Residence

Today was my day to be at the MOHAI as an Urban Sketcher in Residence.  I spent the morning viewing many of the exhibits at the museum.  This was my first time to go in all the galleries since their move from the Montlake location and I am very impressed with the quality of all the rooms! 

Look forward to many, many future visits.

 

 My first demonstration sketch looking out the window towards Queen Anne Hill.

 

 

The afternoon was spent in Gabi's wonderful exhibition demonstrating my sketching techniques.  It was a fun experience talking to many interested visitors  and the kids were a joy to see their enthusiasm in drawing their own sketches.

 

Later I went out and watched the Seattle Hip-Hop demonstrations

that were a special part of today's events and also sketched in the exhibitions of things from my childhood.

 

 

 

 

I saw the Lombardy Trophy at the Seahawks parade and so I decided to find / sketch the first Seattle World Championship Trophy that is on display at the MOHAI!  Maybe the Lombardy will join the Sonic's trophy at the museum???

 

 

 At the end of the day I went outside to view the historic fishing schooners that were docked alongside the museum.  The Vansee and the Polaris are two of the oldest working schooners that will soon head to Alaska for the upcoming fishing season.   Worth a visit to see these wonderful ships before they leave.



Upcoming Line to Color Workshop at Washington State University

Frank and I  have been asked to give our "Line to Color" workshop at Washington State University this April 18-20 Friday-Sunday. Joining us will be Gabi to who will be  giving a workshop and presentation of the Urban Sketchers movement.  

We look forward to a great weekend working with students from the Design + Construction Department.   There are open spots for the public to take part in this as well.  If you are a Coug or a Husky or just a person who is interested in learning how to sketch, this might just be the event for you. 

For registration information contact: 

Bob Krikac (Faculty advisor at WSU) rkrikac@wsu.edu. 

Cost is $200.00 for the weekend workshop and will include  Friday evening Presentation and Gallery Reception,  Saturday Workshops, Sunday panel discussion,  final workshop and group sketchcrawl.  

A big thanks to Royal Talens and Canson for sponsoring this workshop with watercolors and watercolor sketchbooks.

At the Gates Foundation Visitor Center

Took my Cornish drawing class last Friday to sketch at the Gates Foundation Visitor Center, then stayed later to sketch.  I had the wonderful opportunity to work on this project for over a year with Olson Kundig Architects, the project turned out so beautifully.  It's a great place to sketch and the VC staff is very welcoming.

I painted using a simple triad of Nickel Azo, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, and Cobalt Blue.  It's amazing how many colors you can mix with just a simple 3 paints. I wish I had adjusted the perspective more to get a better sense of the wide angle, but I was tired and hungry!

Bending my Pen at the Seattle Bouldering Project

The Sunday outing to the Seattle Bouldering Project reminded me of trips to the rock climbing gym as a kid. My father was a rock climbing enthusiast and took me to a rock climbing gym beneath the Fremont Bridge before the area's redevelopment.

The Seattle Bouldering Project offered some great opportunities to explore perspective due to the space's lack of perspective. The slanting walls and odd angles made people the only reliable indicator of scale and perspective.

This was also a great opportunity to draw the human form. Drawing outside, people often become secondary to the landscape around them. At the Seattle Bouldering Project, the human form became a dominate element in my drawings because people played a critical role in defining the space.

            I also enjoyed drawing at the Seattle Bouldering Project because it had such a subterranean feel. In the basement, the low ceiling and curved walls made the space feel like a cave or grotto. I could almost imagine the Oracle of Delphi was prophesying at the back of the room.