Stalking it's prey.....

A big diesel cat now sits in a crop field near Southcenter, as if it was a showdown with one of the few remaining local farms in the valley.

NW BoyChoir Concert @ St. Mark's

Saturday we had the opportunity to hear the NW BoyChoir at St. Mark's Cathedral. The music was wonderful and the space awe inspiring. The Choir is singing tomorrow and Tuesday night at Benaroya Hall. Tickets may still be available. It is a great way to celebrate the Holiday Season.

Ballard Library 12-17-09

It gets dark early in December in Seattle. I found this scene at the public library in Ballard at 4:30 p.m. Ballard has Nordic heritage and the "new" library has a ship's theme. Beautiful beams in the ceiling, very tall windows and whimsically and environmentally sound, there is grass growing on the roof.

Fountain at U. Village

This is at U.Village in the plaza between Ravenna Gardens and Market Optical. I was meeting a friend and thought I would try to do a really quick sketch and not worry about perspective being correct. I started it and then came back to do the water color. It's a bit messy and it was hard to capture the water coming off the fountain!

Elliot Bay Book Company

December Crawl - Elliot Bay Bookstore

Up a half level, turn right down a dark isle lined with tall bookshelves that is only passable one patron at a time to a final set of stairs to the bargain loft. It sits high enough to be twenty degrees warmer, which, when you are winterized like the little brother in 'A Christmas Story' is a bad thing.....My whole family will miss this place, it was an oasis, a place to sit, relax and recharge on visits to the city.

Pioneer Square: what used to be here and will have been here

Another wonderful day with sketchers, new faces and familiar, and wonderful sketchbooks to admire. This was a great place; we could have spent the whole day since there were distractions (cafe, books) as well as lots to draw. We even drew outside, as the weather gave us a break! Here is my sketch at First and Washington, a block north of the bookstore: my first attempt at using gouache. Hmmm... I liked the fading painted signs on this brick building which, I guess, was a factory for Paul Bunyon and Driftwood Sportswear. Now it sells carpets and other delicacies.

Elliott Bay Books

Another fun time drawing! I liked the little cafe downstairs and hope it survives the move to Cap Hill.

To start out I decided to tackle the outside view. It was much warmer than it had been the past week, but turned out it still wasn't warm enough for sketches of more than 15-20 minutes. I retreated indoors once I lost the feeling in my sketchfingers:

Once inside (and warmed up) it was necessary to select a subject, and at the same time resist the urge to just go book-shopping. Bookstores are dangerous places for the unwary sketcher, and not just economically. They are ready willing and quite able to seduce us into biting off more than we can chew. Of course to prove it I picked a view that I couldn't render in 2 hours, let alone 20 minutes. Oh well such is the life of an optimistic draughtsman:

Did we have less time to draw this time? Seemed like it, or maybe I'm slowing down in my dotage.

Elliott Bay Books Dec. 13, 2009

Sketching in Elliott Bay Books was like being a fly on the wall. It was really interesting to hear bits of conversations. Talks about good books, appeals to helpful staff for gift ideas and many comments from people who appreciate the bookstore and are sad to have it move. I also heard that the new location will be great.

Books! Books! Books!

I was a bit overwhelmed by the details!

Elliott Bay Books 12/13/09

I spend a lot of my EBB time in the Travel Loft, so it seemed only appropriate to draw the view from there. And with a table to paint at! A sketchcrawl doesn't get much more deluxe than that.

Elliott Bay Bookstore

It will be sad to see this bookstore leave the Pioneer Square District. I am glad we were able to capture some memorable views of the store before it leaves. It was great meeting all the Seattle Urbansketchers at the Cafe' of course.

joys of the waterfront

Was a great day to connect with friends and draw in the cold outside or the warm inside! This was a view west from the streetcar station, a block from the bookstore.
And here is Ramesh's 46-second portrait of another sketcher -- we timed him!

Good day sketching at Elliot Bay Books. Good to see familiar faces from Volunteer Park.

Wish I'd had more time...

Stairway

T-shirts in front window - I loved the colors and whimsy of a clothesline in the bookstore.

Looking forward to next month!

Chinatown Gate

I braved the cold today and did a sketch of the Chinatown gate in Seattle. I haven't done much watercolor before, but I decided to experiment with it in my sketchbook so I could capture the nice colors of the gate.

KPLU Story on Volunteer Park Sketchcrawl

Congratulations to Gabi and the Seattle Sketchers! I searched & found the link for the KPLU story for the Volunteer Sketchcrawl on-line... there is a written version plus a little bar top left to click on where you can hear the story too. Very cool, they have several of the sketches posted too!!!

Volunteer Park Crawl Sketch

Finally getting around to posting this sketch. If I my hands ever thaw from this last crawl, I'll have to join everyone next time around!

Poinsettia @ Volunteer Park Conservatory

Went back to the Conservatory at Volunteer Park on Saturday. They had it filled with Poinsettias for the Holidays.

December sketchcrawl

Just opening the discussion about this month's sketchcrawl. I'm up for one either next Sunday Dec. 13 or Sunday Dec. 20.

Quick sketches from Volunteer Park crawl

I'm finally getting around to uploading my bounty of sketches from the sketchcrawl. I always tell myself to spend more time with one drawing at least, but I don't have the patience and end up with a bunch of quick ones.