Extreme sketching

Joshua Tree National Park

First Santa

11/29/13 Northgate Mall

I haven’t been out on Black Friday to shop in years, possibly decades, but I’ve found that it can be fun to be out in the hustle-bustle if I’m doing something other than shopping. This afternoon I went to Northgate Mall with a sole purpose: to sketch Santa. I had so much fun sketching Santa last year that I captured him twice – first at Northgate and then at Pacific Place. But surely I see more than two Santas in any given season; I’ve challenged myself to top that record this year.

Today might be the busiest day of the year for retailers, but Santa looked bored. I passed by him twice without any clients. On my third pass, a reluctant little girl was on his lap, refusing to smile, so I grabbed my opportunity. As has happened each time I’ve sketched Santa, his client was long gone before I finished sketching her, and then Santa went on a break.

On my way out of the mall, a young busker named Sarah Emerson was raising money for a trip to Ghana next summer to work in an orphanage. It felt good to know that the only money I spent at the mall today was the dollar I put in her bowl.

Toe Truck - Seattle's Museum of History and Industry

My wife works for the Puget Sound Blood Center who had their annual awards and holiday dinner at the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI). If you grew up in or around Seattle, you surely saw (on your way to the Seattle Center) the pink Lincoln's Toe Truck parked just off the Mercer exit.

That blast from the past now resides just inside the entrance to MOHAI and for this event, the backdrop to a no-host bar.

Pen and ink with watercolor wash.

Good Bones coming soon...

Thank you, USk!!

Yesterday, I got word that my workshop proposal was accepted by Urban Sketchers!!  So to celebrate, I went to the location of the upcoming workshop, Pike Place Market.  Even in the cold winter (my fingers got numb), it was bustling with activity--it truly is the heart of Seattle.  

Information about the workshop, Good Bones, will be posted shortly.  Thanks again Orling and to Urban Sketchers~~

Saint Edward Park

Thank you David Chamness for suggesting this building for a sketch. I took the kids for a hike then sat down to enjoy the sun on this classy building.

Call for Submissions for Symposium Programming

UrbanSketchers.org



Call for Submissions for Symposium Programming

We have a city: Paraty, Brazil. We have dates: August 27-30, 2014. Now it’s time to create programming for the 5th International Urban Sketching Symposium! To do that we need YOU, urban sketchers of the world, to submit proposals for workshops and extra activities before December 20, 2013.

Teach a Sketching Workshop
These are the workshops that have been a mainstay of past Symposiums. You can see some samples here.

In previous years we offered 3-hour workshops in the morning and the afternoon. This year we are tentatively planning for 3.5-hour workshops during the morning only, with other programming in the afternoons.

Selected proposals will be announced in January.

Compensation: If your proposal is selected, the Symposium organization pays for airfare and five nights of accommodation. Local instructors who will not need to travel will receive an honorarium.

In addition to the workshops, we are planning to offer a diversity of other programming in Paraty. What could you propose? Here are some ideas:

Lead a Sketchcrawl
Organize a "follow me" sketchcrawl in Paraty. People will draw where you lead them and rely on you for tips to become better urban sketchers. This is your opportunity to earn some cred and promote your work! We are looking for sketchers with previous experience organizing sketchcrawls.

Give a Lecture
Enlighten participants with a sketching-related talk. Whether it is about your own sketching, or the findings of your research on 19th century artists reporters, we want to learn from you!

Do a Demonstration
Show us how you do your magic! What can you show other sketchers that will inspire us while promoting your work?

Surprise Us With Something We Haven’t Thought Of!
Do you have another activity idea that can take place over a few afternoon hours? Yoga for sketchers? How to find the best fire hydrants for sketching? Tell us how you can catch the sketchers’ attention and passion with something different from a workshop.

Compensation: If you are selected for an extra activity as mentioned above, you will receive free registration for the Symposium.

Some details to keep in mind while designing your proposal:
We recommend you to get to know Paraty’s possible workshop locations before you create your proposal, in order to match your workshop theme with the city’s environment. Click here to view photos of the locations posted in our Facebook page.
You can propose a workshop for a general location or for a specific spot.
You should keep in mind that workshop locations are subject to change and the Workshop committee reserves the right to make the best arrangements / combinations of workshops and locations.
Keep in mind the weather: "Dry season (May through September) - The average temperature in Paraty during these months ranges between 17 and 25 °C (62.6-77 °F). We recommend bringing a light sweater for the evenings and chilly nights, as well as sunglasses, a cap or hat, and shorts for the hot days."

HOW TO SUBMIT PROPOSALS

All proposals must be emailed to symposium@urbansketchers.org.
If you are proposing a workshop, you must use this form and include sample sketches..

DEADLINE

All proposals are due by Friday, December 20, 2013 (11:59 p.m. EST)

University of Washington Botanical Greenhouses

           The University of Washington Botanical Greenhouses are best known for their rotting corpse plan (Amorphophallus titanum). About once every seven years you can catch a whiff of this unusual plant if you are quick enough. However, the bloom collapses within a week.

            While you are waiting, the greenhouses offer a wonderful collection of unusual ferns, cycads, orchids, palms, cacti, and tropical plants. The collection is divided into four separate greenhouses with different climates.

A gracious host with warm and welcome surroundings

Ahhh. A taste of the tropics in mid-November. 

I warmed up, literally, with the long view. 

The light was amazing and the structure a bit overwhelming, but I loved the contrast of the technical exposed structure and the organic shapes and colors of the plants.  

This multi-colored palm tree caught my eye with the rich texture in the trunk. The leaves were multi-colored with a leopard-like pattern.

I concur with you all who have said it, our host, Doug Ewing was incredibly gracious and welcoming. Maybe we should make this an annual mid-winter location. 

Washington Trust for Historic Preservation Fundraiser

Thanks for all the sketch donations that I received yesterday!  You are a wonderful and giving group to donate some very precious works of art to two great causes: WTHP and USk.  You can still donate if you get me your sketch by December 8th.  Send me an email and we can arrange an exchange.
(david.chamness@callison.com)

After leaving the UW Botany Greenhouses I decided to sketch my works to donate since I had a free afternoon.  I had two places in mind to go and since the Seahawk's game was underway I figured the streets would be quiet to get around.

The first was Harborview Hall a 1929 restrained art deco style nurses residence designed by Harlan Thomas on the campus of Harborview Medical Center. 

 

 As I was sketching I could hear the roar of the stadium crowd cheering on the Seahawk's victory.  The shadow of the main hospital cast its profile across HVH.

Next I moved to the location of the fundraising event next month knowing that they would like to have a sketch of their headquarters.  

All who donate are welcome to come to the event on December 12th.  I will email details to all who donate and want to come celebrate preservation and the holidays!

The Stimson Green Mansion was a location of one of our sketch outings a few years back, but always an interesting subject both inside and out!

If you are looking for more ideas, Seattle icons are popular and

the preservation lists which you can find below or on the WTHP website.

 

http://preservewa.org/Most-Endangered-List.aspx
http://preservewa.org/Watch-List.aspx
http://preservewa.org/Past-Sites.aspx

UW Botany Greenhouse

Found my way to the back of one of the green house wings and planted my stool in the corner.  It felt like I was in a jungle, with plants hanging over the aisle and my head.  I hardly saw a soul for the next hour as I sketched and enjoyed the bit of "spring" with sunlight streaming into the upper reaches of the greenhouse.  Filtered winter sunlight is great to draw in when you are warm and toasty.

   

 As I became quite warm in the heated building, I decided to head to the entrance outside and enjoy a bit of sun and a slight breeze on my back.  The scale of some plants is enormous... a large "artichoke" like plant to the right and large yellow "trumpet" flowers hanging from tree-like plants to the left.  As you can see I need a botanist to identify what I was drawing yesterday!

Botany Bay

What a huge sketching crowd on Sunday!  Go Seattle USk!!!

After such a crazy week, I had a hard time settling down on Sunday, and it shows in this sketch! Architecture is my comfort zone, but plants...now that is challenging!  And isn't it so hard sometimes to get into that zone, where hours pass like minutes and you are so focused on sketching, you think of nothing else but your sketch and the view?  I love that feeling--sketching meditation!

We should come back to the UW Botany Greenhouses--felt tropical inside, perfect for the gray and wet Seattle winter thus far, and the plants were amazing!

UW Botany Greenhouse pond, or Botany Bay

and the kitchen sink.

The University of Washington green house is full of so much; the variety and beauty overwhelming.

Everyone got to work, industrious pens, pencils and paint brushes representing beautiful elements on a Fall morning.

So great to be with so many talented folk; looking forward to more outings

UW Botany Greenhouse

It was like a mini trip to the Southwest and I was dressed for the North. What a wonderful oasis.
Thanks to Doug Ewing for being so generous.  I thought the pepper plant was interesting because it was so
benign looking yet it was cordoned off with warnings taped to the floor.

A Day of Sketching in Seattle

It has been a while since I have sketched and I feel a bit rusty, but today I had a chance to sketch both at the UW Botany Greenhouse and the Pacific Science Center in the afternoon.
It was a great gathering this morning with about 42 people.  What a great spot to sketch, warm dry, with beautiful plants and light. Thanks to Doug Ewing from the U.W. who hosted us.

Orchid Room UW Botany Greenhouse

Orchid Room UW Botany Greenhouse

Pacific Science Center

UW Greenhouse

First post ever! It was great seeing so many faces and so many different styles. Drawing plants this time around was definitely a nice change of scenery.

*EDIT: Totally forgot to introduce myself. I'm a former UW Architecture student who graduated in 2010. I'm working at a small architecture firm in Columbia City called Julian Weber Architecture & Design. I've been going to these sketch outings for over three years now, but always lurked and never posted until now. I love how big the group has gotten and I look forward to seeing more work!

Christine's Place

The last of my Kickstarter backer's homes. (Thanks Christine!) All that's left to finishing my 300 page book of 600 drawings is to fine-tune and edit the text, finish the cover details, and send it to the printer for a proof. And register with the library of congress. Then pace impatiently for the delivery of the books. Then ship them out to my supporters. Then take a nap. Then start the next book. Piece o' cake.

More from the UW Greenhouse

As others have already written, we spent our monthly sketch outing at the University of Washington Botany Greenhouse.  Doug Ewing, the manager of the greenhouse, was a wonderful host.  He happily gave lots of information about any plant about which we asked.  The details below are based on his "lectures". 

I wanted to include some of the greenhouse inftrastructure.  Here is a jar of female seeds for the huge Welwitschia mirabilis.  Doug said water got in the jar and he's drying it out on the duct.



Here is one of the sketchers drawing the huge mirabilis:



Then I sketched some carnivorous plants.  The "Shrew Loo" has a story.  It has evolved a symbiotic relationship with a shrew.  See this article and it's accompanying photo   which describes how the shrew eliminates into the large opening of the plant.  According to Doug, the plant doesn't catch bugs like other carnivores, it converts the "poo" into nitrogen.  It also produces a sap which the shrew finds very tasty.  So it attracts and feeds it's own source of food.  The sap contains a fast acting laxative!  Thus the plant is assured of nutrition while it feeds the shrew.





The group was huge: somewhere between 35-40 artists were there. I don't think everyone is in the photo:

Our host, Doug, is kneeling in front on the left.

Sharing our sketches



All the photos are here.

UW Botany Greenhouse

11/17/13 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor

After late-night birthday carousing (a concert I attended ended after 10 p.m. – long past my bedtime!), I arrived late at the Seattle Urban Sketchers gathering at the University of Washington’s Botany Greenhouse. Fortunately, I’d sketched there previously at an ad hoc sketchout, so I didn’t feel like I’d missed as much. I’m glad I made it – what a great turnout!

With about 15 seconds to select a subject and less than 30 minutes to sketch, I chose a view of the Miriam S. Buddress Cactus and Succulent Collection, where I had previously marveled at all the otherworldly looking species. In my rush, I forgot to note the name of this tall, palm-like succulent that looks like it needs to shave its legs.

UW Green House

Sketching in each of the botanical "galleries" was like trotting the globe from tropics to dessert. It was great to be back after missing two crawls and to see so many sketchers. 

An interesting week..

There must be a strange alignment of the planets this week...

On Tuesday, I posted this sketch to my flickr page and within minutes, started to watch it go "viral". Within 24 hours, it got over 10,000 views, over 18,000 views of my flickr page!!!!! Really perplexed how this could happen, I posted it on Facebook, and it was Georgia Urban Sketcher Debo Boddiford who realized that it had probably been picked up by Flickr Explore--a sampling of images from all of Flickr. And indeed, it had!  What an amazing phenomenon to watch in such a short period of time, it is now up to 11, 675 views with 142 favorites...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/83075812@N07/

The last sketch of my 3month Gabriel Prize adventure.  Flat gray light along the Seine, a one minute walk from
where I was living at the Citê des Arts.  Not my best sketch, but it is loaded with sentimental value.
You can see the towers and spire of Notre Dame and a peekaboo view of Soufflot's Pantheon.

If that weren't enough for one week, last night I was honored in the 2013 KRob international architectural delineation competition for Best Travel Sketch, for the second year in a row.  
http://www.krobarch.com/winners.asp?winner_year=2013

This is a huge honor, I am so thrilled.  It is proof that lightning can strike twice in the same place!  

This is a sketch of the Hôtel de Ville in Paris, a building I passed all the time.  Near the end of my trip, I decided I had to attempt a sketch, so as all good Urban Sketchers, I sat in the dirt of a tree well, about 3 feet from moving traffic. 

So wonderful to have caught the memory of this place in a sketchbook...

Thank you alignment of planets and stars...

November Sketch Outing this Sunday!

Join us for the November Sketch Outing 

Sunday, November 17th: UW's Botany Greenhouse

10:00 am to 12:30 pm.

You can park in the underground parking for free.  Or find free parking on campus in the various lots.  

A Walk on 15th Avenue

I liked these two buildings, the Buckley (left) and the Sheffield (right). They were mirror images over 17th Avenue. I also appreciated the gothic detailing and the classical plantings around these buildings.

Crammed on top of Seattle's Capitol Hill is 15th Avenue. The street runs between hospital mega-structures and craftsman bungalows on its way from Madison Avenue to the University District. I had driven down the street numerous times, but I had never stopped to explore the area.

I walked into Victrola Coffee and was assaulted by a wave of noise. I staggered to the bar and ordered an oolong tea. The hostess hastily swiped my card, assumed I wanted my drink to go and hustled me on. Still dazed, I staggered to fetch a lid, looking widely for a place to sit. I finally settled on a chair outside where I drew this sketch of The Gables Apartments.