Century Link Field

In honor of the Seahawks win today, I finished adding watercolor to the sketch I did of Century Link Field during out last sketch outing.  It was done a little further east from where Frank was sketching,  but the same iconic view.  It is a fun and interesting building to sketch.

Christmas Village

It was fun to join the Friday sketchers at Seattle Center!  I enjoyed watching the children, young and old, point and ooh and ah as the train rolled by...

King Street Station for Real, or not...

December's meeting of the Seattle Sketchers was held at the King Street Station.  I arrived early, found a great parking spot (it was Sunday morning, after all!!) and decided to sketch the station from my car.

Yesterday, I joined an ad-hoc group of sketchers at the Seattle Center House, where the Winter Festival was happening.  One of the larger displays was a model railroad with a station and a little village, complete with a hot air balloon that magically took off and floated above the village.  Of course, the "station" was modeled after our own Amtrak King Street Station!   I felt compelled to sketch the model, the clock tower now becoming a well-known identifier.

Actually, when I sat down to sketch, I was attracted to the large Christmas tree, with a huge, star of orange lights hanging in an alcove next to the tree. I decided to attempt a quick sketch in the time remaining, since drawing trees is almost second nature to me.

Sketching Winterfest

Seattle Urban Sketchers Friday ad hoc group had a sketch outing to Winterfest at the Seattle Center Armory.  There was a large model railroad village that was very detailed.  It seemed to be a favorite subject.  There were three new sketchers who joined us.

Since we were just at King St. Station a 2 weeks ago, I wanted to include the model of it in train village sketch.



I had about a half hour left.  It seems that's always the way it is.  I quickly sketched the large Christmas tree.


I came up from the south on the Light Rail and then took the Monorail from Westlake over to Seattle Center.  I did this quick line drawing of the train driver in about 5 minutes!


Here's the group, sharing sketches.

Gordon, Lynn, Kate, John, Stephanie, Tina, John, Peggy, Marsha



LeMay Car Museum

12/26/13 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Zig marker, Fabriano 140 lb. hot press paper

Several of my most-admired sketchers have lately taken to sketching old classic cars. In the forefront is Lapin, who just successfully crowdsourced publication of a collection of his classic car sketches. Others are Inma Serrano, Mike Daikubara and Nina Johansson. As you know, cars have long been one of my nemeses as far as sketch subjects go – all those smooth, reflective surfaces and curved yet not organic lines. But when it comes to old classics, I’m as much a sucker for cars as anyone is. I decided to jump on the bandwagon.

12/26/13 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

Greg and I have long talked about visiting Tacoma’s LeMay Car Museum, so we finally made the trek down south. I had heard that it was a big place, but until you walk into the main showroom, it’s hard to imagine exactly how big it is. The museum is four stories high – nine acres “celebrating America’s love affair with the automobile” (according to the brochure).

First I took a quick walk-through of the four floors to scan all the cars (and ogled only a few). Then I settled on three that caught my eye (all convertibles, of course): a 1947 Lincoln (unfortunately, with its top up), a 1964 Porsche 356C and a 1957 Chevrolet Corvette “Fuelie.” Apparently the exhibit on the main floor is used for special collections, and showing right now are a bunch of lovely ‘Vettes.

12/26/13 Platinum Carbon ink, Zig markers, Fabriano 140 lb. hot press paper

We spent three hours sketching and photographing, but I could have easily stayed all day. As an indoor sketching location, it’s a dream come true: walls and corners to stand against with good views; plenty of benches if you prefer to sit; good lighting everywhere. The main showroom has the best unobstructed view, though. The other floors have support pillars that can get in the way.

Exterior of the LeMay Car Museum in Tacoma.

Main floor of the LeMay Car Museum with a special exhibit of Corvettes.

Joy and Peace to You This Holiday Season

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!  See you in 2014!

Christmas Eve Candle Light Service 2013 University Presbyterian Church

Loving that SNOW!!!

Sometimes I seem to have a lot of excuses for not getting outside to sketch, but SNOW is NOT one of them!  Growing up in Buffalo, NY, I saw my share of winter storms, so Seattle's paucity of the white stuff leaves me pining…Let there be flakes of snow, and I'm out there sketching.  Everything looks so interesting, so sketch-able!!

Yesterday I was up early, and yes! we had snow!!  Unfortunately, rain was predicted to erase all that magic by noon, so I hurried to get out there.  By 7:30 AM, I was parked at Greenlake, sketching the lake views.   The paper I used for my first sketch was not drying, so I set it aside, and drove across the street!,  parking next to the lovely wooded hillside at the NE end of Woodland Park, (sketch at left.)

I decided as long as the snow was holding, I would keep sketching, so I drove around the west side of Greenlake, and found this quaint  house begging to be sketched.  (see above)   In truth,  when snow is involved, you could practically drop me anywhere, and I would find something to paint.
All in all, it was a productive day - 3 sketches in about 4 hours!

King Street Station

It was difficult to choose what to draw because of the over whelming ornamentation throughout the station.  I ended up sitting in the Compass Room (which acts as the entry vestibule to the Great Hall waiting room). I thought it would be simpler because it was smaller and more contained. Ha! I normally like to finish a sketch in about 45 minutes, so that I can have time for a few sketches.  This one took 2 1/2 hours!
 During my drawing time I had many people stop and watch me sketch because I was on their path to and from the train.  One particular station worker, John, stopped for a chat and was interested in joining us for a future sketch outing.  He said he had not drawn since elementary school, but our group had inspired him to take it up again. 

After the sharing time I went out and took up a spot that others had drawn earlier.  I wanted to capture the campanile because it is such a Seattle icon.  I found out later that it was the tallest building in Seattle in 1906.
My sketch of the tower looks like an earthquake hit the top. That's what I like about sketching on site, the character of each drawing!   A great way to finish off the year with Seattle Urban Sketchers!


                                                  






                                            

CenturyLink Field

While the newly renovated main waiting room of King Street Station is quite beautiful, I didn't find it interesting enough to draw. What caught my eye when we first gathered outside was this view of CenturyLink Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks, who were beating up on the New York Giants during our sketching session. This sketch would have been made more memorable if the Seahawks had clinched their division outright on this Sunday but that will have to wait until next weekend.

Gabi on TV

Tina has already described our outing to see Gabi on TV.  I'll just add a few of my cents, my sketches and a couple photos.

While we were waiting, I sketched the station's lobby with the Christmas tree from the second story balcony.



Once seated in the studio, I sketched the set, thinking that's where Gabi would sit for the interview.  I had most of it done, just waiting for his segment.



Since Gabi's segment wasn't recorded there, I finished it with just the host, Kim.

But it turned out they set up a table with his sketches.  That's where the interview took place.  This was set up before the previous segment was recorded, so I could get most of it sketched before his interview started.  Here is the interview.   (It starts with an ad)






Here's Gabi talking with the audience during the break after his segment recorded.



Since it was a sketch outing, we had to do the requisite pose with our sketch books, standing with a poster of the King-5 mascot.


Me, Tina, Natalie

The Seattle Sketcher on New Day Northwest

What do Poo-Pourri, FailBlog and the Seattle Sketcher have in common?

They were all on today’s program of New Day Northwest, and I was in the live studio audience to cheer for at least one of them (Guess which?)! OK, I had to cheer for all of them, since that was my only responsibility for being an audience member. But Kate, Natalie and I did our best to applaud the loudest for our fearless founder of Urban Sketchers. We also had fun sketching the goings-on of a live TV program.

Gabi was on the show to promote his exhibit, Drawn to Seattle, which opens this Saturday at the Museum of History and Industry and runs through May 26. Go, Gabi!

Gabi being prepped for his segment on New Day Northwest.

Kate, Tina and Natalie sketch while they wait for the show to begin.

King Street Station Redux

Last May when the Friday sketchers got together at King Street Station, I went up to the upper level to sketch the view below. Today the full Seattle Urban Sketchers group stormed the station with our sketchbooks, and I still thought the view from upstairs was the most compelling. But before that, I took advantage of the not-yet rainy weather and temperatures in the high-40s (downright balmy compared to last week) to sketch the station’s clock tower.

More from the King Street Station

I was completely floored by the restoration of the King Street Station. It was my first time in there since they finished and highly recommend others to visit if they have not already. It almost makes me want to take Amtrak.

Sketching at King Street Station

The Seattle Urban Sketchers met for the regular monthly sketch outing at the relatively newly renovated King Street Station.   I took the opportunity of holiday decor to sketch what may be next year's Christmas card!



I had about 45 minutes left, so I quickly sketched a view from outside.



After 2 1/2 hours sketching, we met back up to share our work and have the usual group photo.

Part of the show

I joined the Ad Hoc sketchers on Friday to sketch the Sheraton's Gingerbread  Festivities. The hotel kindly let us sit within the display so some of us became part of the entertainment. The creations were  fairy tale themed and I was charmed by the comments I overheard.

It was a good place to sketch people. Does anyone else have trouble with baseball caps?

Return to Gingerbread

This was the Friday Sketchers 1st anniversary!  It was one year ago that we had our first Friday outing.  There were five who attended that one and we thought about informally calling ourselves the "Friday Five".  But that didn't last long as more Seattle Urban Sketchers were able to come out on Fridays.  About half way through the year we finalized our ad hoc outings to the 2nd and 4th Fridays.
Today's anniversary sketch outing took us back to where it began. Seattle Urban Sketchers adhoc Friday Sketchers' outing today was back to the Gingerbread Village at the Sheraton, which benefits the JDRF.    From the web page:
"The spirit of the season comes alive in amazing gingerbread displays created by Seattle’s top architecture firms and the Sheraton’s culinary team.  The theme is “There's a Rhyme and a Reason this Holiday Season.” 
 
I decided to sketch the Jack and the Beanstalk  (Created by Callison; Chef Lee Baldyga) but focused on the Seattle scene below the beanstalk.  There were goldfish crackers in the Sound!





Next I drew a detail of Hickory Dickory Dock  (Created byu Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties and Gelotte Hommas Architecture;  Chef: Jay Sardeson).  I like small rodents, so I focused on the mouse choir.



We shared our sketches



There were 10 of us today but Natalie is missing from the final photo.  :(

In back Nilda, Peggy JG, Stephanie, Carleen, Frances, Lynn; in front, Kate, Peggy H, Tina

Gingerbread Village with the Friday Sketchers

To celebrate the first anniversary of the Seattle Urban Sketchers ad hoc Friday sketchers group, we met at the same place we sketched a year ago: Gingerbread Village at the Sheraton. (We had a much larger turnout than the original five who showed up last year – yay for Friday sketchers!) At this festive, popular event, local architects get together with the Sheraton’s bakers to create elaborately detailed, often-animated gingerbread houses (although “house” is clearly an understatement).

Last year I deliberately chose the less-extravagant back side of Alice in Wonderland’s Castle so that I wouldn’t be overwhelmed by details. This year I took a different approach to dodge the same issue: I stood behind the endless line of people passing between the sweet sculptures and myself, focusing more on the viewers. My first sketch was of a fabulous ship with the theme “I Saw a Ship a-Sailing.” Then I moved to the other side of the exhibit to sketch “Hickory-Dickory Dock.”

Peru, Kingdoms of the Sun & Moon at SAM