Oshogatsu in Olympia

I went down to the downtown Olympia Center on Saturday to pop-in on the second annual Japanese New Year's festival. 

Display tables, including one from the the Japanese consulate, and another from the the Olympia Bonsai Club lined the entrance. I spoke with with some reps from the Japanese consulate and the Jet exchange program and revisited some memories of living in Japan too many years ago.

A mini-museum displayed a variety of artifacts including geta - wooden platform shoes and childrens' zori. 

Two Approaches

This drawing was done in about 35 minutes with no pre-thought or pencil planning. For that reason, I didn't get to the objects that drew me to this scene: two guitars in the foreground; several shelves of cowboy boots and a motorcycle helmet. I started at the top and worked my way down, drawing the upper coats too large to include all the cool things nearer the floor.

The other drawing, below, took several hours, and I sketched the basic shapes first, beginning with the totem pole, in pencil, and did hardly any hatching.

I understand the whole "drawing is about the process, not the product" premise, but I don't feel a need to choose one over the other. A quick sketch is like a poem, or a journal note to oneself. But I also like to write prose for someone else to enjoy. I think there's room for self-gratifying quickies, but I also like the slow, obsessive attention to detail approach.

More from the Museum of Flight

I learned in a meeting at the Seattle Museum of Flight this morning how fortunate we are to have this museum here.  It is the largest and foremost private air and space museum in the world.  I stayed after the meeting to sketch this WWII era Corsair. It’s black color and curved wings were interesting.
More sketches and other details in my personal blog.

St. James Cathedral

1/24/13 fountain pen, watercolor

I knew I would probably have to miss the USK sketchcrawl at St. James Cathedral in February, so last week after visiting the Frye Art Museum, I strategically parked my car in Frye’s lot so that I had a clear view of the cathedral’s towers. I regret missing the interior, but at least I got a little of the exterior.

 

Last month I began a self-inflicted exercise to practice drawing vehicles (let’s just say they aren’t my strong suit). So far I’ve tried a BMW, an unidentified pick-up and a Subaru Impreza. I hadn’t yet tackled a Prius’ arched roof and broad back end, so the one parked in front of me was a good opportunity. (Reflected in the backseat window is the top of one of St. James’ towers.)



1/24/13 fountain pen, Zig markers



from the kitchen window..

Our kitchen doesn't really have a window although I can see a rooftop and the sky thru the sliding glass doors in the living room area, which I love. Anyway, Gina has been cat sitting for our neighbors in the building next door, so since they were away I took advantage of the street side view while standing at their kitchen counter. Morey the cat, was very vocal about the fact that I was not there to feed him, but we did have conversation. This view is from 14th & Pine looking SW.

Rainy and Cold, Suzzallo closed!

Was so disappointed to miss last week's sketchcrawl, so I decided to go today to UW's Suzzallo to sketch.  It was cold, rainy, and the library was closed!!!  So I did a super quick sketch of Red Square (didn't have time to draw the buildings, so I painted the clouds), then saw one of my Cornish students, and we decided to sketch the entry foyer of Suzzallo.

Port of Tacoma

My daughter had back to back music days in Tacoma which gave me the opportunity to sketch this one day and color it the next (yes, I'm that slow...). Mother Nature also was kind and though she spared the rain, she did provide some finger numbing temperatures - yeah, yeah I know it's January, but I'm old.

I don't know what building this is, it's old, boarded up and is in need of someone's big wallet to get her back into shape. Let's hope that happens, it's still a grand structure even in it's current condition. 

There are a number of mills in the Port of Tacoma and most all have their steam/smoke stacks going. They provide their own cloud system even on the nicest of days.

Don't know if I would do this tall format again, doesn't bode well for computer viewing.

Pen and ink with a watercolor wash in a moleskine sketchbook.

More Vintage Shops

 Atlas Vintage Mall, Fremont

Trove Vintage Boutique, Ballard

Suzzallo Library

Suzzallo Library can be overwhelming.  I have sketched there with students  many times.  This time I wanted to focus on  light and value.  I started in the vestibule outside the main reading room.  That area is filled with such dramatic light. I was sketching looking toward the windows.   It was as if headlights were shining into my eyes,  I had to squint it was so bright.  The second sketch I did...I only completed the inkline on site and took a picture of the detail to later add watercolor.  If you want to see my process of building up that watercolor look on my flickr site.  I have the 4 stages, from inkline to finish.

Detail study at Graduate Reading Room Suzzallo Library

Vestibule outside of Suzzallo Library

Georgetown Revisited

 Yesterday morning, with a few encouraging sun breaks, I drove down to Georgetown to sketch.  Seattle USk had gone there last August and I promised myself I would return, because there's so much character in all the old buildings.  That's especially true with the partial walls and abandoned factory of the "old brewery" as folks refer to it.  Weathered signs identify the company: "Seattle Brewing and Malt Company."
This is sketched in Noodler's ink, which must always sit and dry before one takes water to it.  So I laid in the watercolor at home.

While there, I decided to experiment with an under-drawing using Derwent's Graphtint, dk. indigo, which is water-soluble, following by watercolor, again finished at home.

I am also playing with ink and wash, but the Diamine "Ancient Copper" was too intensely burnt sienna, so I won't post that study.

A  fine time, and more promises to return, were followed by a stop at Daniel Smith's!!

Suzzallo progression (Serial Vision Too)

I really liked the series that Frank Ching sketched to show the progression of spaces leading to the Reading Room.  Later I realized that I too could put together a serial vision from what I sketched on Sunday.  I actually drew them in a different order than shown here, but they came together to show the different scale of spaces along the path travelled.

More Suzallo Arches

As I drove into Seattle, it was stunning to see the bright sunshine after our week of enclosed cold. Nonetheless I stayed inside like most of us and was thankful for the protection from the cool temperatures. 

The reading room is almost a cathedral 

and the stairway arches reminiscent of Piranesi

Meet the Correspondents: Lynne Cotie

I can't recall how I discovered the Urban Sketcher group but I do remember it was last April, I was excited to see so many folks drawing on location. I attended art school in Denver,Colorado right out of high school but dropped out to be a mom. Being a single mom I did not have a lot of time to pursue my love of drawing while raising my daughter. She is grown and creating her own art now so I don't have any excuses.

I love the portability of working with pen, ink and watercolor. Drawing signage,labels & letters appeals to me in a big way which I attribute to 20 years in the printing industry. I admit to drinking and drawing, Capitol Hill has a couple of really great brew pubs with big windows and great views. other creative outlets include doodling and collage. 

I have lived in Seattle for a little more than seven years and have befriended quite a few artists,I am excited to be a part of this group for the challenge it presents and the camaraderie it provides. 

Serial Vision

The converging lines and foreshortened shapes of a perspective drawing give it a dynamic quality. Yet, it remains a static view—a moment in time—as seen from a single point in space. To better convey movement through space, we can use a series of changing perspective views, as English architect and urban designer Gordon Cullen did when he coined the phrase Serial Vision to describe what one might see and experience as one walks through a sequence of spaces.

This is what I intended to depict when the Seattle Urban Sketchers met yesterday at Suzzallo Library on the UW campus. These drawings chronicle how one approaches the library from across Red Square, enters one of its portals, moves through the lobby and up the main staircase, and arrives in the main reading room.

Above are four of the nine sketches I did in two hours and twenty-five minutes.

Suzzallo Library - 3rd Floor South Allen Stacks - HV Crime Section

When I heard that today's sketchcrawl was at Suzzallo library I thought I would like to do something different than I did last time when I sketched the front of the building. I thought it would be fun to go back into the stacks where I first started thinking about what would later become my career as a Criminal Justice/Criminology professor. So I found the old familiar HV section ... some of the books on the shelves...The Criminal Personality, The Onion Field, Sexual Homicide Patterns and Motives, Crime and the American Dream, Punishment and Social Control, Acting Out: Maladaptive Behavior in Confinement, Letters from Attica, Life and Death in Sing Sing, Concrete Mama: Prison Profiles from Walla Walla, Using Murder: The Social Construction of Serial Homicide,  Sex Crimes, Women, Murder, and Justice, Women Serial and Mass Murderers, Evil Doers, Convicts, Profiling Violent Crimes, Techniques of Crime Scene Investigation, Postmortem....As I sat there sketching I remembered many a day long ago lost in some of these books. A peaceful afternoon sketching down memory lane thinking about how powerful books can be in shaping the course of a persons life.

Suzzallo Library

I hesitate to post this because this is not what the drawing looked like at the end of our sketch crawl today. I work way too slow to finish a drawing to my satisfaction in two hours. At home I added a lot more shading and my white gel pen lines to raise the contrast. I'm not really an Urban Sketcher, I just play one on TV.

This is what it looked like at the sharing.

UW Suzzallo Library

The sun poured into the reading room all afternoon. It was an amazing afternoon of sketching.

Suzzallo Library

While attending the U, I never studied in this hall.

I have always enjoyed it's Hogwartsesque feel tho.

Suzzallo Library, UW Campus sketch crawl

Frank Ching sketching by the Broken Obelisk in front of Suzzallo Library,

With a half hour to spare in Red Square before the sketch crawl and sunshine at last, I spotted an urban sketcher in front of the Broken Obelisk. I sketched Frank quickly knowing he was sketching on the move. I sat on my ensolite pad in the cold to finish the architectural "hints" of Suzzallo (my challenge). I chose this composition because of the unique field marks for location as well as urban sketching in the raw. The biggest challenge, besides the cold, was choosing accurate shades of watercolor with my photo gray lenses in the extremely bright sunshine!

Suzzallo Library

1/20/13 fountain pen, watercolor

Heading out for the University of Washington’s Suzzallo Library to meet the Seattle Urban Sketchers, I grabbed my 8 ½” x 11” sketchbook, twice as big as my usual format, because I figured the library’s grand Gothic architecture demanded a larger page. I was glad I did. I needed the space to allow this spectacular window to more fully kick my butt.

1/20/13 fountain pen

After that, I was so exhausted that I needed a nap. Instead, I retreated to the library’s café and got a cup of coffee so that I could sketch in my comfort zone. 

38TH SKETCHCRAWL SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, WASHINGTON DC

During the world wide 38th SketchCrawl I decided to sketch The Smithsonian Institution (The Castle), it is a very interesting building to sketch. There are many interesting details and spaces to explore. It is very different compare to the other Classical style white color buildings around the mall in Washington DC. Specially the red sandstone colors and the late Romanesque and early Gothic motifs that it has. It was a very nice sunny day with a lot of people 2 days before the Presidential Inauguration. It took me 3hrs enjoying the sun and listening to the people walking by.

Trove Vintage Boutique

I happened on this three-month old boutique in Ballard, on Market Ave. I got there when they opened and finished around 1:00, just as it was getting crowded and I began to worry that I was in the way. There's nowhere for me to sit that isn't blocking something that someone wants to look at, but customers are surprised to see me squatting there and they step away, even though I could see their trajectory was toward something just beside me. It's always interesting to watch people moving the things I'm trying to draw. They often touch things just enough to change their position in the drawing, but don't actually pick anything up. I wonder about the psychology of shopping where people feel the need to caress and fondle things they don't intend to buy. It's like a petting zoo of inanimate objects.

Another account of the 38th Worldwide Sketchcrawl

Tina organized us to meet for the Worldwide Sketchcrawl. I first sketched inside Third Place Books.  This is a small section called "The Den" which showcases some rare books.


Then I went downstairs to sketch the branch of King County Library.  The bank of computers look out the curved window onto the rest of the shopping center.


After a couple hours of sketching, we met up to share our work.  Two had to leave early, so are not pictured here.


It was a good day.  Thanks, Tina!  Onward to more sketching tomorrow!

Tango @ Third Place Commons

It's amazing that even in a Lake Forest food court on a cold gray Saturday afternoon a tango can still be dramatic! Fun to have our group there. Ink, watercolor and (of course) some found paper.

Honeybear Bakery at the Sketchcrawl

Yes, the gathering at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park brought out 7-8 of Seattle's Urban Sketchers.  When I saw the bear standing in the bakery, I knew I had to try to paint him.  Then I realized that two other bears were under the serving table.  Back in the late 1990's, I often visited the original bakery on NE 56th St. in Seattle's Greenlake area, now called "Tangletown" neighborhood.  My treat was their special panettone, baked only on Thursdays and Fridays!

38th Worldwide SketchCrawl: Third Place Commons

Kuretake fountain brush pen, Zig marker, Stillman & Birn sketchbook

Seattle Urban Sketchers made a bigger-than-expected showing at the 38^th Worldwide SketchCrawl today at Lake Forest Park’s Third Place Commons. I had suggested this location because a free community tango lesson was promised at the center stage, and I thought it would be a great opportunity for gestural sketches of lots of figures in motion. Unfortunately, only one community member came forward for a lesson, so there weren’t as many figures or as much motion as I’d hoped for. I had to settle for a few scribbles of one of the instructors during the demo.

fountain pen, Diamine Eclipse ink, Stillman & Birn sketchbook

Tango dancers notwithstanding, there were plenty of other people to sketch throughout the complex. 

fountain pen, Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Stillman & Birn sketchbook

The Fraternal Urban Castle

I sketched this of my friend Patrick's living room while he was packing for his Engineers without Borders trip to Nicaragua. The place, which is located in the Seattle central area and is otherwise known as the "Fraternal Urban Castle," has an always changing array of curious objects including rubber ducks, the nameplate from a boat he used to own, sound gadgets, light fixtures, and costume stuff. On this particular night, he also had piles of first aid stuff, tape measures, flashlights, a portable shovel, and objects I couldn't quite identify that were used for some or other sort of measurement or water purification or other task associated with his trip. I did this in about an hour or so and my biggest challenges were figuring out what I was drawing as I moved from object to object and capturing the complicated shadows that were cast psychedelically throughout the room.