Friday Ad Hoc January 8

Top Pot Doughnuts on Alki Beach
2758 Alki Ave SW, Seattle, WA 98116

http://www.toppotdoughnuts.com/
Get directions to the West Seattle location on Alki

Meet inside at 10am. 

There is a Starbucks next door and other establishments where we could spread out if we like.

See the Ad Hoc page for our tentative plan for the next few weeks.

Once more at Swanson's

This was an anniversary sketch outing.  It was December 2012 that we first starting meeting on Fridays.  This is the 4th December we've done a holiday sketch outing.  The first time we went to the Gingerbread Village and the Teddy Bear suite.  The next two years we went to the Gingerbread Village and then last year we also went to Swanson's.  This year we decided, after last year's experience, it was just too crowded on Friday mornings at the Gingerbread Village.  For this year and next and perhaps beyond, Swanson's will be our holiday outing.

Many people sketched the reindeer and the camel.



Our two visiting sketchers, sketching the reindeer:  Gretchen (from WI) and Allie (from Portland).  Gretchen had sketched with us here at Swanson's last year, too.

I did not sketch the live animals this year.  My first sketch was the topiary moss reindeer and the decorated entrance.  It was chilly but I was under cover, at least.  I had also come prepared with three layers plus my light raincoat!



I was happy to move indoors to the relative warmth of the display green house.  I sketched a display there.



We shared sketches in the cafe....



but it was so crowded we moved outside for the group photo



During lunch, we learned that Peggy (second from right, in back, in purple) had been the subject of one of Gabi's Seattle Times columns, back in May 2012!  She is the woman who walked all the streets in Seattle.  And now she's joining us as a sketcher!

Swanson’s Nursery and Record-Breaking Santa

12/18/15 Season's Cafe inside Swanson's Nursery

12/18/15 Blitzen

Spreading out our sketchbooks to share this afternoon, I remarked to some of the other Friday sketchers that an innocent viewer looking at our sketches would be hard-pressed to guess where we were. Reindeer? Diners in a café with huge ferns and palms? A camel? A koi pond? Santa? A troll? Not to mention model trains (which I never even got to today). Swanson’s Nursery has something for everyone, and that’s why Urban Sketchers Seattle has returned there every holiday season.

As I have in the past, I began the morning outside with Blitzen and Dasher, the two reindeer who take up residence at Swanson’s for the holiday season each year, and their buddy Curley, the camel. Although I’ve sketched all three of them every year (see 2014, 2013 and 2012), I still struggle with getting the scale of the reindeers’ antlers right. They are so enormous that I sometimes end up sketching them right off the page.

By the time I finished them, I was chilled to the bone, so I went into the café to warm up. Even without the eggnog latte, I would have been warmed by the café’s tall palm fronds and other tropical plants that evoke a sunny climate.

12/18/15 Curley, Blitzen and Dasher

All of that alone would have made for a perfectly fun sketch outing. What could have possibly improved on it? Santa! As I was finishing up my café sketch, I heard him ho-ho-ho-ing as he made his way to his photo station. A short time later, I followed him in. Unlike at the malls, Santa’s station at Swanson’s was set up with chairs for viewers, so I had a comfy seat as I chatted with “Santa Sean,” who wasn’t too busy yet. (He told me stories about his many clients – witty ones as well as eardrum-shattering screamers.) As usual, I sketched most of Santa first, leaving space on his lap for his next customer. You can imagine how delighted I was when the client turned out to have four legs – a Labrador pup named Zuzu (no, his ear wasn’t really pink – that was my colored pencil smearing). A double score, I’d say!

Every holiday season, I try to sketch as many Santas as possible, and my personal best has been three. Today’s was a record-breaking fourth Santa for the season! (I’m going to have a hard time besting myself next year.)

12/18/15 Blizten with Curley in the background

12/18/15 Santa and Zuzu

Seattle Central Library Living Room

During last Sunday's meet up at the Seattle Central Library, I spend most of the time in the main open space—the Norcliffe Foundation Living Room—drawing these two views. The main difficulties are trying to capture the scale of the space as well as conveying its volume in three dimensions.

Two for One!

I thought I would be so efficient today, combining an early morning trip to see the Star Wars Gingerbread Village and the Noon time meeting for the Seattle Urban Sketchers' outing at the Central Library.

Little did I know that the 5k Jinglebell run was happening in the area of the Sheraton hotel, host to the Gingerbread extravaganza.  Just as I approached the hotel about 0815, the first runner crossed the finish line!

I did get in ahead of them and got a full circle with lots of photos. All 6 of the villages were fantastic!  It is such creativity and artistry in sugar spread out before us.  Even a "Han in Carbonite" in sugar. And Yoda teaching the Jedi Younglings!

By the time I was ready to set up for sketching, the hordes of runners were beginning to enter.  I stood outside the ropes and sketched as best I could while the throngs walked by.  My first choice was the Gingerbread sand crawler with Jawas as I have a friend who is partial to Jawas.   I'd hoped to do more, but it became just too crowded.



By then it was 1000 and I still had 2 hours before the meeting time for the sketch outing.  I thought the 3 story lobby of the Fairmont Olympic hotel would be a calm place to wait, not to mention beautifully decorated for Christmas.  I sketched more of the lobby than I have attempted in the past.



Then it was finally time to get on to the Library to meet the group.  I've sketched there a few times before, so I thought I'd try something new.  I went to the children's' area and sketched the interesting sculptures hanging from the walls.  The first is Paul Bunyan's companion, Babe, the Big Blue Ox.  There are massive statues of both in the northern part of Michigan, my home state.  Of course, there are many others spread across the USA.



Next was this flamboyant red bird.  It looks part phoenix and part peacock.



We met up just a bit early, at 1400.  As far as I know, only Frank Ching is missing from the group photo. But he made it into the sharing sketches photo.

December Sunday Sketch Outing

Central Public Library
Sunday, December 13 
Meet at Noon (due to library hours)

1000 4th Avenue  Seattle, WA 98101-2350
Meet at the 4th Avenue entrance.

It's beginning to look a lot like.....

Christmas at the mall.   Outside, it's beginning to seem like we might need to build an ark soon.  I braved the deluge to go to Southcenter Mall to sketch.  It just so happens that this week's Urban Sketchers flickr them is "shopping centers". 

I'd not gone out to sketch in a week.  I really felt the need and I'd not yet done any Santa sketching.  I would like to know whether Puget Sound area has any unusual Santas..... such as Portland's hipster Santa or Toronto's Fashion Santa!  But this was a regular Santa. 

I first drew the back side of the Santa village



Then I stood to draw Santa's area.  I spoke with him a little. He asked one of the elves to invite me to show him what I was doing and then he showed me an image of an excellent charcoal sketch someone had done of him.  



I noticed this on my way through and stopped to sketch the  Santa Cow on my way back to the car.  The counter staff told me this one's name is "Woody". 





with a bit of photo collage for the B&J sign. 

Urban Sketching at Drawing Jam

12/5/15 Skinner Auditorium filled with models and artists.

If you like to sketch people in action as much as I do, Gage’s Drawing Jam is a sketcher’s paradise! Even if you never enter any of the multiple studios filled with clothed, unclothed and wildly costumed models, lots and lots of people are available to draw – whether they know it or not. For the second year, Urban Sketchers Seattle used the Jam as an opportunity for a meetup, and what an opportunity it was!

12/5/15 John Rizzotto giving a still-life demo

After having a ball all morning in my favorite costumed model studio, my intention was to go back in there after the sketchbook sharing and lunch in the auditorium. Somehow, though, I never made it back, because the auditorium was filled with so many other people to draw. Of course, I did fill several pages of my sketchbook with one-minute sketches of models posing on the scaffolding set up for that purpose. But when I tired of that, I sketched the other artists, the musicians that changed out every hour (you might recognize some of them from last year’s sketches), and even a Gage instructor who was giving a still life demo. I didn’t even have to move my chair – I could just swivel around 90 or 180 degrees and sketch whatever I spotted in another direction. 

12/5/15 Tangletown String Band

12/5/15 Parnassus Project cellist

12/5/15 percussionist for Ask Sophie

12/5/15

12/5/15

Michele (fourth from back) shivers in the rain as we wait to bust the doors down at Gage!

I spotted at least two other urban sketchers at the Jam who didn't make it into
our group selfie!

A Toast to Gage Academy's Drawing Jam!

I had a blast today at Gage Academy's Annual Drawing Jam. Thank you, Gage and sponsors for the free art supplies, models and music! Here's a photo Tina took of our ad hoc group of Seattle Urban Sketchers.

Although I was aware of the event before, this was the first time I actually attended. Each year, the Academy opens up its doors to the community to provide models, live music, open studios and art activities for the whole family – plus, there were two gourmet food-trucks today, courtesy of Off the Rez and Wicked Pies!

I brought my Aquash water brush and Lamy fountain pen, with water soluble Lamy ink. I had a new Fabriano soft cover notebook that I was anxious to try while working on figures or character studies.  I ended up drawing my fellow artists, all unaware, as they focused on the live models. There were Disney characters, pirates, medieval tableaux, Hawaiian dancers, and more! (I am not posting any sketches of posed models here, since that is not part of the Urban Sketchers' manifesto.)

My sketches. I also sketched "Princess Leia" and "Thor" (not shown)

According to Gage's website: 
Drawing Jam features a cast of over 50 models throughout the building – including dancers, musicians and costumed performers serving as gesture models, as well as nude figure models available for traditional sessions.
Costumed models include The SeaFair Pirates, Fox Chalker, Comic Book Characters for Causes, Nikita Breznikov, Noah Duffy, The Goddess Kring and more!

 

On the first floor of the main building, you walk straight ahead down the hall and turn in at the last room on the right. It's a room packed FULL of kids, with instructors and volunteers making sure they had sticks, clay and whatever else was needed to sculpt their small masterpieces!

So much to see! So much from which to choose! The dilemma is not what to draw, but what to sacrifice because of the time allotted. The Academy was open from 9am to 6pm. I lasted until a bit after 3pm. Tina posted a picture of me waiting in line at 8:30am.

What to do? Draw from the plaster casts, sketch medieval characters while listening to music, watch John Rizzotto demo a still life?

After rising at 6:30 am, driving for an hour, traipsing up and down three double flights of stairs and sloshing back and forth in the rain between the main building and Skinner Auditorium, I had to say "Enough!". (Anyone who knows me can tell you that I seldom sit while sketching, so I only got a total of about 20 minutes chair time during lunch. It really felt good to have a seat while driving the hour back home!)

I wouldn't have missed it for the world!

Pizza, Ceasar Salad, Tacos, Burgers and Indian Fry Bread--Yummy and Hot!

They were out there, playing a rousing rendition of hava nagila in the rain.

Lake Quinault

For our anniversary I decided to surprise my husband with an overnight at Lake Quinault Lodge on the Olympic Peninsula. He'd recently told me he wanted to ease into hiking again and the rain forest seemed like a good place to start. 

We took the long way from Olympia, forgoing 101 for a winding, yet more interesting route and arrived just in time for lunch at the lodge. After an adventurous hike in the hills and along the lake trail that was washed out and strewn with icy logs, the communal lodge complete with a warm fire and leather couches seemed the most inviting place to do some homework from Stephanie Bower's Craftsy class, Perspective for Sketchers

The next morning I found a patch of sunlight where I could sit before the sun slid behind the hill and the grass started growing frost. The lodge is old and spacious, built in 1926, after the first had burnt down. Historic photos line the walls telling the story of its development. The workers, and, I imagine, their bosses, were quite industrious, finishing the building in 62 days!