Swanson's, Roy Street, and Seattle Sound Repair.

As usual, I was drawn to this neglected pile of nursery clutter. I know I can't improve on the beauty of flowers, but maybe I can give this sad little corner of the nursery some attention and respect.










I met with the gang for the show-and-tell, but had to run to get to my location drawing class at Gage Academy. Five brave students and I met at Roy Street Coffee on Capitol Hill to sketch inside the dark and crowded coffee shop. I wish I could post their drawings here as well because they were terrific.

I've been recording my experiences from my Improv class in comic form. Those daily graphic-novel style pages are my focus right now, though the audience is completely different than my USk friends. To cross-over, I tried to apply some of those more high-contrast graphic techniques at Roy Street. It's quicker than the ink washes I've come to rely on:

I discovered Seattle Sound Repair while walking by the store front on Stone Way. I complimented Marie on the beautiful clutter and set up a drawing time, but when I arrived, she had "helpfully" cleaned everything up! Not to be deterred from drawing chaos, I swiveled my chair to draw parts of the shop she hadn't thought to tidy. If you look closely, you might see owner Marie herself in one of these drawings.

Sketching Weekend

 October has been such a wet month that when last Saturday's weather was dry and sunny, I decided to go to Fremont and sketch.  I have been by the old Carnegie Library a number of times, but always with others that precluded stopping and spending time needed to do the library justice.  The fall colors were an added bonus and the small park on the west side allowed a clear view of the side of the reading room.  For a second sketch, I moved up to the front entrance on the north side.  All the architectural details around the entrance and the rich colors of the roof and landscaping create an interesting composition.  

These two drawings will be donated to the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation's annual fundraising event in December.  This non-profit is located in the Stimson Green Mansion on First Hill and they work diligently in the preservation of architectural gems for the public and future generations. 

The next day was our monthly sketch outing and so I headed to Greenlake Village to draw another couple of sketches over the weekend.  I spent my time on two grand old buildings from earlier in the the 20th century.  The 1921 Great Hall building and the 1922 Greenlake Lodge Masonic Temple.  They sit a block from one another and have been active meeting spaces for almost 100 years.

I love this part of urban sketching where you go to a neighborhood, where you have been before. As you look around for something to sketch, you discover a gem or two.  And sometimes you don't realize that fact until you really look at your subject for a while as you are trying to capture the image.

I wasn't able to share with the rest of the group at the share time later (I had a Sounders soccer game to attend) so this is my time to share with others.  They won too to get into the MLS play-offs!

It was a great weekend doing the things I love.

Swanson's in the Sun

We enjoyed an unusually warm and sunny day at our autumn outing to Swanson's Nursery.  

There were so many interesting displays and so much rich, fall color.  Though it wasn't really an autumn display, I was fascinated by the topiary dinosaurs. "Our new Apatosaurus comes form the design work of Diane Hansen".  It's name is Humphrey.  The metal framework was built by Joe Acreee.


(Arches paper; Lamy EF fountain pen with Platinum Carbon Black ink; Daniel Smith watercolor).

As usual, I had enough time left for a quick secondary sketch.  This was my favorite in the Scarecrow contest.  The "magazine" is a bit of photo collage.  It is titled  Gardening for Scarecrows and contains articles "Crows: Friend or Foe?"; "Scaring crows for fun and profit"; "To Care or Not to Scare";  "How to be outstanding in your field". Groan.



(Strathmore Series 500 Mixed Media paper; Lamy EF fountain pen with Platinum Carbon Black ink; Daniel Smith watercolor)





Steve Reddy is missing from this group photo as he had to leave early to teach his class at Gage!  The dachshund, Hairy Truman, even joined our photo.

More photos:
https://redharp.smugmug.com/SketchOutings/2016-1028-Swansons-Nursery/

Goats Instead of Deer and Camel

10/28/16 Swansons Nursery

Swansons Nursery has been a favorite location for the Friday sketchers for several years now. A mainstay during the holidays when it brings in reindeer, camel and Santa, Swansons was also fun last spring. Now we have a new season to add to our Swansons lineup: Halloween! Decked out in plenty of pumpkins and fall décor, the north Seattle plant nursery also has adorable Nigerian dwarf goats and a hay maze.

10/28/16 Nigerian dwarf goats

At the beginning of the meetup, I went over to the goat pen first and had it nearly to myself. I took advantage of the relative quiet to do several studies of Tootsie Roll, Buttermilk Pancakes and tiny Mega Man.

Eventually the toddler set took over, so I moved out to Swansons’ main outdoor retail area. Sunshine broke through the overcast sky, and it was warm enough to eventually take my jacket off as I sketched the dinosaur topiary and surrounding greenery. (When we go back in December, I’m guessing we won’t be as lucky, weather-wise.)

When I went into the café for a break, a toddler at the next table caught my eye. If I thought the constantly moving dwarf goats were a challenge to sketch, they couldn’t hold a candle to this little guy, who gave me about 5 seconds to catch this pose.

Green Lake on a Sunday

A couple of dozens urban sketchers descended upon Green Lake yesterday on a mild Sunday morning. The beautiful autumn colors in full bloom are truly a feast for the eyes. With a cup of mocha in hand, I sat at the corner of East Green Lake Dr and NE 72^nd and sketched the lively scene.

Rows of maple trees creates a nice one point perspective with Green Lake Arch framed nicely on the center. 

I sat on the pier across from the boathouse and quickly capture one corner of the park lined with trees and activated by joggers, bikers and strollers alike.

Then, I did the unthinkable and pulled out my Windsor & Newton Sketchers Pocket Set that I haven't used since my graduate school years 14 years ago! I am never comfortable with watercolor and it is my goal to get over this by doing at least one watercolor sketch a month. We'll see where this goes.

Green Lake Street Scene

Even though I initially drew the Green Lake Branch Library, as several others did yesterday during our meet up at Green Lake Village, I'm posting here the second drawing I did as I was walking back to the PCC meeting place. I'm not exactly sure why, but this structure of NE 72nd Street and 5th Avenue NE just caught my eye.

Green Lake Sketches - Worth the Wait

Even if last week's storm was a bit of a dud, I think it was worth postponing our monthly meet for a week. There will be plenty of time to sketch indoors during the drizzle this winter, so yesterday's sunshine was was a lovely gift!
As often happens for me in a new neighborhood, I had a hard time settling on one scene. I wandered about and ended up with three smaller sketches, each maybe 20-30 minutes? It was really a problem of too many choices as Green Lake has so many of the things I like to sketch - gnarly old trees in the park, narrow alleyways between buildings and an abundance of coffee shops!

Greenlake and Maple Festival at the Arboretum Japanese Garden

Double sketch day today --Urban Sketcher outing in the morning and the Arboretum Japanese Garden Maple Festival in the afternoon. I've spent a good amount of my life at Greenlake and the Arboretum but this is the first time I have done a sketch at either location. In my 20s I used to roller skate around Greenlake, in my 30s I pushed a baby stroller, and in the last 10 or so years I have probably run around that lake over 4000 times...It was nice to stop and sit for a change to watch some of the last remaining red leaves fall. The Arboretum Japanese garden is on mile 21 of the Seattle marathon route...I run by every year but have only gone inside maybe one other time. Today my daughter wanted to do a photo shoot there and we discovered that today was Maple Viewing Festival. The garden was full of tourists speaking other languages...I think someone forgot to tell the Seattleites what was going on there today ...tea was being passed out, family photos, lovers on the benches, some giant goldfish, a little turtle, and a lone Blue Heron. 

GreenLake in Autumn.

I was listening to a local weather blog the day before our outing and they mentioned that October has had about double its normal rainfall so far.  Given the lashing we took from rain and wind during our previous outing last weekend getting a day like this was just delightful.  Hard to beat a Sunday, with some warmth in the air and a mix of sun and autumn clouds, and a calm day to boot!  Pretty nice.

I keep trying hard to improve my skills drawing people, which is good since it is very difficult to do a sketch at Greenlake and not have tons of people in it.  Even a grungy day here finds lots of folks exercising in some fashion along the lake's Trail.   I did manage to get one view of the lake without people in it but I was stuck when I started looking for my next sketch.  People everywhere.

I was fortunate to have a young couple with their newborn and dog hang around near me for a while which was fun.  No telling how many photos they took, but they kept swapping positions so they could get shots of the baby with the lake in the background.  

A little girl in a polka dot dress came up to the dog and kept pointing to him and making little girl doggie noises.   There were some ducks in the water nearby though and the dog was having none of this little girls attention.  He was watching the ducks intently and only moved again when his owners finally left.

It was interesting to compare notes with everyone after.   I had commented that the colors seemed to be muted this year and I heard a lot of agreement.  Not sure why.  And the leaves that are left wont be around too much longer.  Still, bright color or muted color, I dearly love fall and the rains and clouds and sun and calm that we get while we wait for winter to settle in fully.  It is a great time of year.

Greenlake Brick

We can thank the gods of autumn for staving off the rains this weekend. After postponing our Monthly outing due to last week's great storm that wasn't, today Greenlake was ablaze in gold as the autumn sunshine lent us it 's golden glow. The blue skies completed the color wheel making everything even more vivid. The summer umbrellas at Greenlake Grill were mostly folded, only one remained open to lend shade to adventurous diners. 

The Great Hall at Green lake sits on the corner of Maple Leaf and Woodlawn. I couldn't find much history but it now serves as a venue for meetings and weddings. I first spotted it last summer when my brother gave me a walking tour of the campus of Billings Middle School which is just across the street. These trees lost their leaves early, making it look more like the middle of winter.  

Greenlake Library

Tina had suggested the Carnagie library in Greenlake and that was my chosen subject during our sketch outing today.   Frank C. was sketching in front of me so I put him in the sketch.



The historic branch is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been named a landmark building by Seattle's Landmarks Preservation Board. It was designed by W. Marbury Somervell and Joseph S. Coté and opened in July 1910.

And, well, that was a first!  While I was sketching, a bird pooped on my sketch board!  I was sitting under a tree, though.  Fortunately, it missed me, my sketch and my palette.  But, ugh! "Atmospheric" indeed.

It was such a nice, sunny day that we shared our sketches on the plaza of PCC.  Then had our group photo in the sun.



There seem to be one or two sketchers missing from the group photo. 

A few more photos here:  https://redharp.smugmug.com/SketchOutings/2016-1023-Greenlake-Village/

Green Lake Through Fresh Eyes

10/23/16 Green Lake Park

I’ve lived near Green Lake for almost 30 years, walked around it at least weekly year-round, and sketched there more often than at any other park (164 results came up in my Flickr photostream search of “Green Lake”). When I see the same things day after day, they sometimes become invisible. That’s what made this morning’s Urban Sketchers outing in the Green Lake neighborhood especially rich for me: I had the opportunity to see very familiar places and things through other sketchers’ eyes, and they became fresh for me again.

10/23/16 Woodlawn Ave. NE

For my own sketches, I seemed to have been in a tree mood. Suzanne and I both set our stools down near Starbucks facing the two rows of magnificent old trees leading from the street to the community center. I’ve sketched those trees many times, but I never tire of them. This time I chose an angle with the playfield behind them.

After that I walked to the street next to the La Escuelita Bilingual School, where the cherry trees had lost most of their leaves. I was tempted to give them more color, but I am ever “truthful to the scenes I witness” (maybe to a fault).

I forgot to take a photo of our sketchbook throwdown, but at least a couple dozen sketchers must have made it today. We lucked out with mild weather and even sunshine by noon!

Sunday sketch outing

Sunday Oct 23
Green Lake

10:00 am - 12:30 pm

Autumn colors should be in full bloom at the lake. Up on the north side the neighborhood bursts with new businesses and old buildings. The Green Lake branch of Seattle Public Library has stark contrasts and arched windows. Poke around and I'm sure you'll find something that suits your fancy. 

If you want to sketch the Green Lake (Carnegie) library but it’s raining, there’s a handy bus shelter directly across the street where you can stay completely dry. 

Meet in front of PCC  

Greenlake Village

450 N.E. 71st St. 
Seattle, WA 98115 

See monthly outing page for additional details about this location. 

What a Difference!

What a difference another park & ride makes!  Normally on a weekday at Tukwila Light Rail station's park & ride there are no parking spots if I'm not there between 0700-0730.  About a month ago the new Angle Lake station opened to the south of Sea Tac, making it the furthest south.  It includes 1,120 park-and-ride spaces.

Today I tested the effect of those additional spaces.  And. Wow!  At 0830, there were still more than a couple dozen spots at Tukwila!  Even when I returned at 0930, there were still nearly that many!  This will shorten my commute into Seattle for sketch outings and other activities as I won't have to park further away and take a bus. 

I rode down to Angle Lake to add another sketch in my series on the art at the light rail stations.  As I approached, I could see the massive multi story parking structure to the west of the tracks.  And I could see a few empty spaces there, too.


Each light rail station has at least one, and usually more, pieces of art installed.  I'm slowly working on a series to sketch them all.


The pictogram in the upper right corner is a bit of collage collected from the Metro website.  Each station has it's own pictogram and I will be including them as I complete more sketches. 

From the wiki:  "Laura Haddad's 'Cloud' is the station's most prominent feature and is suspended over the elevated platform as it crosses South 200th Street. The 48-foot-long (15 m), 26-foot-high (7.9 m) sculpture consists of 6,000 small colored acrylic disks that reflect sunlight in ways dependent on variations in light, weather or an approaching train; at night, the disks are illuminated with LED floodlights that fade from orange to blue as trains approach the station. Haddid describes her sculpture as a "community landmark" and "sculptural barometer of local weather"

I didn't sketch the other art:  "Jill Anholt's 'Immerse' is embedded in the plaza's grand staircase and consists of four "delicate arcs" made of curved steel and tubing that connect the garage and station. Anholt's piece uses the arcs to filter light onto the parking area and 'celebrates the process of falling rain'"

Columbia City's PCC Natural Market

Last Friday morning the weather was so rainy and blustery, as soon as I began walking from Light Rail's Columbia City stop to the middle of the neighborhood's business district, I thought about turning around and catching the next train back to downtown Seattle. But I took refuge in the new PCC market and enjoyed a cup of coffee while drawing this view of the deli section.

Columbia City on Oct 14

Although our weather wasn't quite as wild as forecast it was still wet and wooly Friday for our outing to Columbia City. About 6 of us showed up and we hid under awnings or in cafes  and restaurants to do our sketches.   I was pretty bundled up and stayed outside sketching along the sidewalks until the rain got to be too much and I sought refuge in a coffee shop and did my last sketch inside.   A few cups of coffee did nothing for my hand steadiness unfortunately.  It was a fun day though.  The temp was mild and the dark sky and mix of green and colored leaves in the town was a nice contrast with the wet streets and sidewalks.  I really haven't spent much time in Columbia City but it was a nice, compact, low key downtown with a variety of good eateries and shops.  It had a pleasant comfortable feel.  Easy to see why it is becoming more popular over time.

I got curious about the Columbia City Theatre, but just as I was finishing my sketch and was looking up to look at the playbills posted in the windows the rains came down in earnest and I ran for it.  I did look up their schedule after I got home and it looks like they have a pretty wide variety of live music and plays and small musicals.  Plus they have the Bourbon Bar next door and apparently open through the stage seating.   Looks like a fun venue.   I have always loved small venues like this.  They can be great fun and a wonderful source of community pride!

 I had fun prowling around the puddles by the Columbia Family Health Center.   There were some trees nearby beginning to get some yellows and oranges on them as well as dropping leaves onto the sidewalk and brick road margin.   This was an interesting construction.   They had a nice decent sized concrete sidewalk along the sides of the buildings, and then a curb, and then a brick paved road margin that had trees and lampposts in it, and beyond that the actual roadway.  It was a nice setup and gave pedestrians plenty of room with lots of space for the shade trees and cars.  

Looks like a fun little community to go back and explore in more.

When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Go Sketching

10/14/16 Columbia City PCC salad bar

10/14/16 Frank sketching at PCC

Despite high-wind warnings and other predictions of a storm that could rank among the five worst storms in Western Washington history, seven hardy sketchers met in Columbia City – and several of them even sketched outdoors!

Not me – I retreated to PCC’s café, where I sketched the salad bar. Shortly after I arrived, Frank Ching came in, so I sketched him. When we shared sketches over lunch, I was impressed by those who sheltered under awnings and in doorways – at least until the rain started pouring sideways – to capture the neighborhood.

The worst of the storm is not supposed to hit until tomorrow afternoon, when I intend to be safely bundled up at home, flashlights and candles at the ready. Hope the rest of you locals are all safely indoors by then, too! 

Hardy sketchers!

Hello everyone! And a bit on our last outing to the Gates Foundation!

Hi everyone!  My name is Dave Somers and the Seattle Urban Sketchers recently invited me to participate as a Correspondent as well as a sketcher!   I am looking forward to this as a way to keep me sketching, perhaps even more than I have been, and to do more digging about the places we visit on our outings.

I moved here to Seattle from Hawaii for work about 6 years ago and my wife, Casey, joined me a few years later after leaving her position in California.  We live in West Seattle now and love the area, though we knew we would.  Seattle, and West Seattle in particular, has been a second home for us in terms of long time friends and our love of ocean and mountains.  We plan on being here a long while.  And since I am retired from the National Park Service now I can focus a lot on my hobbies, including Sketching!

I started sketching less than a year ago.  I took an adult ed drawing class at South Seattle Community College so I could better jot down ideas for another serious hobby I have, turning wood on a wood lathe.  I hoped that some sketching skills would help me draw better ideas that I could actually make sense of a year or two later.   In the process I met Darsie Beck, a Tacoma Urban Sketcher. He suggested I look up the Seattle Urban Sketchers as a way to build my skills and meet some fun people in the process.   I did that and am hooked now, both on the sketching and the folks in the Sketchers!!  I have been trying hard to make every outing I possibly can since starting with the group last Spring and now heading into Autumn.

This last Saturday, Oct 8, the Sketchers were invited by WSU to join up with one of their Architect Classes that was traveling down to Seattle to spend some time sketching at the Olympic Sculpture Park.   We got "weathered out" though and ended up sketching at the Gates Foundation Visitor Center near the EMP or Experience Music Project.   It turned out there was a large group of students and a few instructors, plus YungChing Hung and Stephanie Bower from the Seattle Sketchers.

I had been in the Gates Foundation VC a number of times, but this was all before I started sketching.  I was focused on the exhibits of their numerous projects and ideas, and enjoying the feel of the space, but didn't really pay attention to the interior otherwise.   This time though, with sketch pad in hand I started noticing.  It was an interesting place to sketch.  Perspective lines running everywhere, subtle color changes and contrasts, and lots of people.  Sketching people is not a strong point of mine and there was a herd.   Ohh boy.

It was fun though.  I tackled an interesting corridor along the outside wall of the building and had fun with that.  I should add at this point that the floor actually did have bare footprints burned into it.  I am not sure if they had a wild day with a firewalking ceremony or if this was an artistic embellishment.  I didn't see a description of it and will have to go back and dig a bit to find out the significance of these foot prints.

Stephanie was fun to watch sketch.  I took her Craftsy class so I had seen her sketching in that context, but to see it happening in person was a kick.  Even more amusing though was the fact that seemingly all of the WSU students knew her from a class she did for them a few years ago.  They all remembered her and the class quite well and very fondly and were delighted to see her again.  She got mobbed a few times which was pretty fun to see.  

The class got together at the end of the session to share their efforts, much like we do.   It was clear that they had been at this awhile and were getting quite accomplished.  It would be interesting to try and start an Urban Sketchers group up there with these folks as their core.  I have a feeling it would be a popular and active group.

I am off to listen to the rain falling with a cup of tea in hand!  Thanks again for asking me to participate as a Correspondent everyone!  Will do my best to participate fully!!  Hopefully I will see you at the next outing with raincoat and rainpants in hand if the latest weather reports are accurate!

Dave

Color at Coulon

After a slow start to the day, I had some errands to do about noon.  Once home, I decided to go out again, this time with my sketch kit.  It was a beautiful day:  not a cloud in the sky and 65 degrees.  It was a Pperfect NW autumn day.

Gene Coulon Memorial Beach Park is well known locally for the vibrant maple trees that line the street.  That was my destination as I wanted to sketch the trees again.There were so many people there, taking photos of the trees and also making family portraits with the trees as glorious background.

Sidetracked by Color

10/10/16 Greenwood neighborhood

Driving through the Greenwood neighborhood yesterday afternoon, I was actually heading for my favorite traffic circle to see if our recent heavy rain had taken down the maple leaves. But I never made it that far, because I took a turn onto a street I don’t usually take – and stopped dead in my tracks. Though mostly bald on top, these two maples still blazed with color, going out with a big bang.

A similar sidetracking happened today, when I was walking across the University of Washington campus. I was on my way to the Quad, which is one of my favorite places to sketch during cherry blossom season. (It turned out the cherries were disappointing – mostly green but turning straight to brown instead of yellow and orange first.) On my way back to the car, I passed Paccar Hall, where a yellow tree (wish I knew what kind it is) was afire in the high sun. I went up to Paccar’s third floor terrace to sketch it.

We are having the most amazing autumn this year, aren't we?

10/11/16 UW campus