Autumn

 Ahhh, it's finally Autumn.  I do not like what has become our long, hot, dry summer.  With the equinox today, I was eager to find some fall colors.  The trees in my area haven't quite turned yet.  

Yesterday I went looking for pumpkins and found a very nice display at my local hardware store.  

I also met the display designer, who is a multi-faceted artist.  I enjoyed seeing photos of his work in so many media: paint, jewelry, fiber, paper, etc. 

Today I went to my favorite local garden: Soos Creek Botanical in Auburn.  I didn't even get out of the parking lot area before I plopped down to sketch the very tall sunflowers. 

There were also many flowers still in bloom. It started to sprinkle just as I finished so I didn't do another sketch.  I might go back tomorrow to sketch them. 

Effort and Surrender: My 10th Year

9/25/11 Orcas Island (my first-ever urban sketch)

My yoga instructor talks about effort and surrender. To practice yoga, our bodies must put forth effort, but then we surrender to the pose and let go of the outcome. This is a difficult concept for Westerners to practice because we are such a goal-oriented culture: the bottom line, the finish line, no pain/no gain.

9/27/12 Roosevelt neighborhood

Without consciously being aware of effort and surrender, I think I have always tried to approach my drawing practice in the same way as yoga: putting forth the effort, but letting go of the outcome. Of course, I always want my sketches to be as good as they can be, and I challenge myself to make the effort that will bring that result. But when I let go of the product as if it were a goal, I’m happier. It’s much easier to simply turn the page and make the next sketch.

9/20/13 Bozeman, MT

Ten years ago today, I took the first step on what I now believe will be my lifelong journey. For most of my adult life, I had wanted to learn to draw, and I wanted to draw well. Inspired by books, classes or the art of others, I would make a start, but after a while, I would stop. I repeated this cycle many times. Learning to draw is not easy, and when the results were not what I wanted them to be, it was discouraging. When I began to draw again on Sept. 21, 2011, it might have ended as yet another short-lived attempt to “learn to draw,” but this time I kept going. And I’ve been drawing ever since, every day.

9/27/14 Pike Place Market, Seattle

I didn’t know it at the time, but I think one thing helped me to keep drawing: I had discovered urban sketching, which is less about the act of drawing and more about telling the visual stories of our lives. The finished sketch might be a goal, but the story it tells is much larger than the sketchbook page. I was motivated to keep telling my stories, no matter how small or mundane. Urban sketching has taken me away from the goal of “drawing well.”

9/23/15 Ballard neighborhood

Paradoxically, learning to draw has become much more enjoyable during the past 10 years because the process itself is motivating. The more I draw, the more progress I see, and that encourages me to draw more.

9/21/16 Maple Leaf neighborhood

Shown here are 10 sketches, one from each year made around this time in September each year. I didn’t choose my “favorite” or “best” sketches; instead, I looked for examples that seemed typical of my style during that period. While my materials and techniques have changed, and hopefully my skills have changed too, you can probably see that my stories haven’t changed much. I’m still telling the same ones every day, one drawing at a time.

9/22/17 Chateau Ste Michelle, Woodinville

9/27/18 Green Lake

9/25/19 Maple Leaf neighborhood

9/21/20 Northgate neighborhood

9/13/21 Crown Hill neighborhood

Seattle Central Library

 

9/19/21 Seattle Central Library from 4th & Spring

Thankfully, Saturday’s squall dried up in time for today’s USk Seattle outing at the Central public library, but the wind remained harsh. Even though it was 60 degrees, I bundled up like it was full-on winter and took on the library’s crazy angles. It was fun to see several other sketchers bravely taking it on, too!

Library from 5th & Madison

Seattle Central Library is a formidable architectural beast. I’ve sketched inside the library many times, but I’ve sketched its exterior only one other time back in 2017 from the Fourth and Madison corner. This time I walked one block north to Fourth and Spring (top of page). Knowing that I probably wouldn’t get all those angles right, I had only one goal: To scale it proportionally on my sketchbook page. I think I did, but my 2017 sketch is livelier.

In the mood for more torture, I walked up the hill to Fifth and Madison to sketch the library again, this time at thumbnail size (left). Although this sketch is wonkier, I like it more than the first try.

Tsutakawa fountain

With 20 minutes left until the throwdown, I looked around for something I could finish in that time: George Tsutakawa’s “Fountain of Wisdom” in front of the library’s Fourth Avenue entrance. The wind was so strong that the water was spraying sideways as much as flowing down!

As I write this on late Sunday afternoon, the pouring rain is back, this time punctuated by thunder. USk Seattle leads a charmed life.

Richard

Carol

Swagatika

Blog-versary

Today is my 9th blog-versary, when I was invited to be a blog correspondent.  Fortunately it was perfect sketching weather so I went out looking for fall color.   Gene Coulon Park, along Lake Washington in Renton, is one of my usual places to find brilliantly colored trees. It's still a bit early for the best color but I did find some.

I sat at the side of the street to sketch the view across.  Bicyclists and the occasional police officer waved at me. 

I found a spot looking back across the beach toward the Interface statue, with some Canada geese. 

forklift quonset

 

I always pass by this building on my home → studio commute on Airport Way and always wanted to draw it, and finally the day came where it could happen. I adore quonsets, they always have interesting stuff going on in industrial or rural areas. A fun and different shape than the buildings we usually get. Kind of want to draw every one I see in Seattle from now on.