100 Percent Chance of Rain at King St. Station

12/10/22 Smith Tower

The forecast for today was for 100 percent chance of rain, but we weren’t worried – King Street Station has a huge, gorgeous interior where USk Seattle has met many times. It’s one of our winter-weather standbys. We even held our 10^th anniversary celebration there in November 2017 with participation by more than 50 sketchers. Imagine our rude surprise when we arrived to learn that a recently changed policy allows only ticketed passengers to enter the station!

Urban sketchers, however, are nothing if not resilient, flexible and hardy (the temperature was in the low 40s). We all found sheltered areas surrounding the station and nearby, and at the throwdown, we all amazed each other with fabulous sketches. Though I wasn’t feeling hardy while shivering and dripping all afternoon, by the end, I was proud to be among Seattle’s hardest of the hardcore!

Along with several other sketchers, I began under a station overhang facing my beloved Smith Tower (left). Using the cooler side of my secondary triad palette gave me the gloomy grays I was looking for.

12/10/22 Chinatown Gate

Getting chilled, I took a brisk, drippy walk to the International District, where I knew the light rail station walkways offered a sheltered view of the historic Chinatown Gate. I’ve sketched the full gate several times, so this time I picked half of it. The warmer side of the same secondary palette gave me the gate’s bright hues. (The more I use a secondary triad, the more I love it, even in the dead of winter.)

I started shivering during that sketch, so I took another brisk walk, this time to Uwajimaya, to warm up and do a little shopping before the throwdown.

The only cozy sketching I did was on the Link light rail trains in both directions.

Light rail commuter

Bravo to the hardcore sketchers who turned out for what was possibly the wettest USk outing in my memory (except maybe the outing at Northgate Light Rail Station last year – that was both windy and wet!).

Intrepid!