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.

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.

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