Back to Sketching!

 

It has been a long time since I last posted anything on any blog.  Instagram is easier when you are short on time.  So I haven't done much here or on my own blog.  

Now that I am retired from teaching at the UW and slowly moving into retirement from my other work,  I should have more time to post my sketches.  This is my basement office at least one side of it.  I was working on a nice little pocket sketchbook made by Wiltfried Pathius from the Netherlands.  This has light brown paper so adding whites is a great way to make certain things pop in a sketch.  I think I will dedicate this sketch book to sketches of my house.  I will draw the other view looking in the opposite direction next.  

This was done Sunday for our Zoom meet up.  Nice to see so many people show up even on zoom! Happy New Year and a good start to 2022!

Seattle Womxn's March January 21, 2017

It was a bright sunny morning with Pink Pussyhats everywhere. We waited for at least an hour standing in a crowd of wall to wall people on Jackson St. right next to Washington Middle School.   If you could get  up high enough, you would literally see people all the way up the hill to the east of us, and all the way west toward 4th Avenue about 1.3 miles.  Every so often you could hear a roar starting up like a wave coming up the hill and passing over us.  It was truly an amazing experience and one I won't forget.

I broke off from the March at the Library to search for an view overlooking the march.  I found one on the 4th floor.

Sketching the Georgetown Garden Walk

Today's sketch outing was a test of my new sketching gear that I will be taking to England for the Symposium.  My goal....travel light!  Is that possible??? There is always something else you think you need to take... another sketchbook, the perfect palette, extra brushes all sizes and types of containers for water and an easel.  It is the fear that you won't have what you think you will need that makes you take more than you need.  I am going to force myself to see what I can do and how comfortable I can be when traveling with a minimal amount of gear. 

What I have is the Pocket Art Tool Kit by expeditionaryart.com and three pocket palettes...(business card size palettes. I have 27 colors with those palettes. I am able to put 5 Escoda travel brushes in the toolkit,  ink pens and waterbrush as well as a little water squirter that you can get with the Pocket Art tool kit.  I am using a coroplast sheet as a watercolor board and will tape loose sheets on the board for sketching.  I will take extra loose sheets and one sketchbook.  You get a lot of stuff from the symposium so I want to save room for that. 

The only thing is overcoming my fear that I won't be able to sketch with this new set up...just a mental thing on my part.

Sketching the Opening of the New Light Rail Stations

Since we are talking about the Light Rail link to UW......

Saturday March 19th was the grand opening of the Sound Transit Light Rail connection between Capitol Hill and UW Stations.  It was free to ride the trains that whole day so I decided to check it out.  My son dropped me off at the UW station and 9:30 am.  I was expecting to see balloons  and lots of people at the station waiting for a ribbon cutting ceremony  (found out that had happened at the Capitol Hill Station instead). 
What was interesting was a gathering of people demonstrating in front of the station for a more affordable U-Pass…The U-Pass use to cover public transportation for UW faculty, staff and students for a very reasonable price.  I haven’t purchased one in a while so I guess the cost must have gone up.

This is the view of the UW Station from Husky Stadium.  There had been a line of people waiting to get into the station on the right side.  By the time I finished the ink sketch they had all funneled into the station.  More and more people started gathering around as the morning wore on.  The Husky drum line played in the background while I sketched.

Entry into the UW Light Rail Train Station

Waiting for the train to Capitol Hill Station

South East Entrance of Capitol Hill Station on Broadway

North East Entrance into the Capitol Hill Station on Broadway

Interior view of the Capitol Hill Station with the Pinkie Mural.

Waiting for the train to the UW Station on the way back.

Plans for the future of Sound Transit Light Rail

I started the day at 9:30 and ended at 1:45 pm. The sketches were all done in ink on site. I ended up taking pictures of each location so I could add color later.

Democratic Caucus at Montlake Community Center

Following along with Jane's post,  my family went to the Democratic Caucus at our local Community Center.  This was the first time for our youngest son.  It was jam packed and great to see the neighbors and community out caucusing.  I miss seeing neighbors at the voting polls since we have changed to mail in ballots.  It turned out 50/50 in our precinct with a very civil discussion and support for both Hillary and Bernie.   

Our caucus was well organized,  a bit crowded but we were in and out with in an hour.  Only one person got turned away from our precinct because he came late and we had already voted.  

Sketching with Fear

When I am not confident of a perspective or know it is going to be a difficult view, I will at times use a pencil to sketch with.  That way if I have mistakes I can correct.  This particular view of Suzzallo Library, I knew would be a challenge so I didn't do it in ink.  But as I recall we use to have our Architecture 210 students do a series of perspective sketches going through Suzzallo and many of them chose this view.  They did it in ink and were timed as well! 

Catching up with Blog posting

I spend so much time on the computer that posting can become a chore.  But I am going to post some of the sketches I have done in the past month. Below is a late entry of  McMenamins.
I started the day with two notan sketches in black and white.  These were really small sketches just to look for composition studying the patterns of light and dark.

This is a sketch done after the Notan studies of a view I liked.  It started raining while I was watercoloring.   I finished the watercolor portion of the sketch from photos at home where I added the darsk.

A quick 10 minute sketch in the Shed Bar where it was nice and cozy and warm.

Day at Alexander Beach on Fidalgo Island

Yesterday I took a day off and drove up to Anacortes to spend the day with my friend Meg at her cabin on Fidalgo Island.  It is beautifully located on Alexander Beach.  So after a nice walk and lunch we went out to her beach and had time to do this sketch before heading home.

Sketches from Singapore

Marina Bay Sands Hotel and Art Science Museum

We braved the heat and humidity.  Sketching in temperatures of 90 plus which you all had here in Seattle. However  accompanying that was the humidity!  It was like going out and spending a day in a sauna.

Painting and sketching in the morning helped.  It was still hot and muggy but a bit more bearable.  In the afternoon you want to find a shopping mall or go to your hotel room and chill in the air conditioning.  You always walk on the shady side of the street and near shops with their doors opened pushing out cold air.

I noticed after sketching a couple of hours my eyes would burn and I couldn't see very well.  I realized it must have been from the salt in my sweat that was getting into my eyes.  You were soaked without expending much energy just sitting and painting.  And watercolors would melt in your palette, at least the M Graham watercolors which boast of its creamy consistency.  Don't use it in South East Asia unless you use it directly out of the tube...just the amount you need at the moment.

It was an experience I am glad we had despite all of that.  Sketching with everyone, teaching at the symposium and actually meeting  facebook and Flickr friends  was all worth it in the end.

View of Marina Bay Sands Hotel from the Cloud Dome

This sketch of the bridge below was done in phases.  I sketched it it pencil on location which took at least 40 minutes if not more standing up on the bridge. It was very crowded and  narrow so I decided to do the finish painting off site.   I ended up inking the lines as well.

There were other sketches from of the Baobab trees and Super Tree Grove at night that were also done in pencil and later finished of site from photos.
Check out my blog for those.  http://glwsketchworks.blogspot.com/2015/08/back-from-south-east-asia-trip-with-lot.html

Way Station Coffee, Drunky's 2 Shoes BBQ and a Concrete Residence

We had a  great day of sketching in a funky little area of Fremont.  What originally drew me to this area was the giant size coffee cup on top of  Way Station Coffee,  I stopped off one day while trying to scope out places for us to sketch and walked around to find some other real interesting buildings, like  Drunky's 2 shoes BBQ and a concrete residence down the block that looks like one of those practice towers they have at Fire stations.   You could sketch in this neighborhood for days.

Here are some photos and sketches from the day.

Concrete residence

Chainsaw Chandelier

Summer Sketching Classes 2015

Summer is the time to get out and sketch!  If you are interested in Sketching classes,  contact gail(at)glwarc(dot)com.   glwsketchworks.blogspot.com 

Sketches from Sketchcrawl at Seattle Chinese Garden

Last Sunday was a fabulous morning for sketching!  You couldn't ask much more.  I had been to the Seattle Chinese Garden in 2011 and this was the first time since then that I had been back.  It was nice to see the plantings that had matured and new planted areas that were done.  I can't wait until they get the larger pond developed.  Here are sketches both from this last Sunday and the sketch I did in 2011.

Sketching at the Burke Museum

It was fun going down to the Burke for a late morning sketch outing.  I focused most of my time on the Native American Mask that inspired the design of the Seahawk's logo.  I ended up doing several vignettes if that portion of the museum and caught the family whose is pictured with Kay a couple of times in the museum.  I used pencil which is not my typical medium and used it on Handbook watercolor paper which has a rough texture.  I think the pencil would have worked better on a smooth finish paper.

Last day for Early Bird Pricing

Early bird price to attend the USk Symposium in Singapore will end tomorrow.  If you are considering going to this,  it is a good time to sign up before regular pricing starts. 
It is an experience you will never forget.  Hope to see you there.

Enjoying an Easter Sunday on Vashon

Yesterday we had a long day.  Got up to go to church for early morning Easter Sunday Service,  then my husband rushed off to catch a Ferry to Vashon Island to go rowing with our friend Kim.  I waited for our son Ian to arrive from Bellingham and then I rushed off to catch a ferry with my sons Ian and Matthew.  What a beautiful day...a blue sky with puffy clouds, definitely a good sign that spring has arrived.  We enjoyed an outdoor meal with barbequed salmon..the first of the season. Guess who we bumped into on the way home, Frank Ching walking his dog while waiting for the ferry.

Line to Color Workshops for 2015

Two great opportunities to take the Line to Color Workshop this year.  Frank Ching and Gail Wong will be giving their Line to Color Workshop in Orange County the weekend of May 1-3.  Enjoy the warm weather and Beaches along the Pacific Coast Highway.
We will be sketching at Mission San Juan Capistrano and the Laguna Beach area. For more information  click the Line to Color Icon in the header above.

In late August or early mid September we will be doing the workshop in Portland Oregon.
If you are interested in that workshop contact Gail Wong at the following email address gail(at)glwarc(dot) com.  Further information on that workshop to come.

Sketchcrawl from Starbucks Roastery

It was great getting back into it from a long hiatus.  I haven't been to a sketch crawl since the August, so it was nice seeing everyone on Sunday.  It was a great turnout!
The Roastery was pretty overwhelming with a lot of stuff to sketch and a lot of people.  I found   a nice place to sit by the window and sketch, getting an over view of the interior space by the coffee bar.

I tried to watercolor on site but the Noodlers Ink needed more time to set on the paper.  I just decided to sketch in ink the rest of the time and wandered outside to sketch the signage on  Melrose St.  and then found the entrance to Melrose Market.  It is hard to find because it looks as if you are entering a private restaurant but is really just one of the establishments in the Market.  I feel that we just scratched the surface of places to sketch in the area.  This is definitely a great place to hang out if you can find parking.

Inside Starbucks Reserve Roastery

Melrose Market

Melrose St.