Christmas Trees with the Ad Hoc Sketchers

I thought about titling this post "Christmas tree photobombed by Starbucks". On the last outing to draw the gingerbread houses - which are sponsored by the Sheraton but located in the US Bank building - I got side tracked by the Christmas tree in the lobby. And then the Starbucks kiosk snuck in.

Fifth Friday Anniverary

This is the fifth Anniversary of the Urban Sketcher Seattle's Friday Ad Hoc sketch outings. It might not be the exact date, but it is the same event. It was 5 years ago that just 5 of us gathered to sketch the Gingerbread Village.



It was Nilda, Tina, me, Peggy H. and Carleen that first time. Once we decided to continue, the numbers grew. You might also notice there are no other visitors surrounding the Gingerbread display. In future years we decided it had gotten just too crowded to sketch there.

This year, though, the display moved to a larger area so the Gingerbread constructions could be further apart. We decided to give it another try. There were far more sketchers present, too!

As usual, I was at our meeting location early. In a previous outing, I had noticed this view out the upper story windows. So while I waited, and again at the end while waiting for others to converge back, I sketched that view. 



I walked around all of the displays. The theme this year is " 25 Years of Cheer: A Celebration of Seattle". I found I did not enjoy them as much as the previous years' Star Wars and Harry Potter themes. From previous experience, I decided to choose a smaller section to sketch. This is the "Historic North Seattle" scene designed created by CallisonRTK & Hargis with Chef Lee Baldyga. It depicts an sailor but it was the gull in matching shirt that appealed to me!



Tina pointed out later that one of the member of USk Seattle works at CallisonRTKL! My thought was that made it an even better choice.

The Gingerbread constructions were starting to get crowded so that was a good time to sketch something else. Last time we met in this building I sketched this arch. I wanted to repeat it today but with the Christmas tree. I see my holiday card for next year!





Photos of all the Gingerbread structures:
https://redharp.smugmug.com/SketchOutings/2017-1208-Gingerbread-Village/

A Friday Anniversary at Gingerbread Village

12/8/17 With an emphasis on Seattle's waterfront, this exhibit includes the Big Wheel and an octopus.

Six years ago this month, five urban sketchers wanted to sketch the Sheraton’s annual Gingerbread Village exhibit, but we knew weekends would be mobbed, so we decided to have an ad hoc outing on a Friday. That was the first of what became the bimonthly ad hoc Friday USk meetups, and the group has been growing ever since. To celebrate our anniversary, we met at the event that initially inspired us: Gingerbread Village.

Kathleen sketches the exhibit featuring Ballard.

For this annual fundraiser, Seattle’s major architectural firms team up with local chefs to design elaborate, theme-based dioramas made of cookies and candies (voluntary donations to the event somewhat ironically benefit type 1 diabetes research). Now in its 25^th year, Gingerbread Village moved from the Sheraton to US Bank City Centre – a much better venue. Instead of displaying the exhibits all in one row, the confectionary creations were spread throughout City Centre’s main floor, dispersing the crowds into small clusters instead of a single line, which made the displays easier to see (and sketch).

Although I had a better view, I have to say I was a bit underwhelmed. Unlike previous years that had strong visual themes like Harry Potter, Star Wars (my favorite), Christmas carols, sailing ships, and fairytale castles, this year’s theme was less defined: “25 Years of Cheer: A Celebration of Seattle.” Each exhibit focused on a geographic area of Seattle and included images of the nostalgic past or the imagined future. The most visually fun was a fat sailor riding an orca in an homage to Ballard’s Scandinavian heritage. While colorful and sometimes kinetic, most of the exhibits left me scratching my head as I tried to understand the theme’s interpretation.

I went up to the second floor to sketch this rotating
exhibit of downtown, including the Smith Tower.

Regardless, I enjoy sketching this event not so much for the elaborate sweet creations as for the people of all ages who come to see them. Although I had space to step up close to the exhibits, I decided to hang back as I usually do and focus on the viewers. 

Ummm. . . a Norwegian sailor in Salmon Bay?

A future Seattle waterfront.

Throwdown from a great turnout of Friday sketchers!

Rotating city!

Year Five at Gingerbread Village

11/29/16 

Having read only the first book and having seen only a couple of the films, I can hardly call myself a Harry Potter fan. (I can’t tell Gandalf from Dumbledore to save my life.) But I am a fan of sketching at Gingerbread Village, the annual holiday fundraising event hosted by the Seattle Sheraton. Local architectural firms team up with the Sheraton’s chef to create truly marvelous edible confections. The term “gingerbread house” hardly describes the colorfully lighted, kinetic, three-dimensional depictions of the Harry Potter books.

Last year the theme was Star Wars, and since I’m definitely a fan of that franchise, I spent a lot of detailed time sketching the candy-and-cookie depictions of my two favorite films. Since I didn’t have much personal connection with the theme this year, I decided to focus more on the visitors. My favorite was the young child (gender uncertain to me) wearing a teddy bear hoodie and pulling a bright green wagon. His mom, obviously a huge Potter fan, was snapping as many photos as she could while also explaining to her kid, who apparently hadn’t seen the films yet, what was going on in the scenes. Mom was running back and forth too much for me to capture, but the kid was all I needed in the sketch.

Early enough in the season, I didn’t get mobbed this morning, so it was relatively easy to make gestural sketches of people of all ages (including the chef himself, who came out to greet visitors).

This was my fifth consecutive year sketching Gingerbread Village, a tradition that began in 2012 as the first outing of Urban Sketchers Seattle’s Friday group. It started getting too crowded for us to sketch comfortably, so after a couple more years, we stopped, but I miss that festive gathering. I think we just have to go earlier in the season as I did today (and Kate did last week).

Here are my posts from 2013 and 2014. 

Dumbledore in fondant

Every year since 2012 I've gone to see the Gingerbread Village hosted by Sheraton Seattle.  It is a fundraiser for Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund (JDRF).  Every year it is more incredible.  I thought last year's Star Wars theme could not be topped.   But the animation and detail in this year's creations on the theme "Celebrate the Magic of the Holidays" (which is Harry Potter) are even better!  These are massive creations done in all sorts of sweets.  They are designed by a team of architects and built by a Chef (probably also with a team).  

The "Friday Sketchers Ad Hoc" outings started in 2012 with our visit to this event.  In recent years we have stopped going as on our usual day and time it has become a mob scene, so crowded it is impossible to sketch.

Today I left before dawn at 0630 to catch the lightrail into downtown Seattle.  I arrived at the Sheraton before 8 am and nearly had the exhibit to myself.  After photographing all six books thoroughly, I sat down to sketch Book V.  It was created by Bailly & Bailly and Chef John Armstrong.

'Tis the Season...

...to join Seattle Urban Sketchers at Seattle Center's Armory this past Sunday morning. This is a scene from the miniature Christmas Village, the little train coming around every few minutes and tons of kids ooooing and aahing.  T'was a fun way to get into the spirit of the season...and I remember taking my kids here years ago too!

Happy Holidays, all!!

Gingerbread Village

Last Friday was so fun to join the Friday sketchers at the Sheraton's annual Gingerbread Village in downtown Seattle. Sat up close to this amazing confectionary creation with my friend Beanne, feeling hungry looking at all the glittering candy...great way to ring in the season!

Gingerbread Village Re-Redux

The Friday ad hoc sketchers celebrated our second anniversary of meeting on Fridays by going again to the place where we started in 2012: Gingerbread Village at the Sheraton. We were earlier in the season this year compared to last year, so it wasn’t too crowded when we first arrived. I managed to sketch the huge gingerbread display of downtown Seattle designed by 4D Architects, Inc. and built by chef Jay Sardeson.

The crowds were already building by the time I finished, so I decided to take the opportunity to sketch different shapes and sizes of people. Hoodies everywhere on this damp day!

Gingerbread Village

This was the 2nd anniversary for Friday Sketchers.  We first met on Friday in December 2012 and sketched here at the Sheraton Hotel's Gingerbread Village.  The theme this year is "Jingle All the Way"



It became quite crowded, so I only managed one sketch. I can never resist the Space Needle.  This is a portion of "I'll be Home for Christmas"/"Santa Clause is Coming to Town"/"Christmas in the Northwest" Created by 4D Architects, Inc; Chef Jay Sardeson


Gordon and Nilda were photographed by Anthony Bolante of the Puget Sound Business Journal.  He was there to photograph the Village.  Look for the story next week in that publication!



The group with Chef David Mestl who created the Gingerbread sculpture behind us, "Oh Christmas Tree"; (Architects were Skanska).  At least 4 sketchers had already left.  (Photo by Julie, who was a volunteer with the sponsor of the Village). 

Gingerbread Village with the Friday Sketchers

To celebrate the first anniversary of the Seattle Urban Sketchers ad hoc Friday sketchers group, we met at the same place we sketched a year ago: Gingerbread Village at the Sheraton. (We had a much larger turnout than the original five who showed up last year – yay for Friday sketchers!) At this festive, popular event, local architects get together with the Sheraton’s bakers to create elaborately detailed, often-animated gingerbread houses (although “house” is clearly an understatement).

Last year I deliberately chose the less-extravagant back side of Alice in Wonderland’s Castle so that I wouldn’t be overwhelmed by details. This year I took a different approach to dodge the same issue: I stood behind the endless line of people passing between the sweet sculptures and myself, focusing more on the viewers. My first sketch was of a fabulous ship with the theme “I Saw a Ship a-Sailing.” Then I moved to the other side of the exhibit to sketch “Hickory-Dickory Dock.”