Year of the Fire Horse

 

2/27/26 Fire Horse at Southcenter Mall, Tukwila

I hadn’t done any sketches for Lunar New Year yet this year, so I was especially looking forward to the USk outing at Southcenter Mall, which puts out festive decorations annually. The spectacular focal piece was again the 25-foot dragon, which I sketched for the first time a couple of years ago.

I knew I’d get around to the dragon eventually, but I started with a new piece for the Year of the Fire Horse (above). Although I could have chosen from several different angles, the horse’s butt end gave me an interesting view. Ultimately, I regretted not using a larger sketchbook, as this symbol of speed and high energy seemed a little cramped in my square composition.

Since I’d sketched the dragon from the floor level previously, this time I went up to the second level for an overhead view. I spotted Mark sketching from the floor below, so I put him in, looking like he’d been scooped up by the dragon (at right). Unbeknownst to me until the throwdown, Mark had spotted me too, so I made a similar cameo appearance in his sketch (below)! (This is one of many things that make Urban Sketchers outings so much fun!)

Sketch by Mark Ryan (detail)

Lunar NY Festival

Happy Year of the Pig! Urban Sketchers met at Hing Hay park in the International District to document the belated Lunar New Year celebration after it was postponed due to snowpocalypse. I'm so glad I went to this, it was a great time, and I ate so much. But first, I sketched this view of three landmarks you can see from the park: the archway, the gate, and King Street Station. This was pretty ambitious and I could have planned the composition better but it was fun! My favorite area is honestly the simple little spire from the train station. It was convenient to keep an eye on the time by looking at its clock.

I was also pretty psyched with this found work surface, which allowed me a great view and relative comfort while working on this fairly long sketch. The ubiquitous No Parking sign stands at hip-height for me and has a gap at the top just wide enough to balance a drawing board (actually it's a 12x15" shipping envelope with a piece of cardboard inside, works great!) on top of, and just narrow enough to keep my watercolor set stable. And the top of the triangle is a perfect hook for keeping my backpack off the ground! What more could you ask for?

After finishing the top sketch, which took about 1 hour 15 minutes, I rushed away to try to get another drawing in quickly before throwdown time. That arch is striking from any angle! The shape is very clean and clear, the color pops, and you can add as much/as little detail as you want and it still is recognizable. I used another of my new fountain pens, not realizing the ink was not totally waterproof. Blue and brown is always a good combo in watercolor...but overall this one kind of got away from me!


The organizers had put together a $3 special food menu with dozens of restaurants in the ID participating. You got a stamp for each dish you purchased, and if you got 5 stamps you could enter into a raffle for free tickets to Hong Kong. My bf and I both filled one out and stuffed the slip into a very full box before we left. 🤞🤞 I love that they made it so easy to sample all the great local restaurants, and I wish more neighborhoods had such accessible and fun festivals.

Color and Sunshine for Belated Lunar New Year

3/2/19 Gateway sculpture at Hing Hay Park

3/2/19 King Street

Postponed due to last month’s snowstorm, Lunar New Year was as festive and colorful as ever in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District today. Despite temps in the mid-30s, the sunshine helped USk Seattle members stay warm in Hing Hay Park, where the bright red Gateway sculpture was a popular focal point for sketchers.

When the group met at the celebration two years ago, the street closures must have been different, because several of us were able to sketch from the middle of King Street with an unobstructed view of King Street Station and Chinatown Gate. This year, most of the merchant and food booths took up that space. I was determined, though, to squeeze all three neighborhood icons into this sketch at right: the station, the yellow gate and the red Gateway at far right.

The lion dance, of course, was the highlight of the festival, and I tried to capture as much as I could of the blur of red and yellow through the throngs.

3/2/19 lion dancer

As usual, I had a few minutes to kill before the throwdown, so I caught a few people snacking, watching the festivities or just hanging out in Hing Hay Park.

3/2/19 people at Hing Hay Park

Throwdown, including curious passers-by.

The Rooster Crows: Happy New Year!

Seattle's International District is probably my favorite place to sketch. Somehow when I roam the streets and alleys I feel the history and get a sense of a thousand, thousand stories. When the lunar new year rolls around I love to take in the extra-colorful, extra-loud festivities. The noise and color is a stark contrast to some of the history that immigrants experience to get to this place physically and metaphorically. This year celebrating the strength and diversity of our communities seems more important than ever. 



I got there early to secure a spot under the covered benches at Hing Hay Park, but by the time our group was supposed to meet, that spot was like an overflowing can of sardines so I had to give up my front row seat to catch up with the group opening, thus missing a prime view of the opening lion dance. I did manage a few views of the crowd. 

I stood at the corner of Maynard and Jackson taking in the crowd. Frank Ching and I leaned against the same telephone pole swapping comments about just how long our fingers would stand the cold. 

After we met up and had our throwdown, I couldn't bring myself to leave without committing the lion dance to paper. By that time a smaller team of dancers were processing from doorway to doorway along 7th Avenue. The guy in charge of firecrackers laid out a big pack of probably 500 crackers just before the dancers arrived. As I stood in front of Deng's Studio and Art Gallery, they lit the crackers at my feet. I could feel the shredded remains as they flew astray like shrapnel - but, thankfully much safer. 

 

It's interesting to me how my style changes with different pens and paper combinations. The first were drawn with my Lamy pen on Shizen paper that's very absorbent and slows me way down. The lion dances were done with my Sailor bent nib on an unknown brand, but really nice watercolor paper. It was the first time I used my Sailor with the ink cartridge that shipped with it. Turns out it isn't waterproof, but adds a really different fluidity. 

New Year in the ID

The Seattle Times reported that the International District's (ID) celebration of the Lunar New Year was held a week later due to the Women's March on 1/21, the day after inauguration. So it was held yesterday and today.  Today we met to sketch our reportage on the festivities.

As I often do, I arrived early.  I'd already sketched the China gate a couple years ago.  Today I sketched one of many dragons that adorn the utility polls in the district.


The crowds were already forming and the dragon dance had started when it was time to meet up.  So we moved on down the sidewalk to be out of the way for our little meeting held before we dispersed to sketch.

I used my reciprocal MOHAI membership to gain entrance to the Wing Luke museum.  I'd never been there and today might not have been the best choice.  However, it was warm, quiet and not as crowded as I thought it might be.  This bit of recreated street scene appealed to me.  At the end wall were three potted trees in which little colored tags were tied. The card next to the basket of tags said, "Give New Year Blessings" by writing the person's name with a special wish on the paper tag, then tie it with string to a branch.


We walked a couple blocks away from the crowds to share our sketches out of the now brooding weather, under the awning of an office building on the transportation plaza.

Chilly Lunar New Year

1/29/17 Hing Hay Park

In my experience with Urban Sketchers Seattle, we always get the highest sketch outing participation on warm summer days (surprise, surprise). Looking at the turnout today, you would have thought it was July instead of Lunar New Year! It’s obvious that a little cold and wind don’t damper the enthusiasm of sketchers, especially on the Chinatown-International District’s most festive weekend of the year. (It was especially cool that several new sketchers showed up after hearing about the outing at the “10x10” event yesterday.)

1/29/17 Chinatown Gate and King Street Station

Shortly before the scheduled lion dance, I tried to get close enough to Hing Hay Park’s pavilion to catch the action, but I couldn’t see a thing through the throngs of people who had gotten there before me. Giving up, I walked across the street to sketch the pavilion. Although I couldn’t see the traditional lion dancers, I could hear the drums and firecrackers, so it still felt festive. Halfway through the sketch, two decorative lions on poles and a burst of confetti suddenly appeared high above the crowd, so I quickly put them in. Meanwhile, a parked car in the foreground that I had roughed in got towed away (the street was closed for the festival, so it must have been parked there overnight)! Things come and go quickly when you’re urban sketching.

Frozen to the bone, I ducked inside Wing Luke Museum for a few minutes to warm up, but I wanted one more sketch for the morning. Working my way slowly back upstream through the crowd, I spotted a great view from the street of the historic Chinatown Gate with the King Street Station tower behind it. It was a rare sketching opportunity from the closed street where I normally wouldn’t be able to stand.

I’ve been warming up at home for a couple of hours now, but I still feel chilled. So “Happy Lunar New Year” and all that, but bah-humbug – I’m sketching indoors until spring!

January Sunday Sketch Outing

Sunday, January 29  
Lunar New Year in Seattle's International District

Meet in Hing Hay Park - in or near the covered shelter
Corner of King and Maynard 
10:45 am until 1:15

See details on Monthly Outing Page.

Year of the Ram and Bruce Lee

2/7/15 Dancing lion (sketched mostly
from memory)

After last night’s deluge, the Pineapple Express gave us a brief reprieve this morning. We took advantage of it by dashing out to the Chinatown-International District to see the Lunar New Year celebration outside the Wing Luke Museum. Unfortunately, we were a little late, so the firecrackers started blasting away just as we got there, and with a huge crowd in front of me, I could hardly see the lions dancing! I had a slightly better view of one of the drummers, but I had to sketch the lion mostly from memory of the tiny glimpses I was able to see by standing on my toes. (I’d had a slightly better view two years ago when I met up with a few Seattle Urban Sketchers there.)

2/7/15 Drummer during the lion dance.

After the lion dance, we went inside the museum, where more festivities were taking place in celebration of the Year of the Ram. We shied away from most of the hub-bub, though, and ducked into a quieter area of the museum showing an excellent exhibit of Bruce Lee’s life. I sketched a bronze bust of Bruce that was conveniently close to a corner, where I could stand without getting in the way. (“No Photography” signs were everywhere in the exhibit, so I felt somewhat smug being able to sketch it!) I know the classic bust form is usually armless, but I found it sad and ironic that a man whose arms and hands were such an important part of his martial art form would be portrayed armless. Maybe it was a metaphor of his life being tragically cut short (he was 32 when he died in 1973 of cerebral edema).

The rain was already starting again on the drive home, and now the deluge is back. As we like to say around here, at least we don’t have to shovel rain.

2/7/15 Bust of Bruce Lee at the Wing Luke Museum.

More Lunar New Year

Lunar New Year in the International District is one of my favorite sketch outings. Despite the cool temperatures I wasn't disappointed with the color and activity.

This is the Year of the Snake - the black water snake specifically.  If you were born in the year of the Snake (every twelfth year counting backwards) lighting 10,000 firecrackers at the new year as well as wearing something red - a belt, socks, suspenders, even underwear - will bring you good luck.

 新 年 快 乐 !

Happy New Year!

Lunar New Year

(I actually made it but couldn't find any other sketchers! Of course I was a little late at the meeting spot, and my focus was on all the colors and activity once I got going!)

Unmistakably, Seattle with all the umbrellas.

It was so colorful. I loved it!

I had to wiggle my way up front to get any view of the lion dance.
A lot of these lines are my imagination since I couldn't really see.
Also the rain kept getting my paper wet, then the ink wouldn't work.
I kept wiping my paper with my scarf. It was quite a juggling act.

Watching the martial arts demos, my attention was on the crowd,
especially all the kids. Some were in their festive garb, but mostly covered by raincoats.

Lunar New Year 2/13

Some of us met up for the lunar new year celebration in the International District. The rain was no match for the exuberance of lions dancing and little kids drumming on pots & pans. I tracked this lion over several blocks; a pair of them were dancing in and out of local businesses.