A Library and a Walrus

6/9/17 Seattle Public Library

How many icons can a person sketch in one day? When I started out yesterday for the Urban Sketchers Seattle gathering, I didn’t know I would end up sketching several icons, including two on my “must sketch someday” list.

6/9/17 View facing east on Madison Street

The meeting place was the Fourth and Madison Building’s seventh floor terrace – a pleasant outdoor space for nearby workers to bring their bag lunches and for sketchers to catch unusual peek-a-boo views. The one I (and many other sketchers) chose was looking east on Madison Street toward St. James Cathedral at the top of the hill looking very tiny in the steel and glass canyon.

However, that’s not one of the “must sketch” icons I was referring to. For one I went down to the building’s lobby, where a large window faced the Seattle Public Library’s downtown branch. Although I’ve sketched inside this flagship library building several times, I’ve never sketched the whole building, although I’ve wanted to. Designed by Rem Koolhaas and Joshua Prince-Ramus, the unusual and striking building has always seemed too intimidating. Yet as I gazed at it yesterday, I had the same feeling I had while sketching in Positano or the Walt Disney Concert Hall in L.A.: The architectural lines are so unconventional and unexpected, who would know if my sketch were wonky? I took it on.

By then I had only five minutes left before the sketchbook throwdown, so I quickly went back up to the seventh floor terrace for the other peek-a-boo view I’d considered: The Space Needle hiding behind the “Darth Vader” (Fourth and Blanchard) Building.

6/9/17 Space Needle and Fourth & Blanchard Building

However, that, too, is not one of the two “must sketch” icons I was referring to. The second one was a walrus on the side of the Arctic Building. One of few old buildings in Seattle with any kind of gargoyles or other cool exterior decorations, it has walruses all the way around, way above eye level. Luckily for me, this one was adjacent to a parking lot, so I could stand next to it instead of on the street, where I would have had to look straight up to sketch. As a bonus, the Smith Tower was right next to it! 

Whew. I think I hit my Seattle icon quota for the year.

6/9/17 Arctic Building walrus and Smith Tower

Gabi @ SPL

 Pretty cool that with Gabi's clout we were allowed into the Library before it opened to the public. The silence was a little eerie!

Used the "Hot Teen Read" brochures to add some collage elements to the structure.

 Gabi, of course, gave a great presentation to a packed house. Never have so many Library reading attendees had a sketchbook balanced on their laps!

This is the old First Methodist Church drawn from the steps of the U.S. Court of Appeals, across from the Library on Fourth Avenue. The rubbing is a couple of Urban Sketcher motto-like words! taken from the historical plaque next to where I was sitting.

intrepid urban sketch pistols

mad sketchers converge on sci-fi building from outer space in Seattle

admired one another's work from every angle, upside down and sideways:

a mere carbon unit, I had to go outside and breathe the fresh air. here's my sketch of the church at 5th and Columbia, from the courthouse steps.
Can't wait to see everyone's work up close here on the blog! Missed the rest of you!