Warm gathering on a blustery day at SODO Starbucks

What a great turnout on this blustery day for Urban Sketchers Seattle. 26 of us found seats inside (mostly) and outside (for a few brave minutes) and sipped and munched and then got down to the serious business of sketching.

Quite a few tackled sketching the bakery in back. Others were drawn to capturing other customers in their reveries or conversations. Still others focused on the cooooool decor. Shout out to Jan Satterthwaite for snagging the back conference room for our throwdown! Lots of skills on display from folks of all ages and experience - the best kind of gathering. 🧡💛💚 #uskseattle #urbansketchers #starbucks #sodoreserve

Coffee Roaster

It was a pleasant surprise to see a few of my former Gage students at this morning's outing. Tons of detailed "still-lifes" inside the shop to choose from. I think I'll go back when there aren't quite so many tourists and do more like this.

Yes, definitely COLD . . .

. . . but sunny and bright so I headed out to the streets. As often happens I thought it wasn't so bad. An hour later after concentrating intensely on the drawing, I started to notice I was starting to shake. So I finished this double-paner as best I could.

Fortunately, I had been sitting just outside a Starbucks. As I entered I saw at least 5 other urban sketchers. And there was a couple of intense chess games on one of the long tables. I think these guys meet there regularly. They were really into it. Made me think of Washington Park in New York.

 

Here's a couple of shots of the group. 

39th WW Sketchcrawl at UVillage

Our 39th World Wide Sketchcrawl was Brrrr Cold!  But luckily we avoided the hail storm that hit us in the late afternoon.  The task was to find a warm place to sketch.  No rain but the wind was biting.
I was able to do two sketches outside. Only the first in front of Room & Board was done all on site in one sitting.  The second sketch I drew but had to leave for a warmer place before I could add watercolor.  I came back after lunch to lay on watercolor.
The third sketch was in the nice warm Starbucks coffee shop... with a steaming peppermint mocha.

Madison Park Starbucks & St. James

Had coffee this morning at Madison Park Starbucks which was recently remodeled and now has a wine bar.  Also finished a sketch of St. James that I started on Thursday. Didn't have time to watercolor it there so I took a picture this morning and finished the water color at home.

St. James Cathedral

Madison Park Starbucks

Sunday morning at the church of coffee

Like Dave, I also did some Sunday morning sketching. But my location wasn't as exciting as his. I went to what I like to call the "church of coffee" Starbucks" at the Mill Creek Town Center. I met my friend Pete there. He's an industrial designer and is just getting the urban sketching bug. After coffee we moved across the street for a sketch of the singular architecture of the coffee house, where instead of bells on the church looking tower you get the twin-tale mermaid logo. Pete did a good job, I hope he'll get a Flickr account going soon and join us here as well.