Color Studies at Suzzallo

 

2/16/25 Red Square and Suzzallo Library, UW campus

Warm, cozy, artistically challenging – Suzzallo Library on the University of Washington campus is a winter mainstay for USk Seattle. If the size of our group last Sunday is any indication, we have high pent-up demand for comfortable sketching opportunities – what a turnout!

While I waited for others to show up at the library entrance, I made a couple of quick sketches of Red Square to set the location (above). Once inside, I wasn’t in the mood to challenge myself with daunting architecture. Instead, I picked one of the elegant pillars flanking the stairway to finish the page.

That done, I spent the rest of the outing pulling out different media to experiment with tone and color temperature (which have been on mind with Sarah Bixler’s class). The small monochrome at left is Suzzallo’s main reading room entrance.

Elsewhere in the library, I found quiet spots to study color temperature using watercolor pencils (below). At lower right, the strong diagonal is one of many internal supports throughout Suzzallo. They look jarring mixed in with the stately Collegiate Gothic Revival architectural style, but it’s reassuring to know that the centenarian building is seismically safe.

Pent-up demand!

Rainy UW, Cozy Suzzallo

11/19/23 Gerberding Hall, UW campus

Other than my weather app lying, USk Seattle had a terrific outing at Suzzallo Library and the University of Washington campus. Seeing that it would be dry all afternoon, I took a confident walk around campus to see what color I could still catch in the trees. As soon as I found a composition I liked, it started sprinkling. Taking cover, I looked around for something to sketch and spotted Gerberding Hall’s tower behind a tree with some yellow leaves remaining (above).

It stopped raining, so I ventured out again to the composition I had been attracted to first – University of Washington Tower peeking behind some yellow and orange trees. Halfway through, it started raining again, and this time it was serious. In denial (“It’s not supposed to rain today!” I shouted to no one in particular), I kept going until more of my sketch was running off the page than staying on (below).

UW Tower and campus trees

Holding the book open but cover side up so that the wet sketch wouldn’t smear the one on the opposite page, I dashed into Suzzallo Library, where smarter sketchers had been all along.

While my drenched book and I dried off, I sketched a few students in the graduate reading room, where an impressive number of brave sketchers were taking on the room’s daunting Gothic vaulted ceiling. I stayed with the relatively safe stained glass window and a few of the beautiful chandeliers.

Suzzallo Library's graduate reading room

Suzzallo window

Even when the weather app lies, it’s hard to complain: With possibly one of the best turnouts of the year, USk Seattle filled two large tables with their sketchbooks at the throwdown. And with four A5-ish size sketches, it was one of my most productive USk outings.

Gothic Splendor

It was a large group with many first timers that came for Urban Sketchers Seattle's afternoon outing  to the UW Suzzallo library yesterday. The Gothic splendor of the quiet reading room attracted many.

Throw down and group photo.



 

Thanks to Sean for taking the photo.  At least three are missing. 


I chose a section of that Gothic splendor for my sketch subject.

 


--Kate Buike

Potpourri

Café Javasti, Wedgwood Neighborhood

Suzzallo Library, with Location Drawing Class

Café Racer "Dune Night"

I recently moved to Wedgwood and have begun sketching my new local coffee shops in the mornings.












An in-class demo drawn for my Gage students during class.



















Drawn at the bar of Café Racer during the monthly drawing jam, held the third Tuesday of the month, from 7-11pm. All the drawings are then collected into a zine called Dune.

I have a show of a dozen large watercolors at Phinney's Herkimer, where I sat and drew the view from the corner window.

I'll be giving a book talk and signing at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park on the 7th at 7pm. I went to scope out the space and drew this found still-life in the same room where I'll be chatting. I hope you'll come out for it so I'm not left talking only to this clay frog.

New book cover

Marker Sketches at Suzzallo Library

I am not much of a pure architecture sketcher. So, when USk Seattle met at the University's Library, I decided I would sketch the students. There were not many (I think the sketchers outnumbered the students for a while), but midterms are approaching and by noon the library started to come to life...

Suzzallo Chicaroscuro

It's been awhile since I've posted and I thought I might try something different -- starting with a neutral tone and applying lights and darks with a combination of colored pencil (white) and pastel and charcoal. Fortunately the stonework in Suzzallo was conducive to the approach!

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! 

Suzzallo Library, Cherry Blossoms, and Rain

A water tower on the horizon, threatening storm clouds, rain, cherry blossoms and classical architecture as seen from the third floor windows of the Allen Library.

Seattle Urban Sketchers met at the Suzzallo Library on the campus of the University of Washington this morning.  Taking advantage of early opening for students studying for finals, many decided to shelter from the rain and chose subjects inside the building. My vantage point was from the third floor of the Allen Library, looking back at a wing of Suzzallo and adjacent buildings.

After sharing our sketches, the sun broke through and a few of us walked over to view the cherry blossoms in the quad. My commute northward towards home on I-5 was wild and wet, scattered with fallen tree boughs as I navigated through several squalls.

At this moment, we are experiencing extrememely high winds. So high that our star magnolia split and half of it is layng across the pond.

Cherries in the Nick of Time

3/13/16 University of Washington Quad

Knowing that Urban Sketchers Seattle was planning to meet at Suzzallo Library on the UW campus today, I’d been hoping all week that we’d get enough of a reprieve from the rain to sketch the cherry trees on the Quad. On Tuesday The Times had reported that the blossoms were “still a week away from full bloom,” so I knew they would be close to peak by now.

3/13/16 Rainy campus from Allen Library

The morning started out as wet and gloomy as ever, so I spent the sketchout inside Suzzallo and the connecting Allen libraries, staying warm and dry. From one of Allen’s large windows, I captured a rainy scene, and from Suzzallo’s upper level, I caught Dan sketching the stairway.

After the sketchbook sharing, a few of us were chatting, when suddenly we all saw it, coming through Suzzallo’s high stained glass windows: Sunshine! I knew it was now or never. Kate, Michele and I dashed out to the Quad, where hundreds of people milled around, delighting in the nearly white blossoms. Stomping through puddles, posing for portraits with cameras on the ends of selfie sticks, this was our version of hanami, the Japanese tradition of celebrating the onset of spring.

As I put the last swipes on my sketch, a few drops of rain hit the page, and a minute later the deluge and high winds were back. Caught those cherries in the nick of time.

3/13/16 Dan sketching on one of Suzzallo's majestic stairways.

3/13/16 Suzzallo Library's stacks

Back to the Library

The Friday Sketchers met on the campus of the UW, in Suzzalo Library.  Yes, we have come here in the past, but that library if full of interesting things to sketch.   I wandered into the Espresso and Market place, drawn by the interesting clock, which stood about 7 ft. tall, parts of which were made of copper.  After that, I went to the great staircase, full of arches and wonderful interplay between lights and darks.  And even tho we've come here several times, I know I will be glad to come again, as one of the sketchers showed her sketch of the atrium part of the Allen Library extension, where delightful models of various flying birds hang from the ceiling!!

suzzallo library

A space that offers so many drawing concepts and simply a beautiful place to sketch.

All was quiet in the library; except that squeaky entry door; a sound of the day, for sure.

Graphite was a good media choice; I see a watercolor coming soon.

Debacle and Recovery at UW Campus

4/25/14 Statue of George Washington, UW campus

More than a year ago, the Seattle Urban Sketchers got together at Suzzallo Library on the University of Washington campus. I didn’t have the courage to take on its spectacular Gothic architecture, so I settled for one of its many ornate windows. Then I had to sketch in the library coffee shop to recover.

I had a form of déjà vu today when a very small group of Friday ad hoc sketchers met at Suzzallo again. This time I was feeling somewhat cocky – after all, I “passed” Stephanie Bower’s Good Bones workshop only last month! – so I went straight up to the quiet study room, which is as vast and tall as any cathedral. I searched for and thought I found my vanishing point, but just then, right before my eyes, the arched ceiling and walls deteriorated into Dali surrealism. A sketching debacle ensued (although too unsightly to post here, the evidence is on my personal blog). Fortunately, if there’s one thing I’ve learned about sketching, it’s that if a sketch is going badly, abandon it immediately.

To lick my wounds, I retreated to a different part of the quiet study room and sketched a student – something firmly planted in my comfort zone. By the time I finished that sketch, sunlight was streaming through the stained glass windows, and I figured it was getting warm enough to sketch outdoors. I knew exactly what I wanted to sketch.

4/25/14 Suzzallo Library quiet study room

A while back, an organization called Keep Washington Green raised awareness of forest fire risks and prevention, and its name became a marketing slogan. In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s when I was a UW student, pranksters routinely climbed to the top of the statue of George Washington during the night to pour a bucket of green paint on George’s head, keeping Washington green. That organization has been defunct for a couple of decades, and today’s students probably have never heard the slogan, so the bronze George (sculpted by Lorado Taft) was looking as fit as he probably did the day in 1909 that he was dedicated at the entrance of the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition.

Natalie, Peggy and I were the only sketchers who showed up for today’s ad hoc, but we still honored the Urban Sketchers tradition of a sketchbook sharing and a group photo, which in this case was a selfie.

Tina, Peggy and Natalie sharing sketchbooks on the steps of Suzzallo Library.

Suzzallo at noon today

I went this morning with my Cornish class to sketch at Suzzallo (they made some GREAT sketches!) I was inspired by the Seattle group's sketches of Suzzallo a few weeks ago, so I decided to stay after class and do a sketch.  Started in pencil, but after a bit, more of the sketch was on the back of my hand than on the paper!  So, I pulled out the Lamy pen and gave ink a try...

I'll be in Washington DC next week, hopefully sketching all day on Tuesday...

Rainy and Cold, Suzzallo closed!

Was so disappointed to miss last week's sketchcrawl, so I decided to go today to UW's Suzzallo to sketch.  It was cold, rainy, and the library was closed!!!  So I did a super quick sketch of Red Square (didn't have time to draw the buildings, so I painted the clouds), then saw one of my Cornish students, and we decided to sketch the entry foyer of Suzzallo.

Suzzallo Library

Suzzallo Library can be overwhelming.  I have sketched there with students  many times.  This time I wanted to focus on  light and value.  I started in the vestibule outside the main reading room.  That area is filled with such dramatic light. I was sketching looking toward the windows.   It was as if headlights were shining into my eyes,  I had to squint it was so bright.  The second sketch I did...I only completed the inkline on site and took a picture of the detail to later add watercolor.  If you want to see my process of building up that watercolor look on my flickr site.  I have the 4 stages, from inkline to finish.

Detail study at Graduate Reading Room Suzzallo Library

Vestibule outside of Suzzallo Library

UW Suzzallo Library

The sun poured into the reading room all afternoon. It was an amazing afternoon of sketching.

Suzzallo Library, UW Campus sketch crawl

Frank Ching sketching by the Broken Obelisk in front of Suzzallo Library,

With a half hour to spare in Red Square before the sketch crawl and sunshine at last, I spotted an urban sketcher in front of the Broken Obelisk. I sketched Frank quickly knowing he was sketching on the move. I sat on my ensolite pad in the cold to finish the architectural "hints" of Suzzallo (my challenge). I chose this composition because of the unique field marks for location as well as urban sketching in the raw. The biggest challenge, besides the cold, was choosing accurate shades of watercolor with my photo gray lenses in the extremely bright sunshine!