a weekend of USK

This was my first visit to Swanson's Nursery! It lived up to the hype. I'm a houseplant enthusiast so I appreciated the variety here, and I ended up buying some stuff....for me and for my friend who is getting married next week. The café was great, love the soft/bright greenhouse light, and of course being surrounded by plants. I would come here to hang out if I lived nearby.

Seattle Urban Sketchers took over the big table!

I sketched the reindeer in the last few minutes before throwdown. A nearby mom turned a special moment into an educational opportunity...I guess? Had to capture it in my drawing.



The Sunday meeting was in a very different space from Swanson's - sterile instead of warm, metal instead of wood. This was 1/4 of a 360˙ view I shared with Tina, Kathleen, and Susan.

I was very attracted to the tall buildings outside the windows so I started my drawing by using them as landmarks, making sure I got all negative spaces in to keep some white areas. Then I used some opaque Nicker poster paint - which I've just started playing with - for the metal window panes. using values for these instead of line made them way less of a pain in the butt to deal with. And just going over it once more in a darker or lighter value gives them dimension!

Finally in pen I added in the library patrons. As I sketched, I realized that most of the people at the tables had quite a lot of backpacks and bags with them. I'm glad there's a space for these folks to go and stay warm and dry during the daytime at least. The library is one of the only places in the city where you can go and use free WiFi, go to the bathroom, etc, and not get chased out or have to buy something.

by the way, the scanners upstairs (also in most Seattle Public Libraries) are good quality, fast, and free! I scan all my sketchbooks and anything larger than 8.5x11" in them, including these drawings!

Reindeer, Santa and Mobs at Swansons

12/22/17 Blitzen

A Friday USk tradition since 2012, Swansons Nursery during the holidays is one of our favorite outings. We usually don’t schedule it this late in the season, however, and it was significantly more crowded than usual.

First, I had to fight my way through swarms of kids to get to Blitzen and Dasher, the reindeer who visit the store annually. 

12/22/17 Dasher and Blitzen

Then I had to fight my way through swarms of parents to get to Santa, with lots of Santa’s helpers blocking my view. (Even with my limited view of him, Santa remembered me from the time I sketched him a couple of years ago.) At least I didn’t have to fight to get to Pippin, Alex’s new puppy, who stayed relatively still chewing his leash.

12/22/17 obstructed Santa

12/22/17 Alex's new puppy, Pippin

12/22/17 banana tree

After all that, I had to break for lunch, and then I had my usual 15 minutes left before the throwdown. In Swansons’ crowded café, I had a mostly unobstructed view of the enormous banana tree growing by the koi pond. 

Despite the mobs, Swansons was still a fun way to end the year with Urban Sketchers Seattle!

Kate and Antonella

Swanson's, Roy Street, and Seattle Sound Repair.

As usual, I was drawn to this neglected pile of nursery clutter. I know I can't improve on the beauty of flowers, but maybe I can give this sad little corner of the nursery some attention and respect.










I met with the gang for the show-and-tell, but had to run to get to my location drawing class at Gage Academy. Five brave students and I met at Roy Street Coffee on Capitol Hill to sketch inside the dark and crowded coffee shop. I wish I could post their drawings here as well because they were terrific.

I've been recording my experiences from my Improv class in comic form. Those daily graphic-novel style pages are my focus right now, though the audience is completely different than my USk friends. To cross-over, I tried to apply some of those more high-contrast graphic techniques at Roy Street. It's quicker than the ink washes I've come to rely on:

I discovered Seattle Sound Repair while walking by the store front on Stone Way. I complimented Marie on the beautiful clutter and set up a drawing time, but when I arrived, she had "helpfully" cleaned everything up! Not to be deterred from drawing chaos, I swiveled my chair to draw parts of the shop she hadn't thought to tidy. If you look closely, you might see owner Marie herself in one of these drawings.