1000 mile drive

 one of my great goals for this year was to go on a long scooter ride/camping trip with my friends in the Snack Pack Scooter Club. Although I wanted to go out for like 3 weeks, we settled on 7 nights, which was actually plenty. the plan was to go east into the desert and we had a wonderful route planned out. but unfortunately the week we had blocked to ride was the beginning of the horrible fires that blew smoke all over Washington in mid-September. the poor air quality was one thing, but many roads were closed and the wildfires too close for comfort. so halfway through we changed our plan to be entirely on the west side of the mountains. however we still made the most of it!

we really limited our stops and spent as much time as we could outdoors & ate grocery store meals to avoid coronavirus contact, but we still found ourselves inside a few times. we didn't go in places that were too crowded, and obviously wore masks whenever we were around people, but we were aware there was a risk anyway. all of us got tested and quarantined once we were back in Seattle.

Day 1: I planned the first two days of the route & took the pack to City Hall Saloon, a dive in a tiny town north of Enumclaw. there are a lot of fun things to draw in the saloon's outside patio, like weird tiny motorcycles! the fires had by then reached the east side of Mt Rainier, so we discovered that many places in this area had lost power and people were panic-buying supplies. 

Day 5: many days later, the next thing I got a chance to draw was this beautiful rocky river by Verlot, in Mt. Baker National forest. the smoke was all over us by this point but it made everything look very soft and hazy. This was my favorite camping spot. it was so mossy and peaceful. My friend Alexander also took some time to sketch here (he's in the picture).

 

Day 6: we were freezing on this route (the sun being blocked by smoke makes everything much colder) so we stopped at Toby's in Coupeville while waiting for the Port Townsend ferry. Lots of stuff to sketch. in drawing this I fell back in love with my fude nib pen. 

Day 7: Timothy planning how to get us to Hama Hama in the most scenic possible way, using a motocycle riding app that takes you on curvy roads. We were breakfasting in a cafe by a small airport in Jefferson County, which was full of hanging little model planes.

Day 7: the main goal for the rerouted journey on the west side was to eat oysters. I finally got to see the famed white Hama Hama oyster hills. a million shells create mounds as tall as a small house It was only $1 more to get 3 dozen oysters than 2 dozen oysters, so we had a feast, and added to the piles.

Day 8:  Signs warn about fire danger in the Olympic National Forest. it rained on us that night, which was a chaotic camping experience, but allowed some relief from the smoky air quality for the last bit of riding back to Seattle. 

bonus: here is our route, with camping spots numbered. There were so many stunning roads, I can't even believe I live here. looking forward to go out next year and hopefully make it to the wild east this time. 

picnic on Whidbey

I had a really sweet opportunity to go to Whidbey Island recently (my first time out here!). I was hired by a Seattleite who wanted someone to document her classy bachelorette party at this amazing house on open prairie land near Coupeville. I jumped on my 180cc scooter at 7 am and rode up to the Mulkiteo ferry through the rain. Luckily the weather was much clearer on Whidbey. This was by far the longest distance I've gone by myself on the scooter so far.

First thing I had to do was to document the picnic. All 12 of the ladies had dressed up in 1920s-esque clothing and even rented period hats from a costumer. People were coming and going, so I had to improvise this one. I started by drawing the table and placing a few people near the bottom of the page (the front) and working towards the back of the page more or less. Somehow I fit everyone in!

After this, I had to sketch all 12 of the women on their own in 10 minute poses. Since it's not technically urban sketch I won't post them here. But it was fun to chat with everyone one on one! 

I would love if more people hired me to do live gigs like this one. There's so much potential for wedding sketching documentation - as we know, drawing can capture so much that cameras can't. 

At this point it was kind of late and I was thinking about the long distance I had to go home. But the host invited me to stay the night and I had gotten really good vibes from everyone, so I decided to take her up on it and crash on the couch. This allowed me to go out to Ebey's Landing with the party, a place I've wanted to see for a while. 

A simple watercolor sketch of the ridge trail above the recognizable 45˙ slope. I chose to paint instead of hike...was it the right choice? idk.

I was feeling socially exhausted so I went back to the house while the party went out to dinner in town. I sketched another view from the house at sunset and painted it in with a limited palette of sap green/orange/quin rose.

I left early the next morning to catch an early ferry to Port Townsend, another place I've heard great things about but hadn't made it out to see (owning that scooter has really opened up my world). Well it did not disappoint! So much great architecture. Alas I had to be back in the city by the afternoon so I couldn't explore as much as I wanted to, but I managed one ~1 hr sketch of the main street by the water. A busker was playing nearby, it was a beautiful morning.