Notes From Underground

As part of my New Year's Resolutions and efforts towards general well-being, I'm on a bit of a tech-sabbatical. I deleted Facebook and Messenger from my phone and rarely check my email. It has been a welcome relief reconnecting with the real world and my flesh-and-blood friends in real time.

I haven't slowed down on the drawing however, and have some catching up to do on posting, so here are a few drawings from the last month.

I took my On Location students from Gage Academy to Wallingford Center and drew this scene as a demo. I took a dozen in-progress photos as I worked but I'll spare you all but one.

I'm often asked about my "no pencil" policy, and for the sake of transparency here is the kind of laborious and pains-taking pencil plan I create before inking. As you can see, a long time was spent on this stage (about 30 seconds).

Another scene drawn at Wallingford Center, completed in short bursts between consulting one-on-one with my students who were scattered around the building.

It's a welcoming location where I'll also be teaching my 10 x 10 class on St. Patty's Day.











    













The class also visited King Street Station with the assignment of finding a viewpoint with detail and depth, and to use atmospheric perspective to suggest distance.

Stimson-Green Mansion is good for students interested in architecture, but the rooms are dimly lit. The spaces with the most natural light tend to be the bathrooms and the kitchen- not the most historic of settings.

In my drive to get students to put down their pencils and draw directly in ink, I did this quick silly drawing of a librarian at Suzallo Library. I wanted to show that a wobbly drawing done as a modified blind contour isn't fatal. I was grateful that the librarian seemed unself-conscious about me staring at her for 20 minutes while I inked my way through this bland setting, trusting that my undisciplined pen lines would add up to something.



 

And the US Bank building corporate arch-thingie, where I was gently hassled by a security guard who asked me to put my chair back and move along.

If you'll be in Georgetown anytime during March or April, I'll have a show of a dozen large color drawings (17x23) at All-City Coffee. Not technically urban sketches, but using the same technique:

Stimson Green Staircase

The staircase at the Stimson-Green Mansion in Seattle was a challenging sketch for me. But focusing on a detail like the lantern at the base of the stairs was a good way to keep from being overwhelmed by the complex interior of this historic building. As others have mentioned, I am very grateful to the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation for opening this house up to Urban Sketchers last week.

You'll end up in my sketch!

David, one of our members, made special arrangements for us to be able to sketch inside the historic  Stimson-Green mansion.  It is owned now by the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation.  It is located in Seattle's First Hill neighborhood and was built 1899-1901.  It displays an historically intact interior.     

This was the venue for my very first sketch outing with Urban Sketchers, back in February 2012!  I was interested to go back and see how far I've come.

My first choice was an upstairs room.  It might have been a bedroom since there was a bath connected.  Today it seems to be a parlor.  I initially wanted to sketch the corner with the period table and chair along with the artifacts on the table.  Just as I was about to start, Natalie sat in the chair.  I warned her she would end up in my sketch!   And then Steve came in and set his stool in the bathroom!  Both ended up in my sketch.



Then I sketched some details of the huge fireplace in the sitting room downstairs. 



We shared our sketches around the large dining table.   It was a large group today.  Perhaps the good turnout was a combination of the chilly rain and the opportunity to see this historic home.

Stimson-Green Mansion

11/20/16 Ching sketching on the main floor

Only a month or two before I joined Urban Sketchers in 2012, the group had met at Stimson-Green Mansion, a beautifully restored and maintained building on the National Register of Historic Places. Today I finally had an opportunity to sketch there myself. Although the mansion is available to the public for special events and tours, this morning it was generously opened just for Urban Sketchers Seattle, so we had the entire house to ourselves. (Thanks to David Chamness for arranging that!)

And what a house it is! Although dimly lit in some rooms, enough natural light exposed the details in many areas. The architecture is “primarily of Tudor and Gothic revival, but its eclectic styles also range through Moorish, Romanesque, Neoclassical, and Renaissance influences.” I spent a while simply wandering from room to room and floor to floor, taking photos and trying to imagine what it must have been like for the Stimson family to live there in 1901, and later the Green family (who resided there for 60 years). Seattle doesn’t have many houses from the turn of the previous century, so it was a treat to be able to walk through it, sit on the furniture and sketch whatever we pleased.

11/20/16 Window seat

I was somewhat overwhelmed by the large interior views, so I chose a few details that I thought would hint at some of the house’s grandeur. Light coming in above a window seat, a wall lamp, and two beasts decorating one of several fireplaces all caught my attention. My favorite sketch of the day was of Ching when I captured her from above on the stairway landing. 

11/20/16 Fireplace details

11/20/16 Light fixture

Helen and Terrie in one of the bedrooms

Ching downstairs

Kate

Sketchers everywhere!

Stimson-Green Mansion - sort of...

This sketch is from the February Seattle Sketcher's Gathering at the Stimson-Green mansion. The building is beautiful inside and out and yet I chose to sketch the pathway between the mansion and staff quarters. Sometimes I look back at creative decisions and scratch my head....

A touch of watercolor, pen and ink in a watercolor moleskine.