Chilly Folklife

5/24/19 Saxophone busker

5/24/19 Erhu busker

If you enjoy sketching buskers and other musicians as much as I do, the Northwest Folklife Festival is one of the best events of the year. I have fond memories of capturing people entertaining crowds with their music during this popular Memorial Day weekend event that unofficially kicks off our local summer festival season (here are sketches from 2017, 2014 and 2013). Sadly, today’s memories are mostly shivery rather than fond, but at least I enjoyed the company of fellow urban sketchers.

5/24/19 Inside the Armory

With the thick, gray sky foreboding rain, I managed to catch a saxophonist and a man playing an erhu (also known as a spike fiddle, according to Wikipedia). In between, I had to keep dashing inside the Armory to warm up. The most fun I had all morning was during the last 10 minutes before the throwdown when I tried to capture the postures of people queued up for food.

5/24/19 Queued up for food inside the Armory

The day did not result in my best sketches, nor did I enjoy being in the warm sun as in years past. But as I always say, a day of mediocre sketching is still better than a day with no sketching at all.

Chilly but happy sketchers!