autumn light

 

I joined the urban sketchers at the Seattle Center on a beautiful October day, the kind that is impossible to resist (because you know there's not that many of those left). The architecture in this area is impressive, but doesn't interest me much for sketching. The trees were looking great though. Recently I've been inspired by artists like Jenny Adam and GEGYjiji to try and capture light in highly sensitive and emotive ways, so this is my attempt.

I liked the swoopy branches on this tree. I only had about 25 minutes before throwdown so I put paint down pretty fast and loose. There was a street performer setting up behind me, and I was kind of excited to be serenaded while drawing. But instead of being a charming musical experience, I was blasted by a wall of sound out of an amp that he played along to. The Harry Potter theme song was so loud I felt like I was in an IMAX theater. People seemed kind of into it, but also kind of annoyed because you couldn't carry a conversation 30 feet away. Maybe that was just me projecting.

While I was waiting for the watercolor in the previous one to dry, and for the street performer to be done (luckily he took very long breaks between songs), I started another quick sketch before our throwdown with the WSU students. I'm liking the way the kakimori dip pen is a little bit uncontrollable.