Cold, Crowded Cacophony at Swansons

12/13/19 Swansons Nursery

If being frozen and jostled by mobs of squealing children while sketching doesn’t appeal, you might want to avoid Swansons Nursery during its annual Reindeer Festival 12 days before Christmas. USk Seattle goes there every year around the same time, so Kate and I were puzzled about why it seemed more crowded than usual. That said, I managed to make four sketches, so how bad could it have been? I had fun!

12/13/19 Dasher and Blitzen

Whatever else I sketch during these annual outings (I think this was USk Seattle’s eighth Christmas visit; we sometimes go in the fall and spring, too), Swansons’ reindeer are always my favorite. As far as animals go, they don’t move too swiftly, but scaling those enormous antlers accurately is the challenging part. No matter how small I draw their bodies, I can’t seem to fit their antlers on the same page. This time I hedged my bets and put both Dasher and Blitzen in the same composition so that the full rack of at least one of them would appear in the sketch.

Fully chilled, I retreated to the koi pond inside the café. A few years ago, I was more ambitious and attempted the whole pond. This time I focused on simply capturing a couple of koi (I apparently had trouble scaling again – one tail went right off the page).

12/13/19 koi

Although I hadn’t fully recovered from the cold, I pulled my hood up again and went back to the reindeer pen, this time to stand further back (top of post). Perhaps my proudest moment of the whole day was catching the gesture of the dad taking a selfie with his young kids – he was quick, and so was I.

Toes numb, I headed for the café again to get coffee when I suddenly remembered Santa! The coffee line wrapped around the café, so I skipped it and headed for yet another crowd – the one waiting for the big bearded guy. At least it was warm and the view relatively unblocked. (I’ve sketched a lot of Santas, and my favorite moment is when babes are seated on his knee, and suddenly they turn and realize this red-suited, bearded dude is not known to them – and let out a huge howl! It happened a couple of times as I sketched . . . though the little bald guy in my sketch was happily oblivious.)

12/13/19 Santa at Swansons

39th Annual Toy Run

Last Saturday due to a tight schedule, I opted to stay local. So instead of last Saturday's book signing and Drink 'n' Draw, which I really want to attend, I settled for the Olympia Toy Run. As sketch opportunities go, I wasn't disappointed.

Motorcycles lined up for the start of the ride

Three thousand five hundred motorcycles. That's the estimated participation for Olympia's 39th Annual Toy Run. Many cycles had two riders, and many more attended the event but didn't ride. In this town of about 50,000 the rumble of that many motorcycles makes a very audible mark.

Many motorcycles had their own decorations

The Olympia Toy Run started back in 1977 as the brainchild of Joe Sullivan who wanted to provide under-privileged kids with Christmas gifts and build a better relationship between the local community and the biker community. He envisioned the toy run as a way to do both in a big way.


Read more and see the remaining sketches on my blog 

Winterfest at Seattle Center Armory

It wouldn't be Christmas without a trip to Winterfest to see the trains, hear the carols and this year to sketch the armory.  There is so much activity going on that it can be overwhelming to draw. 

So after finishing the armory I opted for a single subject. I've always loved the retro styling of our beloved Monorail.

Camels, Reindeer and plants, oh my.

Friday Sketchers visited another location to celebrate the holiday.  Swanson's was beautifully decorated for Christmas.

My first sketch was of a bare tree with glass bird feeders. I thought they looked like Christmas bulbs.



After all the chaos of the small children feeding them, the reindeer calmed down and took a rest.  It was a good chance to sketch them.



I settled in the warmth of the cafe to talk to Gretchen, visiting sketcher from Madison, WI.  While at the table I sketched the small koi in the pond next to my table.  In the other pond, there were some huge fish, one was about 2 feet long.



This was one of the better turn-outs.  We were 13 sketchers but Gretchen, unfortunately, had to leave early.  I forgot to even get a photo of her.  We used the class room, set up for Santa photos, to show our sketches and take our group photo!

Christmas Village

It was fun to join the Friday sketchers at Seattle Center!  I enjoyed watching the children, young and old, point and ooh and ah as the train rolled by...

Ornaments

Happy New Year!

Even though Christmas has passed, I decided to document a few of our ornaments.  So on New Year's Day,  while watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy (yes all three!) with my son, I made this sketch. It includes an ornament my mom made in the late 1960's, one from New Delhi in 2011, one from Germany circa 1989 or so.
Can you figure out which is which?

I'm including the pencil drawing and the watercolor.  Pencil is my fall back, I'm totally comfortable in that medium.  Watercolor is so much harder, and I'm not good with detail, so this was a real challenge for me...very hard to control the tendency to overwork it.

Warm and dry at Pacific Place

I'm not sure whose idea it was but sketching at Pacific Place on this most rainy of days was perfect. Bustling people, lots of color, music to sketch by and good company. A very nice outing. I sat outside Top Ten Toys and enjoyed the shoppers' delight in the beautiful window there.