Disassembly

 

This is definitely the final visit to the MiG-21 Project.

I went over yesterday to watch the crew take it apart. I sketched the already removed tail and another section under the wing and engine of the 747.

Today I went over but didn't sketch. I watched as they loaded the wings onto a flatbed truck. There were 5 flatbeds standing by for all the parts. They will be trucked back to the studio in California. There is no information on where it might go next but "negotiations are in process".

MiG-21 Project

Yesterday I hosted the group at the Museum of Flight. I wanted to be sure we had a chance to sketch the MiG-21 Project before it leaves at the end of January. In fact, only a couple of us did sketch this temporary exhibit.

I'd already sketched the bead covered MiG when it was installed back in June. But I still had another view of it I wanted to document. I sat in the cold wind to at least get the line drawing done. Later it took hours to add the color using watercolor pencils!

The tiny aircraft stickers on the right are from one of the Museum's Security officers. I talked with him and gave him a couple of my stickers. I also added drawings from the exhibit in the Red Barn of the fantastical uniforms.

A small group today. Chen left early.

 

New art exhibit

 Aircraft installation for The MiG-21 project continued yesterday. I was at the Museum on Monday (6/9) to make a delivery and but then after I was home I saw via Insta that the aircraft exhibit had arrived. Thus I went over to the Aviation Pavilion yesterday (Tues., 6/10) to do a sketch of the aircraft.

The full exhibit opens June 21 and it's the world premier of "South African artist Ralph Ziman’s 5-year, multidisciplinary project transforming a decommissioned Cold War-era, Soviet-designed MiG-21 fighter jet into a stunning work of art entirely covered in tens of millions of colorful glass beads."

The explanation of this art and exhibition is on the Museum's web site. In part, "The reclaimed jet turns an icon of violence into a symbol of resilience and collaboration."

The MiG-21 is in the back of the Aviation Pavilion on the East campus. There will be more items and objects on exhibit in the Red Barn on the West campus.

Museum staff and the artist's crew worked to assemble and document the process. Here are the crew plus Museum's Senior Curator on right, PR Director on his left, and others helping to move a section to attach to the aircraft.

While I did the line drawing, I thought, "How am I going to color this?" I decided the best medium was colored pencils but… yikes! It took parts of 2 days and it's my representation of the multicolored aircraft.

Deconstructed

This morning Urban Sketchers Seattle met at the Museum of Flight.

I'd planned to sketch the TESSERAE Space Habit as I could have sworn I got an email that the display had been extended. It is a 20 foot high full scale mock up of the self assembled dome. It's designed to support astronauts living in space.

Not so much. So I sketched the crates that held it!

 

Museum of Flight’s Great Gallery

1/17/25 Museum of Flight (Most of the aircraft were sketched from the upper level. I glued in a piece of my wristband to fill the long, horizontal space at the bottom of this page -- an ideal spot for a bit of collage. )

I made this small page to catch a couple of sketchers.

As I walked into the Great Gallery, it felt like it had been ages since I last sketched at the Museum of Flight. Indeed, I missed last year’s USk outing there, so the last time for me was in 2019. I had skipped sketching in the Great Gallery altogether that time, so on Friday I spent the whole USk outing there. The largest gallery, it’s also the most intimidating – lots and lots of planes and other aircraft covering the floor and hanging from the ceiling.

Instead of making portraits of individual aircraft as I’ve always done before, I made small vignettes to tell the wider story of the museum atmosphere. Truth be told, it was also much easier to make thumbnail-size sketches rather than page spreads trying to get a whole jet’s wingspan to fit. Lazy or smart? You decide. In any case, I had a ball!

Many thanks to Kate, a long-time volunteer, for offering Urban Sketchers free guest passes to the museum.

The larger and more intimidating the space, the smaller I sketch!

I found the mouse

We met at the Museum of Flight today.  Everyone seemed to enjoy sketching there.  Even if one doesn't like sketching aircraft, there are other subjects, including people. 

Because I'm a volunteer there, I've sketched a lot at the Museum.  Today I chose to sketch the oldest aircraft in the collection, the Caproni Ca 20.  I learned more about it in a recent Curator Q&A with Mathew Burchette. This is the world's first fighter plane, built in early 1914.  Unlike all the others in the collection, this aircraft has not been restored.  

The Caproni family stored the plane in Italy for more than 85 years...most of the time in a monastery.  Museum staff dismantled it for shipment.  The plush mouse is there because there were so many mice running around in the barn where it was stored!  I never knew about the mouse until Mathew's Q&A video. 

Arts Festival

There was so much going on at the Museum of Flight today. It's the Arts Festival. I went over see an instructor from Pratt teach drawing. Some of those participating were creating impressive drawings of the 747.  The instructor is Shruti Ghatak from Pratt.  

Then I did my own drawing of the massive GE engine displayed next to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.    The GE90 was designed to power the Boeing 777 and debuted in 1995.  This model holds the world record with 127,900 pounds of thrust.

Plus, today is my "blogversary" as 11 years ago I was invited to be a contributor to this USk Seattle blog.

Mural Project

 I went to the Museum of Flight this morning to sketch the volunteer painters working on the community mural project.  Esmeralda Vasquez created the paint by number design. @esoveresmeralda

The Museum CEO was even painting for awhile. I noted how assured his painting technique was...perhaps from his early experience as a volunteer in the Museum's aircraft restoration section. 

 

 The high school radio station, C89.5, was there playing very energetic music.  And one food truck.  I imagine it might be hard to find a selection of trucks this weekend what with Capitol Hill block party, Renton River Days, and other events. 

I'm reading Mike Daikubara's Sketch Now, Think Later (which I bought at Sketcher Fest).  So I was inspired to draw directly in ink.  The paper was about A5, so a little small to get much detail of the people.  

 When I arrived early, there were 2 large tour buses parked next to the Vietnam War Memorial, which is on the far west side of the Museum campus.  They were Toronto Blue Jays fans, decked out in their team shirts!

Giving Concorde a bath

Well, I missed Global Jet Painting washing the B-17.  When I went over today I discovered they had finished yesterday.

They are waiting for paint for the B-17 to arrive, so they spent the time washing other aircraft in the Aviation Pavilion, which is covered but open air.  They were working on Concorde when I arrived.

I've recently leaned that Museum only allows pencil.  So, by the time I finished coloring the sketch off at a picnic table, the crew had moved to another section of the aircraft.

I plan to sketch them painting the B-17 once I hear the paint has been delivered!

 

In Her Honor

The Urban Sketchers Flickr group theme this week is the death of Queen Elizabeth. It seemed to me the best way to portray that as an urban sketch was these flags at the Museum of Flight.  At right is the tail section of the Super Constellation in Canadian livery.  We call it "the Connie".  

The weekly theme is found in the "discussions" section of the Urban Sketchers group on Flickr. 

Mafia at the Museum

Every year for 19 years, Renny Doyle organizes an elite group of detailing professionals who volunteer their travel and time to come to the Museum of Flight to clean and polish the aircraft in the Aviation Pavilion. Their main focus is the Air Force One and then the B-29.  His group is called "The Detail Mafia". 

This was my fourth year sketching them as they work and I am so impressed and grateful with the service they provide the Museum. 

 I did two small, about A5 size, sketches of crew polishing the Air Force One engines

 

Then an 8x10 of three doing "sequential polishing" on the B-29

Perseverance

This is the first time I've drawn inside the Museum of Flight in about 20 months.  Over last summer I did a couple "Draw Along" programs in the mostly open air Aviation Pavilion. Today I sat on the floor, behind a sign and a pillar, so almost no one noticed me.  

These are the JPL full scale models of Mars rover Perseverance and Mars Helicopter Ingenuity.  Staff from JPL even came to install them a few weeks ago.  The rover is described as the size of a small SUV. 
(JPL = Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California).

This was a complex subject.  I approached it by just drawing one shape after another as they connected to each other.  I suggested in the background the Full Fuselage (Space Shuttle) trainer.  These artifacts are in the Simonyi Space Gallery on the west side of the Museum campus.

 

We're both back

We both missed last year, so this is the 16th year that Renny Doyle of Detailing Success has brought a crew of professional detailers to clean and polish the Museum of Flight's aircraft, particularly Air Force One. It's a smaller crew this year but no less dedicated as they are all volunteers, taking time away from home and business to honor the presidential aircraft.

I was pleased that several of the crew stopped by to say hello as they either remembered me from previous years or wanted to see what I was doing. I did remember them, too.

One of the crew called this "Bee Hive Day". I forgot who said it to me and also forgot to ask what it meant. Others didn't recognize the term. So my guess is that they are swarming Air Force One as so many of them were working on it at the same time.

Now this is dedication...making oneself a pretzel in order to polish the inside of the engine! I added her in to my sketch. 

 

Glowing FFT

 

"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Space Shuttle". The Museum of Flight's Space Shuttle Full Fuselage Trainer has a glowing red nose. When I read about it on their social media, I just had to scoot right over to see and sketch it.

They wrote, "Santa's asked us for a little help delivering presents this year, so like magic, our Space Shuttle Trainer became
“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Shuttle
Had a very shiny nose
And if you ever saw it
You would even say it glows!”
You can spot his shiny red nose through the window of our Space Gallery from 4PM-7AM daiy!"

I parked across the street to sketch from the car.  I started to rain hard enough that it was difficult to see in the growing darkness. 

Due to new WA state coronavirus restrictions, the Museum is again closed to the public.

Coffee

Today's theme is "coffee". 

While waiting for a shop to open in my suburb, I stopped in at a new-ish local coffee shop, Boon Boona.  It's East African.   I was glad to see it so full on a weekday morning. 



I decided to switch from ball point pen to pencil.  I used a Faber-Castell B I got in Germany... it has a fancy cap that includes a sharpener. This is a Stillman & Birn pocket Epsilon.

After my errand, I drove on to the Museum of Flight for a Member's event: "Coffee with the Curator."  They had scheduled it into a large room and it was nearly full! Perhaps because this was our first opportunity to meet the new curator, Matthew Burchette.   This issue of the Museum's magazine, Aloft, has an article about him.  The topics included discussion of the planned "refresh" of the World War II gallery in the Personal Courage Wing to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the end of WWII this year.  At this event there were also WWII artifacts on display from the archives.



And since it would have been my 4th cup this morning, I didn't have any coffee with the Curator!   

RAF Red Arrows

The RAF Red Arrows are on a tour of North America. They stopped  today at the Museum of Flight. They've been on this tour since August, flying Hawk T1 jets.

AJ and I got there early to claim a good viewing spot. I sketched another person also waiting.



The larger team made two exciting fly overs. Two aircraft landed and parked in the Museum's lot. The other 10 aircraft taxied to the far side of Boeing Field.





It started raining as they landed, just to make this British team feel at home. I did my sketch of the static aircraft in the rain, under a large umbrella, Pete Scully style! I did go inside to get warm, dry and to do the painting.



After finishing it, I went out to see the displays in the Museum lobby. I asked which pilots flew the aircraft I sketched. I got one signature (#12, David Simmons, aircraft on the left). He graciously offered to get the other pilot to sign it so took my sketch upstairs #11) 




I culled 120 photos down to 30. 

Who to Pity?

We sketched together today at the Museum of Flight's Vietnam Veterans Memorial Park.

I also used the occasion to host my annual "Symposium Pity Party".  Several of our sketching friends are in Amsterdam now for the Urban Sketchers International Symposium. Gabi, Gail, Stephanie, Tina, Sue, Ellie, Carol, Antonella, Kate, Renee, and maybe more, are all there.


I made little stick-on badges for everyone. My first draft read "I wish I was there" but the second draft was "We want stroopwafel", a reference to the Dutch cookie. When I shared this, several people said they weren't sure who to pity...us for not being there or them for being there in 100+ degree heat! We started the morning at about 70 degrees.

The pity party consisted of coffee and stroopwafel. These are waffle like cookies with caramel filling.



At the end of our sketching session we had the throw down in the shade of the massive B-52 as it had gotten somewhat warmer...perhaps 85 degrees! 



Since I've done a one and a half year series on the B-52, I didn't sketch it today. I do want to sketch a rear view but today I didn't want to sit in the sun.

So I did two sketches of the upper rear of the Boeing 747. The Museum has RA 001, the first one made. I used two different techniques and different sized paper. The second one was without line and was smaller (A5).



That's a part of a wing pin I found on the ground. 

Lastly, I sketched a fighter jet.


A few more photos.

Selected Team Member

Every year for 15 years, Renny Doyle organizes an elite group of detailing professionals who volunteer their travel and time to come to the Museum of Flight to clean and polish the aircraft in the Aviation Pavilion.  Each year I go to sketch them as they work and I am so impressed with the service they provide the Museum.   

Doyle runs Detailing Success  and trains others. This group is made up of those he's trained. At least a couple hundred apply but only 60 are chosen.

Here is the  first of three sketches. I didn't get their names but they're working on the B-29.



Second sketch shows Tony polishing Air Force One. Other members of the crew came by to look: "you even got his hair". If I remember correctly from last year, only crew members who are veterans work on Air Force One.





Sketch number three shows King and Ryan working on the 727. An info board blocked the view but Ryan is not that short... he's on his knees working the nose of the aircraft. Most of them wear respirators, which must be difficult using all day.



More photos.

--Kate Buike