Pacific Place

Once I arrived at the Pacific Place mall,  I realized they did not have as many holiday decorations as in past years.  I had been looking forward to sketching the oversized nutcracker statues but they weren't there!

I settled in at the cafe to sketch the view of "Joy".  These large, red, block letters seem to be "the thing" this year as my local mall has them, too.  Then started a succession of children posing on it for their parents.  Some were probably on their way to meet Santa, who was upstairs.  I managed to catch these two little girls in red dresses. In the background is Suzanne, sketching.



I wandered the 4 floors, looking for another sketch subject.  I finally settled on "Give".
Mall visitors were encouraged to post a selfie with it to be entered into a contest.



Sharing sketches and our group photo:
 




Happy Holidays and see you in the New Year!    It's been a wonderful year sketching with this wonderful group of artists and I look forward to 2017 with you all! 

(except for the Friday Ad Hoc group.... see you on the 30th!)
 

Festive Pacific Place

12/18/16 Santa and a customer

When thinking of relaxing places to go a week before Christmas, Pacific Place isn’t what springs to mind – unless you’re sketching instead of shopping. Without a shopping list, Pacific Place seemed downright mellow this morning when I met up with Urban Sketchers Seattle.

It wasn’t as heavily decorated as in previous years, which was a disappointment to some, but I had a different goal. I wasn’t going in for self-competitive Santa sketching this year, but Pacific Place’s St. Nick is a favorite because of the uncommon viewpoint. The retail facility’s open structure makes its multiple levels visible from other floors, so I’ve always had fun sketching Santa from the floor above (you can see my sketches from last year, 2014 and 2012). I was going to continue my own tradition and sketch him again from the same place, but then I spotted a different location – directly overhead. I couldn’t hear what they discussed, but I saw at least one well-prepared boy present Santa with a written list of things he wants.

12/18/16 Leo Sewell's penguin sculpture (with
Jane sketching on the stairs)

A little later I walked to the opposite side of the mall to catch the long line of people waiting for Santa (below). As I sketched, I thought about the tough job of his hard-working helpers. They have to coax and cajole young kids to smile or distract them long enough to snap a photo before they realize they’re sitting in the lap of some bearded stranger. Still, I saw lots of babies and toddlers take their turns bawling.

The bird’s eye view I had of Santa put me in the mood to continue taking advantage of all the railings I could lean over to sketch the views below. First, I looked down over café diners on the first floor. Then I walked around to the other side to look down over the penguin designed by Philadelphia-based sculptor Leo Sewell. Made entirely of found metal pieces such as old gears and signs, the penguin has become Pacific Place’s icon. (That’s Jane sketching from the steps nearby.)

I was on my way to the sketchbook throw-down when I saw that the lunchtime entertainment was local jazz pianist Deems Tsutakawa, familiar from the many years he has performed at Seattle’s Obon festival. I only had five minutes, but that was all I needed.

12/18/16 Santa's lineup

12/18/16 Diners on Pacific Place's main floor

12/18/16 Deems entertains the lunchtime crowd

Pacific Place - December Gathering

Pacific Place was decked out for the holiday season, they also had a fundraiser going on where artists embellished the Nutcracker theme (I believe) with the pieces to be sold at auction. The sketch above is of Jimmy H the nutcracker (I didn't check to see who the artist was).

Another View of Pacific Place

It was great sketching indoors and we had a lot of choice.  Just another view of Pacific Place Atrium.  This was opposite Franks sketch from below looking up towards where he was standing.  This took me the whole time I was there.  I may go back and splash some color on it if I have time.

Two Views of Pacific Place

Wonderful to be drawing indoors while it was raining outside. Here are two views of the Pacific Place atrium. The first view is looking down into the atrium from the fourth floor, done with my trusty Lamy fountain pen in about 45 minutes. The second sketch, looking up from the lower level, is done with the Sketchbook mobile app on my iPhone and took about 30 minutes, only some of which was spent actually drawing. A lot of the time, I was getting used to the small screen, zooming in and out, accessing the menu options, etc. The nature of the tools we use definitely affects how we draw. The fine nib of a fountain pen and the touch-sensitive tip of the forefinger lead in different directions with very different results.

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.

December 12th Sketch Crawl @ Pacific Place Mall

Hi all,
Reminder of the sketchcrawl this Sunday at Pacific Place at 10:00.  Plan on getting there early.  I hear that there is a Jingle bell  run happening downtown that morning too  that ends at 9:00. So it might be busy.  You need to give yourself time to find parking.  click on the December 12 label below to find the blog that has the maps and meeting location.

December 12th Sketch Crawl @ Pacific Place Mall

We are doing the Mall Experience!  Meeting  time: Sunday December 12th 10:00 am.  Location: Meet on the main level at the Penguin Statue in front of TWIST store,  inside the Mall.  Under ground Parking available at the Pacfic Place.  See map and photo below.