Fearless and Undaunted at the Northwest School

8/9/18 The Northwest School's garden in downtown Seattle

Sometimes when I talk to people who are interested in the idea of sketching but haven’t yet started, I can sense their fear and hesitation. So many obstacles in their minds – real and imagined – keep them from putting pencil to sketchbook. Fortunately, only adults seem to be afflicted with this hesitation; kids have no such fears. Once in a while I have the opportunity to see children with their sketchbooks, and it’s a happy sight.

For the third year, the Northwest School and the Seattle Architecture Foundation invited Urban Sketchers Seattle to lead class sessions in urban sketching. (I reported on my experiences from 2016 and 2017.) Here’s how the school describes itself:

“A vibrant, intellectual home. A warm inclusive community. A dynamic liberal arts education for grades 6-12 that prepares students to think critically, act compassionately, and discover their place in the world.”

Whenever I take part in this program, I feel some envy that I never had a school like that to go to when I was their age! Among the wide and varied curriculum the pre-teens can choose from is a design and architecture class, and that’s where Urban Sketchers fits in.

My blind contours

A show of hands indicated that about half of the dozen kids enjoyed drawing, and the ones who did were primarily interested in drawing from their imagination. After talking briefly to the students about my experiences as an urban sketcher, I passed around several of my sketchbooks to look through. Their teacher, Teresa Wang, then led us in a few rounds of blind contour drawing. The kids especially enjoyed doing blind contours of each other, the results of which were hilarious, based on their responses!

After that, we all went outside to the school’s garden for some urban sketching. With nothing more than the pocket-sized notebooks and pencils that I had brought along for them, the kids went at their task with gusto. Even the ones who didn’t express particular interest in drawing chose their views and put their pencils to paper immediately. I was taken by how seriously they approached their assignment: to draw what they see, not what they imagine. The results were impressive.

I left feeling hopeful that they will take their undaunted selves into adulthood to continue drawing as fearlessly as they did today. I wish everyone could do that.

Northwest School students sketching hard.

Northwest School and Our Newest Urban Sketchers

Every time I sketch in Seattle with the urban sketchers Seattle group I learn something new about our city. Today was an enhancement of that experience because Tina Koyama and I were privileged to share a morning of sketching with Matt Fujimoto and his summer camp students from the Northwest School.

Tina and Matt walking down Pike Street with Northwest School sketchers.

We allowed a peek into our sketch kits while in the classroom. After sharing some more tips ("It doesn't have to be perfect!") and some reminders about the difference between plein air painting and urban sketching ("50 lbs. lighter equipment to carry") we all walked down Pike Street to the corner of Boren and Pike.

 

Our destination was Plymouth Pillars Park, a lovely little dog friendly green space that gave us all quite enough room to spread out and choose our individual subjects.(Cat friendly, too! There was a tuxedo cat on a leash taking a nice stroll in the park this morning.)

Matt helping his students with their sketches.

Tina (in foreground) getting an overview with Kathryn (seated) of our fellow sketchers at the park this morning.

The newest Seattle Urban Sketchers share their work.

I truly enjoyed seeing our little corner of the city through the eyes of these 11-15 year old sketchers. They drew everything from people to animals to buildings, trash cans, signage and more!

My sketch of the Wintonia Hotel, overlayed by decades of city "furniture".

I chose this view of the old Wintonia Hotel, quite an impressive building, even now. It appeared to be loosely basted into the fabric of today's city with power lines, street car lines and signage. The pair of sneakers strung together by their laces and tossed over a power line seemed to put us firmly into the present.

 

The hotel currently serves as low income housing. See how it looked in its heyday in this detailed illustration with horse drawn carriages, "new" touring cars, pedestrians and a street car in front. You might even say that we have always had urban sketchers in Seattle. With this new small group from Northwest School I hope we always will.

Urban Sketching with the Northwest School

7/12/17 Plymouth Pillars Park

Sometimes I think about how much more sketching I might have done before age 52 (when I finally did start sketching) if someone had just handed me a sketchbook and a pencil when I was, say, 14, and put the idea in my head. Instead of being wrapped up inside my own angst-filled adolescence, maybe I would have looked around and observed more of the world.

7/12/17 Students hard at work.

I would like to hope that something like that may have happened this morning for at least some of the 13 students at the Northwest School who are learning about architecture and design. For the second year, the school and the Seattle Architecture Foundation invited Urban Sketchers Seattle to lead a class session in urban sketching. Michele Cooper and I talked about our personal approaches to urban sketching, and then we showed some sketches and our sketch kits. Then I handed out a stack of pocket-size notebooks and pencils, and the kids were ready for their field trip! 

Their teacher Matt Fujimoto (former student of Gail Wong) and program coordinator Kathryn Higgins led us to nearby Plymouth Pillars Park. As was the case last year when David Chamness and I participated in the same program, the kids, ages 11 to 14, hardly needed our encouragement – they all leaped in with gusto. It was inspiring and heartening to see their energy and courage.

Other urban sketchers will be leading two more sessions at the Northwest School later this summer.

Teacher Matt Fujimoto helps the students get started.

Program coordinator Kathryn Higgins joins the students for
a little sketching.

Michele is back there in the shade!

Of course we ended with a sketchbook throwdown!

Seeing the Bigger Picture with The Northwest School

7/12/16 Roham and David sketching Pine Street.

“At The Northwest School, students experience the exhilarating chemistry between academic disciplines and the arts. They learn to see the interdependence of all aspects of life in the real world. A bigger picture comes into focus. The school day becomes less about isolated subjects—and more about dynamic, interwoven concepts and ideas.”

Before today, the statement above was all I really knew about the Northwest School, because that’s the philosophy I read on its website. But this morning I got a brief look at what exactly that philosophy means – and wished that I had been exposed to such a philosophy when I was in grades 6 through 12!

David and Roham

The school and the Seattle Architecture Foundation invited Urban Sketchers Seattle to visit Lily Hotchkiss’s design/architecture-based art class to introduce the kids to urban sketching. In this summer session, the students are learning to design different elements through sketches and models. “I thought it would be great to start out by learning how to see buildings and sketch them,” Lily said. “I love Urban Sketchers and think this will be an exciting way to begin!”

David Chamness and I talked briefly to the five students, ages 10 through 15 and from several countries, in the classroom about our experiences sketching from life and showed them our sketchbooks and sketch kits. Then we all spent the rest of class time sketching in the area of Boren and Pine in the heart of downtown.

As I expected, the kids didn’t need us at all J – they all jumped into urban sketching with gusto. Engaged and enthusiastic, some were impressively aware of art, design and architecture in our urban world. Those bright young people will someday be our architects and urban planners – and hopefully urban sketchers, too. Like I said, I sure wish I’d had the Northwest School to attend when I was their age!

Instructor Lily Hotchkiss and two of her students

In true Urban Sketchers fashion, we all threw down our sketchbooks to share at the end of class!