Val

 

12/13/24

“I would avoid that seat if I were you . . . Val has been known to throw food.”

That was my first introduction to Val, one of Greg’s co-residents in memory care. As I got to know Val better, I observed her throwing not just food but also beverages and a swift right hook. Lean and petite, she looked frail, but she could lob a balloon across the room during “volleyball” and use the same hand to give you a solid clip, I was told, if you were slow to duck.

Mostly non-verbal, she often responded to music by tapping enthusiastically and even dancing in her own way. In the year-and-a-half that I had observed her, I saw Val smile only once – when she was with a visitor.

She had been in the hospital a while. I recently learned that she had passed away.

3/22/25

10/3/25

11/19/25

Clear Sky Over Gas Works Park

 

1/19/26 Gas Works Park

On Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, our cold but clear skies continued. Bundled up, I took the top down for my drive to Gas Works Park, where many young people and families were enjoying the holiday. (Aside: A large party of Spanish-speaking picnickers laughed and talked happily as they shared food spread out on the grass. I was heartened to see them because it meant that they – unlike many others in this country – felt safe enough in a Seattle park to gather publicly to enjoy the day, just like everyone else there. I felt compassion and sadness for all darker-skinned people who would not feel safe doing the same wherever they live. Dr. King’s message from six decades ago is, sadly, still just a dream.)

Using chunky Derwent Inktense Blocks to sketch a part of the gas works that I’ve sketched previously many times, I recalled how much time and energy I used to spend trying to render each one of the many pipes connecting the huge tanks and how frustrating it often was to try to draw what I couldn’t see clearly or understand where they connected (here’s one example from 2014). It took me a long time, but I finally realized I don’t have to draw all that to convey the essence of the gas works.

Color note: Although I used the same limited palette of Inktense Blocks as the one I used at Green Lake, the hues are such that they look mostly “normal” at Gas Works Park – that is, I had a green for grass, blue for water and sky, and rusty tones for the tanks. Still, if I’d had a full range to select from, these are not the colors I would have chosen for this scene, so they still seem a bit wacky to me. Overall, though, I can feel my brain finally making a shift toward seeing that hues do not have to match “reality” to read as “real.”

Technical note: As soon as I tried using the “licking” technique for the sky, I regretted it. Although I remembered that Inktense Blocks fail at this trick (compared to most solid water-soluble products), I guess I had hoped that the Blocks had learned the trick since the last time I used them. Nope.

Wacky at Green Lake

 

1/18/26 Green Lake

Sunday was another day of weather we all crave in January: sunny all day, every peak in two mountain ranges fully in view, no wind, no clouds, and temps all the way up in the low 50s. Except for all the down jackets and beanies in view, Green Lake looked like the height of summer – couples, families and dogs all happily soaking in their much-needed vitamin D.

I walked partway around the lake to one of my favorite stands of trees (top of post). Although it was only early afternoon, the low sun gave them long, lean shadows. I hadn’t intended on making on-location comics, but I couldn’t resist recording snippets of conversation I overheard on the path.

As I mentioned in my post a few days ago about Inktense Blocks, I don’t usually take these fragile sticks out with me on location, but since they fit nicely in my tiny Sendak, I took them to Green Lake. I know I’ve said it before, but these Blocks are what I always want Caran d’Ache Neocolor II wax pastels to be in terms of expedient coverage and intensity of color. Now that I have a well-protected way to carry them, I am going to give the Blocks more use in the field.

Instead of continuing to walk around the lake in the same direction, I backtracked to the other side of the pier (at right). Those trees at far right of the huge fir are the same ones I sketched above.

For this one, I used reliable, familiar Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelles – but the palette was chosen by values, just like I’ve been choosing Neocolor II crayons and Inktense Blocks.  

Process analysis: I daresay my wacky palettes are not feeling as wacky anymore! It’s getting easier and feeling natural to use unnatural hues because I know they will serve me well as long as I get the values right. I’m also seeing that I don’t have much use for the lightest value range because I tend to fall back on paper white as the lightest value. The pink sky at Maple Leaf Park was fun, but the messy application detracted; I prefer paper white to that.

Most important, I feel liberated using whatever colors I want (as determined by values) and not being tied to designated triads, complements or temperature. The key for me is to keep the palette limited – no more than four or five hues at a time – so that I’m not tempted to toss in colors randomly. I think a narrow, cohesive palette always serves my streamlined style best.

That’s not a new insight; it’s more like confirmation of something I’ve been doing all along, but with more traditional guidelines like triads. Although I didn’t learn any of this directly from Germanier, I must give a nod to his odd selection of pencils and demo that sparked this line of thinking. That’s worth every penny I paid for the set, even if I never use it again.

Derwent Inktense Blocks tuck nicely into the Sendak slots. Friction and their size keep them from getting pushed down too deeply to retrieve easily, which can be a nuisance with short tools.

Taking My Wacky Palette Outdoors: Maple Leaf Park

 

1/17/26 Maple Leaf Park

We’ve been enjoying a solid run of dry, sunny days – a weird weather pattern we often get around mid-January. Temps can drop into the mid-30s overnight but warm up to the mid-50s by afternoon. As you might guess, we urban sketchers are loving it!

It means I’ve finally had opportunities to take my wacky, values-based palette outdoors for some real urban sketching. (Although I know being inside cafés and other locations is also urban sketching, it doesn’t  scratch the itch I feel all winter.)

When I see sunshine, my first stop is usually Maple Leaf Park. I’ve sketched there so many times that most views have become “nothing” to me. By that, I mean that it takes something like a new palette to give me a nudge and see the park with fresh eyes. In addition, the “nothingness” is actually helpful in seeing values instead of subjects.

The pale blue water tower was almost the same color and value as the sky, but the sky was a bit darker blue. I used pink and pale chartreuse, the two light values in my current palette, for those. Then I used the two darkest hues, blue and violet, for everything else. It’s wacky, but I like it. 

Using pink and pale green also solves a dilemma I’ve had many times when sketching this scene: How to show contrast between the water tower and the sky when they are so similar in both hue and value (which, I suppose, was the design intention – trying to make the tower less obtrusive).

What I didn’t like is my messy dry-on-wet application of Caran d’Ache Neocolor II for the sky. I think I should have used my tried-and-true “licking” technique as I always used to for skies. Note to self for next time. Also, I realize now that I forgot to add a layer of a midtone crayon to darken the grass as I had intended!

Doomscrolling Prevention Program: Mixed-Media Edition

 

1/14/26 photo reference (Derwent Drawing pencil in Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook)

It must be my winter malady.

In summer when light around the horizon is still visible after 9 p.m., all my windows open to a soft evening breeze, I’m not prone to doomscrolling. I love taking golden-hour walks, and I’m energetic enough to enjoy whatever I had planned for the evening.

In winter, though, when night begins at 4:30 p.m., I catch myself listlessly killing evening time with my tablet, as if scrolling would make the sun come up earlier. I don’t like it.

A few mixed-media materials that happened to be nearby.

It’s not a new malady. I’ve tried various tactics over the years to snap myself out of it. The main issue is that by evening, I’ve run out of creative steam, but I still want to be engaged with mark-making. It’s the reason I put together my compact “downstairs studio” a few years ago to make it easier. (Back then, my issue was compounded by continual anxiety and exhaustion as a caregiver, and evenings were often my only respite time.) For a while, I tried the doodly Color Meditation Deck, but that didn’t stick.

Just as I was thinking that I needed to refresh my Doomscrolling Prevention Program, a video popped up on my YouTube feed as I was (ironically) scrolling: “Easy Sketchbook Ideas for Busy Days.” I had a few materials right there next to my comfy evening reading chair – no excuses or reasons to delay!

I used my own reference photo instead of the one Orla Stevens offered. For the pencil-only version (top of post), I used a black Derwent Drawing pencil. In my pouch of mixed-media tools were Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelles, Neocolor II crayons, and Fibralo markers (huh – you’d think I had a penchant for Caran d’Ache or something). In both cases, she encouraged viewers to vary the marks as much as possible by changing one’s hand grip on materials. Exploration of mark-making was the goal, not accurate representation.

Photo reference (Neocolor II crayons, Museum Aquarelle pencils, Fibralo markers in Beta sketchbook)

Looking at them now, my sketches don’t seem as loose and free as she encouraged us to be, but they felt loose and free compared to my usual, and that’s what counts. More importantly, the fun took me away from doomscrolling!

Fun is easy. The hard part is slapping my wrist as soon as I catch myself scrolling. Why is that so hard, even when I despise doing it? Let’s see if this sticks, at least long enough to get me past the spring equinox.

Fun and Historic Artifacts at MOHAI

 

1/16/26 Museum of History and Industry

A motorized and drivable stiletto heel, historic motorcycles and the vintage Rainier Brewery neon sign were among the many fun and colorful artifacts USk Seattle got to sketch at the Museum of History and Industry last Friday. Although I’ve been to surrounding Lake Union Park many times, it had been ages since I was last inside the museum (2018, according to my blog).

Although it was tempting to sketch some of my old favorites, like the Rainier R, I started with the irresistible high-heeled vehicle near the entrance. After that, I went upstairs to see the featured exhibit, Kickstands Up! 125 Years of Motorcycling in the Pacific Northwest. I picked out a pink Harley with a mannequin wearing a women’s motorcycle outfit. Many other sketchers were attracted to the antique motorcycles and bicycles there. Luckily, we had the exhibit nearly to ourselves.

Down on the main floor again, I sketched a couple of permanent exhibits that I don’t usually get around to (below): a cross-section piece of an 800-year-old Douglas fir and John Gage’s sculpture, Wawona. Although I couldn’t show it in my sketch, if you walk inside the Wawona, you can see a glass-covered hole in the floor that reveals Lake Union directly under that part of the building. It’s an interesting tribute to MOHAI’s home inside the restored landmark Naval Reserve Armory. (On the top floor, the original periscope still exists, offering a cool 360-degree view of Seattle.)

Usually when I visit MOHAI, I enjoy spending some time near the water sketching the historic boats moored there or other parts of Lake Union Park. With temps in the low 40s and a bitter wind off the lake, I didn’t have it in me this time. Plenty of other sketchers were hardier than I was, though!

Wacky Palette with Inktense Blocks

 

1/13/26 photo reference (Neocolor II and Inktense Blocks in
Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook)

While I’ve been enjoying experimenting with my values-based palette idea using Caran d’Ache Neocolor II water-soluble crayons, I remembered a similarly chunky yet radically different product I’ve also enjoyed: Derwent Inktense Blocks. A few years ago, I played with them enough to learn a bit about their idiosyncrasies, which can be both intriguing and frustrating. Eventually I grew to like them, even if they are a strange animal.

Sadly, I have rarely used them in the field because they’re even harder to carry than Neocolor crayons: Though lighter in weight, they are almost as bulky, and even worse, they break easily. I’ve found, however, that they fit in the slots of my tiny Peg & Awl Sendak, so I’m hoping they would be protected if I take them out with me.

As a preliminary trial of a values-based palette, and to reacquaint myself with Inktense Blocks’ quirks (many of which there are), I made some sketches from photos. Right off the bat, one difficulty is that the Blocks range includes very few hues that could be considered light in value – they are all extremely vibrant and lean toward the darker ranges.

One thing that’s remarkable about the Blocks is that they perform incomparably when applied dry to wet paper – an explosion of intense color! When I use that technique with Neocolor II crayons, they do dissolve more completely than when they are activated on dry paper, but the wax-based binder requires a bit of scrubbing. The Blocks dissolve thoroughly with very little effort. That’s not always a good thing – it’s hard to get a subtle effect when I want one – but the Blocks sure are efficient when I want to cover a large area with solid color.

For the first sketch (top of post), my reference photo was taken during one of my golden-hour walks last summer. I had nothing among the Blocks I own that was light enough for the sky, so I used Neocolor II crayons for that. I had also been wondering how well Blocks would apply over waxy Neos, which can act as a resist to some media (such as some colored pencils), so it was a good test of that. The whole sketch was made dry-on-wet. You can see how the Neos didn’t dissolve completely (unless I had gone back in and scrubbed with a brush, which I didn’t), while the Inktense Blocks almost completely covered the Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook surface. I had no problem applying the Blocks over the Neos.

1/14/26 photo reference (Inktense Blocks in Hahnemuhle
Akademie Aquarelle sketchbook)

I used only Inktense Blocks in the second sketch (at right). The house and front foliage were applied dry, then activated with a brush. I sketched the trees dry-on-wet.

And hey, if that second scene looks familiar, it should: It’s the Maple Leaf Mother Grove that I sketched from life a few days ago. If you’ll recall, I irrationally couldn’t get past my own resistance to using unrealistic colors for a reportage sketch. Knowing that these trees will likely be cut down, I had taken some photos, so I had one to use for reference. At the time, I thought my “real” colors were appropriate, but now I think I like this “unreal” sketch better. But is it “better” in terms of documenting an event? Am I still honoring the trees if I sketch them in blue and brownish-purple? Hearing myself ask that question, I realize it sounds ridiculous. It’s my sketching of them that honors them, regardless of the colors I use. What do you think? (My original on-location sketch shown below.)

1/13/26 sketched on location