Sketchcrawl for Humanity

6/16/12, Copic Multiliner SP pen

The Seattle Urban Sketchers met at the Seattle Center for a sketchcrawl of a Habitat for Humanity site. Called House of the Immediate Future and World House, the structures being built there are intended to raise awareness of Habitat for Humanity during the Center’s Next 50 celebration.

The construction site – stacks of lumber, bare studs, lots of parallel lines and perspective challenges – was overwhelming, and I didn’t know where to begin. So I took the easy way out and warmed up with several gesture studies of some of the volunteer workers.

6/16/12, F-C Pitt Artist Pen, watercolor, Stillman & Birn sketchbook

Eventually I moved to a different location and spotted a bright yellow forklift, but I thought the composition needed a human or two. Munching a protein bar for lunch, I pondered the composition a while. Cue fellow sketcher Chris, who stopped to sketch the forklift himself. He was exactly what I needed to give the heavy equipment a sense of scale. I sketched Chris first, knowing that he would probably wander away soon, which he did, and I finished the sketch in time to join the others for show and tell.