Pioneer Square, International District and the Wrong Station



3/8/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Stillman & Birn

Our sketching destination this morning was King Street Station, which has been undergoing renovation for years, but we didn’t know that the main station interior we were hoping to sketch was recently closed (and should be spectacular when it reopens). Disappointed but not daunted, Kate, Lynne, Peggy, Nilda and I set out to explore other sketching possibilities in Pioneer Square and the International District. 

 

3/8/13 Platinum Sepia ink, watercolor, Stillman & Birn

An atrium at 401 Second Avenue South between two brick buildings proved to be an interesting perspective challenge. After lunch, the group split up, and Nilda and I stopped at a small courtyard at Fifth and Weller, where I sketched a ring-billed gull bathing in a water feature.

 

3/8/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink

We ended up at Union Station. No longer an operating train station, it’s now a beautiful, wide open plaza with a scattering of chairs and tables and not much else. This is where we should have been sketching this morning! Of course, it proved an insurmountable architectural challenge for me, so I focused on one of the many ornate details.

 

3/8/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink

 

My favorite sketch of the day was of a man playing a Chinese stringed instrument at the International District/Chinatown Station. After I finished the sketch, I asked him what the instrument is called, and he said something that sounded like “chi-na” (but I doubt that was correct). After asking him to repeat it, I still couldn’t catch what he was saying, so I handed him my sketchbook and asked him to write the name of it on the page. He seemed delighted with the sketch.