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| 10/17/ 13 Diamine Eclipse ink, Sailor pen, Sketchbook Project booklet |
Only a few minutes’ walk from the place where I take my car
to get its oil changed, the Burke Museum
is an ideal place to kill an hour with my sketchbook (much better than waiting
in that stuffy little room drinking weak coffee and using weak Wi-Fi). I
decided it was also an ideal place to initiate my 2014 Sketchbook Project sketchbook. As a participant last year, I had fun filling the little sketchbook, but I didn’t feel particularly compelled to participate again –
until I heard that Arthouse Coop is going to take the exhibit to the Pacific Northwest in 2014, including Seattle. I couldn’t resist that, could I? I signed up again.
Last year I chose the theme “Strangers” and filled the book with mostly “floating head” sketches
of people in coffee shops or riding the bus. I haven’t decided on a theme yet,
but since I’ll still be working on it during the Fall and Winter, I’ll probably
be sketching indoors most of the time. I’m sure I’ll still have lots of
sketches of people, but maybe I’ll widen my scope to include other heads, such
as skulls.
In any case, I didn’t give it much thought this afternoon at
the Burke – I just pulled out the Sketchbook Project sketchbook because it was
in my bag (I’ll carry it with me daily until it’s full – the best way to make
sure I don’t forget to use it) and sketched a polar bear skull on page 1. Last
year I discovered immediately that the thin paper in the booklet can’t take a
wash, so as before, I’m not going to use watercolor in it. But the smooth
surface is nice under fountain pens and markers.
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| 10/17/13 Diamine Eclipe ink, Strathmore 400 140 lb. paper |
Having initiated the Sketchbook Project booklet, I used my “Stefano”
for a couple more sketches: the same polar bear skull from a different angle
and a rear paw of a Hoplophoneus skeleton (which I sketched in its entirety earlier this year).
By the way, if you’re wondering how I can afford the luxury
of popping into a museum for only an hour, please indulge me for a moment as I
step onto my favorite soapbox: the reciprocal museum program. My spouse-guy and
I already had an annual membership to the Bellevue Arts Museum. We learned that
if we paid only $10 more to upgrade to the next level of benefits, we would get
free admission to hundreds of other museums in North America, including several
local ones where I enjoy sketching, such as the Burke and the Museum of History and Industry. When we travel, we look at the
list of participating museums to see if we’ll be nearby one of them. It’s an
amazing value, and you support a whole network of museums in the U.S. Canada
and Mexico. OK, end of soapbox. But don’t forget to check out the North American Reciprocal Museum Association’s list to see if you can take advantage of this great deal.
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| 10/17/13 Diamine Eclipe ink, Strathmore 400 140 lb. paper |
Great job on the skulls and the paw! Nice shading. I had never heard of the reciprocal program at the museums. What a great idea!
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