Lots of Action, Not Much to Sketch

3/22/13 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Zig markers, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

There’s a lot going on in the Roosevelt neighborhood where the new Sound Transit light rail station is being built, but it’s difficult to see any of the action. You can certainly hear it, and traffic around there is being disrupted enough that you certainly experience it, but you can only see the tops of the huge cranes and other heavy equipment moving around in the distance. Nearly a year ago, I sketched the very beginning of construction, intending to continue sketching as progress was made, but they’ve since blocked the site off with fencing. I’ve been driving around that area for the past couple weeks trying to figure out a place from which to sketch, but it’s not easy.

Since it’s Saturday, I parked at Roosevelt High School and found a good angle on several pieces of equipment* that were quiet today (although something smaller was definitely moving around behind the fencing, making noise). I wish I knew someone who lived in one of the tall apartment buildings nearby – I would get up on the roof for a better view.

Still, I can’t complain. Despite the overcast sky, it was warm enough to get out of my car for this sketch, the sounds of RHS cheerleaders and the soccer team practicing behind me. Outdoor urban sketching at last: I could be happy drawing a potato bug.

* And since I can’t intelligently speak of what any of these pieces of equipment do, this sketch qualifies for this week’s Urban Sketchers Flickr theme, "What is this thing?"