Saturday, March 22, 2014

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 cant intelligently speak of what any of these pieces of equipment do, this sketch qualifies for this weeks Urban Sketchers Flickr theme, "What is this thing?"

2 comments:

  1. I want to first say I love your blog and have found it inspiration to get up and go sketch. I do too sketch here in Seattle and thought I would share this with you... http://american-joy.blogspot.com/2014/03/painted-sketched.html

    Hope you don't mind me posting this. Anyways keep up the wonderful work. :)

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  2. Isn't it frustrating when you know something is behind the fence and you can't see it? Nice sketch of the parts that you could see. lol Glad you had good weather to go out sketching today. We had nice weather too, but too windy to sit out. I had to resort to sketching from my mobile studio again.

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