Friday, September 11, 2015

Doin’ the Puyallup with Urban Sketchers

9/11/15 ink, water-soluble colored pencils
Offering scones, rides, rodeos and even a Geico bus tour (not to mention the Star Trek exhibition), the Washington State Fair in Puyallup makes it difficult to decide what to sketch. City girl that I am, I made a beeline for the barns and spent most of my fair time sketching as many cows, chicks, roosters and other animals as I could. I had hoped to capture a wider view of the fair like I did a couple years ago, but by the time Urban Sketchers Seattle and Tacoma met up for the sketchbook sharing, all I had to show were these critters.

After the sharing, Michele, her husband Gary and I went into a beer garden for lunch. Michele managed to sketch her Texas-size turkey leg before biting into it, but alas, you know how I am about sketching food. I dove right into my basket of humongous onion rings. Fortunately, I could scarf down only two, so I had enough left over to sketch.

9/11/15 ink
As I drove home through the sluggish Friday afternoon traffic, I did the calculation in my head: It took me two-and-a-half hours to get to the fair this morning (including the shuttle bus ride from Tacoma Mall), and another two-and-a-half hours to get home. I truly love the fair, especially sketching at it. But I spent a total of five hours commuting and only a couple hours of sketching. Hmmm . . . not much sketching bang for my buck.

9/11/15 ink
9/11/15 ink
9/11/15 ink
9/11/15 ink, watercolor
My month's ration of deep-fried fat devoured!

Michele sketched before devouring!

5 comments:

  1. Great sketches! Where is our selfie? :) Next year, we'll not plan for the first day of the Fair. That might make it easier.

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  2. My friend and I tried this as well, but got a late start, left Seattle at 10:00am, drove into heavy traffic, all the parking lots were full, and didn't make it to the gate until 11:57 (just in time for the free food-donation admission - whew! And yes, there was too much to sketch and too many people to squeeze around -- I got only two small animal sketches done. We were too far away from the Gold Gate to meet up with you folks at 12:30 -- sorry we missed you! We did enjoy the animal barns the most. It was a bit too hot, though, and a four-car accident on I-5 slowed our drive home -- another two hours (after two hours at the fair....). So yes, a different day would be good, though the free admission was great.

    Your chicken sketches are particularly attractive with the red highlights!

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  3. I love your animal sketches, Tina. Love the cows and chickens. As for bang for the buck, an hour of sketching is worth three doing anything else so I think the time arithmetic works out just fine. -- Larry

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  4. Love those chicken sketches! It was a momentous day despite the crowds. Actually that was part of the experience, which I enjoyed very much with you and the sketchers.

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  5. That's the problem with going to events like that...the commute! But if you didn't go you would have missed those wonderful animals. The chickens and the cows are wonderful.

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