Urban Sketching with the Northwest School

7/12/17 ink, colored pencils, Tombow marker

Sometimes I think about how much more sketching I might have done before age 52 (when I finally did start sketching) if someone had just handed me a sketchbook and a pencil when I was, say, 14, and put the idea in my head. Instead of being wrapped up inside my own angst-filled adolescence, maybe I would have looked around and observed more of the world.

7/12/17 brush pen, colored pencils

I would like to hope that something like that may have happened yesterday morning for at least some of the 13 students at the Northwest School who are learning about architecture and design. For the second year, the school and the Seattle Architecture Foundation invited Urban Sketchers Seattle to lead a class session in urban sketching. Michele Cooper and I talked about our personal approaches to urban sketching, and then we showed some sketches and our sketch kits. Then I handed out a stack of pocket-size notebooks and pencils, and the kids were ready for their field trip! 

Their teacher Matt Fujimoto and program coordinator Kathryn Higgins led us to nearby Plymouth Pillars Park. As was the case last year when David Chamness and I participated in the same program, the kids, ages 11 to 14, hardly needed our encouragement – they all leaped in with gusto. It was inspiring and heartening to see their energy and courage.

Teacher Matt Fujimoto helps the students get started.

Program coordinator Kathryn Higgins joins the students for
a little sketching.

Michele is back there in the shade!

Of course we ended with a sketchbook throwdown!