Seattle Center Winterfest

12/17/17 Seattle Center Winterfest miniature train and village

Although the Friday sketchers tend to end up in the Armory whenever we meet at the Seattle Center for one event or another, I think it’s been almost exactly five years since the main USk Seattle group has met there for Winterfest.

12/17/17 Shane the caricaturist

The Armory’s main visual Winterfest attraction is a miniature train and turn-of-the-previous-century village, whose centerpiece is a train station and clock tower that look remarkably similar to King Street Station (above).

I had a great table for sketching the train station scene that I didn’t want to lose as the Armory started filling. I looked behind me and spotted a caricaturist at work, so I simply swiveled my chair around. My intention was to include his client in the sketch, but he finished drawing her just as I had finished drawing him.

Although a little reluctant to give up my warm, cozy spot inside the Armory, I knew it wasn’t raining, so I pulled up my hood and ventured outside. Like that USk outing in 2012, it was bitterly cold and windy, so I spent no more than 15 minutes sketching the top of the Space Needle covered up with colorful tarps and scaffolding for remodeling. (Waiting at the bus stop for my ride home, I spotted the Space Needle from the opposite side, so I sketched it again as an inset. From that distance, I could see more of the construction equipment on top, plus the Christmas-tree-shaped lighting on the needle.)

12/17/17 Space Needle wearing its top-heavy hat

Even in my down coat, I was shivering and ready to retreat indoors again. At the Armory entrance, though, a pair of buskers called Fascinator Jazz Band was performing, and you know I can’t walk by buskers without sketching them. I decided that if these hardy musicians could play in the cold (the bass player kept stopping to rub her hand warmers between songs), I could shiver for another 10 minutes to sketch them. 

Considering that it’s the week before Christmas and probably the busiest weekend for holiday activities, we had a great turnout of sketchers, including Anya from Anchorage and Juliana from Londrina, Brazil! 

12/17/17 Fascinator Jazz Band