Rip Visits Lake Union Park

 

7/30/21 South Lake Union from Lake Union Park

I had another Rip Van Winkle moment, this time at Lake Union Park, which I had last visited nearly two years ago. So many new buildings had popped up or been completed since then that it was disorienting. Thankfully, the Space Needle was still visible, but I wondered how much longer that would be true. Sketching with USk Seattle, I deliberately chose this view with new buildings obscuring it from this angle.

Unfortunately, I had to leave the sketch outing early to get to my class, so in the remaining time, I filled a couple of pages with quick gestures of sailboats. I’ve sketched boats on the lake before, but only as part of a larger scene. My goal with these was to simply capture their movement and varying angles as they went by. What fun!

Technical note: The crane scene was another opportunity for a primary triad experiment. This time, I went back to Supracolor’s Purplish Red (350) instead of the (apparently) same hue in the Museum Aquarelle line (see this post for elaboration). I’m enjoying the brilliant harmony of this intense triad, even when I sometimes get surprising results. In addition, it’s efficient to grab only three pencils, especially when I’m short on time. Most of all, I appreciate being pushed out of my comfort zone of reality-based colors. If I focus on values, actual hues don’t matter much.