The Lure of a Sketch

1/14/24 The Brothers, Olympic Mountains

With the deep freeze we had a couple of weeks ago and the more recent “atmospheric rivers,” my daily walking-fitness program in January was miserable-to-spotty. Sometimes when it’s cold, wet and windy, not even the lure of a potential sketch can get me off my duff.

1/10/24 Maple Leaf Park

1/23/24 Green Lake neighborhood

Most days, though, I grumble all the way out the door, but by the time I reach the end of the block, I’m already looking around for something to sketch. And after I’ve sketched, the walk is always worth it.

1/13/24 Maple Leaf neighborhood

1/19/24 Maple Leaf neighborhood

1/28/24 Maple Leaf neighborhood

Material notes: I finished filling the half-filled red Uglybook, and now I’m onto finishing the orange one that I started during InkTober. I only used one spread in it then, though, so it’s almost like starting a brand-new book. I think I have only two more partially used books to finish filling, and then I can start my plan of completing each Uglybook from cover to cover before starting a new one. Let’s see how I do with resisting the temptation of switching among all the new colors!

Fed up with fighting the white Posca, I went back to a Sakura Gelly Roll for a while (another white pen that works well – until it doesn’t). Oddly enough, my Facebook “memories” reminded me of my white Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Brush Pen (the ink is the same as the bullet tip I reviewed a while back except that this one has a brush tip), so I pulled it out. It’s not opaque enough to use the way I like to, so it won’t be a permanent go-to, but I’m trying it again for a while. In the sketch above of the excavator, I drew the cab’s dark interior with a black Uni Pin, then colored the window glass with the white Pitt. The translucency gave the window an interesting effect.