Only One Rip

 

7/26/24 Maple Leaf neighborhood

It had been so long since I last sketched an urban couch (nearly a year!) that I thought my mojo was gone. But it’s back! I bagged this lovely specimen during a late-afternoon walk. Other than one large rip, the couch is in better condition than the one in my livingroom right now. Fortunately, I’m downsizing, so I was able to resist.

South Lake Union Saturday Market

 

7/27/24 South Lake Union Saturday Market

In the heart of South Lake Union, the SLU Saturday Market is in the shadow of Seattle’s newest skyscrapers while also enjoying Denny Park’s oasis of trees. USk Seattle had the benefit of both – shiny, glassy architecture (for those who like to sketch that) and plenty of shade.

I sketched a page of the market activity itself (the colorful entrance flags were a popular subject for many sketchers that day) and another page of thumbnails of the new skyline.

Architecture visible from the market

For lunch, I had garlic pancit bihon from 88 Cues, a Filipino food truck. I scarfed it down too fast to sketch, but I slowed down enough to sketch my turon, which is a banana-based dessert lumpia sprinkled with sesame seeds and tiny orange flower petals.

Lunch and dessert from 88 Cues

New to USk Seattle, the SLU Saturday Market offers a fun mix of urban glass and steel, local produce and flea market fashions. We’ll be back!

Denny Park offered comfy shade to sketchers.

SLU Saturday Market in the shadow of Seattle's newest skyline

Sketcher Fest – Everything Else

7/19/24 James Hobbs talked about his new book, Sketchbook Reveal, published by Gabi Campanario's Sketcher Press, during his keynote at the opening reception.

 After the three-day intensity of Sketcher Fest plus two days of lead-up activities, I have so far tried to organize the events in some sort of order, both for myself and for readers. But at some point I ran out of organization. Herewith is everything else that happened during that fantastic time with no semblance of order. (Comments are in the cutlines.)

7/19/24 A sketch lunch with Joel on Friday afternoon before Day 1 activities began.

7/20/24 The artists' roundtable included all the instructors, who were asked questions by host Mario Linhares inspired by the artists' Instagram posts.

I don't think Gabi was as sad as I made him look here!

7/21/24 During the final sketch walk, I was still fired up from Eduardo Bajzek's workshop the previous day. Overcast and cool for the first time since Sketcher Fest started, the day was just right for graphite in expressing the misty Edmonds waterfront. I had to split the spread on my scanner; the full-length panorama is shown below the second page. The two rubberstamps on the left side were designed by Ellie Doughty.

My last sketches during the final sketch walk

As part of our commemoration of USk Seattle's 15th anniversary, Jane Wingfield collected most of the sketches that were submitted for the book that wouldn't fit in its 50 pages and turned them into six posters. Displayed during Sketcher Fest at Graphite Gallery, the posters can be reused and will likely be displayed elsewhere this year.

7/21/24 After the close of all events and everyone had broken down the displays, organizers, instructors and other volunteers celebrated at an "after" party. The event was billed as a "drink & draw," but I seemed to be the only one drawing (although I was just as exhausted as everyone else)!

James Hobbs hamming after autographing my copy of his new book, Sketchbook Reveal

The 2024 Sketcher Fest goodie bag!

I won an Urban Sketchers backpack in the raffle!

Canvas bag containing Art Toolkit

I stormed the vendor hall door to be first in line for
Art Toolkit's very limited edition Sketcher Fest pocket 
palette. I bought it without the customizable pans
so that I can take my time with the configuration
 I want and will buy them later.

Graphite as a Painterly Medium

Eduardo Bajzek demo-ing how he sketches trees as silhouettes.

When I took Eduardo Bajzek’s workshop at the Urban Sketchers Symposium in Porto, my head exploded with a fresh way to use graphite as a drawing medium. That was in 2018, when the focus had been more on buildings and urban landscapes. Last week in Edmonds, he told us that he has been drawing trees more lately, so his workshop reflected that interest. Trees can teach us much about drawing all forms, Eduardo says. Called “Sketch the Trees and the Daffodils,” the workshop put urban trees in the center of our attention with a surprising medium when taking a painterly approach: graphite.

In the first brief exercise, we resisted shading and form and focused on drawing trees only as solid silhouettes. In his demo, he showed how he starts from the trunk and moves upwards, following the growth of the tree and evoking the movement of the foliage. Edges should be suggested rather than described. He urged us to observe and appreciate each tree as a unique, individual entity, not a generic symbol.

In the second exercise that took up the remainder of the workshop, we were instructed to choose a tree to draw with the techniques he demonstrated: Laying down multiple light layers of graphite using the side of the point while resisting “drawing” outlines. In the 2018 workshop, this was the most difficult part for me – a pencil in my hand seems to demand drawing an outline! But resist I did (although the technique was not new to me this time around, it was still challenging!), and my workshop exercise resulted in a much more painterly appearance than a typical graphite drawing.

7/20/24 graphite in Hahnemuhle sketchbook

Eduardo demo-ing for the second exercise

Eduardo showed us how to smudge graphite (with a stump or even a piece of tissue) to soften edges and unify elements, again to suggest rather than to describe. The result is the dreamy, ethereal quality his work is known for. At the very end of his drawing process, he goes in with a softer, sharper pencil to add the darkest values and define important details where the eye should be directed – yet still with much restraint.

Speaking of the V word, Eduardo is a rare instructor who does not push values as the most important aspect of a drawing. Sometimes the lightest light or darkest dark must be compromised, he says, to achieve an overall unification of the drawing. That was surprising to hear!

When it came time for one-on-one feedback, Eduardo pointed out in the tree I had selected where the trunk and branches sometimes appeared darker than the foliage and in other places appeared lighter. He encouraged me to use an eraser to make lighter branches come forward and darken others against lighter foliage.

Eduardo giving feedback to a student
(I took this photo mainly for the eye candy of his opened pencil roll :-) )

Throughout the workshop, Eduardo stressed the concept of connection: The artist connecting with the subject and the tree connecting with its context. “Connect with your subject as much as possible,” he says. Sometimes after finishing a drawing, he pauses to say to the tree, “Thank you for the inspiration.” I have done that myself many times, and I realize now that it was because my observation of the tree through drawing it had formed a strong connection.

As in Porto, I left Eduardo’s workshop re-fired up about graphite as a painterly material. This time I also appreciated graphite as an especially expressive medium for drawing trees.

Roy and I were both so inspired by Eduardo’s workshop that we couldn’t wait to put his techniques and methods into practice. That afternoon, we sat at Starbucks in Edmonds’ town center to sketch the fountain and the tree growing next to it. Even as I fought my inclination to outline and draw, I also found it liberating to ignore all the ornate fountain details and express the unified whole instead. (In another post, I’ll show my final sketch walk drawing in which I take Eduardo’s graphite approach again.)

7/20/24 Edmonds town center fountain

Roy and me with our brains exploding!

Sponsored by Cretacolor, Eduardo gave each workshop student a pencil roll filled with Cretacolor drawing materials and accessories.

Sketch the Answers to Who, What, Where?

 

7/19/24 Andika Murandi's workshop, Sketcher Fest

Tough duties for the TA! (Photo by Janet Wang)

In addition to taking on “as needed” tasks, one of my official volunteer duties during Sketcher Fest was to be a teaching assistant to Andika Murandi for his workshop, “Sketch Your Story – Visual Storytelling.” He uses the tagline “sketch ‘n’ chill,” which describes his philosophy of urban sketching – that it should be enjoyable, relaxing and stress-free. I remember that stress-free feeling from when I was a student in his workshop years ago. As his TA, I benefited again from his chill attitude in that I hardly had anything to do to help him except take photos and carry his sign as we walked to the workshop location! (As a mom-ish TA, I also carried sunscreen in my bag in case any of his students forgot theirs.)

During his demo, he encouraged students to ask three questions just as a journalist would: who, what, where? If we answer those questions with our sketches, we tell a more complete story. I tried to do the same with my reportage sketch of Andika’s excellent workshop.

About that workshop location . . . it happened to be right outside the town’s gelato shop. How convenient for his students when they needed a break (not to mention his TA).

Andika before beginning his demo, encouraging everyone to relax

Giving feedback to a student

Sketcher Fest Auxiliary Events

 

7/18/24 Gas Works Park

After the ice cream cruise, locals were eager to show out-of-towners the cool places to sketch in Seattle. Gas Works Park was a popular choice, and rightly so. Its unique structures and great views of Lake Union, the Space Needle and downtown make it my favorite Seattle park to take visitors to. In addition, since we had all just seen the park from the water side, it would be fun for them to see it from the ground.

Since I’ve sketched at the park many times, I thought about what I wanted this story to be about – our visitors – and that’s what I focused on.

My lunch between Gas Works  and the Troll

After Gas Works, Kim and I decided that visitor Joel shouldn’t leave Seattle without seeing and sketching the Fremont Troll (below). Although I have sketched the Troll numerous times, I realized I hadn’t since the attraction had gotten a makeover last year. A new stairway was built to make it easier to climb the Troll, a favorite selfie location.

Fremont Troll with new stairway

Art Walk Edmonds, a Sketcher Fest sponsor, invited USk Seattle to see the exhibits and sketch along the way that evening. After the long day, I started to fade before the throwdown, but not before a relaxed dinner in Edmonds with a few friends at Fire & the Feast, at a lovely sidewalk table.

Dinner at Fire & the Feast, Edmonds

Giving Joel a ride back to his hotel, I thought our sketching day was over – until we saw that Her Majesty was out! I remembered Joel mentioning that he wanted to sketch or at least see Mt. Rainier, so we made a stop at Maple Leaf Park. The golden hour is a time of day that I rarely see Her Majesty, let alone sketch her, so it was a fresh view for me, too. After a long day of nonstop socializing (fun but challenging for this strong introvert), the quiet sketch I made there with Joel was my favorite moment of the whole day.  

Mt. Rainier from Maple Leaf Park

Troll fans

Photo by Kim Roberts

A quiet moment for introverts with Her Majesty

Ice Cream Cruise

 

7/18/24 Lake Washington Ship Canal

Sketcher Fest included several auxiliary events before the main event got underway. One was an “ice cream cruise” through the Lake Washington Ship Canal and on lakes Union and Washington. On a warm (but not hot), sunny morning, the two-and-a-half-hour cruise was probably the most relaxing sketching event I’ve ever participated in. Chatting with (and sketching) friends, taking in the ever-changing water views, cruising on gentle waters – it was the ultimate chill summer activity!

As many times as I've sketched Gas Works Park, I had never sketched it from the water side!

As a treat for all the out-of-town Sketcher Fest instructors, the cruise highlighted Seattle’s main waterways with key landmarks pointed out by Captain Mike. Although I was familiar with most of the landmarks, it was fascinating for me to see everything from the water side, which is something I rarely get to do. Passing under several bridges was especially intriguing.

Eleven years ago when we cruised down the Rhine River, I had a ball making lots of small sketches along the way. The boat moved slowly enough that I could capture quite a bit. I didn’t care if the perspective got wonkier and wonkier – it was such a novel way to sketch! Aboard skipper Mike’s Fremont Avenue, I had the same kind of fun, seeing my city in a fresh way.

James and Roy

Joel

Kim sketching from the lower deck

Capt. Mike

Tina and James (the cruise was so chill that I had plenty
of time for selfies!)

Tina, Brenda, Gail

Jim and Tina

Joel and Tina

Here's the "ice cream" part of the ice cream cruise!

Tina and Laurie