Pups on Parade

 

7/12/25 Pups on Parade, Cromwell Park, Shoreline

The day we unexpectedly ended up sketching at Richmond Beach, Natalie had serendipitously spotted a flier about Pups on Parade. Although neither of us has dogs, we both love them, and it sounded like a fun, dog-centered event at Shoreline’s Cromwell Park.

A benefit for Old Dog Haven, which supports and fosters senior dogs, Pups on Parade has been going on for many years, yet it was off my radar until a few weeks ago. This small, neighborhood-centric event is exactly the kind I like: Not too crowded, low-key, and full of people and their dogs to sketch. Natalie and I were in heaven!

The highlights of Pups on Parade were competitions such as best costumed dogs and dog/human lookalikes, “lick art” made by dogs, and a kissing booth featuring rotating dogs offering kisses. A fund-raising auction supports services to more than 300 senior dogs who have been permanently adopted to foster homes. Some pup parents had fostered more than 10 dogs each. (I was so moved by the organization’s mission and the dog stories I heard that I’ve decided to give Old Dog Haven ongoing support through my pet portraits.)

My only regret is that I was having so much fun sketching that I hardly took any photos of dogs, especially the costumed ones! Shown below are some contestants in the dog/human lookalike contest. Other than matching hair color, I’m not seeing much resemblance in these pairs, but I enjoyed their enthusiasm.

I’ve often said that the Greenwood Car Show is my favorite annual summer event, but doggoneit, Pups on Parade is now a strong contender for that title!

This pair won the lookalike contest. Though I'm not 
seeing much resemblance other than color, I think this elderly
pup simply stole the judges' hearts. 

In the background is Martina, winner of the costume contest, in a pink and purple tutu that matches her human's.

Maggie

 

7/11/25 Maggie (reference photo by Katelyn This)

Here’s Maggie, whose life had to end prematurely and very tragically. When I hear each pet’s story from the clients who commission the drawings, I am always moved. It helps me to feel a connection with the animal as I draw. Even if I’ve never met the dog (or the associated human, for that matter), and even if the result shows no difference, it’s somehow a very different experience from drawing a random Internet photo of a dog.

Material notes: Hmmm, I was troubled by this one, specifically the ArtGraf water-soluble graphite that I decided to use in front. As mentioned in my post about Dixie Sue, the last pet portrait I made, I was uneasy about using ArtGraf on Derwent Lightfast paper, which is not intended for wet media, so I skipped it that time. Before using it on Maggie, I practiced on some scrap paper to figure out the water balance I needed, but I don’t like the effect as much as I do on the Stonehenge Lenox Cotton paper that I usually use. It’s also not intended for wet media, but it takes ArtGraf in a mottled way that I like.

The easy solution would be to go back to Lenox Cotton, but Dixie Sue, Maggie and three more dogs I have yet to draw will all go to the same owner, and I don’t want to change the paper in case they will be displayed together: Lightfast has a much warmer tone than Lenox Cotton.

Argh. These are the types of issues I never have to think about with plain ol’ urban sketching in my sketchbook (and why I’m grateful that I don’t make this kind of portrait for a living).

Color Temperature at Volunteer Park

 

On location at Volunteer Park

In February I took an online class with Sarah Bixler on a topic that has intrigued me ever since I took two workshops with her several years ago: color temperature. In all cases, although she didn’t necessarily describe her classes as having color temperature as the focus, her personal approach to color is so strongly centered that way that it became the focus, regardless of subject matter.

I wasn’t necessarily interested in portraiture or figure drawing, but I tried to learn and understand the concepts so that I could apply them on location. Along the way, I’ve made attempts to do this on my own, but I haven’t feel confident doing it. That’s why I was thrilled when she offered several plein air workshops this summer. I couldn’t sign up fast enough!

Our subject: tree limbs turned into a jungle gym

Meeting at Volunteer Park on a thoroughly overcast afternoon, we lucked out on a comfortable temperature, but the flat lighting seemed less than ideal. Sarah pointed out, though, that while we lacked strong shadows, we had the benefit of seeing local colors more easily without the glare of direct sunlight.

The subject she chose for her demo were the remains of multiple trees that had been arranged in a sculptural-like effect (and used frequently by kids as a jungle gym). Hearing her talk through her thinking process continually as she sketched was highly informative and also gave us opportunities to interrupt with questions. Although her near-abstract approach was identical to how she approaches figures or portraits, seeing subject matter on location somehow felt more “real” and natural to me than even live studio models.

Choosing a relatively muted secondary triad (yellow-green, blue-violet, burnt ochre) that was very different from the palette she used, I sketched the same subject she had demo’d. Although I could have chosen a different subject, I thought it would be a good challenge for myself to think about the interpretations and analysis she had talked through while using my own color choices.

My sketch completed during the workshop. The blending triangle at lower left shows the palette I used. Value thumbnail at lower right.

After focusing on color temperature for my main color application, I tried something on my own: Despite keeping it somewhat abstract, I felt like the tree “sculpture” was unclear as a three-dimensional object, which I might have rendered more fully if I had been using my natural, more descriptive approach. To bring the front-facing branches forward, I added yellow to the palette and applied it sparingly to those branches as well as to the foreground grass. At the same time, I made the background cooler than it appeared to push it back. When Sarah pointed out that the background trees could be a darker value, she suggested Payne’s Grey as a neutral cool, and she was right that it made the background darker without affecting my palette choices.

Due to her approach and technique, my result is more abstract than I am used to making, so it doesn’t feel like my own (though I must say that it was a relief to focus on large shapes and not worry about drawing all those tree limbs accurately). But I’m very happy with the optical blending I achieved with dry colored pencils; I really like the “pixelated” effect on this toothy Canson XL mixed media paper I used. And I especially appreciated the opportunity to finally apply her approach to color in the field with her feedback.

Pencil notes: From my previous experience in Sarah’s classes, I knew she recommended Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils. But to make the process my own as I would use it on location, I had to use watercolor pencils, even in their dry state, because my favorite Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelles (extremely soft) blend very differently than Polychromos (extremely hard). This was probably the largest (5-by-7 inches or so) sketch I’ve done with Museum Aquarelles completely dry, and it was delightful to really push their softness to cover the entire composition (which I rarely do even with small sketches). I’m thinking that Caran d’Ache Neocolor II water-soluble crayons would also lend themselves well to this technique and approach.

After scanning the image as completed in the workshop (above), I applied a tiny bit of water to the darkest areas of the background to bring the foreground object further forward (below). It was hard being so restrained with water activation, but I didn’t want to lose the optical blending effect that appeals to me so much with this approach. (See captions for more notes.)

7/9/25 Volunteer Park (After I got home, I added a very restrained amount of water only to the darkest areas of the background to further help push the focal point forward in the composition.)

Warm palette. Instead of using Sarah's recommended Polychromos pencils, I picked out pencils from the Museum Aquarelle palette to match her color suggestions as closely as possible. It's fairly close to my typical daily-carry palette.

Cool palette 

I couldn't resist snapping this pic of Sarah's disorganized, grubby and well-used pencils! I love seeing pencils that look hard-working, while my own look lazy and pristine in their tidy case (above). I can't help being tidy, but a part of me wishes I weren't.

Kora Music

 

7/10/25 Kora busker at Lake City Farmers Market

Walking among the tents of organic berries, colorful bouquets and jarred kimchi, I heard gentle, meditative music in the distance. It was a man playing a stringed instrument I had never seen before, nor the way he was strumming it: Facing the long fretboard.

When I finished my sketch, I put money in his basket and learned that the instrument is called a kora, played by Chet Corpt. It was a lovely soundtrack for a beautiful summer afternoon at the Lake City Farmers Market.

Ahhhh... this is what summer is made of!

Precarious

 

7/9/25 The roof next door

Upstairs for my workout, I heard banging: A man was taking down the chimney on the house next door! As I experienced with the window cleaners, it was nerve-wracking watching him in precarious positions on the steeply pitched rooftop (without a harness! Just like the window cleaners!), but my front-and-center view through a (now clean) window made sketching him irresistible.

Ballard for Lunch

 

7/7/25 "Lunch Set A" at AA Sushi, Ballard

A few months ago when I discovered AA Sushi, I vowed to get back there whenever I was in Ballard again. An appointment brought me there on Monday, and I timed it so that I could have lunch at AA afterwards. In Seattle, it’s easy to get great sushi if you’re willing to pay the high price it usually commands. I continue to be impressed by AA’s excellent food compounded by the restaurant’s fantastic value.

Before and after lunch, I made a few more sketches on Market Street – a cool neon sign shaped like a saxophone (tiny in my sketch); a ubiquitous Lime bike; the EAT sign above Fuego Restaurant; and a couple of locals on their lunch break at Bergen Place. I made a note to come back another time to make a more complete sketch of Fuego’s brick building, which once housed Fire Station No. 18 (now on the national historic register).

Ballard neighborhood

Upstairs is the New Downstairs

 

7/7/25 Mt. Rainier through an upstairs window

My routine on clear mornings is to go upstairs before breakfast to see Mt. Rainier. Now that the windows are clean, my joy in this ritual has increased tenfold. On Monday, it was warm enough that I could have stood on the front deck to make this sketch, but I looked through a window instead – just because I could.

Material notes: You may recall my posts from a couple of years ago when I put together a compact portfolio of select sketch materials that I could keep downstairs for use in the evenings. My need for this “downstairs studio” is explained in this post, and the filled portfolio is shown in this one. Although the original need for it went away, I kept the portfolio intact.

My "downstairs studio" is now my upstairs studio (used on the floor
in this mostly empty room)

In an amusing and ironic turn of events, my downstairs studio has become my upstairs studio! Since moving my studio down to the main floor, I’ve (almost) emptied that former studio room and the former bedroom (which I now use only for yoga and workouts). Although I haven’t sketched any sunset skyscapitos lately, those upstairs windows are where I would make them. I had brought my portfolio upstairs for such occasions, and it came in perfectly handy on Monday when I spontaneously felt like sketching Her Majesty.

Observations

 

6/21/25

5/10/25

Greg’s memory care community has had quite a bit of turnover lately. A couple of residents passed away, and several new residents have moved in. I get to know each one over time, sometimes from brief conversations, but mostly through observation and especially through drawing. Many doze during group activities, making them easy targets for me. But I also enjoy trying to catch them while they are focused and engaged.

6/24/25

6/24/25

7/1/25

We Go Waaaay Back

7/5/25 The Maple, Maple Leaf neighborhood
(on location and photo reference)

The three of us have been friends since seventh grade, and we also went to college together. We go waaaay back. As one raised children, and all of us had careers and busy lives to live, we stayed in touch but rarely got together. We are the kind of friends who can skip years or decades, but when we get together, we can pick up the conversation without missing a beat. The kind where one need say only a name or a phrase, and everyone busts out laughing because we all get it.

Just recently we started seeing each other more often, and we finally have time to do that. (I think that’s one of the biggest benefits of retirement.) As a strong introvert, I’m not interested in continually meeting new people, but the older I get, the more important it is to stay in touch (or get back in touch) with people I care about from my past. I’m finally making the effort to do that.

Drink & Draw at Old Stove

7/3/25 Old Stove Brewery Gardens, Ballard neighborhood

After last month’s scouting mission to Old Stove Brewery Gardens, I knew that I had found a great USk drink & draw venue. Last Thursday turned out beautiful by late afternoon – sunny but neither hot nor too cool. With ideal conditions in the spacious Ballard location (and lots of free parking), the high turnout of sketchers concurred that Old Stove is a keeper. It was a fun way to begin the long Fourth of July weekend.

Playing Tourist in West Seattle

 

7/2/25 Water taxi from downtown to West Seattle

Last month when Mary Jean, Roy and I explored Pioneer Square Habitat Park at the waterfront, we were all reminded of the water taxi service as we sketched a boat there. Operated by the Washington State Ferries, it’s typically off my radar, but the pedestrian-only service between downtown Seattle and the east side of West Seattle is well used by commuters who want to skip West Seattle bridge traffic. With the fare being only a little more than a bus or light rail ride, we decided it would be a fun sketching excursion.

Feeling like tourists!

Meeting at the Washington Street Boat Landing pergola, we caught a mid-morning taxi. The ride across Elliott Bay takes only about 15 minutes, so we all sketched quickly from the deck. Accompanied by more tourists than commuters on that sunny ride, we definitely felt like we were in vacation mode, too!

On the other side, West Seattle offers some of the best skyline views of downtown Seattle from Hamilton Viewpoint Park and Seacrest Park, both short walks from the ferry terminal. It had been 10 years since I last sketched in the area, so it was familiar but felt fresh to me.

The view from Seacrest Park. This may be one of my favorite sketches so far using Caran d'Ache Neocolor II crayons. I'm finally feeling comfortable using them on location and getting into the color palette available in these water-soluble crayons. 

Mary Jean sketching at Seacrest Park

I made this sketch in our current round-robin sketchbooklet.

For lunch, we got a nice shady table at Marination Ma Kai, a Hawaiian-influenced seafood restaurant. *

Light rail riders, my lunch at Marination and coffee after the ferry ride home.

On the short ride back to downtown Seattle, we all agreed that it was fun playing tourists for the day on this easy getaway.

* The site of the Marination Ma Kai restaurant has personal significance to me and my family. It was the location of the former Seacrest Boathouse, where Seattle’s Tengu Club fishing community launched their boats. My father was an enthusiastic Tengu for many years. This article tells the story. A recent documentary tells the history of this club and how its Japanese American members were affected during and after World War II. The Tengu Club is recognized with a plaque outside the restaurant (below), and derby awards are displayed inside.

This plaque recognizes Seattle's Tengu Club, begun by Japanese Americans in the 1930s.

Clean Windows

 

6/30/25 photo reference

It’s embarrassing to admit: In 35 years, we had never had our windows professionally cleaned. We occasionally Windexed interior windows, but never the exteriors, and certainly not the three skylights. Making many, many studies through the bedroom and studio windows upstairs, I had found it increasingly frustrating trying to see through the haze of decades of grime.

Chatting with a friend one day, she happened to mention the window cleaning service she uses and highly recommends. That was all I needed; I called Husser Window Cleaning Service immediately.

Almost all of the 22 windows and glass doors they cleaned included storm panes that had to be removed and cleaned on both sides and screens that had to be removed and cleaned. They also cleaned all the tracks of windows that open.

This room is where I go for yoga and to view Mt. Rainier. When morning light pours in through
the now-clean windows, angels sing.

When Liam brought out the extension ladder to wash the skylights, I went out to sketch him, but it was so stressful watching him move around precariously on the roof that I couldn’t do it! I sketched this from a photo instead.

The next morning when I went upstairs to see Mt. Rainier, I heard angels singing!

“But I Might Need it”: How to Downsize Your Kit

2013 (Note the spare ink cartridges and multiple waterbrushes)

Long-time readers of this blog have seen my sketch kit get smaller over the years. Sometimes the reduction was only temporary, and more materials eventually crept back in. Sometimes the reduction was only hypothetical (search the term “Gilligan’s Island” on my blog, and you’ll find many examples of how I’d pack my kit for that fateful “three-hour tour”).

It took a global pandemic to shrink my sketch kit permanently. Once I got used to a daily-carry bag that was small and light enough to take fitness walks with, there was no going back. Even when I occasionally missed the so-called “full arsenal,” I enjoyed the liberty of lightness too much.

2015

Seeing my compact bag and kit, other sketchers have exclaimed that they’d like to get their own sketch kits (hauled in a huge backpack or wheeled bag) down to a more manageable size, but they just haven’t figured out how. Peering into their bags, I can see that they continuously carry items they “might need,” yet they confess they have not used them in months/years/decades. (By the way, all of this resonates with general downsizing of an entire home, if you catch my drift.)

I’ve noticed that often the people who seem overburdened by their loads are the same people who lament that they don’t get out to sketch as much as they’d like. Hmmm . . . ya think there’s a connection?

2016 (This was my most mixed-media year! I loved fountain pens,
markers, watercolors, watercolor pencils and brush pens, and darned
if I wasn't going to bring them all to the Manchester symposium!

While it’s none of my business how much stuff others want to haul around, I believe strongly that anything that keeps you from sketching as much (or as easily) as you’d like is a problem. The objective is to sketch, and we shouldn’t let carrying our materials keep us from that objective. (For that matter, we shouldn’t let owning too many materials keep us from that objective. See: downsizing.)

I’ve been thinking for a while about writing this post, and my recent visit to Poulsbo when I inadvertently left behind my auxiliary tote bag reminded me of the very points I wanted to make in such a post (and I had to listen to my own lecture that day). The first bullet point is my guiding principle for carrying less. The other points are suggestions on ways to downsize:

2018 (disregard the numbers; they refer to a different post)

• Having fewer options “forces” more creative solutions. A favorite example is when I was sketching a fire station during a minimalism challenge – and I had no red! How could I possibly sketch a fire station without red? Ta-da – my four-color ballpoint pen (which I keep in my bag for general notetaking, not sketching) came to my rescue.
• A friend and I just had a conversation about how the 80/20 rule applies to sketch kits: We all use about 20 percent of our materials 80 percent of the time. That rule applies even with my minimal kit. Consider which items you use 80 percent of the time and remove the rest.
• Whatever is your color medium of choice, choose a minimal palette – say, six to 10 colors. Esthetically, a limited palette looks more cohesive. It also encourages mixing and experimenting with hues that at first may not seem “right.” Some of my favorite sketches have been primary and secondary triad experiments. One time, I was dismayed that my limited palette didn’t include the right periwinkle hue to sketch a Bachelor’s Button. I was “forced” to optically mix some unexpected colors, and I was delighted with the result.

• 

  2021 (This version of my pandemic kit was minimal even for me!)

  Stop prepping for every possible sketch “emergency.” I used to carry a small pencil sharpener routinely. It’s tiny and doesn’t weigh much, so it seemed like an easy carry. The one or two times I actually needed it, though, it was lost at the bottom of my bag. It wasn’t worth the bother of digging it out. I finally took the sharpener out and instead use other sharpeners at home that do the job more effectively.
• Along the same lines, stop carrying “spares” of favorite materials. This was a biggie whenever I traveled. I knew I couldn’t just go back home to get more, and local stores might not carry exactly what I needed, so I always carried extras (pencils, pens, ink refills, entire sketchbooks) of things I felt I couldn’t live without. Almost always, I brought them all home again without using them. On all my post-pandemic trips (Dallas, Portland and L.A.), I cut the cord on spares. Guess what? I lived!

(Shown in this post are a few of my sketch kits over the years. For a look at all past sketch kits and bags, see my Sketch Kit Archive page.)

Current: lean and mean

Early Summer Treats

 

6/30/25 Mt. Rainier and The Brothers from Maple Leaf

Our first heatwave of the official summer season was just getting under way. It was an old-school, Seattle-style heatwave – the kind that cools down to the high 50s at night, no matter how hot it gets in the daytime, and lasts only a couple of days. Not that newfangled, triple-digit “heat dome” stuff.

I got out early for my walk to pick up a few groceries. In these parts, it’s a treat to be able to take a walk in a T-shirt (with no other layers!) when the air still has that crisp freshness. Cherries were ripening on the trees, and my neighbors’ Lucifer crocosmia were beginning to bloom.

Crossing the Northeast 80^th Street Interstate 5 overpass, I stopped for my ultimate treat: a view of both Rainier to the south and The Brothers to the west from a single point.

Yes, this is why I live here.

Cars and Community in Greenwood

 

6/28/25 Herkimer Coffee, Greenwood neighborhood

A couple more pups outside Herkimer

As I do every year, I arrived at the Greenwood Car Show by 7:30 a.m. and started the day by walking the entire 20-block length of the show. On that first walk-through, I don’t sketch; I just look and enjoy. Although noisy and heavy with the smell of exhaust, the parade of cars on Greenwood Avenue getting into their spaces is exciting and full of anticipation.

Then I walk halfway back up again to get breakfast at Herkimer Coffee, grab a table outside, and watch the street action unfold (top of post). Over coffee and a scone, I often sketch more dogs than cars, as lots of pups get tethered to the bike racks while their humans go in for sustenance.

By the time USk Seattle meets at 10 a.m., I’m already warmed up and ready for action myself!

Greenwood Car Show

Although I’ve felt for many years that the Greenwood Car Show is my favorite summertime event, I don’t always stop to consider how different it is from other big annual events that roll around this time of year.

What is it about this show that makes it my favorite? Although I do enjoy seeing and sketching classic cars, it’s not just the subject matter. Despite attracting crowds from all over the city, the Greenwood show somehow manages to maintain its neighborhoody feeling. I kept seeing families running into friends there. Cheerful conversations were all around.

The sketch at top right on this page is my favorite this year. Spontaneously, I got the idea to draw the white lines over the black, and I love this look.

Then there’s the whole car enthusiast community: Owners chatting about all the work they’ve done, how long they’ve owned it, and all the cars that came before and after it. As I sketched, I overheard people reminisce about cars they or previous generations once drove, and I did my share of feeling nostalgic, too (I always look for Datsun Z cars of my high school fantasies).

Cars have always been a strong part of American culture, and the Greenwood Car Show drives (ahem) that point home. I’m happy to be part of it every year, catching the stories in my sketchbook.

Ahhh, my high school fantasy cars!

Greenwood Avenue is closed to traffic for the show, but not to this guy's eye-catching vehicle!

On Saturday night, I got some takeout sushi for dinner. Sketchwaiting outside Akebono, I was still in car show mode and gave my own Miata a little sketchbook love.