The Mobile Studio Rides Again

 

3/8/25 Wedgwood neighborhood

Before I became a committed fitness walker in 2019, my winter-weather sketching routine usually found me in my mobile studio. It was so easy and convenient to drive a mile or three, pull over when I saw something interesting (or not), and sketch in warm, dry comfort.

I spent most of Saturday unpacking, doing laundry, errands and other boring chores. By late afternoon, I was itchin’ to get out for a sketch. I still had one more errand to run in Wedgwood, so I pulled over on my way to make this “nothing” sketch. It sure was warm and comfy! Fitness-walking in winter bites!

My Sketchbook Bookcase

 

More than 13 years of sketchbooks -- plus a little room to grow. Most books are in chronological order, but, of course, many books were used concurrently, so absolute chronology isn't possible. On the fourth shelf from the top, my colorful Uglybooks fit compactly and tidily in plastic storage boxes. Unfortunately, much of the bottom shelf gets wasted because the heating vent is behind it.

This sketchbook from 2020 expresses a little attitude.

A couple of weeks ago, I viewed a YouTube video that stabbed me directly in the heart. Teoh Yi Chie, better known as Parka, talked about how he lost nearly all of his completed sketchbooks.

As I was packing up all my sketchbooks for my move, I thought about Teoh and felt his loss and grief keenly. Although I have digital images of almost all of my sketches, they could never take the place of the bound books I carried around and filled daily, a page at a time. I couldn’t linger as much as I would have liked, but as I handled the books, I occasionally flicked through one, and it was like a visual flashback. Even the covers – handmade with ephemera when I traveled, or stickered with editorial commentary – captured the contents or era.

A couple of months ago when the media were filled with stories about Californians who had lost everything to fire, I realized I need to learn to detach myself from physical possessions, especially those I create myself. I have disposed of quite a few old artworks from my fiber and mixed-media days, but I still have a lot more work to do. I’m certainly not ready to toss entire sketchbooks.

Yesterday I unpacked six boxes and put more than 13 years of sketchbooks up into my newly moved (and now secured) bookcase. Still thinking about Teoh, I grieved for him all over again.

The sketchbooks on the first three shelves are stacked two-deep. Although these handbound books take up the most space, they were also the most fun to handle: The cover images told me immediately what season or location I was in when I filled them.

Finishing a Hundred-Plus at Pike Place Market

3/6/25 Fishmongers at Pike Place Fish Co.

LINK light rail southbound

On Day 4 of One Week 100 People, Roy, Mary Jean and I met at Pike Place Market to hammer out a few more. All of us were close to hitting a hundred, so the pressure was off, and it was pure fun.

After warming up on my light rail ride into town (at left), I got rolling at Pike Place Fish Company (top of post), famous for throwing salmon to each other to entertain tourists. At 10 a.m., the Market was still relatively empty enough that I actually had an unobstructed view of the fishmongers for a few minutes.

For the rest of my hundred, I strategically stood near the intersection of First and Pike, which has an all-way walk signal. That means pedestrians have to wait a bit longer than usual to cross, giving me a little more time. The most fun, though, was the guy making balloon animals (99), who eventually fashioned himself eye-catching headgear (103).

Roy shared his halo-halo with us!

I sketched 103 – 107 (I just realized I counted 103 twice) over lunch at Ludi’s Restaurant (below), which has a menu focused on authentic Filipino dishes. On Roy’s recommendation, I got a traditional silog with (nontraditional) veggie lumpia, all of which was delicious. The highlight of the meal, though, was the bright purple, ube-flavored halo-halo that Roy shared with us for dessert! It’s an amazing concoction of shave ice, sweet beans, coconut milk and some kind of unfamiliar fruit, all topped with ube ice cream, three cherries and a plastic flamingo. What a mess we made on the table sharing it!

Lunch at Ludi's Restaurant. All three of our round-robin concertina books are close enough to being filled that we decided to call the project finished. It's so much fun to go back through it and see the sketches MJ and Roy made. I cherish my book!

LINK light rail northbound

On the light rail ride home, I managed two more. The last one on the train, 109 (at right), may be my favorite of the whole week (despite being caught sketching her).

Since I knew Day 5 would be very busy, I didn’t expect to get any people sketched. You probably know, though, that I can be an over-achiever, so with one day left to the challenge, I couldn’t let it go. I snagged a few more at the Safeway pharmacy and Aegis (below). My final total: 113 (or maybe 114, since I can’t seem to count and draw at the same time).

3/7/25 Sketchwaiting at the Safeway pharmacy
and a couple of folks at Aegis

Caregiver at Aegis

113 in the Books!

 

3/3/25 Metro Market parking lot

One Week 100 People is always my favorite annual drawing challenge. Lasting only five days, it’s intense and challenging but also short and entirely doable because it has no restrictions. Sketches can be done from life, from photos, posed, candid, whatever. The only goal is to practice drawing people as much as possible for five days.

3/3/25 Metro Market parking lot

My personal goal has always been to draw all one hundred from life. The pandemic year made that difficult, so I tried to do a hundred selfies (I only made it to 58, the only year I didn’t hit a hundred). The other years were completed from life. This was my ninth consecutive year participating, and I had a ball!

3/4/25 Victrola Coffee

As I usually do, I chose simple materials that would enable me to capture quick gestures, no details and no color. This year I chose my favorite Pentel Pocket Brush Pen with occasional spots of a white Sakura Gelly Roll. Of course, my trusty daily-carry Uglybook was the best place to put all those people!

3/4/25 Victrola Coffee

Shown here are Nos. 1 through 82. Tomorrow I’ll show the rest. (Sorry that these got out of order . . . Blogger is not very friendly when uploading multiple images at once.)

3/4/25 Aegis Living and Victrola Coffee

3/4/25 Green Lake and Aegis Living

3/5/25 Bellevue Square (this spread and all that follow). This day was especially fun as it was with USk Seattle, and we were all working on our 100 people!

Bellevue Square turned out to be a particularly useful place to practice people walking up and down stairs. The handrail walls are transparant, so it was easy to see the legs and feet. Not easy to draw them, though!

Rockola for Sale

 

I don’t know how quickly Greg’s jukebox will sell, but I decided to pop over to Ballard Consignment sooner rather than later, just in case. I wanted to sketch it again, this time in situ (in situ in our own house somehow didn’t count). Displayed prominently near the entrance, the Rockola’s lighted “lava lamps” still rotated slowly (I posted a short video on Instagram). Next to it was a vintage gumball machine.

As I sketched, several store patrons came up to admire it. Ideal (for me) would be a buyer who puts it in a café or some other public space where I can visit occasionally. In any case, it was fun and bittersweet to sketch it one more time.

Rockola still rockin'!

Ramping Up Color Temperature (Plus Thoughts on Colored Pencils)

 

3/1/25 Rainbow of hues without crossing the color wheel
(all exercises done with Prismacolors in Stillman & Birn
Zeta sketchbook; same Earthsworld reference photo for all)

Week 4’s assignments in Sarah Bixler’s class extended the palette to primary triads and a full rainbow. For the rainbow exercise, we were instructed to avoid blending “across the color wheel” (to create neutrals) and instead maintain fully saturated hues as much as possible, blending only analogously. The result would enable us to demonstrate our understanding of color temperature without neutrals muddying things up. Although the resulting portrait is wacky looking (at left), it certainly was effective in forcing me not to fudge!

For the other two portraits, we were to use a traditional painter’s primary triad and what Sarah calls a printer’s primary triad (what I refer to as CYMK). These were much easier for me because of all the primary triads I had played with a few years ago (and still find fascinating to explore).

3/2/25 printer's primary triad (CYMK)

On one of them, we could add a warm neutral and a cool neutral to help with values if needed (below). I thought the latter additions would be helpful, but in practice, I regretting losing the clarity of the triad hues.

3/3/25 painter's traditional primary triad with addition of indigo and
burnt sienna as cool/warm neutrals

Why use colored pencils?

During a class discussion, one student, a painter, asked sort of a devil’s advocate question: Why use colored pencils instead of paint? Sarah’s response was especially interesting to me as both a colored pencil geek and an urban sketcher: Initially she had started using colored pencils because she was looking for a portable medium that she could use when she was out biking or hiking and wanted to stop for a quick plein air study.

The more she used them, however, the more she realized that colored pencils had unique properties that paint did not. With paints, she can mix any color she wants, but the more she mixes, the less her original chosen palette is apparent. Colored pencils make it easier for her to see how each color addition affects how she perceives the other hues. Because transparent pencils mix optically and can’t blend completely as paint can, they won’t lose their original color identity.

She also finds that because the earlier marks cannot be completely obscured by later layers, she has more opportunity to push toward abstraction. “A nice wonky abstraction is possible,” Sarah said. She enjoys the clear, directional marks that pencils make.

Her comments validated many thoughts I’ve had myself but haven’t always articulated about why colored pencils are a unique, compelling medium.

Ace Garden Center

 

3/2/25 Ace Hardware's new garden center

Probably the Maple Leaf business that Greg and I patronized most regularly in our nearly four decades of living here was Reckless Video, where we rented movies every weekend. Formerly a house, the building remained empty after Reckless closed a few years ago. The family that owns the adjacent Ace Hardware store (which we’ve also patronized the whole time we’ve lived here) also owns the Reckless property. They tried to find ways to use the existing building as an extension of the store, but it didn’t work out.

I was sad to see the old building come down; its traditional architectural style is so emblematic of Maple Leaf. The good news, however, is that Ace has decided to use the space as a garden center that will open this spring. Although I’m unlikely to shop there (Me, garden?? I can barely keep a house plant alive), it might have colorful flowers to sketch someday. More important, it means that a family-owned neighborhood business is thriving and growing.

The Green Lake Sequoia

3/1/25 Green Lake neighborhood

Known as the Green Lake sequoia, a 121-year-old, 100-foot-tall, perfectly healthy tree will likely be cut down for a driveway as part of a development. This is happening all over Seattle because of city laws that allow it. The sequoia’s neighbors and other tree supporters gathered last Saturday afternoon to thank and honor this magnificent tree. The event also raised awareness of actions citizens can take to voice their concerns to city hall.

Looking up and down the block, I saw no other tree close to this one in fullness and height. According to Tree Action Seattle, a citizen activist group that organized the “birthday party,” this sequoia offers a regular resting spot for bald eagles, provides a much-needed buffer against heat and pollution coming from nearby Interstate 5, and filters stormwater that flows into Green Lake, which is only three blocks away.

D & D for R & R

2/28/25 Project 9 Brewing Co., Maple Leaf neighborhood

 After my busy week of packing and unpacking, Friday night’s drink & draw with USk Seattle was welcome R & R! Several of us were warming up for One Week 100 People (which begins today) so we became each other’s victims. I couldn’t resist one of the canines, too. (One of many reasons I like Project 9 Brewing Company for our drink & draws is that dogs are welcome.)

Three Lamps

 

2/24/25 Our three portable lamps. The floor lamp has moved to a different corner of the livingroom, the other antique has moved to my studio, and the contemporary one is now my bedside lamp.

To accommodate furniture changes from my move downstairs, I rearranged the three portable lamps in our home. Doing so made me realize that all three were selected and purchased by Greg, two before I even met him. Although we both love them, we hardly used them when he lived here because they weren’t on switches. The two antiques have cumbersome pull chains or a hard-to-reach knob under the shade to operate.

All that changed when I discovered smart plugs. In the dead of winter when I want as much light as I can get, the lamps are on timers, and I can easily enjoy their soft, warm illumination.

The spouse guy recently spent a few days in the hospital recovering from an infection (he’s fine now and back “home” at Aegis). Feeling sad and anxious, I reached for my usual remedy: my sketchbook. Drawing the lamps calmed me and reminded me that the lamps he bought still bring me comfort every day.

Double Celebration

2/27/25 Green Lake and Roosevelt neighborhoods

Many boxes are labeled "Keep upright" because they contain
mugs of pencils right off my desk!

As mentioned previously, I have finished moving my studio downstairs, which means Phase 2 of my eight-month (so far) downsizing project is done! The final Phase 3 will be removing all the remaining items from upstairs so that the carpet can be replaced, but I’m in no hurry for that. In fact, I’m giving myself the rest of the year to finish. I still have quite a few art supplies upstairs that weren’t ready in time for the movers, so I’ve decided to bring them down only as needed. It will be an interesting downsizing process by attrition: Whatever is still left up there by year’s end, unused for at least a year, will tell me that I don’t really need them. It will be easy to take the remains to the next Gab & Grab.

I still have a lot of unpacking to do, so it will be a while before my “new” studio is fully equipped (I will certainly show it off here when I’m ready!). But I’m already having fun starting fresh. All those empty surfaces and shelves waiting to be filled – but filled judiciously. I’m definitely not piling all the clutter back in. It will be interesting to see how accurately I gauged the amount of materials I’ve kept to fit the available space.  

Although I’m working on plans for a larger celebration eventually, I couldn’t resist a pastry reward for achieving this milestone. It was actually a double celebration: One for myself, and one for the unseasonably warm and sunny day. After one of the coldest winters on record, we Pacific Northwesterners deserved it!

While some things didn't get packed when I ran out of boxes, others I deliberately hand-carried myself. My moving guys were great, but nobody touches my jewels.