Sharing My Sketch Journal Process

 

An enthusiastic, open-minded group of students!

While the pet portrait workshops I taught last spring were more about developing drawing skills and learning brush pen or colored pencil techniques, the one I taught on Saturday was about a process that’s near and dear to my heart: Keeping a daily sketch journal.

Regular blog readers know that it’s a process I’ve been developing for myself for many years, but it’s only been the last three years that my practice finally  “stuck.” Eager to share that process in person, I was rewarded by enthusiastic, open-minded students who were willing to try things that may have been outside their comfort zone. Some were sheer beginners, and many had not sketched on location before.

8/1/26 Here's my own sketch journal page from our first exercise, which turned out to be a spontaneous demo when a student asked how I sketch people.

We started the workshop at the ArtSpot store (the workshop’s sponsor), where I passed around several of my own sketch journals and talked about my many failed tries – and the one successful one. After explaining my plan for the morning and discussing recommended art supplies (of course), we headed out for the first sketch location. Our first stop, though, was to get a beverage or (you guessed it) a pastry to start our sketching out right!

Lacking a café where 14 people (including myself and one class assistant) could sit together, I chose a location I was familiar with from the sketch walk I had led during Sketcher Fest. Using the plentiful benches of the Veterans’ Plaza, we stayed together to try the process I had described: Sketch our food or beverage first as an easy “entry” to the page spread, then sketch whatever grabbed our attention around us.

Students hard at work at Edmonds' Veterans' Plaza.

I was happy to observe relaxed conversations among students. This plaza is better than any classroom... plenty of benches for all.

After giving individual feedback, I knew they were ready for the next step. This time we all scattered out to the Edmonds Summer Market, which was in full swing by then. Their assignment was to make a series of sketches with written comments that would tell a story in answer to the question: What did you experience at the market? I encouraged everyone to observe with all their senses, not just sight. The market is full of sounds, scents and weather to feel!

After we all scattered through the market, I lost sight of most students, so I didn't get more photos. But I caught these two sketching from one of my own favorite spots at this market: It's a great view from behind a flower vendor's booth. 

About an hour later, we regrouped at Veterans’ Plaza to share our sketches and takeaways from the process. It was gratifying and rewarding to hear that students had been encouraged and excited by their first try at a daily sketch journaling practice.

Check out our colorful throwdown! ArtSpot carries Uglybooks. It's possible I may be an "influencer." Ha-ha!!

Here's my own answer to the question: "What did you experience at the market?"

Photo courtesy of ArtSpot

Photo courtesy of ArtSpot

Sammamish River Trail

 

7/31/26 Freeways criss-cross over the Sammamish River in Bothell.

Ten miles of paved trail for bicyclists, runners and walkers, the Sammamish River Trail goes all the way from Marymoor to Bothell. Although I’d sketched the Sammamish from Bothell Landing a few times, Brackett’s Landing a mile or so east was new to me. That was the meetup point with Allan, Roy, Dave and Gabi on a beautiful morning.

Thumbnail for sketch above

When I was invited, I had been promised freeway overpasses – I’m in! When I arrived, though, all I saw was the green, serene river with a few ducks floating by. Huh?

It turned out that was just the parking location. Walking 10 minutes or so on the trail brought us to the spot that Dave called the “spaghetti monster” of vertical and horizontal concrete made further chaotic by new construction. Although I had brought along earplugs, I was surprised that I didn’t need them. Best of all, we had plenty of deep shade from the overpasses to choose whatever composition we wanted.

Daunted by what I saw in every direction, I made a thumbnail of the vertical view I chose to see if everything would fit. Liking the composition, I moved on to the larger color version (top of post).

After tackling the concrete jungle, we all agreed that the serene piece of river where we parked would be a welcome relief. My challenge was to distinguish the water reflections from the trees and foliage all around (below). I joked that I was channeling Monet during his cataract phase.

Whether natural or humanmade, the sights from the Sammamish River Trail are a sketcher’s paradise, especially when it’s cloudless and 74 degrees. Ahhh, summer in Seattle!

A 10-minute walk from the Spaghetti Monster is this stretch of serenity.

A 180-degree turn from the scene I sketched are more more tangles of spaghetti waiting to be connected.

Tina, Allan, Gabi, Roy and Dave take on the Spaghetti Monster!

Seeing But Not Sketching the Whole

 

7/30/26 Roosevelt and U-District neighborhoods

Walking to an errand in the University District via the Roosevelt neighborhood, I spotted a crane at a construction site of the new “Roosevelt Manor” (ostentatiously declaring its establishment in 2027 [eyeroll emoji here]). Attracted as I am to cranes, I usually like to sketch their entire inverted-L shape. This time I thought I’d zoom in on two small features I usually don’t observe closely: The tiny elevator that carries crew members up and down, and the small pulley and chain assembly that hooks onto things it hauls. Without context, they seemed more intriguing than they usually do.

Amused, I decided to fill the rest of the page with two more things that were entirely visible to me but deliberately drawing only some parts. Not drawing the pointed top of Blessed Sacrament’s steeple took willpower – that’s the part of all steeples I enjoy drawing the most!

Despite that, I had great fun challenging myself to avoid drawing the whole of what I see. It’s not easy! My brain always wants to complete the picture.

Process note: This type of walk-sketching – having no clue what I will draw until I see it – is still one of my all-time favorite forms of sketching on location. A mile and a half feels like nothing when I’m continually looking for the next sketch. How fortunate I am to be so easily entertained!

Discovery Park Vista

 

7/28/26 Puget Sound from Discovery Park

The closest I have ever seen a Cooper's hawk!

Seattle’s largest park and full-on forest in the middle of the city, Discovery Park is an urban gem of hiking trails, open meadows, cliffs and streams. After my unguided wandering of the park a few weeks ago, I invited Nilda to go with me last Tuesday. Much more familiar with the park than I am, she led me to a vista of Puget Sound at the western bluff. Though breezy and partly cloudy, the afternoon was a lovely time to walk, talk and sketch.

Bonus: We spotted a Cooper’s hawk (ID’d by the Merlin app by its call)! The park is a favorite among birders.

Once More at Thornton Creek

 

7/27/26 Thornton Creek, Northgate

I seem to have taken it on as a personal summer mission to introduce my sketching friends to Thornton Creek! It’s such a serene yet fully accessible gem in the middle of otherwise bustling Northgate. This time I met Mary Jean and Roy there on a sunny but breezy morning.

As much as I was cowed by all the foliage at Kruckeberg Garden last week, Thornton Creek is somehow friendlier to me. There’s plenty of multi-layered textures and subtle color differences to be endlessly challenging, yet there are also enough solid shapes to help guide the compositions. It also has a lot more light. This time I looked straight down into the winding creek at the center of the park (above).

With the few minutes before our meetup, I sketched a favorite Japanese maple tree (at left) that I’ve captured at least once before.

“Fast and Fun” with Jonathan Tune

 

7/26/26 Edmonds, 20 min. 

Before hitting the streets, we practiced very short sketches
 from a still life form.

A workshop with a focus on quick sketching that is both expressive and accurate? Yes, please! Offering “Sketching Fast and Fun” through ArtSpot in Edmonds, Jonathan Tune shared a method of urban sketching that reminded me of studio life drawing. Models usually begin with very short poses, then the poses get progressively longer. In the same way, we began by making a series of sketches from one minute to 20 in postcard and business card sizes. Sometimes we even used our non-dominant hand.

In between, Jonathan gave demos of varying lengths so that we could see how he would approach various subjects. While sketch durations of one to five minutes could be loose and inaccurate, we were training our eye and hand for greater accuracy when we had more time.

I had never been in a workshop in which every sketch exercise was timed! It was an interesting approach that pushed all of us out of our comfort zones. The sketch at the top of the page was my longest sketch of about 20 minutes – the last of the workshop. Others shown here are of varying durations (I was working too fast to note the duration on the pages, which would have been interesting to see now).

Jonathan’s favorite (and recommended for this workshop) drawing tool is a Tombow Fudenosuke brush pen, which is one of my favorites, too; no learning curve there! That’s what I used for all of these sketches.

Jonathan giving a demo in the ArtSpot parking lot

The Scavenger Hunt is On!

 

7/25/26 Scavenger hunt at South Lake Union

Months ago, I viewed a YouTube video by Teoh Yi Chie showing an urban sketching bingo game that USk Singapore had put on. With sponsored prizes and a huge turnout, the game looked like so much fun that I was inspired to do something similar with USk Seattle. Bingo, however, has an element of chance; it’s not enough to simply sketch the objects – you had to get a certain number in a row. It would also be a lot of work to create multiple variations of bingo cards. I got an easier idea: An urban sketching scavenger hunt!

Shortly afterwards, I took a wander through one of my favorite sketching neighborhoods: South Lake Union. Within an easily walkable area, I jotted 20 things I saw (many of which I sketched myself). Some were specific, like the Space Needle, while others were left open to interpretation, such as “a cylindrical building” (SLU has more than one) or “something yellow.” I had so much fun developing the game!

The hunt was on! Last Saturday, a terrific turnout of USk Seattle met near the Amazon Spheres for the game: Whoever sketched the most items on the scavenger list during the three-hour outing would win. Prizes were donated by USk Seattle admins and Gabi Campanario of Sketcher Press – art supplies, sketchbooks and published art books. Thankfully, we had a lot of prizes, because I had under-estimated how many sketchers would be so successful: Eleven sketched all 20 items!

Since I had made the game myself, I didn’t compete, but I took my leisurely time sketching many of my favorites on the scavenger list. Compared to all the hard-working participants, I felt like a slacker: I even took a lunch break!

It was inspiring to see people helping each other figure out clues or find the subjects – a collaborative spirit instead of competitive. I got so much positive feedback about the game that I’d like to make it an annual summer event in varying locations!

These intrepid participants found and sketched all 20 scavenger items! (Not pictured: Ching Hung)

Pacha Collective

 

7/23/26 Pacha Collective

I’d been marching through a long list of what I call death management tasks. None were painful, difficult or surprising; all were tedious, time-consuming and sometimes required visits to government offices (Social Security required me to appear in person with our original marriage license). Even processing the death certificate – that most official, undeniable declaration that the love of my life is gone – felt abstract and completely detached from the man I said good-bye to.

Methodically checking off my list the way I used to manage projects at work, I finished in eight days. (Well, two documents still need to be notarized during a brief meeting with our attorney, but my part is done.) I celebrated the way I used to celebrate each task or milestone during my massive downsizing project: A pastry and a sketch, of course!

When I’ve poked my nose into the Green Lake neighborhood’s Pacha Collective on other occasions, the tables were always full. On this comfortable day following our heatwave, I guess people wanted to be outdoors; the café had several open tables. Unfortunately, the one I got wasn’t at a very good angle to sketch the café’s centerpiece: A full-size VW bus, complete with seating and tables inside! I wanted to show more context so that it was clear that the bus was inside the café. I’ll look forward to doing that next time (and someday, I’d like to dine inside the bus, too).

Ironically, the coffee cake I chose came from Macrina Bakery,
where I have given up trying to get a table!

What I did have a good view of were a couple of patrons on the café’s far side. The man in back chose to stand while he worked at his laptop, giving me an unusual composition.

A Green Oasis at Kruckeberg Garden

7/24/26 Kruckeberg Botanic Garden

 

A dark-green, shady oasis, Kruckeberg Botanic Garden in Shoreline would be ideal on a hot day – the garden felt like it was at least 10 degrees cooler than on the street. As the temps were only in the high-60s and low-70s last Friday with USk Seattle, I was actually a little chilly, thanks to the shade of all those old-growth trees. Still, it was serene and comforting to be within the lush, forest-like atmosphere.

Serene, that is, until I started looking around for something to sketch: All that green is formidable! While I enjoy the challenge of sketching layers of foliage (I even recently boldly stated that I’m no longer intimidated by it), Kruckeberg Garden is whole next level of layers of foliage! One challenge was looking for pockets of light to contrast all the dark green. While my first sketch (above) was that attempt, I don’t really care for the composition I ended up with to get that light.

It took me quite a while to find a scene for my second sketch. I kept looking for a single tree to anchor the composition, but many grew close together or just didn’t catch my eye. I finally spotted Mark sketching next to an enormous tree with an interesting shape; he gave the tree scale, which I always think is important in a composition.

Process notes: To avoid being cowed by all that green, I channeled my inner Orla Stevens and Roy, who both encourage simply embracing the joy of mark-making. That was enormous fun!

In the first sketch, I also tried to think like a painter: Before doing anything else, I spread water all over the paper, then applied a yellow Caran d’Ache Neocolor II crayon wet-in-wet with the “licking” method. That served as a warm underpainting for everything else. I like the effect, and it easily eliminated spots of bright paper white that wouldn’t have felt right in such a dark yet warmly lit environment.

The newly constructed walkway/ramp makes the garden's lower level much more accessible.

Seattle-Style Heatwave

 

7/23/26 Green Lake

It was an old-school, Seattle-style heatwave: A few days in the high 80s and 90s that always cooled to comfortable temps overnight. Still, it was hot enough that I had to get out early for my walks, or the afternoons would be brutal. By the fourth day, we were down to the comfy mid-70s with some clouds – ahhh!

Breezy and shaded with trees, Green Lake Park is always a summer oasis – and more so right after a heatwave.  

The Final World Cup Match

 

7/19/26 World Cup viewing party at Phinney Station, Phinney neighborhood

As we were getting ready to leave Cocoa Legato, Ching said she wanted to see how the final World Cup match was going. I tagged along to Phinney Station just a few blocks away. The crowd was standing-room-only at the venue’s huge patio, where everyone seemed riveted to the two screens. We stayed in the overflow area on the sidewalk, where we still had a good view of Spain and Argentina facing off.

As usual at any sports event, I didn’t know what was going on, but I enjoyed sketching the spectators on a lovely Sunday afternoon.

Natalie at Open Mic

 

7/19/26 Tracy and Natalie perform "I Do Not Like Yoga Anymore" at Cocoa Legato

Last spring when Natalie saw how much fun the open mic sessions are at Cocoa Legato, she was inspired to get her act together – literally. Ching, Kim and I came out to cheer her on, of course. She and her friend and yoga instructor Tracy performed Natalie’s original song, “I Do Not Like Yoga Anymore,” which included Natalie’s dramatization and Tracy on ukelele. Brava!

Several other vocalists also performed that afternoon, including Pierce and Jonah, who were familiar to us from previous visits to Cocoa Legato. Regardless of their skill level or style, I admire anyone who will stand up during open mic to perform for a live audience. Like drawing, it’s not about “talent” but about doing and practicing, and I appreciate their courage.

Yes, I had the chocolate grilled cheese sandwich again!