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| 4/8/26 Green Lake neighborhood |
With Link light rail so convenient, I rarely take Metro anymore, but certain destinations are better reached by bus. I catch route No. 62 from this Green Lake stop. I’ve waited at this stop many, many times, yet I had never noticed the decorative lamp post until I made this sketch. I guess I’m always looking in the opposite direction in anticipation of the bus’s arrival. (How often has that happened to you? It happens to me regularly: I don’t see it until I sketch it.) Just as I was finishing, a 62 bus approached and fit right into my composition.
Color notes: A friend and I enjoy discussing the particular shade of green that trees begin to take on at this time of year. Tiny, tender leaves shimmer with a luminous, nearly neon yellow-green. In this post from a few years ago, I mentioned the various names pencil manufacturers have come up with to describe this fleeting hue.
Given my current obsession with Caran d’Ache Neocolor II water-soluble crayons, I picked out Spring Green (470) from the crayon line, a color I have also used in its Museum Aquarelle pencil form during previous springs.
You are so right about not noticing things right in front of you. One of the things I love about sketching. But sometimes it's just as I'm looking around, thinking about a spot for a potential sketching session that I suddenly notice a detail and wonder how could I have not seen that thing that has obviously been there forever? Now I want to see a close-up sketch of the lamppost to enjoy what makes it decorative.
ReplyDeleteIt goes to show that observational skills can be learned; we don't have to go through life half-blind, even if we don't sketch!
DeleteI have the same thing happen when I'm sketching. I notice things that I hadn't seen before. That is so much fun! Love the spring green. I've been seeing a lot of it here lately.
ReplyDeleteSpring green is popping all over the place here, too! And it's so fleeting, just like pink trees!
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