Edmonds Fountain

 

6/23/26 Edmonds Town Center
(I turned in this sketch right after the outing, so I didn't get a chance to scan it; this is just a photo I snapped on location)

As a celebration of Sketcher Fest, ArtSpot art supply shop invited their instructors and others in the Edmonds and Seattle sketching community to participate in a themed window exhibit. After gathering on Tuesday to sketch the Edmonds Town Center fountain, we all contributed our sketches for display in the shop’s window for the month of July. What a fun way to highlight urban sketching with a single theme!

Anticipating the afternoon’s high heat, I arrived earlier than the noon meetup time to make my first sketch (top of post). A relief for us sketchers, Edmonds was 10 degrees cooler than Seattle, making it comfortable and very pleasant in the shade.

The yellow sketch was intended for the window show, but I wanted a sketch of the fountain for my journal, too. While taking a lunch break at Seafood Market, where I grabbed a great sidewalk table, I could still see the fountain down the block – score!

Seafood Market

Back at the fountain after lunch, I spotted Tracy, her dog Bodie, and Jim. After chatting with them a bit, I walked across the street to capture them and the fountain for a third time.

Material notes: I’ve sketched the Edmonds fountain several times before, and it’s always challenging. The issue is that the metal structure is about the same value as its surroundings of buildings and trees, so it’s difficult to make it stand out. And of course, falling water is always a challenge of its own. For the window display, I wanted to use paper larger than my usual comfy A5. On a whim, I grabbed my 9-by-12-inch UglyPads. The size was a stretch for me, and I had also never used only Caran d’Ache Neocolor II crayons on Uglybooks paper, so it was a bit of a gamble. I kept the washes light and spare, and the paper held up like a champ!

Untested, the Neo II and UglyPads combo went well! Whew!

I had several other color options in my UglyPads, and a darker color might have made the fountain pop more, but I thought sunny yellow captured the mood of a summer celebration better.

For the white, I used a non-soluble Neocolor I wax pastel. I could have just as easily used a white Neo II, which looks the same in its dry state, but I hardly use my small set of Neo I crayons, so it was a way to use one. The fountain still doesn’t stand out against its background as much as I’d like, but overall, it came out well – considering the chances I took! I was pleased by how easy the chunky Neo II crayons were to use with 9-by-12 paper. I’d be hard-pressed to make a sketch that large on location using colored pencils, but the crayons were a good scale match with the size.

I’m relieved – I didn’t even bring a backup plan!