Trees are My Friends

5/8/19

When I first began sketching, I declared many sketching nemeses. Architecture (or maybe architectural perspective is more accurate) was an early one; another was cars; and another was trees. Each caused me anxiety when it was part of a composition I was considering, so my first impulse was to avoid the nemesis and look for something else to sketch. But I knew that the only way to slay a nemesis was to face it head-on and practice.

5/12/19

Eventually, with enough practice, the anxiety went away, though the subject matter didn’t become less challenging. Buildings, cars and trees are all still challenging to me, but they have become fun challenges, and I no longer feel the impulse to run.

Trees, however, have changed again for me in a way that the other two former nemeses have not. I now find drawing trees to be not only challenging and fun; it is also relaxing and meditative. Sometimes when I’m feeling stressed or burdened, or my mind has been engaged in some kind of heavy lifting, I step outside and find a tree to sketch. A 15-minute tree break relaxes me so that I can return to whatever I was doing before, refreshed. (Each of these recent sketches was done in about 15 minutes.) Trees have made a full transformation from nemesis to friend.

5/11/19

Below are some sketches I made during my first year or so of sketching when trees were still in enemy territory. I’m happy that I didn’t run; trees are worth making friends with.

4/5/13

2/18/13

6/3/12

Sora of Kingdom Hearts III

5/15/19  Rhiannan as Sora (10-min. pose)

Are you familiar with the video game Kingdom Hearts III? Neither was I, but I met one of its characters Wednesday night at Cosplay Drink & Draw hosted by Luther’s Table in Renton. Organized by Kate Buike, this casual group meets weekly to sketch models dressed in amazing costumes based on fantasy, anime and other characters.

On this evening, model Rhiannan was dressed as Sora, hero of Kingdom Hearts III, which “follows the journey of Sora, a young boy and unknowing heir to a spectacular power. Sora is joined by Donald Duck and Goofy to stop an evil force known as the Heartless from invading and overtaking the universe.” Although I had no idea who this character was (nor did I know until I just researched the game that the character is male), I was delighted and impressed by the meticulous care that Rhiannan had taken to create a realistic, highly detailed costume. I wish I could have shown more of the beautiful tailoring, embellishments and lots of pockets in my one- to 10-minute sketches. Most of my life drawing experience is with nude models, so it was especially fun to capture the flamboyant shape of Sora’s skirt and jacket.

2-minute poses

The venue, Luther’s Table, is also worth nothing as unique in this area, as far as I know. Its mission is “to change the world by loving all people, fostering authentic community, and breaking down barriers through food, drink, the arts, and a spirit of generosity. We love being a place to host deep conversations - theological or philosophical, over a drink or a meal.” Entirely staffed by volunteers, the café gives 30 percent of donations received to local non-profits and provides “a no-cost coffee and warm up program for those folks in need of a warm space.” On the evening I was there, other patrons did, indeed, seem to be engaged in lively conversation or quietly reading. I’m amazed that the organization is able to sustain itself, but I’m happy that this type of space is available for people who enjoy sketching costumed models.

It’s a bit of a drive for me during rush hour, so I’m not sure how often I’ll be participating, but it was so much fun that I’d love to get down there again sometime.

2-minute pose

1-minute pose

The Dark Lord helps Kate collect tips for the model.

A creative outfit, complete with key staff!

Lab Work

5/8/19 Maple Leaf neighborhood

Last spring I started a series of sketches of Maple Leaf neighborhood houses. I’m back on it, and this is my first of the season, though I’m not very pleased with it. I decided to use it as my “lab work” (Gabi Campanario likes to say in his urban sketching workshops that his sketchbook is not a portfolio; it’s a laboratory) to try new approaches with two things I want to change.

One is my reliance on a dark gray marker as a grisaille for large areas of shading when I’m sketching architecture. While it’s handy and fast, the marker-y look has never been my favorite. For this sketch, I used my favorite cool gray Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle colored pencil, which I activated with water and then reapplied to darken. I also applied the local color of the house over it, but it doesn’t show much. (I think I prefer the Prussian blue I tried on Rainier Tower.)

The second thing I’m trying to change is the way I apply a streak of blue for the sky. The sizing on my former paper, Canson XL, was much more forgiving for my typical wet-on-wet approach. Sprayed water sinks much more quickly into Stillman & Birn Zeta’s surface, and I don’t like the mottled look I sometimes get when I try to compensate by spraying again. I can have the problem even when I apply water with a waterbrush, which was the compromise I started using when spritzing failed me. As a different approach for this sketch, I simply applied a generous scribble of dry pigment to the page and activated it. I don’t care for the results, so I’m going to keep looking for a better method.

As long as I’m complaining, here’s one more: What’s up with that roof? I was attracted to the complex, pyramid-like roofline that is mimicked over the porch, and I enjoyed the challenge of drawing it. But I didn’t even notice the weird piece of roof sticking out on the right until I was halfway done with the sketch. It’s not a dormer – it’s just a piece of roofing at a slightly different angle to the rest of the roof and causing confusing shadows.

African Savanna

5/7/19 Dave the giraffe

One of our favorite ways to welcome long-awaited spring weather is to visit Woodland Park Zoo. We knew we wouldn’t be able to see the new baby giraffe that was born a couple of weeks ago (he has a problem with his rear fetlocks and isn’t out for public viewing yet), but seeing his photos in the local news reminded us that we hadn’t visited since last fall. His father Dave was outside feeding, and I managed to capture a sketch of his amazingly long, black tongue! That agile tongue is able to curl around leaves he can barely reach and pull them into his mouth.

We spent most of our time in the African Savanna, where the hippos are my favorites. I was trying to capture a quick gesture of the enormous girth of one resident, but despite her size (weighing more than a ton!), she moved quickly into the pool. Partially submerged, she basked comfortably in the sun, so I had more time.

Hippo

In the Savanna Aviary, we encountered numerous white-headed buffalo weavers, mouse birds, white-faced whistling ducks and a bright yellow finch (I forgot its exact name) that were all relatively fearless of visitors. I think all the time that I’ve put in at our own bird feeder paid off as I sketched a weaver at close range.

Buffalo weaver

Self-Study

5/6/19 Maple Leaf neighborhood

“Are you doing this for a class?”

The curious passer-by asked me this after I had answered his questions about what I was doing on the corner of Northeast 85^th. Initially, I think he had difficulty understanding what I could find interesting about the traffic circle there, but when I explained how I was using the bicolor editing pencil – red for the areas in light, blue for the areas in shade – he became more interested himself.

“No class – just self-study, and for fun,” I answered. And it is fun – but also fascinating. For example, the shadows and light on most of the plantings and the caution signs were straightforward enough (once I got past making the yellow diamonds red and blue!).  The tree, though, was another matter. More accustomed to sketching trees with tightly clustered leaves, I expected the left side of this one to be mostly illuminated, and the right side in shade. But the more I squinted and observed, the more I realized that almost all the leaves were dark, except for a small area on the right where individual leaves were reflecting light. If I had been using realistic colors, I probably would have made all the leaves the same color and might not have even noticed this apparent contradiction.

Below is another study in red and blue – this time in the Roosevelt neighborhood. Once again, it was a lace leaf Japanese maple that had initially caught my eye, but as I studied the light and shadow on it, its surroundings attracted me, too. The car, the houses, even the utility pole seemed more interesting when I observed the light more closely.

5/2/19 Roosevelt neighborhood

My Felissimo Colored Pencil Coup

Felissimo colored pencils

I first heard about Felissimo colored pencils a little more than a year ago. A Japanese colored pencil brand with 500 colors, they are sold only by subscription. Every month, subscribers receive 20 unique pencil colors (price: 2,808 yen per month), and at the end of 25 months, they would own the full set, “the magnificent experience of a lifetime” (according to its website).

Five hundred colors! You can imagine the head explosion I experienced. For a short time, I was completely obsessed. Google searches led me to discover that a large part of the subscriber experience was using the pencils not as an art material but as home décor (which, as you know, is a concept that I’m not unfamiliar with). Further research indicated that the pencils are, in fact, better as home décor than as an art material. Discouraged, I considered subscribing only long enough to receive one month’s worth, just to experience a fraction of that magnificent experience. 

Unfortunately, there is apparently no way to end a subscription once it is begun (at least, the English-language Fellissimo site offers no FAQ or fine print related to such, and inquiries to the site returned no response). I stuffed the pieces of my head back into my skull, and I gave up.

But you probably know me well enough to know that I never completely give up (at least where colored pencils are concerned). Several months ago Felissimo pencils were back on my radar when I serendipitously came across a complete, “barely used” set of 500 on eBay. I contacted the seller to see if he would be willing to sell me one box only. No dice (as I expected; I imagine it would be difficult to sell the other 475 if one box were missing).

Patient and undeterred, I kept looking on eBay, and sure enough, listings for Felissimo pencils popped up fairly regularly, always in “nearly new” or new condition, and always as complete sets of 500. Some were even being sold with huge display racks. Each time I saw one, I inquired about the possibility of purchasing one box only. My offer was consistently declined.

Until one day it was accepted! The very accommodating seller, who had multiple new, complete sets to offer, gave me a choice of any color range I wanted. (Because Felissimo pencils are sold by subscription only, each monthly box contains shades and tints of a single hue, so it’s impossible to acquire a full rainbow unless you complete the subscription.) I chose green. I assured her that if I loved the pencils, I would be back for more.

Felissimo box No. 12

A month later, my box (No. 12 in the subscription sequence) arrived from Japan. Congratulating myself for my coup, I wondered if I were the only person on earth to own less than a full set of Felissimo pencils.

The box I purchased, which comes from Felissimo’s original edition released several years ago, contains 25 pencils (the full set includes 20 boxes). The current subscription is a second edition, which releases 20 pencils per month. The two editions can be distinguished by the barrel shape – the older edition is round, while the second is square.

I’m guessing that another box in the set must contain a darker, cooler range of greens because the one I received includes only lighter, warmer greens. It’s a joyful range just right for spring.

Felissimo pencils are distinctive for the names given to their colors. While some – Lime, Clover, Fern – are descriptive, others are much more imaginative. Season Ticket, Falstaff and Pixies are among my favorites. The color name, color number and branding are stamped in metallic gold on one side of the glossy, round barrel. They are lovely, elegantly designed pencils.

 

Intriguing but senseless color names

On the opposite side are stamped the color name in Japanese, a different (why?) color number, and the Felissimo logo a second time.

 

The opposite side indicates the color name in Japanese.

The rounded ends are beautifully dipped.

 

Lovely dipped ends

The box came with a table of the colors (in Japanese only) with space for the subscriber to make swatches. Hole punch marks indicate that the pages could be placed in a binder (which Felissimo most likely sells, or perhaps it comes with the first subscription fulfillment). I always swatch pencil colors in a sketchbook, but I like the idea of offering users a sheet like this to track colors.

 

Color chart for making swatches

Alas, that brings me to my own swatches, where I learned what’s inside these whimsically named and beautifully lacquered pencils.

 

Swatches made in Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook

As I typically do, I applied three layers of pigment to make each swatch. Hard and waxy, the cores contain so little pigment that the third layer looked about the same as the first. They remind me of Crayola colored pencils (although perhaps that’s unfair – it’s been decades since I used Crayola). Many hues are so pale that I was afraid they might not scan properly. Some of the 25 “unique” colors vary so slightly that they might as well be the same (though to reach a count of 500, very incremental variations would be necessary). Sadly, the swatch chart above is probably all the coloring I will do with these pencils.

A cheerful spring bouquet

So it’s true: Felissimo colored pencils are much better as home décor than as an art material. I haven’t figured out yet how I will display my all-beauty-and-no-brains set of greens, but you can be sure I’ll show you when I do. Perhaps a candy dish is the appropriate display.

Speaking of eye candy, you must view this video of the Faber-Castell pencil factory. The glimpse of Polychromos end caps being dipped makes me swoon.

Updated 5/15/19: Yoseka Stationery posted a dazzling photo of the Felissimo collection and provided more information about the brand than I’ve ever seen anywhere, including this: 

"The lead in the pencils is manufactured in Kofu, Yamanashi and the colored pencils are made by small independently-owned factories in Katsushika and Arakawa, areas known as the centers of Japan's woodworking industry. . . . Like many countries, Japanese pencil makers are shrinking year by year due to the low birth rate and the rise of technology. The number of manufacturers peaked at 140 to now just a quarter. 20 of them are near Tokyo, which is why this series is also named Tokyo Seeds as a tribute to the local artisans."

Reckless Video Redux

5/5/19 Reckless Video in the Maple Leaf neighborhood

It’s not looking good for Reckless Video.

The last independent video rental store in Seattle, Reckless is where we have been renting movies in the Maple Leaf neighborhood for nearly 30 years. Although we subscribe to Amazon Prime and occasionally stream entertainment that way, we still enjoy walking up the street a few blocks, chatting with the staff and other customers about their recommendations, and occasionally running into neighbors there. Even the rack of candy for sale and posters on the wall feel more friendly than scrolling through titles on Amazon. As a sign at Reckless says, “the Internet is not a neighborhood.”

One by one, as other video rental shops have closed their doors during the past decade, Reckless has somehow managed to stay open. However, a recent article in The Seattle Times reported that Reckless is now operating in the red, which can’t continue forever. “But I don’t want to just close down and not let people know this is happening,” owner Mike Kelley is quoted saying.

I felt very sad reading this news. Maybe Netflix, Prime and other streaming services are just the way of the world now, and it’s time for Reckless to die. When it does, we’ll just stream our entertainment on Prime, so it’s not as if we’ll miss out on the latest movies or TV series. But I’ll certainly miss our ritual of walking up there to pick out a movie and chatting with the staff about their favorites.

I sketched Reckless five years ago, and even back then I wondered how much longer it would be around. But it has hung on so far, and I wanted to sketch it again. Mike has some new flags out front. One says, “Shop Local.” The other says, “Burn Netflix.”