Bone-Chilling Akebono

 

12/3/25 Sushi omakase plate at Akebono,Wedgwood neighborhood

After my satisfying completion of downsizing, phase 3, last month, I had planned to celebrate in short order, but somehow appointments and other things kept getting in the way (including my birthday, which had several celebrations of its own). My calendar finally cleared so that I could enjoy a leisurely celebration sketching lunch.

On my first visit to Akebono, a Japanese restaurant that opened in nearby Wedgwood last spring, I had given it my “chirashi test,” which is my favorite way to try any new-to-me sushi restaurant. I felt a little disappointed that time, though, that I didn’t sketch that fantastic meal in full color. Since then, I’ve gotten takeout meals from Akebono a few times (one of which I sketched to test my go-bag sketch kit last summer), but I hadn’t eaten inside the restaurant again. Now that I was certain the food was reliably good*, I knew what I wanted to do someday: Sketch (and of course eat! But sketching is the most important part, right?) an omakase meal there.

You may recall that my big celebration last December after a particularly burdensome downsizing task was an omakase meal at Moriyama. That was such a special and enjoyable experience that I wanted to repeat it at Akebono. Seeing the options on their menu previously, I suspected it wouldn’t be quite the same, mainly because the price was significantly lower at Akebono, but at least I was confident of the food quality.

I reserved my editorial comments for my sketch journal. 

In that regard, I was not disappointed at all. My sushi omakase plate was both delicious to eat and beautiful to sketch – as well as a good value. While the meal did not have Moriyama’s artistic garnishes and leisurely presentation, the price was an affordable occasional treat instead of an extravagance.

I regretted not being able to sketch chef Alo this time, but because I was seated at the sushi bar, he was barely visible behind a pile of clutter. My biggest complaint, though, was how friggin’ cold the place was! I don’t remember it being that cold last spring. I kept my coat on (over three layers) for the entire meal. I was about to say something to my server when I overheard another party mention the same complaint. The server replied that the restaurant interior needs to be kept at that temperature to keep the sashimi fresh. Hmmm. I’ve dined in many, many sushi restaurants, and none of them have had to keep patrons refrigerated at the same temperature as the fish!

Next time I’m in the mood for Akebono (which also serves ramen, bowls and other items I haven’t tried yet), I’m going to stick with takeout so I can enjoy the food in my heated home. Maybe I’ll dine in again on a sweltering summer day, when the “refrigeration” will feel comfortable.

* At the risk of sounding like a restaurant critic (OK, I suppose I’m already a donut and croissant critic; I might as well move on to sushi), the main reason I haven’t been back to Moriyama in a while is that their food quality has been inconsistent. After a couple of great dining experiences and then that knockout omakase, I had two very disappointing takeout meals. Typically, hot takeout foods can suffer by the time you get them home, but sushi is already cold, so that shouldn’t affect quality. It just wasn’t good. I’m not sure what the problem was, but as it’s also an inconvenient drive with difficult parking, Moriyama is no longer on my go-to list.

Across the Street, 7:48 p.m.

 

12/2/25 Maple Leaf neighborhood

I’ve kicked off nocturne season with my most convenient night view: the house across the street. Their lights and decorations are (thankfully) more subdued than in some years, but I’m bracing myself – they might not be done yet. I prefer sketching during the half-done stage before the inflatables and blinky stuff appear. (Here’s how the same house looked in 2023 and in 2022.)

Often I prefer making nocturnes in the pre-dawn quiet when the family is still asleep, and no interior lights clash with festive lights. This time I tried an evening view after they turned out their diningroom lights. The tree in the window looked lovely.

Simple kit with the essential light

Material notes: I’m keeping my nocturne sketch kit simple again: A white Prismacolor, a white Gelly Roll, and a couple of Posca paint markers. Initially, I had used pink and green metallic Posca markers, but when I scanned the image, I was disappointed that the tiny dots of color didn’t really show. I went back in with regular red and green Poscas, and they showed up better.

An essential item in a good nocturne sketch kit is a light. I’m pleased with the Gritin LED book light that I got last year. It’s so lightweight that even a softcover, landscape-format Uglybook (which is none too stiff) can hold up its weight when I stand at the livingroom window to sketch.

The Brothers and Constance

 

11/29/25 The Brothers sketched from NE 85th St. I-5 overpass

The Olympic peaks you’ve seen me sketch most often are The Brothers, the majestically symmetrical twins that I look for whenever I cross the Interstate 5 overpass (above). I can also see them easily from certain streets when I take walks around the ‘hood, so they are most familiar to me in the mountain range to Seattle’s west.  

11/30/25 Mt. Constance sketched from an upstairs window

The Olympic peak I rarely sketch is Mt. Constance, just south of The Brothers. Although she doesn’t seem too distant from her brothers, she must be blocked more often by trees or buildings from my usual vantage points. On a recent evening at twilight, I had a lovely surprise: Upstairs to sketch the candy-striped sunset (at right), I spotted asymmetrical Constance on the horizon. (The branch on the right belongs to a large tree that blocks The Brothers from that window view.)

(No, I don’t take any of the mountains I see for granted; I am grateful for them every day, and I show that gratitude by sketching them whenever I can.)

New Types of Exquisite Corpses

 

More haiku exquisite corpses by Mary Jean, Roy and me, this time in horizontal format.

At our last art play date, Roy, Mary Jean and I tried two new takes on the traditional exquisite corpse idea that we’ve been having so much fun with. In addition to the haiku we wrote alongside the sketches, we tried a horizontal format this time. That enabled more versatility in subject matter rather than the traditional figure (above).

A second variation in the game was prompted by the set of Legion Stonehenge paper sample pads that I still had from a review I had written for the Well-Appointed Desk. I was going to give them away at the recent Gab & Grab, but then I had the idea that we might be able to have fun with them. The sample format is the same as artist trading cards – 2 ½ by 3 ½ inches. What if we made exquisite corpses in separate parts that could be mixed and matched afterwards? We each made a figure with the head, torso, and legs on separate cards. Then we mixed all the cards together and reassembled. A fun and funny twist on the “artist trading cards” concept!

Two variations of exquisite corpses using Stonehenge paper samples

Pencilvember Finale: Museum Aquarelle

Slightly exaggerated smiles for Bug and the first cat below.

As with all art challenges, it was rewarding to participate in Pencilvember again, but I’m happy and relieved to be done! For my final week, I used my favorite watercolor pencils, Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelles. Even in their dry state, their ultra-softness and thick cores were ideal for the fast and loose quality I was going for with these 20-minute sketches. I thought adding light washes to intensify values would help me in my quest for speed. However, as much as I like using watercolor pencils for foliage and urban scenes, I don’t like the way applying water takes away the texture of fur when I’m drawing animals (unless I have time to wait for the water to dry so that additional dry layers can be added on top). I ended up using water very sparingly.

This is a good time to talk about the Bee mixed media sketchbook I used throughout Pencilvember. It has a lovely tooth that takes colored pencils beautifully. Although I didn’t use enough water to really test it, the paper had no problem taking the light washes that I did apply. I also appreciated the 8-by-8-inch square format, which was ideal for pet portraits.

It’s too bad the paper seems to come only with a wire binding, which is my least favorite to use (this book was given to me by ArtSpot of Edmonds when I participated in the store’s benefit for PAWS last summer). At my desk, it was fine, but I don’t like carrying a wire binding on location or the way the pages rub against each other (especially with pencil usage).

On the other hand, a wirebound sketchbook has one benefit that I hadn’t thought of when Pencilvember began: Several of my subjects were pets of friends. If I had made the portraits in my usual hardbound sketchbooks (or even a staplebound Uglybook), I would have been reluctant to tear pages out. The spiral binding made it easy to pull sketches out and send them to those friends as a surprise (and it always makes me happy to imagine the recipient’s delight).

Mona Lisa smile for Whiski

See notes below on how I experimented with color to help me sketch the raccoon's black fur. 

Here are a few more things I learned toward the end of Pencilvember and in my final week:

• While still using photos as my main references, I tried giving imaginary touches to some of these. I used to think drawing from imagination meant that I had to pull everything directly out of my head; I now know that’s nonsense. Pros use lots of reference images, and so can I.
•  One of the challenges of mixing imagination with realism is maintaining light logic. When I used multiple reference photos with varying light sources, I had to choose a single light source and imagine how it would light the imagined part so that it would be consistent with the rest of the image.
•  The raccoon (my own reference photo of a visitor to our back deck a couple of years ago) gave me an opportunity to try an experiment on the fly. One of my challenges with black fur is showing the distinction between the local dark color and shading on that fur. As a quick shorthand, both in execution and in helping me identify the distinctions quickly, I used green first to quickly indicate the local color. Then I used dark blue to shade the black fur. I like both the effect and the ease of thinking this through in a limited time. I know I could also do this by varying the values of plain ol’ black, but somehow that requires more thinking! (Besides, a green and blue raccoon is just more fun, don’t you think?)

I deliberately used unnatural colors for this challenge to keep myself from getting
fixated on trying to "match" reality, but in Mookie's case, she really did have pink ears!

I can always use more practice, but these two solid months of drawing animals during InkTober and Pencilvember have given me the confidence to get back into commissioned pet portraiture much more quickly and efficiently – and that was my ultimate goal with both challenges. Win!

 Although my intention was to show the pencils I used each week, I kept forgetting. So here they all are. It always feels so good to have pencils in hand! Thank you, colored pencils, for an enjoyable and instructive Pencilvember!

Derwent Lightfast

Caran d'Ache Luminance

Caran d'Ache Museum Aquarelle

Faber-Castell Polychromos

Vintage and contemporary Prismacolor

Matching Mugs

 

Seattle Marathon

 

11/30/25 Olympic Sculpture Park and Seattle Marathon route near Pier 66

Seeing the map of the new Seattle Marathon route in the Seattle Times last week made me realize that I had never sketched at a marathon before. I knew that Gabi Campanario, illustrator of the map, was also running in the marathon. It all seemed like an excellent opportunity to organize a sketch outing there!

Had I known the temperature would be 31F that morning, I might have hesitated, but the expected 15,000 runners probably didn’t mind the cold. Putting on my brand new, extra-long down coat and boots, I was ready, too.

Meeting up at the Olympic Sculpture Park, which was near the end of the route, USk Seattle had a good view of participants on their last mile. I made one sketch near Calder’s Eagle sculpture (above) in silhouette against the brilliant sun while runners streamed by.

Around the time Gabi expected to finish, I walked down to Western Avenue to get closer to the excitement. Despite the crowd of cheering onlookers, it was surprisingly easy to find a spot with a good view. I had an app that indicated when Gabi would be close to the finish line, and I was watching for him carefully, yet somehow I missed him! When I next looked at the app, he had already finished!

Disappointed that I couldn’t cheer him on, I still had fun cheering random runners. A large team of marathon supporters called out encouragement to runners at various points: “You got this! Almost there! The last mile!” Some carried signs with the names of specific runners they were cheering for. Although I’ve never been a runner myself, I felt the exhilaration they must have felt after all the months of training and commitment to their sport. Congratulations to Gabi and all Seattle Marathon participants!