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Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Tina’s Top 10 Memorable Sketches of 2017

1/21/17 Women's March
Per my annual tradition, shown here are my top 10 most memorable sketches of the year. As before, these are not necessarily my “best” or “favorite” sketches; they are ones that evoke the strongest memories. Although 99 percent of the fun of sketching is in the act of sketching (and not the sketch that results from it), I also derive much pleasure from thumbing through my sketchbooks and remembering the events and circumstances surrounding the sketch. (Click the title of the sketch to go to the original post and full-size images.)

Here are links to my most memorable sketches of 201620152014 and 2013.

Jan. 21, Seattle’s Women’s March (above): Typically, I am not a politically active person. But Trump’s election stirred me as has no other political event in recent history. Despite much trepidation about joining what was expected to be a crowd of more than 100,000, I participated in Seattle’s Women’s March. And while I never felt unsafe during our peaceful event, sketching as I walked made me feel “normal” while doing something that was 100 percent outside my comfort zone.
4/8/17 San Jose Taiko

April 8, San Jose Taiko concert (left): When I heard that San Jose Taiko, a highly acclaimed professional taiko group, would be performing in the Seattle area, I was thrilled! My niece Alix is a member, and I hadn’t seen her perform in many years.




5/10/17 Manarola
May 10, Manarola, Italy (left): Of the Cinque Terre’s “five lands,” Manarola is one of the most picturesque. The scene I sketched is one that appears on many postcards and in guidebooks of Italy. Although I had first seen it in 2006, I wasn’t sketching yet then. It felt both intimidating and fulfilling to finally sketch it.





5/12/17 Lake Como
May 12, Lake Como, Italy (left): Two days after that memorable sketch in Manarola, I had a personal breakthrough when I sketched Lake Como from Varenna using colored pencils. This landscape sketch is of the type that I thought wasn’t possible on location with colored pencils because of their time-consuming nature. I was ecstatic to have found a way to do it in an hour.




July 26, Cloud Gate, Chicago (below): Although it wasn’t a scheduled symposium event at that point, many sketchers ended up wandering over to Millennium Park on the first day of the symposium to sketch “the Bean” (officially named Cloud Gate). I was happily reunited at the park with many sketchers I had met at previous symposiums. The most memorable meeting was with Joan Tavolott, whom I have known for years through our blogs but had not met in person until that day at the Bean.

7/26/17 "The Bean"

8/1/17 Michigan Avenue
Aug. 1, Michigan Avenue, Chicago (left): By the time I sketched this view from Michigan Avenue of my favorite Chicago building, the metallic blue Two Prudential, the symposium was over, and I was getting ready to leave town that afternoon. When I look at this sketch now, it seems to hold all my wonderful memories of the symposium as well as the excitement of a beautiful city that I want to return to again and again.

8/21/17 Total solar eclipse
Aug. 21, total solar eclipse, Oregon (right): Two years of planning culminated in about 10 seconds of solar eclipse totality for my family!




9/5/17 Smokey sky
Sept. 5, sun behind smoke-filled sky: A record number of wildfires have taken and endangered lives up and down the Pacific Coast this year. Smoke and ash from Central Washington filled the air around the Puget Sound area for many days. It was eerie to sketch an orange sun at 8:21 a.m. as if it were sunset – and to be able to look at it directly with my naked eyes, just as I did during the eclipse totality only weeks before.


10/28/17 Maples at Northgate
Oct. 28, maple trees at Northgate (right): Although some regions can count on gorgeous fall color each year, the Pacific Northwest is not one of them. All the conditions must have been right this year, though, because we had a particularly phenomenal autumn for color. I sketched trees whenever I could. This afternoon at Northgate was especially fun because Greg came with me, and he walked up and down the street with his camera as I sketched.

11/11/17 King Street Station
Nov. 11, King Street Station: Urban Sketchers celebrated its 10th anniversary this year, culminating in a worldwide, 24-hour sketchcrawl Nov. 11. USk Seattle had record-breaking attendance, including our founder, Gabi Campanario, at King Street Station.


12 comments:

  1. Tina, Happy (almost) 2018. As usual I love your sketches. All of these "top 10s" are amazing, terrific, inspiring, etc. The one I like most of these is the Bean. The Bean truly looks like a mirror in your sketch. The amount of mastery of this technique is superb. George

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    1. Thank you, George, and thanks so much for reading my blog! Happy 2018 to you, too!

      - Tina

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  2. I never see myself as capturing events when I sketch but I'm glad you do. I hope 2018 provides many more for you to sketch and that you'll continue to share them with us.

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    1. Thank you, Larry, and thanks for reading! I know you've had a less-than-optimal year. . . I hope 2018 is a vast improvement!

      - Tina

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  3. I love your May 12 sketch, and how you were able to capture the scene so beautifully. I also like the “Bean” sketch-I agree, you really made it look like a mirror. And I couldn’t leave out the fall tree sketch, the colors are amazing!

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    1. Thanks so much, Cathy, and I appreciate your loyal readership! Have a great new year!

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  4. Fun to see what you consider your most memorable sketches of the year. The day we finally met at the bean was so great! Internet friendships are so special, and to finally meet you in person was the icing on the cake! Can't wait to see what will fill your sketchbooks in 2018!

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    1. Running into and finally meeting you at the Bean was a special moment for me too, Joan! Thanks for being a loyal reader all this time!

      - Tina

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  5. Good list! I definitely would include the Women's March and the USk 24 hour sketch crawl in mine, too (if I did one).

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    1. Yup -- both big moments! Looking forward to another year of memorable (and forgettable ;-) ) sketches!

      - Tina

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  6. A great year of memories and I've enjoyed seeing every one of your sketches. Your persistence and consistency are inspiring. Hope all good things for you in 2018.

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