Portland, Part 2: Ole Bolle

 

6/24/24 Ole Bolle at Nordic Northwest, Beaverton

A highlight of my short Portland trip was sketching Ole Bolle, one of Thomas Dambo’s whimsical troll sculptures. The only other troll I’d sketched was the one in Ballard at the National Nordic Museum, so I was thrilled to be able to catch this one in the Portland suburb of Beaverton. It was an especially fun outing to go with a Facebook friend I had known for years but had never met before this.

After sketching the larger sketch at top of post, I went around the sculpture to capture a few details. All the Dambo trolls are made from recycled wood and other materials. It was fun to catch the couple and their dog posed under Ole's elbow for scale.

Someday I hope to get around to sketching the other trolls in the Pacific Northwest, but I can already say that Ole Bolle will probably be a favorite. It’s a delight to walk into the schoolhouse and look up at Ole through the opened roof!

Cindy and Tina

Photo by Cindy Smith

Portland, Part 1: Donut Tour and Review

 

6/24/24 Old Dirty Bastard Voodoo doughnut sketched on my hotel's sunny and pleasant third-floor patio. While I was out there, I sketched a few other things.

Over-rated but definitely the best logo!

I was in Portland, Oregon, for a few days to visit family and, of course, to sketch! Other than terrible Interstate 5 traffic both going and returning, I had a fantastic time. Beautiful weather (warmer than Seattle, which is only 175 miles north), familiar and new sketcher friends, familiar and new locations to sketch – it was all fun!

With several posts planned, I’m going to start with the over-arching theme of my visit: a Portland donut tour! Portland is well known for its multitude of donut shops, both fancy and basic. Voodoo Doughnut probably started it all, and people line up every day at the Old Town location for the shop’s colorful, over-the-top, elaborately decorated creations. I think going to that flagship store is the functional equivalent of standing in line at the Pike Place Market’s “original” Starbucks (which isn’t even actually the first location, but the myth continues), so I followed a tip from a local and went to the Davis location, where there was no line at all and free onsite parking, to boot.

Voodoo's Old Dirty Bastard

It gets all the press, but frankly, I think Voodoo is over-rated. I chose an Old Dirty Bastard, a “raised ring with chocolate frosting, chocolate cream-filled cookies, and peanut butter drizzle.” So much sugary frou-frou on top, but the basic donut dough is . . . basic. Voodoo gets points, however, for a great logo that was more fun to draw than the donut.

I first became hooked on mochi donuts during the pandemic, when Seattle Fish Guys included Milkvue Donuts in one of its meal kits. The mochi donut base is made of rice, which gives it a unique, chewy texture. The beautiful, floral-shaped donuts were both delicious and gorgeous to sketch. Portland’s Mikiko Mochi Donuts are not quite as light as Milkvue’s, but they have the added benefit of being totally gluten-free (Milkvue and some other mochi donuts include some wheat flour). Mikiko’s penchant for natural ingredients and no artificial colors meant that many were not very pretty to sketch. For example, my grayish-looking BSJ (black sesame glazed with a drizzle of marionberry jam) was amazing but unappealing to look at (or draw). However, because I had arrived less than an hour before closing time, and the shop still had lots of donuts left on a slow day, they gave me three for the price of one! I never look a gift donut in the mouth (and they were all excellent, especially if I ate them with my eyes closed).

6/23/24 Mikiko Mochi donuts, a street scene sketched while I enjoyed a donut and my hotel's colorful patio furniture

My hands-down favorite from this tour was Blue Star, which not only offers unique flavors, its brioche dough is truly unique and scrumptious. I favor raised over cake donuts, so I always choose from the raised selection in any donut shop. Several friends had raved about the Cointreau Crème Brûlée, but sadly, it wasn’t available the day I went. The Blueberry Bourbon Basil, as unusual as it sounds, was both beautiful and delicious.

6/25/24 Blue Star Blueberry Bourbon Basil brioche donut. Also shown is the rest of my breakfast, which was part of Inn at Northrup Station's daily Continental breakfast offering. The note I wrote was in reference to a scene I witnessed in the hotel breakfast room: A man was quietly enjoying his breakfast while reading, when a woman who was obviously a colleague (both dressed for a business function) greeted him heartily and plunked herself down at his table. It was an introvert's trauma that I had suffered so many times on business trips: All I wanted was a peaceful solo breakfast before embarking on a long day of listening to co-workers yack, and it would be ruined by co-workers joining me uninvited. 

I wanted to bring a box of Donut Bites as a gift to my brother and his wife, and they were all vegan/cake options, so it was a good opportunity to try a “bite” of Blue Star’s Maple-Glazed vegan/cake dough – and it was fantastic, too! I regretted that I didn’t sample one of the regular-size vegan donuts (to be fair, inclusive and totally piggy). I’ll save that (and Portland’s many other donut shops that I didn’t have time to try) for next time.

I didn't have the right colors with me to sketch Blue Star's lovely Blueberry Bourbon Basil appropriately, but I was too happy eating it to care.

 

Blue Star Bites -- vegan cake donuts

Diary Comics Catch-Up

 

5/20/24 imagination

5/24/24 Green Lake neighborhood

My diary comics continue, though not necessarily regularly. If I’ve had a typical day of the “usual” sketches made on location (especially now that the weather has been terrific), that usually takes care of my need to document my day. But sometimes things happen that I can’t sketch on the spot, and I still want to record them. That’s when I sketch from either photos or memory. I enjoy the “shorthand” of documenting visually instead of with words, which are fast and efficient but also feel dry and flat compared to sketches.

It’s fun to see the page colors change through these four weeks as I go through different Uglybooks.

All sketches in this post were made from life except as noted.

5/24/24 This page and the next one were made on the bus; I was trying to see whether
it was possible to use my Pentel Pocket Brush Pen on a very rough transit ride.

5/24/24

5/31/24 photo references (not much resemblance to any of us!)

6/4/24 Maple Leaf neighborhood

6/14/24 Maple Leaf neighborhood

6/16/24 At my barber's shop, Wedgwood neighborhood

6/19/24 I went to a very informative presentation on how to downsize and get rid of stuff!

Cherries and Strawberries

 

6/22/24 U-District Farmers Market

When I can get both Rainier cherries and local strawberries at the same time at a farmers market, I know that summer has really begun!

Happy Hour at Retreat

 

6/21/24 Retreat at Green Lake

In the past, I’ve only had coffee or lunch at Retreat at Green Lake (and recently complained about some loud patrons there), but I also knew about their happy hour. Ching, Natalie and I decided to check it out last Friday, the hottest day of the year so far (but I dare not complain about it, given the dire temperatures in other parts of the country lastweek).

I started with my usual comics-like format by capturing a variety of vignettes that tell the story of Retreat: a pet-friendly venue for enjoying Prosecco and a thick tuna melt on a partly shady deck where a cool breeze kept us comfortable.

As we continued chatting, we switched to a shadier table, which gave me a different view: No comics, no haiku –  just shadows growing longer on a lovely evening.

Hellenika and Commuters

 

6/20/24 Workers at Hellenika Cultured Creamery dish out samples and stir the next small batches.

Even a committed ice cream girl can be converted
to frozen Greek yogurt on the Solstice.

When I blogged about the sketch outing at Bell Harbor Pier, I forgot to include these sketches that were auxiliary to the outing. After the outing, Jane, Roy and I had lunch at Pike Place Market, followed by frozen Greek yogurt at Hellenika Cultured Creamery. As a committed ice cream and gelato girl, I don’t usually go for frozen yogurt, but this stuff is over-the-top fro yo. Workers were stirring and mixing small batches right there in the store, and specific flavors can have long wait times (20 minutes, which is an eternity if your favorite isn’t ready). I couldn’t wait for ube, so I went for marionberry and vanilla malt in a “walkabout”-size cup (their smallest). Not too sour like some frozen yogurts can be, it was as rich and creamy as any full-fat ice cream I’ve eaten but with that yogurt tang.

Below are sketches I made on my light rail rides to and from downtown. Although the light rail ride is so much faster that I have less time to sketch than on the bus, I sure appreciate the smooth ride – so smooth that I can use my touchiest Pentel Pocket Brush Pen.

6/20/24 Light rail commuters

Tangletown Cheese Boat

 

6/19/24 Tangletown Public House, Green Lake neighborhood

If you read my haiku in yesterday’s post, you may be curious about the “cheese boat.” I was curious, too, when I saw it on Tangletown Public House’s menu. Taking a break for lunch after sketching nearby street trees, I had previously eaten at Tangletown years ago – long before the pandemic – and the menu had been upgraded significantly from the typical appetizers offered with brews. A cheese boat is described as “a Georgian Khachapuri, a cheese stuffed baked bread.” I chose the Green Lake version, which came with eggs and scallions. It’s like a calzone that someone forgot to fold over – and overstuffed with cheese! After walking more than 11k steps, I happily wolfed down my day’s minimum requirement of calcium.

What you see remaining on the plate is the part I took home for a couple more meals!

Material note: My magenta Uglybook is full, and I’ve moved on to one of my all-time favorite Uglybook colors, grunge green. It’s an ideal midtone between black and white. My eyeballs, however, are still seared from that bright magenta, so it’s going to take a minute to adjust to green again.

Green Lake Street Trees on a Perfect Day

 

6/19/24 Green Lake neighborhood (This page spread turned out disheveled; the house with the unusual roof doesn't belong here, but when I saw it on my walk, I wanted to sketch it on the spot or I might not find it again later.)

Studying the map in Taha Ebrahimi’s book, Street Trees of Seattle, I’ve been planning my strategy for sketching all 10 trees documented in the Green Lake neighborhood. Five are located toward the southern end of the lake in the Tangletown micro-neighborhood, which is farther than I typically walk, but it was certainly doable. I just needed ideal conditions: Not cold, but also not hot, and definitely sunny. Wednesday morning was perfectly clear, the temperature was in the mid-60s, and by noon, it would be 70: Perfect! I set out with my sun hat.

My favorite in this batch is the impressive bigleaf maple (above) – the sixth widest-diameter maple street tree in the city, according to Taha. It’s on my list as a potential candidate for a portrait later. The ovens wattle acacia is also distinctive for being Seattle’s only acacia street tree.

By the time I sketched the pair of ginkgos (above), I had walked more than 11,000 steps from home – a few more than I had calculated based on Google’s estimated walking times. With an appointment in the early afternoon that I had to go home to get my car for, I decided to take the bus back. I almost hated to do it, though; everything about the day was beautiful, and I wanted to keep on walking.

Although I don't enjoy crossing the freeway to get to Green Lake, I do when I know this will be my reward. . . Her Majesty, Mt. Rainier, to the south . . . 

. . . and a pivot from the same spot gives me The Brothers to the west. Didn't I say it was a perfect day?

Summer Solstice at Bell Harbor Pier

 

6/20/24 Seattle waterfront and skyline from Bell Harbor Pier

After a couple of outings with rainy or iffy weather, USk Seattle enjoyed a rare treat: summer weather on the Solstice (our local joke is that summer begins on July 5)! Bell Harbor Pier offers arguably the best views of the downtown skyline and waterfront, but a major drawback is that it has no shelter or shade. We run the risk of scheduling an outing there when the weather is either bad or too good. In fact, it was perfect on Thursday morning – not too hot but clear and with a good breeze.

Anticipating the skyline, I brought along a landscape-format Uglybook (I cut the image in half below so you can see the details). The skyline is changing so quickly that all the familiar profiles are being hidden by newer buildings. I labeled the ones I could still identify.

Next I turned in the opposite direction to grab the Space Needle (also nearly obscured), The Brothers highlighting the Olympic Mountains, and Mike sketching at his easel.

Material notes: For my fresh, green, daily-carry Uglybook, I chose a warm brown Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Dual Tip Marker instead of black as my primary drawing color (these pens have become a favorite for my comics style of urban sketching).

Also of interest is the white acrylic marker I used on these sketches – it’s a Sharpie Creative Marker! Still on my lifelong quest for the perfect white pen, whenever I see another sketcher using white, I ask about it. I learned about the Sharpie from Rob Deane, who makes remarkable urban sketches on toned paper. Since we all know that white acrylic markers are terrific – until they suddenly aren’t, I’m trying not to jump up and down until I’ve used the Sharpie for a while, but I must say, I’m optimistic so far. (I’ve been using a variety of white acrylic pens lately, even more than the ones I showed in my post about a month ago, and I’ll be writing a follow-up review sometime soon. But lately I’ve been too darn busy sketching to write reviews!)

One Pole for Another

 

6/18/24 Maple Leaf neighborhood

My spidey sense tingled when I saw the sign: ROAD CLOSED. I walked down the middle of the closed street toward the big action: An old utility pole was being replaced by a new one.

Ten years ago I had a front-and-center view of all the action from our upstairs bedroom window when the pole right outside our house was being replaced. Compared to that view, this one from ground level wasn’t nearly as good, and I had to walk around to the other side of the intersection once because the traffic circle tree was blocking my view. Things were happening and changing fast, but I tried to capture as much of the action as I could.

This is one of many reasons why my favorite form of urban sketching is on my daily walks: I never know where the action will be until I find it.

Loud Retreat

 

6/17/24 Retreat, Green Lake neighborhood

Sometimes my urban sketches include haiku that I intend to be quiet reflections on my experiences of making those sketches. Other times, I just want to complain.

After finishing a page of sketches, I like to sit quietly afterwards to write the haiku. I like to do it as soon as possible so that my impressions from the experience are still fresh. (My mom, a haiku poet for most of her life, used to say the same thing about her own writing practice: If too much time passed after making an observation, the poem could be lost.) I had just made some sketches of trees at Green Lake, so I stopped for coffee at Retreat to write. Inside, the café was too noisy with loud music and conversation, so I hoped that the outdoor seating would be quieter.

Unfortunately, the only other party seated outside was a group of three women all talking over each other loudly and continually. I wanted to quote some of the dialog, but they interrupted each other so often that it was difficult to capture anything. I managed to write the haiku (not on this page, though), but not without grumbling.

On top of all that, I had been served the sloppiest Cortado ever: The barista had spilled half a shot on the counter instead of in the glass, then poured the milk over with such bad aim that the glass was sitting in a puddle when he handed me the tray. Oh, well – it gave me more to complain about.

Green Lake Street Trees

 

6/17/24 Green Lake

Sketching all the special street trees in Maple Leaf in Taha Ebrahimi’s book was almost too easy. I’ve already moved on to the trees of Green Lake, which will take longer because there are 10 of them scattered over a wider area. Shown above are two that are closest to home – a ginkgo and a southern catalpa.

Scanning a street as I search for a tree’s address (the residence closest to the tree), I can sometimes guess from a block away which tree it will be: Often the widest or with a distinctive trunk. Like the spectacular snow gum eucalyptus I sketched in Maple Leaf, this magnificent catalpa has an extraordinary trunk that I spotted easily from a distance. It is certainly a candidate for a more complete portrait later this summer.

“Untethered” Sketches

5/16/24 Maple Leaf neighborhood. On a golden hour walk,
I found the distant downtown buildings to look more silvery than gold.
As I sketched, a bird nearby caught my attention, so I quickly used the
Merlin app to identify it while also trying not to lose the rapidly falling light.
OK, I guess this sketch does have a story!

Although it may seem like all my urban sketches are now taking a comics-like form, I still make some one-off sketches on location that have no sequence or inherent story. (And some one-off sketches do have a full story – at least told in words.) My current focus on the comics approach, however, makes those sketches feel incomplete in some way – like I left the scene without finding one more sketch that would have given the first sketch more context. Regardless, I value all sketches, even the ones that now feel story-less. They are simply part of a different process.

5/17/24 Ducks near Green Lake

6/6/24 Rabbit seen on my walk

I recently read Craig Thompson’s Carnet de Voyage, a sketchbook diary about the comic artist’s travels through Europe. Initially, I thought all of the exquisite brush pen drawings were made on location, but that’s not the case; I think many were done with photo references and from imagination. Nonetheless, they were all done during the trip itself, not afterwards, and are impressively finished drawings that do not look “sketchy” at all.

5/23/24 Roofers at our neighbor's house (On second thought, I think this qualifies as comics.)

This quotation from Thompson’s book resonated with me and helped me identify the difference between a comics sequence and a one-off sketch:

A page of comics has its home – in a story; in a book. But a sketch is untethered, exposing process. The lines themselves aren’t special, but the memory attached to the stillness while making those lines.

Whether a sketch is part of a sequence or “untethered,” it always becomes special from the memory of making it. That has always been the most important part of urban sketching: My sketches are not necessarily about “special” moments; they are moments made special because I sketched them.

5/10/24 Maple Leaf. A walk during the golden hour.

6/10/24 Maple Leaf. A sketch for National
Ballpoint Pen Day.