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!)