Maples on Northwest 80th

 

10/9/24 Maples, Ballard neighborhood

Driving home from Sunset Hill a few days ago, I passed several blocks lined with maple trees on Northwest 80^th that were almost past their peak already. I knew Mary Jean lived near them, so I made a proposal she couldn’t refuse: Croissants first at Rosellini’s, then sketch those glorious maples.

We had set a date for only a few days later, yet many of the leaves were already down. Although it means the trees are on the downside, I like seeing and sketching all that orange on the ground. These blocks will now be part of my annual leaf-peeping tour!

Paper note: I’m using the handmade sketchbook containing Hahnemühle paper. Making this sketch across a page spread made me see that the two sides of the paper are very different in texture: The left side (in my sketch) is much toothier than the right. The effect was amplified by inadvertently flooding the right side with too much water, which also took away some of the texture. When I looked back at the previous sketch I’d made across the gutter, I could see the different sides there, too – they didn’t show quite as much that time, though, so I hadn’t noticed. If I do decide to start hand-binding more sketchbooks with this paper, I will take care to reverse alternating pages in the signature so that facing pages in a spread will always have the same texture.