Bare

11/26/24 Maple Leaf neighborhood

Our bomb cyclone last week took out more than the power in a half-million homes; it also took out the last of the leaves. Most trees are now as bare as they will ever be, their leaves a huge, soggy mess on the pavement. I knew it had to happen sometime, but it’s still a bittersweet moment: Winter is here.

More Scarf Lessons

11/25/24 Tombow Mono 2H and Caran d'Ache
Grafwood 9B in Field Notes Streetscapes sketchbook

Along with many drawing instructors who came after him, DaVinci said that there are no lines in nature – only edges. Edges are made apparent by drawing or painting the relationship between the subject and whatever is next to it.

To draw without lines, however, hardly seems natural. So many sketchers, myself included, cut our teeth on the popular line-and-wash method, or what I call the coloring book method: Draw shapes and color them in. How is it even possible to see the shape unless you draw the outline first?

I wish we could ask DaVinci that today. My answer for myself is to draw the lines but then hide them as well as possible with the tones surrounding them. In both studies shown here, the lightest areas are left as the white of the paper, which means I had to leave the outline exposed. If these were more finished drawings or paintings, I would darken the background so that the lightest areas would stand out against it without a visible line. As studies, I think these are OK as is, but it’s interesting to see how those visible lines suddenly make the drawing lose its dimension (and look less “real”) around those lines.

11/26/24 Tombow Mono 100 F and jumbo Staedtler Mars Lumograph 8B 

Other lessons from a draped scarf:

These may look like nothing more than academic studies, but they have a direct application in urban sketching: Drawing flags. Whenever I sketch flags at the cemetery or elsewhere, I am reminded of how challenging it is to avoid the cardboard look. Hanging fabric folds with a soft curl, not a hard crease.

Finally, these studies are also good practice in not drawing “everything,” even when I can see “everything.” The long scarf hangs down quite a ways, and the ends are fringed. I try to fade off anything I don’t want to draw. This is strangely more difficult than it seems like it should be; if I see it, and it fits on the page, I don’t know where to stop.

Technical notes: I’m now hanging the scarf from an upright vacuum cleaner, which gives me more space to pile up folds than a door knob does (and certainly it’s a more productive use of a vacuum cleaner than its intended job). Although I didn’t think about it when I chose this scarf (it was just easily at hand), it has turned out to be perhaps the best fabric choice I could have made: It’s a pale, solid-colored, synthetic pashmina, so light and shadows are easily seen, yet it has no reflections or hard creases. Everything about it is soft and slightly fuzzy, even the edges. 

Gratitude

 

11/25/24 Aegis Living residents 
(Both of these residents are elderly women, yet the 
top sketch looks young! I'm not sure what I did wrong,
but it doesn't take much in a small, gestural sketch like this;
I either nail it or I don't.) 

One of my evening rituals is to write one statement of gratitude in my journal each day. Some days are harder than others to find something to write, especially when ongoing news reports sound bleaker by the minute. Despite this, I find myself filled with more gratitude than ever.

A year ago, I was in anguish trying to decide whether the time was right for my dear spouse guy to move to assisted living. Meanwhile, I was nearly overcome by depression and anxiety as caregiving duties took their toll. Thanksgiving day was particularly difficult, and I knew the time was near.

This year the difference is profound. I am overwhelmed with gratitude that Greg is safe, comfortable and well taken care of every day. I’m also grateful that I made the right choice at the right time, which has enabled me to have my own life and mental health back.

A few days ago, as Greg and I listened to Theodore lead a discussion about gratitude, I thought about all that I am grateful for – today and every day.

Dog Days

 

11/18/24 Roxie and Mugicha
(reference photo by Mark Rooney)

10/7/24 Ramsey (reference photo by Katelyn This)

The pet portraits continue sporadically by request, which is a comfortable and preferable pace for me right now. Although I enjoy making them, I’m not going to promote my fundraiser for Dog Gone Seattle this winter. With my ongoing downsizing/house-reshuffling project, which will likely continue for another month or two, I don’t want to overcommit and then get stressed making portraits.

Ramsey (left) was commissioned by a client who had commissioned two portraits of her own dogs last winter. This one was a gift for a friend shortly after Ramsey had crossed the Rainbow Bridge.

I made the double portraits of Roxie and Mugicha as a surprise gift for my niece and her husband. These two lively pups both have such expressive eyes that made me sweat a little because I knew that getting the eyes right was crucial (I adore Mugicha’s slightly worried brow). Ultimately, the sweat was worth it because I think I nailed it (which is not always the case).

Mostly Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils used for both drawings, plus a Uni Pin technical pen for the eyes. Both papers are Lenox Cotton, my favorite with dry colored pencils.

I forgot to include the Viarco ArtGraf water-soluble graphite, which was used for the mottled background. 

Like Trees

 

11/24/24 Caran d'Ache Grafwood HB and Tombow Mono R 6B
in Field Notes Streetscapes sketchbook

Although it would be hubris to think I have anything in common with a genius like Leonardo DaVinci, I would like to believe that he and I share the same love of pure rendering – not drawing a “something” but finding appreciation and joy in simply observing and recording.

Making this study brought back all the Gage Academy classes I’ve taken over the years in the fundamentals of drawing – the cast shadow, the core shadow, the light rolling gently over a curved surface, the reflected light on the far side. The soft folds of a scarf are not very different from tree trunks and branches, for example, that I drew in classes with Suzanne Brooker, Kathleen Moore and Kristin Frost. These principles of rendering light on form are such a basic part of learning classical drawing skills that it’s hard to imagine DaVinci’s time when this kind of thinking was new. And yet, when I sit down to do this, it is new because even when I know it, I hardly ever think it.

Process note: One thing that’s super fun about these draped fabric studies is that they are, in fact, a lot like trees or other forms in nature: There’s no pressure related to achieving resemblance (as with portraiture), perspective (as with buildings or interiors), exact proportions, or other “hard stuff.” Of course, I still want the drawing to be realistic enough to be convincing. For example, gravity gives hanging fabric a certain weight that shows in the way the folds lie. But being able to focus only on light and shadow to achieve this realism is so enjoyable. I’m not sure I can think of any subject that is more relaxing to render than this.

DaVinci’s Draped Fabric

 

11/23/24 Hi-Uni H and Tombow Mono 6B graphite in
Field Notes Streetscapes sketchbook

Although I’ve certainly known of DaVinci’s remarkable artistic abilities (perhaps one could call them “discoveries” in terms of how viewers perceive art), his scientific explorations tend to get more attention. That’s why it was especially delightful and rewarding to view the new Ken Burns’ documentary, Leonardo DaVinci. The Renaissance genius’s contributions to art received an appropriately significant portion of coverage in the two-part series.

A small mention in Part 1 captivated me immediately: Shown was a study DaVinci had made of draped fabric which demonstrated his keen knowledge of and interest in how light and shadow are used to describe a three-dimensional form. We all take this concept for granted now in terms of understanding a two-dimensional depiction of a three-dimensional form, but back then, it was innovative thinking. The study not only showed his complete understanding of this concept; it was also indescribably beautiful. I wanted to learn to appreciate the motion of light and shadow as he so obviously did.

The next morning after seeing Part 1, I grabbed a large scarf and hung it messily from a door knob. Rendering a couple of small folds, I realized this is what I should have been doing all month for Pencilvember. It’s not too late, though; I’m going to finish off the month with more like this. Although DaVinci probably used charcoal for his studies, graphite is a natural for any study requiring subtle modulations of tone.

Bonus: While any still life is useful for studying light and form, I often feel too lazy to set up an elaborate or even a simple still life, carefully light it from one direction, block out other distracting light sources, blah-blah-blah. (Can you tell I’ve read a few drawing books?) This still life, however, took no setup at all! Hanging from my studio’s door knob, the scarf was lighted on one side by a window – good enough for me.

Central Library is Cozy Before the Storm

 

11/22/24 Seattle Central Library

Can this possibly be comfortable?

The downtown Central Library was one of the first outings USk Seattle had after the pandemic lockdown opened up in 2021. That September day was warm enough that I stayed outdoors to take on the library’s daunting architecture. Last Friday, the weather wasn’t quite so hospitable. With the wind picking up for another “bomb cyclone” expected that afternoon, most sketchers opted for cozy indoor sketching, myself included.

While I waited for other sketchers outside the library entrance, I began with a small sketch of the Henry Moore sculpture “Vertebrae” across the street at the Safeco building (above, upper left). The rest of my page spread (below) includes vignettes of library patrons studying, reading, browsing and sleeping. For sketchers who like to sketch people, the library is a treasure trove of human studies.

After an enjoyable lunch with Allan (no sketch of my sandwich; I must have been hungry), Roy and I continued on to Gelatiamo for affogato. It was good to get fortified for my light rail ride and breezy walk home from the station.

11/22/24 Gelatiamo, Third & Union

A Birthday and Other Small Celebrations

11/15/24 Macrina Bakery, Maple Leaf neighborhood

I had a birthday last week – not a “big” one, but an ordinary, run-of-the-mill one. Still, I enjoy milking birthday celebrations for as long as I can. The first was a little sketching party with a few friends at Macrina Bakery (above).

The next was a personal tradition I’ve had for decades: Going to the Green Lake Starbucks early on my birthday for my free drink (one of few perks that haven’t been eliminated). When I worked full time, another personal tradition was to take a vacation day on my birthday (because working on my birthday was against my principles), and even then I enjoyed getting up early for that free drink. Before I became a sketcher, I just brought it home, but now I usually drink it there and sketch.

11/16/24 Green Lake Starbucks

The third sketch journal page below is a small celebration of my ongoing downsizing project. I’ve been losing momentum lately because the tasks are more onerous now: Tedium combined with sadness is not a good recipe for enthusiast productivity. I kind of dread it, and at the same time, I’m getting close to the end, so I want to finish – but it’s slow. The small load I took to Goodwill on this day is probably the last for a while – all the rest is either trash (not much), recycling (lots) or shredding (hopefully not too much).

11/21/24 Victrola Coffee Roasters, Ballard neighborhood

Bomb Cyclone

 

11/20/24 Seattle Public Utilities restoring power in Maple Leaf

Weather Bunny braves the elements to report on the season's first bomb cyclone!

Our first “bomb cyclone” of the season hit on Tuesday night with winds up to 75 mph in some areas. Although it was a bit nerve-wracking to hear the windows rattling like they might shatter, I was fortunate not to lose power as more than a half-million Puget Sound area residents did. Two people were killed by falling trees. It certainly wasn’t a hurricane, but still quite severe for these parts.

In the morning, I looked around the house for damage, and the only thing I found was parts of the gutter downspout tossed around the yard like the Tin Man’s limbs!

Although my walking route revealed no downed trees or wires, the streets and pavement were covered with tree debris. Seattle Public Utilities was working hard to restore power. All the broken branches gave off the lovely scent of Christmas trees!

Performers and Residents

4/30/24

4/30/24

I usually visit the spouse guy at Aegis Living three or four times a week. It’s a comfortable routine for both of us. I vary the time of day and day of week, mostly depending on when he’s the most energetic and engaged, partly depending on my own schedule, and sometimes depending on what’s going on there. During the good weather months, our agenda was easy because we both enjoy taking walks together. Now that the weather is less conducive to walking, we spend more time participating in the many indoor activities Aegis staff provides to residents.

7/4/24 Musician Bob Rothstein was so thrilled by my sketch that he asked
for a digital image to use in promotional materials.

Every week a “happy hour” offers non-alcoholic refreshments and usually some kind of live entertainment – musicians, dancers or even animals (though I keep missing the latter). Games involving trivia, words or Jeopardy-like quizzes keep the residents mentally challenged. Sometimes the games are more physical, like balloon volleyball, yard bowling and mini golf.

When I’m with Greg, I want to stay engaged with him so I avoid sketching, but often we’re both participating as observers. That gives me an opportunity to sketch.

After I made the post about Theodore, one of the activity coordinators, I remembered that I’d been saving up other small portraits of performers and residents over the past several months because I didn’t have any “stories” about them to write individual posts about. I decided to put a bunch of them together in this post.

8/1/24

10/24/24

11/9/24

11/19/24

Colman Ferry Terminal is a Winter Keeper

 

11/17/24 Colman Dock ferry terminal

Some days, it doesn’t matter which sketchbook I bring. At the ferry terminal, though, I sure was happy I had a landscape-format book along!

Completely rebuilt in 2023, the Colman Dock passenger ferry terminal has been on USk Seattle’s radar as a winter-weather outing location ever since it reopened. Last Sunday was plenty wintry enough – bitterly windy and sometimes rainy. Although most of us stayed inside the terminal building, a few hardy souls sketched from the outer passageway where the view was even wider.

Not interested in freezing, I stayed indoors, where the skyline view was fantastic enough.

Choosing the “Ban Roll-on building” (formally known as the Second & Seneca Building) as my right-most starting point, I kept drawing across the top of the landscape-format Uglybook toward the left with a single line, ending with the Great Wheel. Then I spent the rest of the outing filling in the lower part of the spread with small scenes inside and outside the terminal.

To finish up the time before the throwdown, I picked a “victim” from the assortment of passengers waiting for their ferries (man on the right). Looking at the spread I started on my light rail ride, I noticed that everyone I sketched had “interesting” hair.

Light rail riders (left) and a ferry passenger

Officially, according to signage, only ticketed passengers are allowed inside the terminal building. But given the welcome we received from terminal security officers and other staff, some of whom joined us at the throwdown, I’d say we can all safely wink at the official policy. USk Seattle has a new winter mainstay!

By the way, when I say “victim,” I’m not kidding. Based on the photo below, that poor, clueless guy in the ferry terminal should be very afraid. 😆

Photo by Kim Roberts

Diary Comics from My Head

 

11/12/24

My imagination-based diary comics continue, inspired by the prompts and template I learned from Drewscape. I’ve been making these at the end of the day when I’m tired, have the lowest level of creative energy (and apparently the messiest penmanship!), and the hardest time being motivated to sketch. Given all of those potential barriers, I really need a structured format to draw from my head.

11/13/24

The Nov. 13 page (above) does not follow Drewscape’s format; it’s more of a traditional comics story arc with a linear sequence. It happened to fall into place because of the events of the day, but on an ordinary day when not much happens, coming up with this type of arc is usually much more challenging. I’ll take them when they come, and use Drew’s prompts when they don’t. In any case, I’m enjoying this process.

11/15/24

Last of the Color

 

11/15/24 Japanese maples, Maple Leaf neighborhood

11/11/24 Maple Leaf neighborhood

With all the heavy rain and wind we’ve had lately, I always set out on my walks wondering if all the color will be gone this time – and then I’m delighted when I see that it is not. I spotted one house with multiple Japanese maples still near their prime, brilliant in the welcome sunlight.

On some streets, there’s more color on the ground than in the trees. Thank you, trees, for the pavement rainbow.

Planar Head in Positive and Negative

 

11/13/24 Gekkoso 8B graphite in Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook

Ching gave me a 3D-printed planar head. With all the facial and skull planes structurally delineated in plastic, it seems like it should be relatively easy to draw. On a recent wet morning, I found it to be surprisingly difficult to draw with graphite. As usual, proportions are the trickiest part.

Instead of measuring as I would with a human model, I decided to correct or adjust as needed on the fly. I resisted erasing restated lines so that I could see my mistakes and learn from them, but in some areas, it got so messy that I could barely distinguish the good lines from the bad, so I erased a bit for clarity.

11/14/24 Prismacolor in Uglybook

On the next wet morning, I tried again, this time with a white colored pencil on black paper. I thought this would be even trickier, since drawing in negative is usually a brain twister, but in fact, I found it easier. Maybe it was just that it was my second time, so my proportions were more accurate before corrections. Drawing white on black also made it easier to abstract the whole thing, which somehow helped.

Anyway, I found the exercise great practice, and I’ll likely draw Mr. Planar again with different lighting and different media. (You can see that I’m gearing up for the long, wet winter ahead.)

Shiny! Caran d’Ache Cosmic Blue Mixed Media Metallic Set

 

Caran d'Ache's limited edition holiday gift set includes metallic Neocolor I waxed pastels and metallic colored pencils.

The Halloween pumpkins have barely begun rotting, so you know what that means: It’s time for another limited-edition holiday set of colored pencils from Caran d’Ache! [Insert starry-eyed emoji here!] After the disappointing set of Claim Your Style Bicolor Pencils that came out in late-summer, I was afraid that was going to be all we’d see from the Swiss company this year (as far as pencils go), but I was pleasantly wrong.

As part of this year’s holiday theme, Cosmic Blue, Caran d’Ache has released a set of 10 metallic colored pencils and a Mixed Media Metallic Set that includes the 10 pencils and 10 metallic Neocolor I wax pastels. Unlike the aforementioned Claim Your Style bicolor set, which came in a flimsy cardboard box, the Cosmic Blue set comes in a sturdy, sliding-drawer box that befits gift status. I still prefer the tins that were used in previous bicolor sets, but this cardboard box will do nicely.

Although the Neocolor Is are identical to the existing standard metallic set that has been around for a while, the pencils are new. That is, the dark blue barrel with no identifying color number or name is new. The cores are likely to be the same as existing metallic pencils in Caran d’Ache’s product lines. But more on that in a minute.

I swatched the pencils and the crayons in a black Uglybook, which I knew would best show off whatever metallic sparkle they would have. As usual, my scanner dulled them way down, so I also photographed them under my desk lamp, which shows the shine much better. Although the pencil colors are not identified, the palette aligns exactly with the Neocolor palette, so I’m assuming they are the same metallic colors.

Pencil swatches scanned

Neocolor swatches scanned 

Pencil swatches photographed

Neocolor swatches photographed

With all of Caran d’Ache’s special-edition pencil sets, my question is always which of its existing pencil sets the cores come from. With some bicolor sets, the European packaging was labeled “Prismalo,” so that was easy, and swatching the pencils confirmed this. With these metallics, it’s trickier. In the Prismalo line, I could find only gold and silver (which both appear in some of the bicolor sets). The Pablo line includes only gold, silver and bronze.

The only Cd’A set I could find that contains more than gold, silver and bronze is this Fancolor set (which I don’t own – WHAT?! – so I can’t compare). The small Fancolor set of non-metallic colors that I do own is water-soluble. The Cosmic Blue pencils are barely so – water only slightly dilutes the pigment. That’s similar to how the silver and gold in the bicolor sets behave.

I know it's silly, but my favorite part of the whole Cosmic Blue
theme is that lovely shooting star under "Special Edition."

So, what are they, Caran d’Ache? My guess is that they are the same as the cores in the metallic Fancolor set, except Cd’A, in its usual casual approach to product nomenclature, has disregarded the fact that the name “Fancolor” is associated with a water-soluble pencil. (Perhaps Fancolor just means “student grade” or “it’s student grade, but so is Swisscolor.”) Thanks, as always, Cd’A, for confusing consumers.

For the record, the metallic Neocolor Is do not dissolve at all. If they did, they would be Neocolor IIs (unless Caran d’Ache decided to confuse consumers about those names, too).

As soon as I saw these metallic pencils and crayons, I thought of nocturne sketching season, which begins right now with the Big Dark. To practice for it, I used the black Uglybook to sketch the scene below from a reference photo I took about a year ago (the light looked like the golden hour, but it was actually early afternoon). I used gold, dark gold and silver pencils to draw the initial shapes, then filled in large areas with the corresponding crayons. Once again, the scanner took out all the sparkle, but my phone shot shows it off well. Oooh, I like these!

11/12/24 photo reference

My current everyday-carry Uglybook is a dark Christmas green, which I’m finding difficult to use. The paper’s hue is too dark to be a midtone for my usual tonal way of sketching in these books, so I have to crank my brain to “see” both the highlights and the midtones while leaving the paper color for the darks. In the on-location comics page below, I used the silver and rose Neocolors for highlights. I think they’re especially effective as backgrounds. I’ve kept them in my bag for use with this book.

11/10/24 Metropolitan Market, Crown Hill

Although we all know I would have bought this set for no reason at all (other than my love for Caran d’Ache), I’m excited to have something new to play with during the Big Dark.

One more bit of good news about the Cosmic Blue products: While all previous holiday releases were available only from European shops, this one was being promoted by US retailers at the time of Caran d’Ache’s announcement. I bought my set from Goldspot, but a general search brings up many US retailers.