Museum of Flight’s Great Gallery

1/17/25 Museum of Flight (Most of the aircraft were sketched from the upper level. I glued in a piece of my wristband to fill the long, horizontal space at the bottom of this page -- an ideal spot for a bit of collage. )

I made this small page to catch a couple of sketchers.

As I walked into the Great Gallery, it felt like it had been ages since I last sketched at the Museum of Flight. Indeed, I missed last year’s USk outing there, so the last time for me was in 2019. I had skipped sketching in the Great Gallery altogether that time, so on Friday I spent the whole USk outing there. The largest gallery, it’s also the most intimidating – lots and lots of planes and other aircraft covering the floor and hanging from the ceiling.

Instead of making portraits of individual aircraft as I’ve always done before, I made small vignettes to tell the wider story of the museum atmosphere. Truth be told, it was also much easier to make thumbnail-size sketches rather than page spreads trying to get a whole jet’s wingspan to fit. Lazy or smart? You decide. In any case, I had a ball!

Many thanks to Kate, a long-time volunteer, for offering Urban Sketchers free guest passes to the museum.

The larger and more intimidating the space, the smaller I sketch!

BIG Play Date

 

1/15/25 Third Place Commons (Neopastels)

Inktense Blocks

For most of a year now, I’ve been exploring a comics approach to on-location sketching (and thinking in terms of comics in general). I still love it, and there’s still much to learn and try. But I’ve lately been feeling constricted by my small sketchbook format made even tighter by the multi-panel approach. Each sketch ends up being only two or three inches, which requires using finer media and small spots of color. I’ve been craving BIG! Or at least bigger.

The thing is, I don’t like using thick, soft media when I’m sketching on location in my usual manner: standing. I need a table for support so that I can apply pressure to a larger page, which limits the places I can use them. But winter is when I spend the most time sketching indoors in cafes and such, so it’s a good time to go big and chunky.

I knew that they had both been using them lately, so for our next play date, I proposed to Roy and Mary Jean that we all bring our fat media: Crayons, pastels, chunky water-soluble sticks. I hoped that hanging around with them as they used theirs would encourage me.

And it did! With all of us spreading our toys out on a large, round table at Third Place Commons, I had no trouble jumping into the thick of things, so to speak. I used Caran d’Ache Neopastel oil pastels (which I had previously tried only on portraits) and Derwent Inktense Blocks. Next time, I think I’ll bring some Caran d’Ache Neocolor II water-soluble crayons.

Nothing like chunky toys and inspiring playmates to kill the winter blahs!

Inktense Blocks

Our playground!

Fog Season

 

1/15/25 Maple Leaf neighborhood

This time of year, we can usually rely on morning fog. I say “morning” because typically it burns off by noon, but that part has become less dependable. The day I sketched this, the fog hung around like a heavy, wet blanket until the sun went down at 4:46 p.m.  Short days, damp air, cold temps – spring feels far away.

Bits and Pieces of My Days

 

1/7/25 Caffe Fiore, Sunset Hill neighborhood

As mentioned in a previous post, one reason I think my sketch journaling process has finally “stuck” is that I am not trying to stay within a specific format or approach. Drawing from life, from photos, from memory – it’s all good. By far, my favorite approach is the multi-panel, on-location comics format (like the one above). It always feels loose and liberating while paradoxically having a small element of tension: I have chosen a location (a café table), but I never know if I’ll have enough scenes to fill several panels from that spot. Meanwhile, I might be documenting something I want to remember that day (often a record of my downsizing activities).

On another day recently (below), I had gotten together with a couple of sketcher friends, all of us intending to sketch, but our conversation became so interesting that I never got past my pastry. (I wasn’t disappointed, though – it was a great discussion!)

1/3/25 still lives; photo reference

That evening, I didn’t want a page spread with nothing but my Macrina morning roll on it, so I added a couple of unrelated sketches (though related to what I was doing or thinking about that day). I didn’t leave myself space to write much, but the sketches are enough to prompt the memories. I also enjoyed putting a bit of thought into making the page look cohesive and “finished” with the broken borders around some elements. I don’t always care about finishing a page, but sometimes it’s a fun challenge.

Below is another example of an assembled page spread that documents my day in bits and pieces instead of one location. Before the USk sketch outing at US Bank Centre, I had enough time to make a quick stop at Pike Place Market. After I finished my errand, it was still early enough in the morning that I had a clear view of Rachel the Pig, a Market mascot, near the famous salmon-throwing fishmongers. (By the time I was finishing the sketch, the mongers started tossing and shouting, and suddenly my view was obstructed with excited tourists. It was nice to enjoy a rare deserted moment for as long as it lasted.) The rest of the spread includes my dessert with sketcher friends after the outing and my Market shopping. This spread was more satisfying to make than the previous one because I could sketch all of the elements live and not from photos.

1/11/25 Pike Place Market; Kastoori Grill; still life

Most of these types of pages are “rewards” for downsizing and home-improvement tasks accomplished. Other times, the reward is simply sharing a meal and sketching with a friend – that’s always reward enough.

1/8/25 Samurai Ramen and Jolli Daze, Chinatown International District

12/27/25 Swansons Nursery Cafe

1/10/25 ProShred in Tukwila

The last sketch shown at right is not in the comics format, but it’s the culmination of the focus of my most recent arduous tasks: I finally hauled all the paper and hard drives to a shredding/data destruction company. Making this sketch of the facility was visually brushing the dust from my hands – DONE!

At Least it’s Not Snow

 

1/13/25 Maple Leaf neighborhood

With only a few minutes before I was due in a Zoom meeting with my tax guy, I grabbed this small sketch of the morning fog. The temperature was 38 degrees. When I took a walk after lunch, the temperature was only a few degrees warmer, and the fog remained thick. Nothing like walking in cold, damp air to make me grateful that at least it isn’t snow and ice.

Happy Hour with Lindi Moo

 

1/9/25 Lindi Moo performing at Aegis Living

When one of the caregivers mentioned to me with obvious excitement that Lindi Moo would be providing the “happy hour” entertainment, I had to admit I had never heard of her. The local vocalist is apparently a popular choice for retirement community entertainment, and rightly so – her repertoire includes many well-known hits from the ‘50s and ‘60s that are easy to sing along to. She offers shakers, hand blocks and jingly bells to audience members who want to accompany her with percussion. Best of all, she always performs while wearing cow-patterned clothing.

While Greg and his cohorts enjoyed their happy hour snacks, and some sang along, I happily sketched Lindi. It was a happy hour for all.

US Bank Centre Another Winter Mainstay

 

1/11/25 US Bank Centre second level

Sometime during the pandemic, the US Bank Centre building’s lobby underwent a huge remodel – so much so that I didn’t recognize it as a place we had sketched back in 2017. Interestingly, though, the view from one of the second floor windows was vaguely familiar, and that’s because I had sketched it back then, too! It’s funny how the compositions that had attracted me then still do now. In any case, the multiple levels that are open to the public gave USk Seattle many places to settle into cozy seating with their beverages from Olympia Coffee on a chilly morning. We’re happy to have another winter mainstay!

I enjoyed sketching these backlit people from the mezzanine level.

Look at the turnout!

Minimalist Commuters

 

11/22/24

11/3/24

When I sketch light rail commuters, my main objective is to see how few marks and lines I can make and still capture a person’s essence. If I get the face in profile, then I don’t need to draw all the hair. If I get the left ear, I don’t have to get the right ear. This minimalist approach saves time (which is critical, since I never know when my victim will get off or someone might block my view), but more important, it requires me to think about what’s most important to include. Super challenging fun!

12/8/25

11/22/24

12/14/24

Elegant Union Station

1/8/25 Union Station

I don’t know why it took USk Seattle so long to get back to Union Station after the pandemic (the last time was in 2019), but it was high time we did. In fact, it should definitely become a wintertime mainstay – elegant, challenging, fun – and we always seem to have the place to ourselves!

Last used as a functioning train station in 1971, Union Station now houses the offices of Sound Transit, which operates our light rail system. It’s also rented out for private events on weekends and evenings, but during weekdays, the huge space is open to the public. Other than the security guards, sketchers seemed to be the only occupants on Wednesday afternoon. We certainly took advantage of all the tables and chairs! (I forgot to take photos of the whole interior, but my post from 2019 includes one.)

In my usual on-location comics style, I tried to capture a variety of parts and pieces of the station to tell the story of the beautifully restored Union Station. I was impressed by the number of sketchers who took on that daunting domed architecture! (I kept my attempt to a 2-inch square.) 

Even the restroom is clean, bright and elegant!

Full panorama

Strong Roots

 

1/7/25 Green Lake neighborhood

In the constant, sometimes tense relationship between urban trees and humans, trees often get into trouble with their roots. Just like underground branches, their roots are always growing and seeking nutrients. Strong enough to break concrete pavement, they can also burrow under building foundations. That’s what one centenarian maple tree did where my yoga instructor’s studio is. Heavy rainfall penetrated cracks in the building’s foundation caused by the roots, flooding the studio and causing quite a bit of damage. A year later, the city has decided that the only solution is to remove the tree.

I can understand why trees that cause untenable damage must be removed, but it’s always sad to lose them. When I learned of its fate, I went to sketch it one last time. A friend who lives across the street from the studio saw me out there and came by to chat. He said he has enjoyed watching crows who nest regularly in that maple. Humans will not be the only ones to miss it.

Rockola Jukebox

 

1/6/25 Rockola jukebox

When he moved to Seattle in the early ‘80s, Greg had it shipped here all the way from Minneapolis: a 1950s Rockola Jukebox that he’d owned since the ‘70s. Who could blame him? It was a vintage beauty back then and still is. Ever since, it has occupied a corner of the small room that will soon be my studio/office. It’s probably the only thing in the house that has never moved so much as an inch in 40 years – it’s too heavy and bulky to budge.

Every decade or so, he would talk about selling it, as we agreed it was taking up a lot of space in a house too small to display it properly. At some point, I know he began doing research to see what similar jukeboxes were going for. But as we are all guilty of, Greg had procrastinated, probably with some reluctance to let it go, and the Rockola remains in the same spot to this day.

Greg had handpicked the records inside (most songs I’ve never heard of); the selection buttons are labeled with his handwriting. He only played the jukebox for me once – back in the mid-‘80s shortly after we met. The translucent, colored panels in front can be illuminated from inside (though I think most of the bulbs were out when I got the demo). Presumably it still operates, but I don’t even know how to turn it on.

During my massive downsizing and decluttering the past six months, most of his junk was easy to get rid of. (The hard part was not feeling resentful: You should have dumped this crap decades ago! Why am I stuck with doing it for you?!) Some things were more difficult – all the tools in his workshop that he had used to build or finish much of our major home remodel in the ‘90s. Some things, like keepsakes from our travels together, were downright painful (somehow more so than getting rid of my own similar keepsakes).

The jukebox is among the last of his possessions to go. I almost talked myself into keeping it until I finally sell the house (still some years down the road, I hope). But I know that letting it go then will be no easier than now, and compounded with the pressure of putting the house on the market would only make it harder. The time to let it go is now.

I could probably get more money for it if I put it on eBay, but I’m not interested in the work and logistics that that would entail. I’ve decided to try selling it at Ballard Consignment, a wonderful store where we have purchased several used pieces of much higher quality than most new furniture being made these days. In addition to furniture, the store occasionally offers collectible centerpiece items (the last time I was there, a vintage Zoltar the Fortune Teller was talking to customers). When I had inquired about selling the Rockola recently, the manager expressed interest.

I’m kind of hoping it doesn’t sell too quickly . . . I’d like to visit the Rockola on display at the store – and sketch it there, too.

Sunshine and Drizzle

 

12/24/24 Maple Leaf neighborhood

Sketching during my fitness walks has been difficult lately. The potential for a sketch is always my incentive to get out the door, but when it’s wet or cold, I just want to get the walk over with. On the afternoon of Christmas Eve, I was treated to enough sunshine to make sketching pleasant, and the temperature seemed balmy compared to the low 40s we had been having.

More common is the gray drizzle I find myself walking in frequently. If the drizzle is on the dry side (yes, drizzle has different degrees of dampness), I can still sketch, and the family walking about a half-block ahead of me was irresistible. I’d like to make more sketches like this – literally sketch-walking – but even though dog walkers are plentiful, they have to be walking ahead of me in the same direction, and we all have to be walking at about the same pace. Once in a while I get lucky.

1/5/25 Maple Leaf neighborhood

The Helpful Hardware Store

 

1/4/25 Maple Leaf Ace Hardware 

The Maple Leaf Ace Hardware store, which I have sketched many times over the years, is a quintessential neighborhood store. Although the family-owned franchise changed ownership a few years ago, some staff people have been working there almost as long as I’ve been going there (35-plus years). Greg used to be the one who did most of our shopping there, but now it’s my go-to, too, when I need the one random thing to finish a task. It’s the kind of place where I can walk in, say, “I need those stick-on things that you put on the ottoman feet to keep them from scratching the floor and also to keep it from sliding – do you have those?” And they walk you to the right aisle. I could never, ever get that kind of service at Home Depot (let alone Amazon).

Walking up to Ace to pick up the quart of custom-mixed paint I had ordered the previous day, I stopped first to make this sketch. The store was still decked out in holiday lights and a huge lighted wreath. Long live neighborhood hardware stores.

Technical note: This is the kind of building I actually don’t enjoy drawing. Despite its mostly plainish look (other than the prominent, triangular façade), the perspective is not easy if I were to care about getting it right. My current comic-y style really saves me in this regard. Instead of fussing with a pencil and getting annoyed when the result is wonky, I go straight in with the marker and embrace whatever results. Long live comics!

Tips for a Daily-Drawing Habit

 

12/29/24 Green Lake neighborhood

A friend and I were talking about new year’s resolutions, and she said one of hers is the same as it always is: Draw daily. She has been disappointed, though, that she hasn’t been successful in keeping it. Work and other time demands plus fatigue at the end of the day make it difficult for her.

I’m going on my fourteenth year of daily drawing, and it stopped being a “resolution” for me many years ago; it’s now just a “lifestyle,” I suppose. I don’t even think about it or stress about it because I wake every day knowing that I will draw sometime before I go to bed that night.

I gave my friend a few ideas and suggestions, and I thought I would put them (and more) in this post for others who might be trying to develop a daily-drawing habit, too:

1. I keep my standards low – both in terms of subject matter and quality of results. As all my blog readers must know after following me for even a short time, I’m the queen of sketching “nothing” – subjects with nothing particular interesting about them. But everything becomes interesting to me when I observe them long enough to sketch them. As for quality of results, when I open a sketchbook, I never set out to “make art.” Every page is just practice. (The exception is when I make a drawing on commission; that’s definitely not practice; that’s the result of all the practice behind it.)

2. I take one photo a day that might be something to draw. You all know what a strong proponent I am about drawing from life. That’s always my preferred way to draw and always what I recommend to others if they want to improve their drawing skills. But on busy days when I am starting to wonder whether I will have an opportunity to draw from life, I snap a photo of something as I’m going about my day (See tip above: Keep standards low).

Here’s an example at right: Just blocks from home, I spotted this bald eagle being harassed by crows. I didn’t have time to sketch it live, as much as I wanted to, but snapping the photo at the moment made it easy to sketch it in my journal that evening (below).

At the end of the day when I’m probably tired, it’s much easier to sketch from that photo than to draw from my imagination or look around the house for something to draw or – worst of all – scroll through thousands of reference photos on my phone or the Internet. Just draw from one photo you took today (or recently). The objective is not to find an “inspiring” reference (which could take hours); the objective is to draw.

3. I’m opportunistic. Sketchwaiting is an obvious opportunity, and we all have plenty of them – standing in a line, waiting for a takeout order, waiting for someone who is late.

10/3/24 A sketch in a restaurant while waiting for a friend.

I also keep a constant mindset that an opportunity could happen. The sketch at the top of this post is a good example. The continual, hard rain had turned to sprinkling, so I set out for a walk. I told myself that if the rain stopped, I would sketch whatever was right there. The rain stopped, and those trees and car near Green Lake were what I saw. (Keep standards low, remember?)

4. How about draped fabric? OK, I admit, that’s probably not for everyone. But I learned serendipitously during Pencilvember that hanging a scarf from a door knob can be a beautiful drawing subject as well as an excellent tonal study. The big bonus is that it is an instant still life with no setup fuss at all. (Once again, see Tip No. 1: Keep standards low.)

It’s important to note that the kind of daily practice I’m talking about here is an ongoing stretching and flexing to stay limber so that I’ll always be ready to draw without it becoming a big deal. It’s not necessarily about skills development. If someone who has never drawn before begins drawing daily, they will certainly show steady progress over time. But eventually everyone plateaus in skills development unless more deliberate practice is done (perhaps guided by a book or instructor). That’s about identifying and committing to a specific goal, taking the necessary steps to develop skills, and learning to observe and critique one’s own development (an example of that would be the memory drawing I tried to develop during my 100 Day Project a couple of years ago).

That’s all I have for now (I’ll share more as I think of ideas). How about you? Please share in the comments any ideas for developing a daily-drawing habit that work for you.

Feast Buffet

 

1/1/25 photo references

An annual tradition on one side of my family is a New Year’s Day lunch at Feast Buffet. An all-you-can-eat Asian seafood buffet in Renton, it requires planning and strategy. Mine is to focus only on foods that I don’t eat regularly at home. That means I skip all the salads, vegetables and fruit and go straight for the sushi and sashimi. (Although I can’t imagine who bothers with stuff like mac and cheese or French fries at an Asian seafood buffet, those are on offer, too.)

1/1/25 Buffet participants (photo reference)

Since most of my companions are people I usually see only once a year at this event, I never sketch while I eat because I want to spend the time talking with them. But my sushi at Moriyama had been so much fun to sketch that I decided to draw my buffet meal later from photos (after walking 8,000 steps as partial mitigation of my gluttony -- urp!). I made an effort to arrange things on the plates so that the pieces would be easy to see. Originally my intention was to label each piece, but by the time I got home, I couldn’t recall all the ingredients in the various rolls. To evoke the continual, gluttonous nature of an all-you-can-eat, I used a Seawhite of Brighton concertina sketchbook (which will eventually end up with Mary Jean). I regret that I couldn’t eat more -- the sketches would have looked more impressive stretched across a few more panels.

It got cut off in my scan, so this photo includes the small bowl of coffee ice cream at far right.

Reassurance

 

12/31/24 Maple Leaf neighborhood

For the first time after many days (weeks?) of rain and overcast, the day began with a clear, open sky. When I got up from the breakfast table to microwave the second half of my cup of coffee, I spotted Her Majesty silhouetted against the predawn sky. I dashed upstairs to sketch this on the last day of 2024.

Hoping that the next morning would be just as clear, I had plans to sketch Mt. Rainier again, already drafting in my head some kind of metaphor, philosophical musing or at least an expression of optimism represented by one year ending and another beginning with Rainier sightings. Jan. 1, however, began and ended with overcast skies, no mountain to be seen all day.

I’ve already talked about Her Majesty’s indifference to human constructs like buildings and utility poles. And so it is with human constructs like calendars. She stands back there quietly, every day of the year, whether I see her or not. I’ll choose to find that reassuring.

Review: Filgo Colored Pencils – Sunset

Filgo colored pencils from Argentina

It’s not what you think! I didn’t fall off the wagon yet again. I can explain!

Back in the fall when the Urban Sketchers Symposium took place in Buenos Aires, I saw a few sketchers showing the contents of their goodie bags on social media. One item that caught my eye was Filgo colored pencils, which I had never heard of. Then one sketcher showed what she was doing with them, raving about how much she loved them. Ooo, that got me curious!

(Incidentally, if you’re wondering if I was able to add a symposium-logo pencil tin to my beloved collection, I would have – except there was none to be had from Buenos Aires! ☹ Long before the symposium, I had asked a friend who was planning to attend if I could have the Cretacolor tin, assuming one would be included in the goodie bag, and she kindly agreed. When she returned, though, she gave me the sad news, which I had already suspected from images of the goodie bag that I had previously scrutinized. If the Auckland symposium tin was the last of the series, I suppose I should be relieved that my collection is complete [other than the mysterious Barcelona tin, of course], and I won’t have to beg anymore. Sigh. I’m going to miss the hunt.)

My Googling had indicated that the Argentinian Filgo brand wasn’t impossible to get in the US, but difficult and pricey . . . and oh yeah, I’m supposed to be downsizing.

Fast-forward to the November Gab & Grab, where the pencil fairies were looking out for me! Another friend who had attended the symposium was offering her Filgo pencils – which I promptly grabbed!

"Black & White" refers to the color opacity that works well on dark papers as well as light.

Filgo’s Black & White Supersoft Sunset Tones includes 15 colors. Since most of the product information on the package is in Spanish, I used Google to help me translate from an image. That’s how I learned that “black and white” indicates that the colors are opaque enough to use on black or dark papers as well as white.

Made in China, the simple, round pencils are capped with color indicators. No color names or numbers are printed on the barrels. Distinctively, the entire wood barrel is dyed black. The well-centered cores sharpen well, too.

The soft cores produce little dust. I would not say they are “supersoft,” but soft enough to be pleasant to use and relatively well pigmented for pencils that are likely to be a budget-priced set for students.

The color range is, by definition, limited to “sunset tones” (which I found to be limiting, indeed, for my test sketch). I’m assuming that other color-themed sets are available to cover the rest of the spectrum. My swatches were made in a Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook and a black Uglybook. I found that my scanner seemed to dull the colors on black paper, so I also photographed the page (which is marred by glare, but that’s the tradeoff).

Filgo swatches made in Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook

Swatches in black Uglybook (scanned)

Swatches in black Uglybook (photographed)

Making my test sketch on Christmas day, I chose this Santa-looking guy (though with much better hair than Santa’s) from Earthsworld’s reference photos. Although the sunset hues worked well for his skin tones, I missed having a cool violet or blue to dig into those dark shadows. I made do with the darkest maroon.

12/25/24 Filgo colored pencils in S&B Zeta sketchbook

While not as soft or high in pigment as the recently reviewed iBayam colored pencils (which are likely to be in the same general price and quality range), Filgo colored pencils are pleasant enough to use. But I’m glad I didn’t hunt them down and pay international shipping rates to buy a set.

Curiosity satisfied, I can sleep at night again, and I’ll happily take this set to the next Gab & Grab. (I wish I knew more hardcore colored pencil geeks in Urban Sketchers Seattle. We could all save money and keep our stashes manageable by continually passing around our pencils for others to try.)