360 at Third Place Commons

 

3/29/25 Third Place Commons, Lake Forest Park

Five other sketchers and I tried something fun during Saturday’s USk Seattle outing. Sitting together around a table, we each sketched the slice of view directly in front of us, forming a 360-degree view of Third Place Commons. When I’ve participated in 360 sketches previously (once at the downtown public library and another time at the UW Quad), the participants sat in a circle facing out. For this one, we all faced each other toward the center of the table, which meant we all included fellow sketchers. Fun!

After I finished my first sketch that included Kim (at right), I turned around in my seat 180 degrees to sketch whatever had been directly behind. I like that sketch better (below) because I could see further out into the distance.

During the last half hour before the throwdown, I walked around a bit and sketched a few more people enjoying the Commons on a Saturday morning.

Our 360 throwdown was incomplete because a couple of participants had already left by the time we remembered to photograph all of them together!

Inside the Spheres Again

 

3/28/25 Waiting for coffee inside the Amazon Spheres.

Shortly after they had opened, a friend who works at Amazon invited Greg and me to visit inside the company’s amazing Spheres. That was back in 2018, and although I have sketched the geodesic domed buildings many times from the outside, I hadn’t been back inside since then. As good fortune would have it, Ching works there now, and she invited Natalie and me to sketch inside with her. (Although the buildings are open to the public at certain times, you can only enter as part of a guided tour. When accompanied by an employee, you can wander and stay – and sketch – as long as you like.)

It’s still a wondrous terrarium of green; in fact, many of the plants had grown, so it seemed even more jungly than before. On a cold, wet afternoon, the warm, humid interior climate felt comforting. (I was so eager to get on with sketching that I forgot to take photos this time! Please see my 2018 post for lots of images of the interior.)

It was jam-packed with employees trying to work while many visitors ooh-ed and ahh-ed while taking selfies. (Not that I know anything about the latter.)

After all that fun, we adjourned to happy hour at a nearby pub, where I had a personal celebration. This time, it wasn’t for a downsizing accomplishment. Instead, I had just gotten good news from my doctor. All my bone-building exercises, a calcium-rich diet and meds had paid off!

3/28/25 King Leroy pub, South Lake Union

Still Yawning

 

3/27/25 Maple Leaf neighborhood

Hitting the snooze button for another week.

Although we all wait with much anticipation for the cherry trees to reach their peak bloom, I often find it easier to sketch them when they are still at the plump bud stage – just about to open but not quite. At peak, the Yoshino variety is such a pale pink that the blossoms are nearly white, but as buds, the pink is darker.

This one is taking its own sweet time before it’s wide awake with blossoms, and I was happy to catch it yawning.

Spring for a Day

 

3/18/25 Metro Market, Crown Hill neighborhood

3/25/25 magnolia tree, Maple Leaf neighborhood

On March 18, I went out on my first petal-peeping mission to see how my favorite cherry streets were doing. As expected, all the buds were still tight (journal page above). Less than a week later, a freaky warm front brought sunny temperatures in the high 60s and even 70s. Hallelujah, spring was finally here! OK, so it only lasted a day, but it seemed like the whole city was outdoors rejoicing. More significant, those warm temps will surely push the blossoms to open!

After walking around Green Lake, shedding layers as I went, I took the top down for the drive home. Spotting a magnolia just starting to pop, I basked in the sweet sunshine to sketch it.

That afternoon, I stopped at Macrina Bakery (below) for the annual ritual that marks my personal harbinger of spring: The first al fresco iced coffee!  

3/25/25 Macrina Bakery, Maple Leaf neighborhood

Bergen Blossoms (and New Sushi Place)

 

3/24/25 AA Sushi and Bergen Place, Ballard neighborhood

An appointment brought me to Ballard around lunch time, so I took the opportunity to try a new sushi place in town. AA Sushi (remember all the companies that used to be called AAMCO and AACME so they would be listed first in the phone book? I guess it’s still a thing), which apparently started with a restaurant in Kirkland, just opened a new one in Ballard a few months ago. (It happens to be right next door to Ballard Consignment, where I stopped in to say hi to Greg’s jukebox, still there, unsold. Yay!)

I daresay these are cherries!

Whenever I try a sushi restaurant that’s new to me, I usually order chirashi as a test. But I had been craving saba (mackerel) lately, so I got a couple of saba nigiri with a salmon bowl (always a safe choice). Both were excellent, and the whole meal was a really good value (which is becoming less and less the case when dining out lately). Recommend!

Across the street from AA was Bergen Place, a pocket park well-decorated with several tall, tree-like sculptures and one actual tree just beginning to blossom. The pale pink petals had the telltale notches! Could it be that Sakura season is finally beginning? And I sketched outdoors without gloves for the first time since last fall! Hallelujah, perhaps it’s spring, after all!

Technical note: Look at all the sushi colors I got to show up on this aggressively pink Uglybook – with colored pencils! I’ve mentioned it before, but the trick is to put down white before applying color. Posca paint markers can be too thick and plastic-y, which makes colored pencil difficult to apply over it. I usually use a white colored pencil (the rainbow in this post), but it’s often not quite opaque enough. This time I used a white Penrote acrylic marker, which is ideal for this trick. The paint is thinner and less opaque than Posca, but it covers enough of the paper to enable colored pencils to show up brightly.

Penrote acrylic markers from Taiwan

I’d like to review Penrote markers, which I have been enjoying, but they were a gift from Taiwan, and I can’t find them anywhere online. I thought it would be frustrating to tell you how much I like them when I know you won’t be able to get them easily. (Its paint is very similar to the white Omiowl acrylic marker I discovered last year, fell in love with, and then discovered its fatal flaw.) The set I received has some nice pastel colors that I’ve been using here and there (the turquoise in these sketches and the pink at Wallingford Center). The white, though, continues to be the most useful, and if I could buy a bulk package of white only, I would.

Sketchers Give Life to Empty Wallingford Center

 

3/23/25 Wallingford Center

Even before the pandemic, Wallingford Center was a reliable but quiet mainstay for USk Seattle during the wet, cold months. If the weather cooperated, we had all of the Wallingford neighborhood to explore. If not, the Center’s cozy historic building kept us comfortable. After the pandemic, it never really recovered, but at least we had Trophy Cupcakes to keep us caffeinated and sugared. Unfortunately, Trophy recently closed, so there’s not much left there except a couple of retail shops and one restaurant. It’s a good thing we sketchers showed up on Sunday to liven up the otherwise ghost town vibe!

Although a few hardy souls sketched in the cold drizzle, I opted for the warm and comfy. Wallingford Center has enough window views that I could still capture one of the neighborhood’s classic bungalows, trees and street furniture. I also got snippets of the few remaining retail spots and some other sketchers, of course.

A great turnout in an otherwise empty space!

After the outing, Roy, Allan and I went to lunch at Dumpling the Noodle, whose funny name kept us cracking jokes as we enjoyed food the delicious. And because we all believe that any outing that ends with ice cream is a good day, we proceeded to Molly Moon’s for cream the ice. I meant to a put a little more in my sketch journal spread than just what I ate, but with food getting either cold or melty, and the conversation lively, I knew my priorities. Any outing that ends with good friends and good conversation is a terrific day.

My tasty lunch and dessert

Cream the ice for all!

Two More Bookcases Filled

 

The second bookcase in my studio is the main storage area for art supplies. I tried to place as many things as possible vertically so that they could be pulled out without unstacking. Everything is at least visible, if not accessible without moving a few things.

My unpacking and organizing continue apace (a slower pace than I’d like, but at least it’s apace), and I’ve filled two more bookcases. The one in my studio (above) is all art supplies. It’s crammed more tightly than I wanted, and I still have to move things to get at others under them, but at least I can see everything without pulling things out – a huge improvement over my old studio!

Here's a closeup of the bookcase top: Some "decorative" colored pencils (and Bics!) and a few favorite mementoes.

The bad news: I still have a few bins of supplies that didn’t fit here. They were borderline during my downsizing process, so it probably means they’ve crossed over to the “give away” side. A little more hemming and hawing needed, and then out they go.

The last bookcase is in my bedroom (below). Ideally, it belongs in my studio too, but it won’t fit, and my bedroom had just enough space for it. This one stores all my filled and unfilled Field Notes and unfilled sketchbooks. On the right side of the second shelf are sketchbooks in progress and a couple of grab-and-go kits of certain supplies I use only when I know I’ll have the use of a table. Although the bookcase is well organized, it looks messy, so it’s just as well tucked away in the bedroom. The added bonus is that it’s super handy having quick access to those on-location items right next to where I’m putting on my shoes and grabbing my bag.

The bedroom bookcase holds mostly unfilled sketchbooks and Field Notes. On top are the survivors of my previously massive collection of childhood stuffed animals (most got downsized years ago from my parents' house).

What’s left? Organizing and displaying my vintage pencil collection! Savoring the experience, I’ve been working on that part a little at a time. It’s really the ultimate reward for my nine months of downsizing – making space for the things that bring me joy – so I’ve saved it for last. Sadly, I can see already that I won’t have room for it all, so I’ll have to do some downsizing of my collection, too. I already knew that, but I had procrastinated by moving it all downstairs anyway. I’m determined, though, not to simply stack boxes on the floor or jam stuff into nooks and crannies as I had done before. That method of “collecting” brings no joy. If I don’t have an appropriate space to store or display it, out it goes (I said it out loud here; please hold me to it!).

Exquisite Corpses Live!

 

Exquisite corpses by Roy, Mary Jean and me

Mary Jean, Roy and I always have a lot of fun whenever we get together for art play dates, but last Friday we kicked it up a notch: We made exquisite corpses! Begun by the Surrealists, it’s a drawing game in which each player draws one part of a figure, then others add to it without seeing what the previous players have contributed. Obviously the drawings must be done from imagination, which is always a tough stretch, but Roy and MJ have a way of inspiring me. Maybe the game itself freed me to lower my expectations and just have fun with it. Indeed, we all had a ball and were delighted by the amazing results! These are not the last of the corpses we’ll see!

After the corpses came to life, we settled in for NA beers from Project 9 and burrito bowls from Mexican Seoul. Project 9’s large tables are especially suitable for collaborative projects like ours. Since we’re all more comfortable with urban sketching than with imaginative drawing, we all relaxed into our comfort zones with more sketching. We all agreed, though, that giving our imaginations a kick in the butt was good for all of us!

Exquisite collaborators!

3/21/25 Project 9 Brewery

Sidewalk Resident

 

3/20/25 Northgate

Meeting a friend for lunch at Northgate, I parked near Thornton Place where I’ve seen this tent for a while. Sidewalk residents like this one eventually get chased out, but inevitably the tents return. I would feel intrusive if I were to stand on the sidewalk nearby to sketch such a residence, but this time I was able to sketch from my car, enabling me to feel less conspicuous. Sadly, tents are part of our urban landscape as much as buildings, cars and trees are.

No Blossoms Yet

 

3/18/25 Sunset Hill neighborhood

My Facebook “memories” reminded me that one year ago, I was already sketching pink blossoms on both sides of town. Our cold winter and ongoing cold spring have kept the buds tightly closed a lot longer this year. I didn’t have high hopes, but the sun was out, so I took a drive over to Sunset Hill (with pink pencils in my bag, just in case).

As expected, the buds were still tight but showing their color. I’ll keep checking on them periodically, but I’m going to guess they still have at least a couple of weeks yet to go.

With or without blossoms, this cherry is my favorite on the block. I’ve sketched it several times, and I also made a graphite portrait from a photo in Kathleen Moore’s class four years ago.

A True Story

 

Walking Stories

 

2/19/25 Green Lake neighborhood

A few very short stories from my daily walks:

Opportunistic sketching on a very blustery day: I told myself that if the gusts stopped for a moment, I would sketch whatever I saw right there. This was it (above). 

 

3/13/25 Green Lake neighborhood

Supposedly our city council outlawed leaf blowers a few years back, a move that most citizens applauded exuberantly. But it turned out that they were only talking about city contractors. Anyone else can still go on blowing, which I detest. The noise, the dust, the total ineffectualness – it all annoys me greatly. While I was sketching, two leaf blowers started working on the same sidewalk, blowing against each other! You can imagine how quickly I finished my sketch (at left).

 

I don’t necessarily sketch this cherry tree every year (below), but since it’s on one of my regular walking routes, I always start checking its buds around now. They were still as tight as fists on this breezy day. But the calendar says today is the vernal equinox, so that’s got to mean something to the trees, right?

3/16/25 Maple Leaf neighborhood

My Old Office Chair

 

3/15/25 Thanks, old chair, for your 30+ years of service! 

A couple weeks after moving into my new office/studio, I realized that my old chair was no longer comfortable. First I replaced the two foot rests (one at my PC, one at my drawing table), hoping that would do the trick. They helped, but something about the furniture and the fact that my chair was now on hardwood instead of carpeting somehow changed the ergonomics.

On the other hand, my new “dining” chair (which I had proudly assembled), which is actually an office chair, has been very comfortable. For a few days, I rolled it back and forth between the diningroom and the office, using it at both my computer and drawing work stations (the color temperature study I did last week was a chair-testing sketch) to see how it felt. I thought I might miss the arms on my old chair, but I didn’t at all. In fact, sometimes when drawing, the arms have gotten in the way, so an armless chair was better.

I decided it was time to replace my old office chair, now more than 30 years old, and I would have no problem choosing the right one: I got a second one identical to my “dining” chair (only the color is different). The best part: I already knew how to assemble it, so I wouldn’t have to sweat that part, either!

My new chair in the "office" side of my office/studio.

Compared to Greg’s office chair, I don’t feel much sentimentality toward my old chair. One arm is torn, and the upholstery is looking a bit thin in places. It has served me well and doesn’t owe me anything. I’ll probably put it out on the Buy Nothing group as I did with his chair. I couldn’t let it go, though, without a farewell sketch.

Taking it in Stride

2/22/25 Residents watch a program about building construction innnovations.

3/11/25

As I’ve gotten to know Greg’s fellow residents at Aegis, I’ve often wondered what they used to be like when they were younger and healthier. As we were all chatting together one day, I learned from one of the caregivers that Jamie had been a principal at a prominent local architectural firm. She pulled out her phone and showed me images of a couple of familiar downtown skyscrapers that he and his firm had designed. Seeing him now, barely functioning with severe dementia, it’s hard to imagine, but I appreciate knowing something about who he used to be.

Sandy was a painter, and it’s clear that she still has artistic skills and interests. During the “coloring socials” when residents are offered coloring pages and art supplies to use, Sandy will occupy herself for long periods carefully and mindfully coloring beautiful pages.

3/14/25

I have come to learn who to avoid sitting near during snack time if I don’t want to risk having food thrown at me. I keep my belongings on me while I visit (otherwise, things have a way of walking off).

Val, a very thin, frail-looking woman, has a mean right hook that has caused injury to some caregivers. The same strong overhand that can lob a balloon across the room during balloon volleyball can do the same with a juice cup (sometimes still containing juice).

The caregivers all take it in stride, as I have learned to. Greg has, too. He often finds humor in his fellow residents’ behavior, which makes me laugh, too. Just another day at Aegis. 

3/14/25

Pi Day

 

3/14/25 Macrina Bakery, Maple Leaf neighborhood

Given that geometry was never my favorite subject, Pi Day is not usually one of the holidays I observe. But toward the end of a busy Friday when I needed a break, I had no objection to a mini maple apple pi at Macrina Bakery.

Not only was I able to snag a seat at all at this always-busy place, I was lucky enough to get my favorite window seat with a great view of a bumpy, old linden (which I had sketched from the same window shortly after Macrina opened in 2023). It’s a nice spot that also gives me a view of the Maple Leaf Reservoir water tower and park walkers.

Color Study from Photo

 

3/13/25 Prismacolors in Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook (photo reference)

After a couple of attempts at trying to study color temperature indoors (once inside a café and once at Suzzallo Library), I’ve been itchin’ to try it outdoors. Artificial lighting coming from all directions mixed up with natural window lighting makes a challenging exercise even more confusing.

I can’t be bothered with waiting for the weather to accommodate me, so I resorted to a photo reference (see below). My color temp analysis: The backlit trees are slightly warmer than their shadows. The background light is relatively cool. The warmest areas are the sunlit grass and foliage.

Still leaning on a simple complementary palette, I chose a dark purple and the yellowest yellow-green I could find. Initially I tried lavender for the cool light, but I abandoned it for a pale blue. The mixing pyramid shows the three hues I settled on.

In the past, before I became aware of color temperature, I probably would have treated this more as a value study (even if I used color) by making the trees and their cast shadows the same hue and leaving the lighted background areas paper-white. If I were doing this on location, even if I had noted to myself, “The background light is relatively cool,” I probably wouldn’t have colored the background at all, simply to save time. But thinking like a painter in the comfort of my (new!) studio, I wanted to cover every speck of paper with color, even if very pale.

I do like the subtle differentiation between the trees and their shadows, especially because the yellow-green gives the dark purple trees a slight shimmer of warmth, like an underpainting.

Reference photo taken at high noon in November.

I know it will be more challenging to do this kind of analysis on location before sketching. Will I eventually get faster as I integrate the learning? I hope so. I also don’t want it to be a mechanical exercise (as it is now while I practice). I want the results to reflect what I’ve learned by being more expressive and dynamic and less literally descriptive (“trees are green; sky is blue”).

At heart, I will probably always be a realistic sketcher; it goes against my nature to choose random, crazy colors just to be less descriptive (like those rainbow faces I made in class). My goal here is to make color choices that make sense and seem “real” without simply trying to replicate what I see. I think this sketch is moving in that direction. What do you think?

Pushed Indoors Again in Columbia City

3/12/25 Empire Roasters & Records, Columbia City

Déjà vu: I recalled a USk Seattle outing in Columbia City way back in 2016 when heavy rain and wind pushed us all indoors. It wasn’t quite that bad on Wednesday, but it was definitely wet enough for our small group to retreat indoors.

Mary Jean and I decided on Empire Roasters and Records, where I had sketched with Roy and Kate just about a year ago. It’s a funky space combining a café and record store on three narrow floors. As I did last time, I admired all the furniture made from wood that still retained the raw edges, cracks and holes of the trees it came from.

I started with my current obsession: A color temperature study of the interior I faced. Using the tricks that seem to work best for me in Sarah Bixler’s class, which I had just finished, I looked for the warmest spots (the man’s face and the yellow painting on the wall) and the coolest area (his shirt). I noted that the light coming in through the window was on the cool side. From there, I just kept asking and comparing, Is this cooler or warmer than…? Eventually I want to bust out of this blue/orange (plus a little yellow) palette, but for now, it’s working for me as a learning tool. (I added the ceiling lamp at the library right before we had our throwdown.)

That done, I could relax and make a comics diary page to commend myself for unpacking my drawing table and filling my sketchbook bookcase (below).

It’s a shame that we couldn’t sketch outdoors because the Columbia City neighborhood is full of old architecture and fun business street fronts. But I was happy to have a comfy opportunity to work out color temperature concepts in a real-life location, not just a portrait from a photo. 

Cool Light/Warm Shadow = Brain Buster

 

3/10/25 Both exercises done with Prismacolors
in Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook

Unattributed reference photo

The final assignment in Sarah Bixler’s class was to use reference photos with relatively cool light and warm shadows, which is the reverse of how I usually see and interpret light/shadow. For the first one (above), I used the same reference photo (unattributed) that Sarah had used in her demo.

Per her suggestion, I kept the lighted side fairly saturated while the shaded side was more of a mix of warm/cool and therefore less saturated. While Sarah explained her interpretation and logic as she demo’d, what she said made sense. But when I tried to do it myself, I got confused and befuddled! The light didn’t seem cool at all, nor did the shadow side seem particularly warm.

Feeling frustrated that I didn’t do it right, I tried again, this time with an Earthsworld reference photo (below). I deliberately chose one with a warm shadow side enhanced by a warm light under his chin reflected from his yellow shirt. To avoid the repeat of my confusion, I took a more mechanical approach that had worked for me previously: I determined that the warmest area was under his chin. Relative to that, everything else on his face was cooler. Though my approach feels mechanical, I think the second one’s result is much better. More important, I felt more solidly that I “get it,” even when the logical warm light/cool shadow is reversed.

3/11/25

Earthsworld reference photo

Whew! I took her class because of the brain blowouts I had gotten during her previous workshops . . . and this time, the blowouts continued, all the way to the end! One thing is for sure: I cannot unsee what I have learned to see about color temperature! Portraiture from photos is all fine and good for learning concepts, but we all know what I really want to do: Practice what I’ve learned out in the real world!