Retro Furniture at US Bank Center

2/14/26 US Bank Center

Last winter’s outing at US Bank Center was so popular that we knew it would become a USk mainstay during the cold months. Great coffee and pastries from Olympia Coffee and comfy seating on three levels make it ideal for capturing intriguing interiors and people.

Last year I sketched mostly the window views from the third level and people on the mezzanine, so this time I tried something entirely different. The third floor is furnished and decorated in a retro style with unusual lighting fixtures that attracted several other sketchers, too. Somewhat inspired by the color scheme, I also took some liberties. It was fun to focus on the furnishings as if they were a giant still life.

That sketch took longer than I usually spend on a single sketch; I was hungry by the time I finished. Taking my snack to the mezzanine level, I sketched other sketchers until it was time for the throwdown.

A good mix of water-soluble and non-soluble media.

Color notes: Although color is not usually what attracts me first or determines whether I choose a subject to sketch, it was this time. The interior scene in the first sketch felt like a good test of my values-based palette, and all those solid shapes of color were easy to see. Picking up on the rust, yellow and navy furniture, I changed the lighting fixtures from white to light green and the patterned wall to pale yellow. I made the cast shadows dark green just to balance the green lamps. I think limiting my palette to four colors made the composition more cohesive.

Media notes: Since I was seated in a chair at a table, not standing on the sidewalk, the sketch was not necessarily a test of my newly MacGyver’ed sketch kit, but it confirmed that I chose a solid range of warms and cools, and a good mix of water-soluble materials. In fact, I took advantage of having a comfy seat to include a technique I don’t usually like to spend much time on when standing – the “licked sky” technique – with both the Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle pencils and the Neocolor II crayons. The pale washes that are easy to achieve with that technique are an ideal way to give color to the lightest values. Even without including watercolors, the technique made me feel like my mixed-media kit was even more mixed!