Nostalgic in Leschi (and Not)

 

8/30/25 The house I lived in from 1958 to 1984.

The last time USk Seattle met in Leschi was before the pandemic, so it was good to be back in my childhood ‘hood with the group (read that post first for more context). Last time, I spent more time reminiscing about and sketching the Leschi Market, an old-fashioned community grocery store where my mom shopped. This time I had a different mission:

I’ve long wanted to sketch my childhood home, but whenever I’ve driven by, I’ve seen that the front is mostly obscured by trees. Realizing that the best view is from the back, I hoofed it over to the house where I grew up (above). (Although it seemed like a long, long walk when I was a kid, I realized last Saturday that the distance from home to Leschi Market is only about 10 minutes for adult me.) The large picture window looks out on Lake Washington and sometimes Mt. Rainier (see this post for my childhood context on that). Although the current owners rebuilt the back deck that my father had built (it had become hazardous from disrepair by the time the house was sold), I’m grateful that they have kept the house mostly unchanged on the outside.

Walking back to the market and marina area where the other sketchers were, I kept looking for familiar sights. It wasn’t exactly nostalgic because so much had changed since I lived there, but it was good to see that many of the tallest trees were taller still, and some of the old lakeside apartment buildings were the same (though now turned into condos).

When I got back, I had just enough time to make quick sketches of the marina and the market.

8/30/25 Leschi Marina and Market

Now that I’ve finally sketched my childhood home, please indulge me in just a bit more reminiscing. I have now completed sketching all the dwellings I have ever lived in – only four! I’ve included the rest below. You can read more about each one in these posts: My first apartment; my second apartment; my current house.

My first apartment on upper Queen Anne, 1984 to 1986

My second apartment on lower Queen Anne, 1986 to 1988

My house in Maple Leaf since 1988.

Meetings and Reunions Under Overcast Skies

 

8/29/25 Gasworks Brewing on Lake Union

I don’t know if it was the weather (overcast and cooler), the location (Northlake), or that it was the Friday before Labor Day weekend, but USk Seattle had record-breaking attendance at our drink & draw!

The venue, Gasworks Brewing, is one that I had checked out several months ago for drink & draw potential. Although it is a fabulous location right on the north shore of Lake Union, it has one serious flaw: Very few of the plentiful tables have umbrellas. What were they thinking? Given some of the scorchers we’ve had this year, I had dismissed it as an option for most of summer, but the end of August cooled down enough to make me optimistic. It must have helped to keep my fingers crossed, because the day ended up mostly overcast and cooler – just fine for sketching the lake and each other without shade.

It was especially fun to meet Naoko, a sketcher from USk Tokyo, who has been traveling with her husband across the US the past couple of months and will continue on to further adventures before returning to Japan. I was thrilled when I found out Seattle was on their itinerary! It’s always special to finally meet someone I’ve followed for years on social media.

In addition, several sketchers who had not attended USk in quite a while (more than a decade for two of them) joined us at this drink & draw. It was a happy reunion for those of us who knew them back then. We also greeted several newcomers who made the drink & draw their first outing.

All in all, it was an ideal way to start the holiday weekend before saying good-bye to an excellent summer.

Naoko wears both a USk Japan T-shirt and a UW cap (her husband Nobie is a former Husky!)

We don't usually do a formal throwdown or group photo at drink & draws, but this one felt like a special occasion!

Good to see Jackie after nearly a decade!

Welcome back to Will, whom we also hadn't seen in at least a decade.

Naoko was on a mission to sketch every drink & draw participant!

Alice (foreground) is another sketcher we hadn't seen in years.

Lunchtime Companions

 

8/25/25

Although I haven’t been sketching them as much as I did in previous years, I am still enjoying visits from Steller’s jays when I have lunch out on the back deck. When I open the kitchen door and start prepping my lunch, often a jay will stand on the deck railing in anticipation of what they know I’ll bring out: Peanuts.

After they’ve had their fill, they sometimes return to the railing to preen. As one jay took a particularly leisurely time, I kicked myself for not having any sketch materials with me (me – the one who is always lecturing to newbie sketchers about the importance of having sketch materials at all times because one never knows when a sketch opportunity will arise!). I knew that if I went into the house to get something, the moment would be lost, so I just enjoyed the moment.

The next day, a jay had barely grabbed a few peanuts when an opportunistic raccoon showed up. I had no intention of feeding trash pandas, but this one was so used to humans that it would not scare away!

I did what any equally opportunistic sketcher would do: I dashed into the house to grab my bag. A short time later, four adorable kits showed up to dine with mama (all sketches in this post are from life except the last one).

8/20/25

By this time, I had learned my lesson. The next time a jay came to preen, I had a pencil ready. A day later, the same jay (I think) came back for lunch and another leisurely preen fest.

8/25/25

8/26/25

8/26/25

8/26/25

Finally, I wanted to try a jay with a brush pen. I used a reference photo for this.

8/26/25 photo reference

I sometimes put the nut bin out on the railing while I'm prepping my lunch. A jay will tap on the bin to let me know it's lunchtime!

Opportunistic trash panda mom . . . 

. . . and three of her four kits!

A Return to the Zoo

 

8/18/25 tapir and rhino, Woodland Park Zoo (I got all the parts of the rhino but none assembled!)

I woke with a start: It was already mid-August, and I hadn’t yet been to Woodland Park Zoo! (In fact, at the admission desk when I renewed my membership, I learned that I hadn’t re-upped since 2023; the last time I visited had been exactly two years ago on Aug. 18. What a weird coincidence!)

Like the pets I showed yesterday, which were all done from photos, my mission at the zoo was to get more brush pen practice, this time with live animals. In the past, I’ve really enjoyed making animal gestures using watercolor pencils or graphite. The brush pen, though, is an ideal tool for making expedient gestures, and I think I love it even more than pencils for this purpose. The variable line strokes are perfect for fur and feathers.

Siamang and orangutans

Although I have many childhood memories of Woodland Park Zoo, some of my fondest are as an adult – my first few years as an urban sketcher. That first summer of 2012, I visited the zoo quite regularly, and that’s how I discovered how much I enjoy drawing live animals. It was great practice for sketching moving subjects and good training for sketching in public. As years went on, and my sketchbook and I began exploring more widely, I stopped going to the zoo as frequently, but every time I go, I’m reminded of those enjoyable early times.

Steller's sea eagle and Humboldt penguins

Beyond the fun of sketching animals, the zoo is a great place to walk, with lots of beautiful trees and landscaping. It’s an ideal way to combine my fitness walking with sketching. The zoo is back on my radar now; I hope to make more use of my membership before the wet weather sets in.

After my zoo visit, my plan was to walk to Fresh Flours for a pastry and coffee while I made a sketch journal entry. Before leaving the zoo, I made one last sketch of a penguin in the sketch journal so that I'd have sort of a segue to the bakery recorded in the journal. Then tragedy struck: Fresh Flours was completely sold out of pastries!

A New Look for Pets

8/16/25 (all sketches made with photo references)

Just a couple of weeks ago I had mentioned that I was thinking about ways to change up my pet portraiture style. At the time, I didn’t have a specific client or project in mind, but an opportunity to put a new style to work came up serendipitously. I’ll tell you about that soon, but here are some sketches I’ve been doing as practice for that opportunity.

My main M.O. for these sketches is that they have to be fast to execute – like less than five minutes each. I wanted them to fit on an A5-ish size page or sketchbook, so I practiced in an 8-by-5 inch Moleskine (the old kind with the weird, thick, smooth paper that evokes manila file folders; I don’t generally like this paper, but it’s great with ink). For both speed and expressiveness, I chose my favorite Pentel Pocket Brush Pen. Initially, my plan was to use only that, but since the black ink took less than five minutes, I pulled out a gray Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen with a brush tip to add a bit of shading. The shading isn’t essential, but it does define the forms of the heads better than the brush pen alone.

My goal with these is to capture the animal’s essence without necessarily being an accurate resemblance (which I do try to achieve when I make more finished colored pencil drawings for commissions). Although I want to continue practicing proportions so that I can be reasonably accurate without making measurements, I’m pleased with the fresh, comic-y look of these sketches.

(All of these were made with reference photos that I had used previously during the past couple of years for commissioned colored pencil portraits.)

It’s a Hot Rat Summer at Cal Anderson Park

 

8/17/25 Cal Anderson Park, Capitol Hill

Capitol Hill’s Cal Anderson Park was busier than usual last Sunday. In addition to the weekly farmers market, the park was also host to a flea market that I wasn’t even aware of until then. Both events gave USk Seattle plenty to sketch that morning.

I began with an homage to Hot Rat Summer, a piece of renegade art that appeared at the park last year (above). Not just graffiti or even a painting, it’s a mosaic installed on an historic structure. According to Wikipedia: “Widely interpreted as a symbol of queer and trans resilience, the mosaic gained cult status and sparked broader discussions around public art, graffiti policy, and civic engagement.” The city has been painting over the mosaic regularly, and local residents have been removing the paint just as regularly. I was unaware of it until I read a Seattle Times article about the controversy just a few days ago. People stopped by to pay respects to St. Rat as I sketched, and small offerings had been left on the ledge below the mosaic.

For the rest of the outing, I rambled through the farmers market and flea market, capturing some people and dogs. Not too hot, not overly sunny, the morning had a relaxed summer Sunday vibe, despite the crowds.

Flea market at Cal Anderson Park

Capitol Hill farmers market

After the outing, I had lunch with a few other sketchers at nearby Lost Lake Café, where I’d intended to sketch my French toast, but there wasn’t much left of it by the time I got around to it.

Waiting for the meetup to begin and lunch at Lost Lake Cafe

Unseasonably Wet at Third Place Commons

 

8/15/25 Third Place Commons parking lot through upper-floor window

Unusual for this time of year, an atmospheric river was headed our way. With heavy rain and wind in the forecast for Friday when USk Seattle was scheduled to meet at a garden, we made a quick change to Third Place Commons, which is typically a wintertime mainstay for us. We were grateful to have this rare gem in Lake Forest Park, where a huge space of public seating is available for small meetings and other gatherings.

Grateful, yes, but I’ve also sketched there many times, so I walked around for quite a while trying to find a new angle. I spotted a small table tucked away next to large windows overlooking the parking lot (above). I recalled sketching from that same table many years ago, so I thought it would be fun to do it again. It was pretty comfy sketching with a hot cup of coffee through rain spattered glass as the atmospheric river got under way. (Here’s the blog post with that sketch from 2012 – my first time visiting Third Place Commons.)

After that, I wandered around again until I ran into Natalie. Sharing a table with her, I sketched a few people and lamps, happy to have my Urban Sketchers pals to hang out with on that unseasonably wet morning.

As is often the case, I can't spell and sketch at the same time. ;-)

Flowers, Music and Peach Pie

 

8/2/25 Art in the Garden at the Ballard P-Patch

Art in the Garden, the Ballard P-Patch’s annual neighborhood fair, hasn’t always been on my radar, but after last year’s fun, I have decided to keep it on my summer calendar. Now in its 23^rd year, the event offers arts and crafts vendors, live music, a barbecue, beer garden, and a walk through the community garden’s lovely blooms and produce.

I was surprised to find myself sketching the Sølje Sisters again – I had just sketched them at Phinney Farmers Market a couple of weeks ago. And then I wasn’t surprised: I learned that the violinist shown second from left is a gardener at the P-Patch.

Now an annual tradition!

Colorful flowers, art vendors, music – plenty of reasons to enjoy Art in the Garden. But let’s be honest: I was there for the peach pie (and since I’ve done it for two consecutive years, it’s now an annual tradition).

Bothell Dogs

 

7/26/25 dogs at Bothell street market

After Natalie, Ching and I met for lunch in Bothell, we checked out a nearby street market to sketch. It must be a dog-friendly market and neighborhood, because many well-behaved, leashed dogs were strolling through the market along with their humans. The dogs I had sketched at Phinney Farmers Market the previous day got me in the mood to keep going. Meanwhile, I eavesdropped on a conversation and quoted the most interesting line I heard.

Alexa's Cafe, Bothell

FOB Poke

 

7/25/25 FOB Poke Bar and some light rail sketches

I love poke, especially when served in the “build your own bowl” style: You get to pick all the proteins, sides and toppings, usually for one price. Just Poke is my favorite local chain, and I knew one was nearby when I was on Capitol Hill around lunch time the other day, but I wanted to check out a different place that was new to me.

When I was in middle school in the early ‘70s, FOB (“fresh off the boat”) was a derogatory term we used to refer to the mostly Chinese immigrant students at our school. I guess it’s not derogatory anymore, as it is the name of this small poke chain. FOB Poke Bar is distinctive in that it offers quite a few interesting toppings and extras that I don’t typically see elsewhere, like takuan (sweet pickled radish, which I love), tamago (egg cakes) and a delicious cilantro aioli that I wish they sold in a bottle so that I could pour it on salads.

As you can see from my notes, I wasn’t enamored with the ambiance inside (and other patrons must agree, as I was the only one dining there the whole time), so it’s better for takeout. But I certainly devoured that bowl easily, so I have no complaints about the food.

Kora Music

 

7/10/25 Kora busker at Lake City Farmers Market

Walking among the tents of organic berries, colorful bouquets and jarred kimchi, I heard gentle, meditative music in the distance. It was a man playing a stringed instrument I had never seen before, nor the way he was strumming it: Facing the long fretboard.

When I finished my sketch, I put money in his basket and learned that the instrument is called a kora, played by Chet Corpt. It was a lovely soundtrack for a beautiful summer afternoon at the Lake City Farmers Market.

Ahhhh... this is what summer is made of!