Sun Breaks at Evergreen Washelli

4/2/15 Platinum Carbon and DeAtramentis Document
Brown inks, watercolor, Caran d'Ache Museum
colored pencils, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

Crazy weather!

We’ve been having a lot of rain lately, but that’s nothing new, especially for this time of year. What’s crazy are the hailstorms, lightning and thunder! The other crazy part is how quickly the weather changes, within minutes or a few miles.

When I left home this morning, it was pouring buckets. By the time I got to Shoreline a few miles north, it was dry and – dare I say it? – even sunny. On my way home from the errand, I wondered if it would stay dry long enough to sneak in a sketch, so I took a chance and stopped at Evergreen Washelli Memorial Park (where I sketched the doughboy last month). I was hoping to sketch some angel statuary I’d spotted last time, but I couldn’t find them. Driving around the cemetery, I found instead a domed monument that I could easily sketch from the car (a bonus, since it was chilly).

During the half-hour or so that I sketched, the sky went from deep, solid gray to spotty patches of sun breaks and back again, multiple times in rapid succession, changing the light and shadows every time I looked up. When I finished drawing and was ready to put in the shadows, the light was flat, so I just waited a bit, and then the sun poked out (but only for a minute).

On the way home, the showers started again. You gotta be quick if you want to sketch around here in the spring!

It’s Complicated

3/30/15 Platinum Carbon ink, Sailor zoom pen, watercolor,
Caran d'Ache Museum colored pencils, Canson XL paper

When I first started this series of power line sketches, it was my way of paying respect to these old, once-dignified trees. The power lines were merely the context and reason for the merciless butchering the trees had received. The more sketches I do, however, the more interested I’ve become in the utility wiring itself. I used to think it all looked the same, but in different neighborhoods, the way it’s attached to the poles varies. With all the added types of utilities over the years – fiber optics are the most recent addition, coming in fast and furious in our neck of the woods – the wiring has become more and more complicated.

The poles and lines are as ugly as the trees are (or might have been) beautiful, yet they still hold my fascination in a perverse kind of way.

A Summer Teaser

3/26/15 Various inks, Caran d'Ache Museum water-soluble colored pencils, brush pen, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

The Maple Leaf water tower has been the subject of my sketches many times. Sometimes I enjoy getting into all the details of the complex, criss-crossed girding and the maple leaf motif going around the tower. Today, under a mostly clear blue sky and 70 (!) degrees, it felt like the best of summer, and my mood was just as lazy. On a shady bench but not too far from the sun, I sat on the opposite side of Maple Leaf Park to take in the long view of the water tower holding its own next to the cell tower.

To those of you still sloshing through snow, I’m sorry if I sound like I’m gloating. If it makes you feel any better, here’s what KING 5 weather shows for the next few days:

Ominous

3/24/15 various inks, watercolor, colored pencils

Rain is in the forecast for the next two days. It was showering when I left for a meeting, but that had subsided to a sprinkle on my way home. Before I arrived, the sun broke through, so I stopped for a sketch of this tree silhouetted against an ominous sky.

Epic Pen Search and Discovery, Part 8: Sailor 1911 Profit with Zoom Nib

1/21/15 Platinum Carbon ink, Van Gogh watercolors,Stillman & Birn
Alpha sketchbook

(This is part of a multi-post series about my ongoing search for the ultimate variable-line-width fountain pen. To read other posts in the series, choose “Epic Pen Search” in the label cloud at right, below.) 

The Sailor zoom nib is a strange animal. It’s not temperamental like the Sailor music nib I reviewed last week, nor is it as bold and elegant as the Platinum music nib from the week before. As close to the Sailor fude nib as anything I’ve used, in both line variation and operation, the nib can make a hair-fine line when held nearly perpendicular to the paper that widens gradually as the angle to the paper is narrowed. At my normal writing angle, the line stroke isn’t quite as broad as the Platinum music nib; it’s probably closer to the Sailor’s music (see the skull of Kennewick man, sketched from a photo in the Smithsonian magazine, below). By contrast, the fude held at a normal writing angle renders a slightly finer stroke. At its broadest, it’s close to the fude’s widest line.

1/21/15 Private Reserve Velvet Black ink, S&B Alpha

Although the motion that the nib requires to change its angle and therefore its line width is somewhat intuitive to me (since I’ve grown accustomed to the fude), it looks more like a “normal” nib (unlike the fude’s dramatically bent tip), so sometimes I forget that I can change its angle while using it. I’m not in love with it, but it’s definitely growing on me. I especially like using it to sketch bare trees, below (see a larger version of this sketch).

One thing I noticed right away is that – unlike the fude or most of the other nibs I’ve tried recently – the zoom’s upside-down stroke is scratchy and unreliable. It seems to be saying, “Don’t hold me upside-down, you idiot – don’t you know how to use a fountain pen properly?” If a nib talks to me, I listen; I don’t use this one upside-down.

Writing samples made with Sailor zoom nib.

On the other hand, I don’t have to. When held in the nearly perpendicular position, the nib produces a very fine line that’s even finer than the fude’s finest upside-down stroke. You can see the finest strokes in the whiskers and hairs on the arctic fox cub sketched from a calendar photo and the man’s hair, below (see a larger version of him at Zoka Coffee).

Here’s the tricky part, though: While the fude’s finest stroke (right-side up or upside-down) is smoothest when going side to side, the zoom’s finest stroke is most pleasantly made on the downstroke. I’m finding that switching from the fude to the zoom is something like getting a new purse: They both work for all the same functions, but I keep forgetting which pocket holds the keys. I’m sure I’d have better results if I stuck with one or the other. (Nearly impossible for a fickle sketcher like me.)

2/11/15 Platinum Carbon ink, Sailor zoom nib,
Fabriano 140 lb. hot press paper

I was pleased to discover that, unlike the Pilot Falcon nib, the zoom seems to put out a normal flow (rather than a fire hose stream), so when I use it with Platinum Carbon ink, I don’t have to worry that it won’t dry by the time I’m ready to use watercolor.

Worth mentioning about the pen’s body: Some call the Sailor 1911 Profit Standard’s cigar-shaped style “classic.” I call it “plain black fountain pen.” It’s clean and sleek, but there’s nothing distinctive about it, and it looks like the plain black fountain pen with a cigar shape that nearly every pen manufacturer has a model of. I didn’t know it before I started this Epic Search, but it turns out that I prefer a slightly larger and heavier pen body, such as the Platinum 3776 (see that review for more comments on this subject). 

2/12/15 Platinum Carbon ink, Sailor zoom nib

My Epic Search so far has included the Pilot Falcon, Platinum music, Sailor music and now Sailor zoom nibs. These are all nibs I researched carefully and at length before purchasing. Although I began the series with the statement, “Impulse buying is not something I’m known for,” at some point in my quest, I took a more spontaneous as well as adventurous turn. A few chance threads in the Fountain Pen Network Facebook group opened up a whole new world of “Frankenpen” modifications that began with an incredibly low-priced Jinhao . . . (stay tuned next week).

(Just in case it’s not obvious, unlike many blogs that review fountain pens, my blog has no sponsors or affiliates. Every pen I mention here was purchased by me at retail price.)

2/9/15 Sailor Tokiwa-matsu ink, Sailor zoom nib pen, Baron Fig
notebook (from a Smithsonian magazine photo)

2/9/15 Sailor Tokiwa-matsu ink, S&B Alpha
(from calendar photo)

1/24/15 Sailor Tokiwa-matsu ink, Sailor zoom nib pen, Baron Fig notebook
(from calendar photo)

1/24/15 Sailor Tokiwa-matsu ink, Sailor zoom nib pen,
Clairefontaine notebook (from calendar photo)

Car-less in Wedgwood

3/2/15 various inks, Sailor zoom nib pen, watercolor,
Caran d'Ache Museum water-soluble colored pencil,
Canson XL 140 lb. paper

The whole time I was sketching, I kept looking around on both sides of this Wedgwood neighborhood street to see if I had somehow missed a “no parking” sign. Not a single parked car was in my line of sight for blocks! Maybe this is the kind of street where all the houses have garages, and the only visitor was the sketcher.

Like an Old Comb

2/28/15 various inks, F-C music nib pen, Caran d'Ache
Museum colored pencil, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

This type of evergreen, which is plentiful in these parts but which I don’t know the name of, is difficult for me to sketch because the usually dense branches form dark fir-y masses in the center that taper out to feathery ends. I practice often on the ugly, misshapen tree visible from our bedroom window; in fact, I just practiced this morning (see below and my post last October).

On my way home from running errands this afternoon, I spotted the tree at left. Its sparse branches made it look like a plastic comb that was missing most of its teeth. On the upside, it was much easier to sketch, since I could see each branch distinctly. (Every sketch has an upside, especially when there’s a clear blue sky behind it!)

2/28/15 Sailor zoom nib pen, watercolor

Seuss Trees

2/18/15 Various inks, twig, Caran d'Ache Museum
water-soluble colored pencils, Fabriano Studio 140 lb.
hot-press paper

Perhaps Seattle has an arborist named Dr. Seuss.

You’ve seen my ongoing sketch series of trees that have been butchered to accommodate power lines. Growing in front of Bryant Elementary School are several very tall trees that have been pruned in the weirdest way, but here’s the clincher: That street has no visible power lines at all. I’m sure the arborist had a reason to hack away the wide limbs that probably would have reached all the way across this relatively narrow street, but I can’t imagine what it was. Meanwhile, the branches have decided that if they can’t spread outward, they will grow straight up.

Blossoms!

2/17/15 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor Fabriano Studio 140 lb. hot press paper

The cherry (plum?) tree in front of the library is beginning to blossom! I discovered last year that this particular tree is among the first to bloom in my ‘hood, so I was planning to watch for it, but I wasn’t expecting to see it this early. This isn’t my favorite composition – that ugly book-drop bin next to the tree is a bit distracting – and if I’d waited until this afternoon, the light would have moved from the back to the front, but I got so excited that I couldn’t wait. Spring is on its way!

A Quick Fix of Sunshine

2/15/15 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Fabriano
Studio 140 lb. hot-press paper

In L.A. for the weekend visiting family, I didn’t have much time to sketch, but I couldn’t leave without capturing these quintessential palms. The temperature was in the 70s and low 80s without a drop of rain predicted for the foreseeable future. We should feel sorry for their drought-devastated landscape, but in mid-February, it was pure delight to sketch in the sun.

2/15/15 Platinum Carbon and Iroshizuku Fuyu-syogun inks, watercolor

2/14/15 Iroshizuku Take-sumi ink, Caran d'Ache Museum water-soluble colored
pencils

Fueled by Pens and Coffee

2/12/15 Platinum Carbon and Iroshizuku Fuyu-syogun inks, Caran d'Ache
Museum water-soluble colored pencil, Fabriano Studio 140 lb. hot-press paper

You know from my Epic Pen Search and Discovery series that I’ve been trying out a lot of unusual fountain pen nibs lately. I brought a couple to Zoka Coffee yesterday, because one of my favorite uses of a variable-line-width pen is sketching people (others are trees and animals). You’ll be hearing more about these pens in full reviews I’ll be writing within the next few weeks, but you can consider these sketches a teaser.

I’m particularly taken with the fine hairs I was able to draw on the man at right – along with the folds in his clothing and other bolder lines – all with one pen! (Spoiler alert: It’s a Sailor with a zoom nib.)

The people in the blue and brown sketch below were done with a Platinum music nib. Too broad for details, this pen forces me to be faster and looser.

More on these and other pens coming soon!

2/12/15 Diamine Sargasso Sea and Iroshizuku Tsukushi inks

2/12/15 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink

2/12/15 Diamine Sapphire ink

A Fossil and a Seahawk at the Burke

2/11/15 Platinum Carbon and Iroshizuku Fuyu-syogun inks, Caran d'Ache Museum water-soluble colored pencil, Fabriano
Studio 140 lb. hot-press paper

The Burke Museum held a Behind-the-Scenes Night for members last evening. They opened up many of their collections that are generally not accessible to the public or are simply not on view right now. While I found them fascinating, especially the rare and old textiles and baskets, the viewing spaces were crowded and tight – not very conducive to sketching. After getting my fill of that, I wandered out to the regular exhibits, where I never run out of things to sketch.

2/11/15 Diamine Chocolate Brown and Fuyu-syogun
inks, Museum water-soluble colored pencils

My first stop was the fossil of a huge Eurhinosaurus, a 185-million-year-old marine reptile. After sketching it from a distance, I walked up to it to get a closer look and spotted (relatively) tiny fossilized nautilus shells around the reptile.

Next I saw “Here and Now: Native Artists Inspired,” an exhibit of the work of contemporary artists who have been influenced by their ancestors. On temporary loan to the museum in this exhibit is a Kwakwaka’wakw transformation mask that was carved in the late 19^th century on Vancouver Island. The original inspiration for the Seahawks logo, the mask will be on view through July 27. 

Mostly Overcast at Green Lake

2/11/15 Platinum Carbon ink, Caran D'Ache Museum water-soluble colored pencils, Fabriano Studio 140 lb. hot press paper

Today the temperature was supposed to get all the way into the mid-50s this afternoon – 55 is my self-designated lower temperature limit for outdoor sketching – so I bundled up and ventured out to Green Lake (below). I was a little cold, though, especially as I waited for my watercolors to dry. (It’s funny – while I’m sketching, I hardly notice the cold, but as soon as I have to stop and wait, I suddenly feel it.)

Chilled, I got back in the car and was about to leave when I spotted an interesting stand of trees bordering one side of the parking lot (above). I felt like my watercolor sketch of the lake lost all sense of distance, so this time I used pen and colored pencils with the goal of achieving more depth.

2/11/15 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor

Technical note: I’ve always been a fan of textured paper with watercolors, but now that my favorite cold-press paper has become too toothy, I’m giving Fabriano Studio hot-press paper another try. Its smooth surface is especially pleasant to use with a fountain pen, so in the winter when I tend to use watercolor less, it works out well. I don’t like it much with colored pencils, though – for those, I prefer more tooth. 

Sketching, Listening and the S. S. Minnow

1/21/15 various inks, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

We had been invited to a presentation; the topic was of greater interest to Greg than to me. However, free refreshments were promised, so I tagged along – with my sketchbook, of course.

At some point I picked up a Bic ballpoint pen that had been provided for note-taking. I know some sketchers swear by the ubiquitous ballpoint for sketching, saying they can get all degrees of value with just one pen, just like some people are able to achieve with a pencil. I’ve never been a fan of ballpoint ink, but I started to see why it’s favored – it’s the kind of medium that you can keep building layers with.

1/21/15 various inks

I left that pen behind, but now I know that if I’m ever stuck on Gilligan’s Island, I’ll remember to grab a Bic that the S. S. Minnow would certainly have onboard.

P.S. Since I didn’t think I was very interested, I didn’t expect to pay much attention to the presentation while I sketched. I was surprised to find that I retained almost all of it. I find I can’t talk and sketch at the same time, but apparently some part of my brain is able to listen and pay full attention.

1/21/15 ballpoint pen