Not Many Notes Here, Either

 

8/23/26 Green Lake Village

8/23/26 Green Lake

Like the commuter portraits I talked about a couple of days ago, I’m frowning at the lack of writing with my fitness-walk sketches, too. Sometimes making a sketch will prompt thoughts that I’d like to write about, but I save them for my written journal (which I work on mostly in the evening). Standing on the sidewalk is not exactly conducive to long-form writing, but maybe I can learn to be less verbose – boil down my thoughts to a couple of sentences.

8/27/26 Green Lake

8/31/26 These idiotic geese have the bad habit of 
wandering out into the street, but instead of crossing to the other side, they just meander around slowly, stopping traffic in both directions.

I tend to write a bit more in my sketch journal when I travel because I’m using it as a travel journal, too. As you read this, I am just getting back from a week away in which I set myself the goal of writing more in my sketch journal (and not at all in my written journal, which I didn’t even bring). I’ll probably eventually talk about that process.

9/7/26 Maple Leaf Park

9/15/26 Maple Leaf neighborhood

I didn’t forget that today is Day 1 of InkTober! Although I have a plan, as I’m writing this more than a week in the past, my future self doesn’t know yet how successful I was at starting InkTober on a travel day. I may begin tomorrow. Will report in soon.

9/22/26 I remember when this old snag standing in Maple Leaf Park was still a tree. I don't think I ever
sketched it then. I thought it was time to finally appreciate it.

Not Enough Notes

7/14/26

6/20/26

Since I rarely ride the light rail or buses for anything but USk outings, sketch play dates, and other socializing, it’s fun to recall where I was going and who I was meeting with when I sketched these fellow commuters. (This is just a selection from my busy summer.)

7/25/26

8/9/26

Sometimes I make notes about the day on the bottom of the page (which I sometimes clip off and don’t share), but not often enough. I want my sketch journal to be more of a “journal” to balance the “sketching.” I’m going to make an effort to write more on the page.

9/11/26

9/13/26

There’s irony in that last statement. One of the main reasons I was so motivated to start a sketch journal in the first place was that I already had a lifelong journal writing practice; I wanted a daily journal process that would put more emphasis on sketching. Now I want more balance between the two.

9/11/26 During a longer rider than usual all the way to the south end of the light rail line, I had more time to capture a larger scene. Everyone near me had bags, airport-bound, so I knew they would be on board almost as long as I would be.

Fremont Chestnut Tree

 

9/21/26 European chestnut tree, Fremont neighborhood

A ginormous European chestnut tree grows in Fremont that is a marvel of nature. Decades ago, a fire hydrant was installed in the sidewalk with presumably plenty of space between it and the tree. Now the roots are growing around the hydrant like it’s just a minor inconvenience! Right now the leaves are still green, and it’s full of fuzzy, green chestnuts that I understand will eventually be the kind that are tasty to roast and eat.

The man who lives in the house behind the chestnut came out to rake. Although the tree still has most of its leaves, I can imagine what a huge job it would be to keep up with them once they start falling.

I first learned about this street tree, the widest-diameter chestnut in Seattle, from Taha Ebrahimi’s book, Street Trees of Seattle, which I used as a guide for sketching many street trees a couple of years ago. A recent Instagram post from Taha reminded me of it, and when she showed photos of the roots wrapped around the hydrant, I knew I had to sketch it. My sketches feel puny, though; I’d need paper four times as large to capture even a part of its crown.

How big would my paper have to be to capture this whole tree!

How annoying. . . like a seed stuck between teeth!

Cars & Coffee

 

9/20/26 David drawing the Miata's birthday portrait at Cars & Coffee

When I had proposed a commission to David Hingtgen to make my Miata’s birthday portrait, he suggested that we meet at Cars & Coffee in the Madrona neighborhood. A local chapter of a national group (like Urban Sketchers!), this community of car enthusiasts meets every Sunday morning, rain or shine, throughout the year. The large parking lot, apparently unused most of the time, is right on the shore of Lake Washington. On a chilly but beautifully sunny morning, I took the top down to drive my clean and shiny Miatamobile to Madrona.

Similar to the Greenwood Car Show, it was fun to see people greeting friends, admiring each other’s vehicles and chatting about their favorite subject. It reminded me of Urban Sketchers: People of all ages happily congregating with their tribe.

I started the morning by sketching David drawing my Miata (top of post) while he drew my Miata and me! (Woo-woo, a meta Miata moment!)

Skimming from Lake Washington

Between admiring and snapping photos of cars, especially convertibles, I captured a man skimming stuff out of the lake, a metal detector (I assume?) beeping as he waded along slowly (at left).

I also met nice people who told me about their cars and wanted to hear about mine. A young woman said a Miata was her “dream car,” especially one of the same vintage as mine. She had entered a drawing to win one before she started college soon, so I wished her luck. Her boyfriend, who had brought them to Cars & Coffee in his dark green Lotus, teased that she seemed to think Miatas were hotter than the Lotus (I heartily agreed and said so).

A patient pup

A young man, owner of the most souped-up Miata (2000 vintage) I had ever seen, described and showed me every modification he had made since he took ownership of it last January. He has already crashed it once, he said, but he repaired the damage himself at his father’s auto body shop. When I said I was sad that top-down weather would soon be ending for the season, he said he is looking forward to rain so that he could practice “drifting.” According to Google, “Drift racing is a motorsport where drivers intentionally break the traction of their rear tires to slide cars sideways through corners while keeping full control.” Who knew? Now I do. I pointed to my own Miata and said proudly that I try to keep all four tires firmly on the ground.

I figure that’s why she still looks so good at 30.

Not too shabby for 30!

This '00 Miata was so souped up, I hardly recognized it. The owner uses it to "drift race."

This man's roadster was so new that it still had temporary plates.

A perfect top-down day!

Scouting Mission at Centennial Park

 

9/18/26 Cafe Hagen at Centennial Park (quiche not shown to scale)

I’d been trying to get to Seattle’s newly redeveloped Centennial Park all summer. My goal was to eventually lead a USk outing there, but this waterfront park on Elliott Bay had several challenges. People who had been there said it was wide open with very little shade anywhere. With new, attractive bike and walking paths connecting the entire waterfront from Queen Anne to downtown, arriving by bike was ideal, but what about the rest of us? Although free parking was available, word had gotten out, and now the lots were full most of the time. For me, taking public transportation required a time-consuming route that included light rail, multiple buses and walking.

Now that the new Café Hagen was open at the north end of the park, I got a new idea: I put the café as my destination in Google Maps, and suddenly the bus leg of my route was shorter, cutting transit time significantly. Summer was nearly over, but I finally figured out how to get there!

Since this visit was mostly a scouting mission, I began with lunch at Café Hagen (a delicious quiche; much better than the nearly inedible toast I had recently at a different Café Hagen) while sketching the enormous grain terminal right in front of me (top of post). Then I walked south, stopping occasionally to sketch along the way (below), until I reached the Olympic Sculpture Park a little more than a mile from Hagen. I saw several more potential sketches as I walked, but I saved them for future visits.

By no coincidence, USk Seattle was near the end of their outing there (which I decided to skip because I’d just sketched at the Sculpture Park in May). I had just enough time for one quick sketch of a sculpture so that I could join the group for the throwdown.

Now that I know how to get to Centennial Park, I can lead an outing there and offer suggestions for public transit. With no shelter or shade except at the café, which has plenty of covered outdoor seating, the cooler, cloudier part of the year may be the best time to be there anyway. I’ll see if I can squeeze in an outing after all before the wet part of fall gets under way.

Myrtle Edwards Park, which is now connected to Centennial Park

Indian blanket flowers, which cover a large area
of the newly planted pollinator meadow

Sketchwaiting Stories

 

7/15/26 Social Security office

6/11/26 medical waiting room

The sketches I make while waiting for someone or something to happen are usually just ways to “kill time” (I’ve always thought that was an odd expression: Why would we want to kill the only resource we truly have in life?). Yet when I look back at them, I realize that almost all vividly remind me of the circumstances in which they were made, even if the subjects are “nothing” (which almost always defines a sketchwaiting sketch), and even if I haven’t written any notes. Or maybe I should say that the sketches evoke the feelings associated with the circumstances.

5/17/26 waterfront

8/6/26 Green Lake PCC

For example, although I didn’t note the temperature, I know that Aug. 6 (above) was a hot day. I didn’t want to turn on the oven to cook, so I went to PCC to get a pizza. I could tell that people were using the café area simply to enjoy the AC.

7/15/26 Social Security office

9/11/26 Federal Way light rail station

The yellow sketch on June 11 (top of post) was made in the waiting room of Greg’s orthopedist, who had examined a broken arm after a fall. He seemed to be declining in other ways, but the fracture was healing well, which gave me hope.

A month later on July 15, I was in the Social Security office with our marriage license, applying for widow’s benefits.

Every sketch tells a story, large and small.

9/14/26 Green Lake

9/16/26 South Lake Union

Thornton Creek Media Tests

 

9/12/26 Thornton Creek Channel (non-soluble colored pencils)

It’s mid-September, and that can mean only one thing: I’m gearing up for both InkTober and Pencilvember! For the past few years, I’ve been devoting each challenge month to a specific subject theme, such as ears or pets, with all drawings done from photo references. This year, I thought I’d go back to my roots of trying to draw as much as possible from life and without a theme. The challenge would be to stick to one medium that I rarely use for any length of time. It’s an effective way to get past any resistance and to practice a medium that doesn’t come easily. (Years ago, using ballpoint pens exclusively during InkTober got me to really enjoy and appreciate the medium.)

 

Derwent Drawing and a couple of Prismacolors

Without making commitments yet, I recently took a couple of media out with me to Thornton Creek Channel to see how they might do. Derwent Drawing pencils (or dry colored pencils in general) are a definite contender for Pencilvember. For a month now, I’ve been anticipating that fall might be a great time to give these pencils a solid try on location. As mentioned in that previous post, my plan would be to stay small with my sketches so that they would remain relatively fast. I’ve been so dependent on water to do the heavy lifting of building strong values with water-soluble pencils or crayons that using non-soluble pencils would be time-consuming. Or would it? Maybe this is a good time to see what shortcuts or techniques I can develop to make this medium more on-location friendly.

The sketch above, about two-thirds of an A5-ish page in my Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook, probably took twice as long as a similar size sketch using water-soluble materials. I’ll have to go even smaller for the same efficiency.

Staedtler Pigment Arts Brush Pens

I’m less certain about my candidate InkTober. For this trial run, I took a small set of Staedtler Pigment Arts Brush Pens, which I learned about from Roz Stendahl several months ago. Containing waterproof, pigment-based ink, they are similar to Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Brush pens, which I’ve been using for many years. The Staedtler pens are significantly cheaper than Faber-Castell, however. I go through Pitt pens fairly rapidly, especially Cold Gray III, which has long been a favorite for shading. The last time I needed to reorder Pitts, I thought I’d give Staedtler a try.

6 of the 12 colors in the "Nature" set

Although the lower price is appealing, one major disadvantage of the Staedtlers is that they aren’t available open stock. I chose the set of 12 “Nature” colors, which has a decent selection for landscape and urban sketching. I sort of enjoy the challenge of a limited, pre-selected palette that I didn’t even choose myself. But for 31 days during the height of fall color? I might need to supplement with Pitt brush pens, which I own in a much wider color range.

Perhaps the greater hurdle with brush markers is that I have never cared for the marker-ish look. My engineer brother once described the violin as analog (the ability to modulate from one note to the next) while the piano is digital (on or off). Along the same lines, colored pencils (or almost any dry media) are analog, while markers are digital. If I compare the two sketches here of the same scene, I certainly prefer the modulated look of colored pencils. (I didn’t like my recent attempts at Jimi Hendrix Park at all.) Maybe I just haven’t learned to use markers in a way that appeals to me.

Who knows – maybe I’ll declare December mixed-media month and use colored pencils and markers together! Past attempts usually haven’t been satisfying; brush markers have a way of taking over the party, no matter who else is in the room. But if art challenges like InkTober and Pencilvember aren’t for learning, why take part? I’m game.

This is the thumbnail I made to test the values and composition before
making the color sketches. The best part of it is the comment I overheard.

USk Rides to the Eastside

 

9/13/26 Northwest African American Museum

I woke to hard rain on the roof and windows.

It was the kind of morning that if I hadn’t been the lead, I would have skipped the USk outing. Instead, I boarded the light rail in damp jeans to an outing I had helped plan and had been looking forward to ever since the 2 Line to the Eastside opened last spring.

The first stop of our two-part outing was Judkins Park Station across the street from Jimi Hendrix Park. I was relieved and happy not to be alone on this wet day – a small group of hardy sketchers joined me! Although most stayed in the park to sketch in the light drizzle, I ducked into the Northwest African American Museum, which I hadn’t been to in years (above). Its exhibits tell illuminating stories of noteworthy Black Seattle residents and other significant national figures and their contributions to American history and culture.

I found a window at the museum with a view toward the park’s large sculpture, “Butterfly Canopy,” which I tend to sketch every time I’m in the park. After that, with a short time left before the throwdown, I attempted a strange (and unsuccessful) composition of the edge of the Butterfly and the top of the museum (both below).

Jimi Hendrix Park

After our throwdown, a handful of sketchers rode on to Part 2 of the outing: Bellevue Downtown Station. Most had not yet taken the light rail across Lake Washington, so it was fun to know that our outing was their first opportunity.

Riding the rails across the lake!

Famished by the time we got to Bellevue, I made lunch at Café Hagen* my first stop. It was as good a place as any to finish a page of sketches for the outing’s second leg. Although we didn’t get the best weather, a day of sketching with USk is always better than a day without!

Cafe Hagen, downtown Bellevue

* If you’re curious about my comment on the sketch of my Nordic Cheese Toast, I’ll give you the full review: Although the prettiest toast I’d ever seen, and while its other ingredients were delicious, the bread was so thick, hearty and crusty that I couldn’t penetrate it with the ordinary utensils I was given. With much struggle, I had to dig out softer bread from the center. Although I have done this only a few times in my life, I took the toast back to the counter and explained my difficulty to the servers. I asked them to tell the chef to try cutting the toast with the same type of knife I had been given. I doubt it had ever been tested; perhaps a hacksaw would do the job.

Lovely but inpenetrable