Thick and Thin

 

US readers, please vote! This could be the most
critical election of our lives! (Flickr chose this sketch
for Explore on Oct. 29!)

Instead of jumping around, I devoted the past week to using the same extra-fine tip Pentel brush pen and white Uni Posca paint marker with brush tip every day. I’ve used a lot of brush pens over the years, and this Pentel has the finest tip I’ve seen. The nylon brush (similar to almost all bristle brush pens of this type) springs back nicely, re-forms a point easily, makes a lovely variation of thick and thin strokes – and look at the tip! I think it’s a single hair. It contains pigment ink, so it would be fun to use with water-soluble media.

Pentel brush tip -- a single hair!

The Posca brush tip is not quite as responsive or fine, but it’s my favorite of all the Posca paint pens I’ve tried (I reviewed the 1.5mm bullet tips at the Well-Appointed Desk and the white  0.7mm “pin type” pen). Opaque paint pens are a fun novelty to use on dark-colored paper, but in general, I’m not a fan of the paint they contain. It can be gloppy and difficult to control the flow, especially with this brush tip. Still, I enjoy using the two together for shadows and highlights as I brush up (ha) on this type of ink work. No prep and no cleanup, so they’re even faster than Boku-Undo sumi inks.

Meanwhile, Washington State is already seeing the predicted surge in COVID-19 infections as the weather gets colder. Stay safe, everyone – it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

My stamp set includes only four 2s!

Two Prompts in One: Our Kitchen

4/23/20 Our refrigerator

A few weeks ago, a prompt from USk Japan gave me the idea to sketch with my non-dominant hand. Although I haven’t been following all the group’s prompts, a couple more recent ones caught my attention: Draw from a high viewpoint (as a counter to the “down low” prompt suggested by others) and use materials not intended for art. I decided to meet both challenges in one sketch.

Years ago, also in response to a prompt, I sketched part of our kitchen looking down from the stairwell, and I recall it being very challenging. I didn’t have space in the composition for the corner with the refrigerator, though, so I took that on this time, again from the stairwell. The unconventional art material I chose was the inside of a box of instant oatmeal. That idea wasn’t original; Australian artist Peter Rush is well known for his works made on reused cardboard packaging. It’s the cheapest form of toned paper I know of! Colorful and very opaque Uni Posca Paint Markers (which I reviewed at the Well-Appointed Desk a while back) made it extra fun.

On Track

3/28/16 brush pen, ink, Zig marker, colored pencils (Capitol Hill Station)

3/28/16 ink, colored pencils, raindrops (UW Station)

Scouting for a future Seattle USk outing, Kate, Michele, Feather and I met up at Sound Transit Light Rail’s new UW Station this morning. It was a lot colder and wetter than was predicted, so my sketch of the station (and Husky Stadium behind it) got cut short, but I’m posting it here anyway (at right) for posterity.

After we rode the rails to Capitol Hill Station, also brand new, and warmed up over lunch, the day had warmed up a bit too, so I sketched the station entrance (above). It’s marked by a huge graphic hand – artwork by local cartoonist and Capitol Hill resident Ellen Forney.

3/28/16 brush pen (light rail rider)

3/28/16 brush pen, white gel pen
(Orca card tapping station)

The rest of my sketches for the day were small vignettes made in my red Field Notes and a small accordion-folded book that Michele made and gave to each of us to document today’s “Hop Sketch” (coined by Michele).

Stay tuned for more sketches at these stations during a future USk outing – to be scheduled on a warmer day!

3/28/16 brush pen, Zig marker (light rail ticket machines)

Nothing unusual to report.

Warming up at Oddfellows!

Eclipse

9/27/15 colored pencil, acrylic marker

After a fun but tiring full day in Don Colley’s workshop (my report soon), I went up to Maple Leaf Park with Greg to see the total lunar eclipse. The eclipse started around 5 p.m. PDT, but moonrise was around 7 p.m., so by the time we could see it easily, it was near totality. Although the sky was clear, there must have been a slight haze near the horizon, because the lighted part of the moon looked a bit blurry.

I had big plans to use the sketching app on my tablet so I could sketch in the dark. But I was so tired by then that it was easier to bring along a piece of tinted paper and a white pencil (lighted with my smartphone) then to figure out an app!

We came back home for the second half of the eclipse, and by then the sky must have been clearer, because the illumination was crisp. I switched to my Molotow acrylic marker and a flashlight to make the last two sketches from our bedroom window.

Washelli Fountain

8/13/15 inks, watercolor, colored pencil, white acrylic marker

Evergreen Washelli Memorial Park occupies both sides of Aurora Avenue North at around North 110^th. The last few times I sketched there, I stayed on the east side of Aurora. This morning I decided to explore the west side.

Unlike the east side, which has an interesting Dough Boy memorial and angel statuary as well as a military section, the west side is relatively simple by comparison. I drove around a while looking for a sketch, and down in a valley surrounded by trees, I spotted a small fountain. Mounted on a pile of mossy rocks, the fountain was pouring water into a somewhat murky-looking pond. Rows and rows of small, flat markers were nearby.

Despite the heavy traffic on Aurora, the cemetery was serene. It’s become one of my favorite places when I want a quiet, undisturbed moment to sketch and enjoy the cool shade of large trees.

Technical note: I’m really liking the Molotow white acrylic marker I had picked up impulsively at the Sennelier store. It works much more consistently than the white Uni-ball Signo gel ink pen I had been using, especially over watercolor. I don’t think I could have sketched the fountain’s water today without it.

A Study in Contrasts

7/2/15 inks, colored pencil, Molotow acrylic marker

I drive by this tree in Shoreline often, and I’ve wondered why a large area of branches in the middle is exposed like a bald spot in the leaves. Even as I was sketching it, I was mainly thinking that it and the tall fir behind it make an interesting study of contrasting values, textures and shapes. It wasn’t until I drew the power lines that I had my “duh” moment: If I could see this tree from a different angle, the part that had been cut away for the power lines would be apparent as a V shape. 

Technical note: I used the Molotow white acrylic marker that I bought at Sennelier to draw the exposed tree limbs. This pen is a keeper – it’s the best opaque white marker I’ve ever tried and shows up well over both ink and watercolor.

Looking West

7/1/15 ink, water-soluble colored pencils, Molotow white acrylic marker

Greg wanted to scope out some potential spots for fireworks viewing this Saturday. It was still early – this afternoon is supposed to be another scorcher – so I tagged along for a sketch. We headed over to the north end of Capitol Hill and walked along Harvard Avenue East, which parallels Interstate 5. Looking west over the freeway, I saw a lovely blue and green view of Lake Union, Queen Anne Hill and the Olympic Mountains. Unfortunately, I hadn’t thought to bring my landscape-format book, so I had to limit my sketch to the Lake Union section (visible once again are no less than four construction cranes!).

Just after I finished sketching, I remembered that this week’s theme in the Urban Sketchers Flickr group is skylines!

A Polartec Morning at Fishermen’s Terminal

6/12/15 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Caran d'Ache
Museum pencil, Molotow opaque acrylic marker,
Canson XL 140 lb. paper

After an unseasonably warm and beautiful week, I reluctantly put on my Polartec jacket this morning as I set out to meet the Friday sketchers at Fishermen’s Terminal. I sure was glad to be wearing it, though, as the wind cut through the marina for my first sketch. As predicted by weather.com, the sky was overcast and the air chilly, but we were optimistic that by noon the sun would come out.

And it did! By the time I moved my sketch stool out to one of the piers and captured a boat with the terminal building and the Fisherman’s Memorial (which I sketched almost exactly a year ago) in the background, I could peel off a layer.

6/12/15 Platinum Carbon and mixed gray inks, watercolor

We had a fun gathering with several newcomers! 

Ad hoc Friday sketchers at Fishermen's Terminal

Christmas Ships at the Ballard Locks

12/16/14 Uniball gel pen, Strathmore grayscale paper

OK, I’m a bit spoiled: Growing up on Lake Washington, I watched the Christmas ships cruise by several times each holiday season from the comfort of my livingroom, so going out in the cold, possibly rainy night to see them didn’t excite me much. But Greg has been wanting to see them for years, and last night was dry, so we bundled up and went out to the Ballard Locks.

The Argosy cruise ship Spirit of Seattle was all decked out in lights (you can see it in this Seattle Times photo), and an onboard choir entertained us as we crowded the walkway of the locks. As I used to see growing up, I was expecting a whole fleet of smaller boats, also decorated with colorful lights, to be following in the ship’s wake through the locks, but there was only one smaller Argosy boat and one yacht. Well, I may be spoiled, but it was hard not to catch the infectious holiday spirit of the crowd.

I brought along black paper and a white Uniball opaque gel pen to capture it.

Cloud City Coffee and Antenna

7/16/14 Platinum Carbon, Pilot Iroshizuku Tsuyu-kusa and Fuyu-syogun inks,
water-soluble colored pencils, Zig markers, opaque white gel pen

Rarely, very rarely, does sketching trump food, because if food is imminent, I’m probably hungry. I’m just not one of those sketchers who can delay a meal in order to sketch it.

This morning was one of those rare occasions. Walking the half-mile or so to Cloud City Coffee, I had every intention of getting a cup o’ joe and a delicious scone or muffin and then finding a table outside to sketch the neighborhood. (I fondly recalled the first time I sketched the Maple Leaf water tower from one of those tables more than two years ago on a warm, sunny morning just like this one.) But just as I was about to cross the street to the café, I spotted Cloud City’s distinctive art deco sign. (I had sketched the other side of this sign a couple of years ago, too, from the café.) I’m not sure the sign alone would have been enough to come between me and a muffin, but yesterday’s over-indulgence in power lines must have whetted my appetite, because then I spotted the cable antenna tower behind it. Cloud City Coffee and the antenna tower: two Maple Leaf neighborhood icons in one.

Even a muffin can’t trump that.

Mixed-Media Experiments: Gardens

6/19/14 Kuretake brush pen, watercolor, Platinum Carbon, Diamine Grey and Pilot Iroshizuku Chiku-rin inks, Canson XL
140 lb. paper (Parsons Garden)

On our last stay-cation day, it finally warmed up, so we took advantage of the sunshine to visit two gardens. Our first stop was the University of Washington’s Botanic Gardens at the Center for Urban Horticulture. Given this garden’s scientific objective, it was oddly difficult to identify the plants: They didn’t have the usual small placards next to them with the species names, so I can’t tell you what either of these flowers is (bottom). But I was pleased that two Zig markers and a waterbrush filled with Pilot Iroshizuku Chiku-rin ink gave me just as much range in a shorter length of time (the flower on the left, which took a couple of minutes) than watercolors hastily mixed and applied (the flower on the right).

6/19/14 Diamine Grey, Take-Sumi and
Chiku-rin inks, Zig markers, Uniball opaque pen
(Center for Horticulture Botanic Gardens)

The tree and fountain view (left) was also done with a variety of inks in waterbrushes and Zig markers. Alas, the stream of water from the fountain was relegated to a white Uniball opaque pen, which is never as effective as carefully reserving the paper’s white. But it does the job on a 15-minute sketch.

In the afternoon we visited Parsons Garden, which has been described as a “hidden gem” in the Queen Anne neighborhood, and that’s an accurate description. Surrounded by a high hedge, the garden is hard to see behind it. (The home of the family that owned it is still behind the property, which was donated to the city in 1956.) Instead of focusing on individual plants, I took a longer view this time to sketch a group of young women having a meeting under the shade of a huge tree (top of page). Wanting to linger in the sunshine, we were a bit more leisurely at this garden, so I pulled out my watercolors. Even so, I used the waterbrush filled with Chiku-rin for some of the greens.

As I was sketching this scene, a man who lived in the neighborhood stopped to take a look. He said he was an “aspiring plein air watercolorist” looking for more opportunities to practice, so I invited him to join Seattle Urban Sketchers. I hope he shows up – I can’t think of a better way to enjoy a gorgeous June day than sketching and painting outdoors.

6/19/14 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor
(Center for Horticulture Botanic Gardens)

6/19/14 Zig markers, Pilot Iroshizuku Chiku-rin ink
(Center for Horticulture Botanic Gardens)

U Village Fountain

6/2/14 Platinum Carbon and Diamine Grey inks, watercolor, water-soluble colored pencil, Zig marker, Pitt Artist Pen, Uniball opaque white gel pen, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

A couple of years ago I sketched an interesting sculptural stone fountain at University Village. Then last summer I decided that fountains and other forms of flowing water should be a sketching nemesis, so I went to U Village with the intention of sketching it again, but apparently I got confused and couldn’t find it (I sketched a different water feature instead). I was so flummoxed that I even wondered if it had been removed during the shopping complex’s recent remodel.

In the U-District for an errand this afternoon, I stopped in at U Village, determined to find that fountain again. There it was, in the same place as ever. And sketching flowing water is still just as challenging as ever.

Some things don’t change, even when I wish they would.

Sketcher Sighting on 65th and Roosevelt

5/28/14 Platinum Carbon, Diamine Midnight and Diamine Grey inks, Zig markers, Pitt Artist Pen, Uniball opaque pen, water-soluble colored pencil, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

Seattle has a reasonably large sketching community; on warm summer days, we’ve had as many as 50 or 60 participants at Urban Sketchers gatherings. And yet whenever I’m out and about sketching in neighborhoods or parks, I never seem to spot other sketchers.

My plan today in the Roosevelt neighborhood was to make another progressive sketch of the Sound Transit Light Rail Station construction project, but when I got there, I realized it didn’t look much different from last time. As I was driving through the intersection of 65^th and Roosevelt, however, I glimpsed the familiar urban sketcher’s stance: a figure seated on a low stool, sketchbook on lap, gazing into the distance. It was Steve Reddy, sketching the building across the street!

I decided to skip the light rail project until more changes had taken place and instead sketch Steve sketching. But I did manage to get one of the construction project’s cranes in the background.

The Gas Works

5/15/14 Platinum Sepia and mix of brown inks, watercolor, Zig markers, Pitt pen, Uniball white opaque pen, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

Gas Works Park on Lake Union is a quintessential Seattle icon: A mix of old and new, industry and nature, commerce and recreation, and a bonus view of the Space Needle. As such, I’ve sketched there numerous times – the first was almost exactly two years ago, then again a few months later, a year ago this month in Gail Wong and Frank Ching’s Urban Sketching workshop, and then again later that summer. But in every case, I managed to deftly avoid sketching the park’s namesake – the gas works themselves. Those huge, hulking remnants of the coal gasification industry are like a Rube Goldberg invention of pipes, smokestacks and ladders now embellished with colorful tags. To say the least, they are intimidating to sketch.

Something about this beautiful day – the sky a bit hazier than in the past several days, but still 74 degrees with a soft breeze – shored up my courage. I climbed to the top of the kite-flying hill for the best view of the old gas works. When you’re used to many months of overcast skies, it’s a treat to have sufficient natural light for strong shadows, so I decided to feature the interesting shadow cast by a main pipe.

Technical note: When it was time to refill my fountain pen a few days ago, on a whim I filled it with waterproof Platinum Sepia ink instead of my usual Platinum Carbon Black. I bought the bottle of Sepia a couple of years ago and tried it briefly, but it doesn’t dry as quickly as Carbon Black does, so I kept smearing it and decided I preferred Carbon Black. But every now and then I get into a brown mood (Diamine Chocolate Brown water-soluble ink is an all-time favorite), so I gave Sepia another try. It turned out to be perfect for today’s sketch of those warm reddish-brown gas works. 

Persistence Pays Off

5/1/14 Platinum Carbon ink, Pitt Artists Brush Pen, watercolor, Zig markers, Uniball opaque white pen, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

Usually big construction projects and all the noise, dust and traffic revisions they bring are nothing but a nuisance during the multiple years it takes to finish them. But the new Sound Transit Light Rail Station in the Roosevelt neighborhood is exciting to me because someday (not before 2021, unfortunately), I’ll be able to catch a train there all the way to the airport.

Back in March I sketched the construction site from the Northeast 66^th Street side, but it was frustrating because of the high fencing. A few days ago when I was on the upper level of Roosevelt Square, I thought I might be able to see the site from up there, but a bunch of buildings and trees are in the way.

Today I finally figured out which street corner I need to stand on for the best vantage point: 12^th Northeast and Northeast 65^th. An unexpected bonus was the railing outside Mutiny Hall restaurant on that corner: It was just the right height for supporting my sketchbook, palette and paint box. I’ll be back at that corner periodically to sketch the station’s progress (perhaps all the way until 2021).

Tacoma Antique District

4/27/14 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Uniball opaque pen, watercolor, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

Sunshine, clouds, wind, rain, sleet, hail – whatever kind of weather we wanted, we got it today, several times over. Hardy Seattle Urban Sketchers who opted to sketch outdoors had an exciting morning dodging rain in Tacoma’s antique district, but I chose the dry and comfy corner window table inside Tully’s.

My warm-up sketch was a man seated in a wheelchair just outside the window. Fortunately, an overhang above him kept him dry, because right about the time I finished that sketch it started to pour.

4/27/14 Pilot Iroshizuku Take-Sumi and Diamine
Grey inks, Sailor pen, Canson XL paper

Across the street was the grand old Rialto Theater, home of the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts. Now on the National Register of Historic Places, the Rialto originally opened in 1918. Unfortunately for me, it stands on a steep incline, which made my perspective wonkier than usual. But fortunately for me, the sun came out for about five minutes – just long enough to put in some shadows.

After sharing sketchbooks and meeting a number of new members (a surprisingly large turnout for a day of iffy weather), several of us walked a few blocks to B Sharp Coffee House for lunch. After enjoying one of the best grilled caprese sandwiches I’ve had in a long time, I snuck in a sketch of some of the other sketchers. Left to right are Nilda, Jane, Gail and David. (When Jane saw that I was sketching her, she sketched me on a napkin!) (Halfway through my sketch, I dropped my favorite Metropolitan pen, and the poor nib bent in half! I’m going to either fix it myself or see if it can be replaced.) Also at lunch were Frank and Frances, but I ran out of space on my paper, so they were spared.

Before heading back home, I stopped in briefly at King’s Books, where the Wayzgoose Letterpress and Book Arts Extravaganza was going on. Many local printmakers and book artists were selling their work and demo-ing presses. I enjoyed thumbing through a stack of beautiful reproductions of Chandler O’Leary’s sketches, made a tiny print from an old platen press and bought a small notebook from Orange House Press. The funniest moment was at the table of an artist who had an old manual typewriter. She was showing a boy how to type, advising him to strike each key firmly, one at a time. A second boy came up to him, stared at the contraption and said, “What’s that?” Another (also gray-haired) observer and I looked at each other and laughed ruefully, feeling really old.

4/27/14 Diamine Sargasso Sea and Chocolate Brown inks, Zig markers, Pitt Artists Brush Pen

Not Too Late

12/25/13 Uniball Signo opaque gel pens, Strathmore Grayscale paper

Although our Christmas tree has been up for a couple of weeks, I didn’t get around to sketching it until this morning while Greg made French toast. I hope you had or are still having a wonderful day!

Opaque White Pens on Black Paper

I’ve tried sketching lights at night only a couple of times – once to sketch lanterns floating on water at the From Hiroshima to Hope event last August, and once to sketch the moon reflected on water a couple months ago. Neither sketch turned out quite the way I wanted it to, and I realized the difficulty of trying to sketch a mostly-dark scene on white paper. In anticipation of sketching holiday lights, I needed a different approach: black paper.

I’ve been wanting to sketch on black ever since I tried using dark gray paper to sketch my X-ray last month (inspired by David Hingtgen’s sketches in a black Moleskine sketchbook). Sketching the X-ray taught me that I prefer using a Uniball Signo gel pen (the most opaque marker I’ve found) to white gouache, which was much harder to keep opaque. But I also want to be able to show all those colored lights I’m anticipating. . . how to put bright colors on black paper?

One way is to use colored opaque gel pens. But it occurred to me that I could put down some white opaque ink first, then apply colored markers over it. With that in mind, I tested three opaque white pens I happen to have: the Uniball Signo gel pen; a Pen-Touch paint marker (it smells solvent-based and therefore is probably nasty stuff); and a white Faber-Castell Pitt Big Artist Pen with a “bullet nib.”

As I’d found before, the Uniball Signo is the most opaque of the three, completely covering black paper. Unfortunately, it’s also the only one of the three that is water-soluble, so when I put a water-soluble Zig marker or even a permanent Pitt Artist Pen over it, the color got mixed into the white and turned somewhat pastel-tinted.

The Pen-Touch paint marker is waterproof when dry, but it left a rough surface that I don’t like (and bled through to the back of the paper and left a stain on my desktop – I knew it was nasty stuff!).

The white Pitt Big Artist Pen, with a “bullet nib” too wide to do much with while sketching, was the least opaque of the three, but it also left a nice, smooth surface – and it’s waterproof when dry. So both a permanent Pitt Artist Pen and a water-soluble Zig marker didn’t mix with the white. Unfortunately, the colors also don’t show up very brightly, since the opacity isn’t complete.

Then the question became: Which is more important for a white background behind colors – full opacity (Uniball Signo) or being waterproof (Pitt)? Oh, what the heck – I brought both! (This is the type of situation during which it really pays off to be an art supply junkie – I didn’t have to go buy a thing.)

As it turned out, I used mostly the white and colored Uniball Signo gel pens to sketch the lights on a Maple Leaf home, with just a touch of a red Zig marker (that turned pink over the white Uniball) and the white Pitt Big Artist Pen. But if the weather cooperates, I still have at least one more opportunity to sketch holiday lights, so I might give my experiments another try. (Incidentally, my Mighty Bright XxtraFlex2 book light came in handy last night!)

Illuminated

12/24/13 Uniball Signo opaque gel pens, Pitt Artist Pen, Zig marker, Strathmore Grayscale paper

Candy Cane Lane, one of a few Seattle neighborhoods that gets really dressed up with lights during the holidays, is popular and crowded during the weeks before Christmas. We talked about going last night, but since the temperature was dropping rapidly toward the 30s again, we weren’t up to walking through the Lane (it can be done by car, but it’s a lot more enjoyable on foot). Instead, we opted for a block in our own Maple Leaf neighborhood that borders the new Maple Leaf Reservoir Park, which is easily drivable (and I had hoped to sketch from the car).

As it turned out, I needed a better angle on this fully illuminated, interfaith house, so I sketched it while standing across the street. The pastel hues of my opaque gel pens really couldn’t do justice to the number of lights and colors displayed on George Banton’s house. A sign on the sidewalk invites visitors to walk through the yard to tour the various themes portrayed in lights – Valentine’s Day, Halloween, Star Wars, the seashore, rainbows, etc. On a cold winter’s night, the tropical theme was one of my favorites, highlighted by the palm tree. I was also struck by the presence of both the Star of David and Star of Bethlehem.

In anticipation of sketching holiday lights, I did a little prep, but ultimately, I didn’t use products the way I’d planned. See next post for the product review.

X

11/27/13 X. Uniball Signo gel pen, gouache, Conte crayon,

Strathmore 400 Gray Scale paper

About halfway through my alphabetical still life series, which began with an idea I had for X, it occurred to me that X technically would not be a still life; it would be a drawing based on an image. But since I made the rules for my series, I can also bend them.

I’ve had an issue with my left rotator cuff for a while now, and a couple months ago I had an X-ray taken. Since I’d never had one before, I didn’t know what to expect, and I was delighted when the technician burned the image to a CD and handed it to me at the end of my appointment. I knew that someday I’d have a use for it.

The interesting challenge was deciding how to sketch a white, semi-opaque image on a dark background. When I saw David Hingtgen’s recent sketches in a black Moleskine sketchbook using a white Uniball Signo gel pen (my favorite white opaque pen) and gouache, I thought, “Bingo!” The Uniball Signo worked well, but the gouache turned out to be more difficult to use than I had imagined. I kept putting layer after layer on dark gray paper, but instead of staying opaque as it looks when it’s wet, it became transparent when it dried. I finally had to go over the areas that I wanted to be the most opaque with a white Conte crayon. I’ve sketched plenty of skeletons at the Burke Museum; who knew that sketching an X-ray would be so challenging? (With luck, I won’t have many more, at least from my own body, to practice on.)