Tardy with the Sweet Gums

 

10/20/26 Green Lake

For my annual homage, I try to catch the Green Lake sweet gums at their prime. Although I’ve been admiring them on my weekly fitness walks around the lake, I didn’t get around to sketching them until a few days ago – a bit past peak. I stopped at one of my favorite viewpoints across the lake.

Technical notes: I think I’ve only ever sketched these trees with either watercolor pencils or watercolor paints – certainly never markers! As mentioned previously, since I’m all in with Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Brush Pens for the rest of InkTober, I’m not carrying any other color medium but the markers right now. I got a bit twitchy when I started this sketch; I really wanted to use watercolor crayons and pencils, which seem ideal for the colorful blur of distant trees (one of my favorites using watercolor pencils is this one from a nearby spot a year ago). Even though I don’t like the result as much, I did enjoy the challenge of using brush markers. It’s always good not to fall back on the comfy same-ol’, same ol’, especially during InkTober.

So far, my biggest frustration with markers is that I still haven’t found a way to represent a clear sky in a way that I like. I don’t want to make a solid mass of color full of unavoidable marker streaks, but I don’t like this stripey look, either. With clouds present, I like the cartoony look I discovered a coupleof weeks ago. We’ll see if I get enough clear skies during the rest of InkTober to practice again.

Marker vs. Pencil: Japanese Maple

 

10/17/26 F-C Pitt Artist Brush Pens in Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook
(photo reference)

If you look closely at the individual leaves of trees that are turning, you’ll see that most exhibit a gradient range of hues. With tiny Japanese maple leaves, the effect is intensified: As small as they are, each still shows a gradient at varying stages of change. From a distance, the visual effect is that the tree looks like a haze of hues: Optical color mixing at its best. It’s different from foliage consisting of much larger leaves, which tends to appear more like large masses of individual hues.

Dashing out for a quick walk and sketch before the predicted rain, I got caught in a shower. I didn’t sketch, but I couldn’t resist snapping a few photos to use later. (See end of post for some Japanese maples from my walking route. Neighborhood leaf peeping continues!).

I’ve always felt that colored pencils and especially watercolor pencils are among the best media to capture that haze of hues I’m talking about. I needed my InkTober sketch for the day, though, so I pulled out my daily-carry palette of Faber-Castell Pitt Brush Pens. It occurred to me that I had probably never used markers to try to capture the Japanese maple effect: It was an excellent opportunity for the challenge!

The result is above. To avoid the “heavy” look that markers can impart fairly quickly, I used the side of the brush nib to get a more pointillist effect.

10/17/26 Cd'A Museum Aquarelle watercolor pencils in
Hahnemuhle Akademie Aquarell sketchbook (photo reference)

That done, I couldn’t help myself: I got out my pre-InkTober daily-carry palette of watercolor pencils (mostly Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle) and used the same photo reference (at right).

With the help of toothy Hahnemühle paper and a relatively dry waterbrush, it was easy to get that haze of color that looks more “realistic” (and frankly, I do love that look). Although the brush marker version doesn’t capture the haze as well, I think it seems fresher and more animated. At least in this case, it surprises me that I prefer it!

What about you? Let me know your favorite media for capturing Japanese maples!

Peepin’ My Eyes Out!

 

10/7/26 Maple Leaf neighborhood

It’s peak leaf-peeping season, and I’m sketching as fast as I can! Thankfully, the weather has been mostly dry and even sunny, at least in the afternoons, so I’ve had more opportunities than in some years.

Two sketches here were for InkTober, and the third (at right) was from a short walk when I didn’t have markers with me. That one, made with watercolor pencils, is about half the size of the others, but I think it took a little longer. Probably one of the highest virtues of brush markers is their speed and efficiency – and I’m seriously appreciating that aspect!

It’s interesting to look at these sketches together in the same post. Comparing colored pencils with markers is definitely not apples and apples. And there was a time when I would have said they can’t be compared at all – the effect of colored pencils has so much more subtlety, modulation, gradation and blended hues than that of markers – and I prefer all that colored pencils offer. Yet now that I’m two weeks into InkTober using brush markers exclusively, I am learning to appreciate them much more than I expected. Who knew!

10/10/26 Green Lake Park (Quotations from a boys' soccer match ongoing on the field close by.) This may be my favorite InkTober sketch yet -- even the goofy, cartoony clouds! What markers lack in subtle modulation, they make up for in boldness and directness. They can be fresh in a way that I had not appreciated before.

10/10/26 Maple Leaf neighborhood

For your viewing pleasure, I’m including photos from recent walks.

InkTober, Week 1: Brush Markers

 

10/2/26 Maple Leaf neighborhood. When I was cleaning out the Miata
for her detailing a few weeks ago, I found a tin of Hahnemuhle watercolor postcards 
that I had left under the seat "just in case" I was spontaneously inspired to make
someone a card (you can imagine how many times that happened -- zero). I thought
I'd give the toothy paper a try with these markers, and I'm pleased that it was fine. It 
means I can use my favorite Hahnemuhle sketchbook with markers, too. All other sketches
shown here are in a Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook.

I’ve been so busy reporting on my trip to the Bay Area that I’m only now getting around to InkTober! When I made a dry run last month, I was trepidatious about using waterproof Staedtler Pigment Arts brush pens exclusively, mainly because I have never liked the marker-ish marks that markers make (say that five times fast). That’s also true of Faber-Castell Pitt Artist brush pens, which I’ve used sporadically for years.

Markers are difficult to modulate: They are either off or on, with none of the subtle gradations that I love so much about colored pencils – and that are easy to get with colored pencils. They also can’t be blended like pencils or water-soluble materials; they must be layered like watercolors are glazed. And yet the boldness and directness of brush markers are appealing and seductive – that’s why I keep going back to them sporadically.

My hope is that using these markers for 31 consecutive days will either teach me to find a way to use them so that the results are satisfying or convince me to quit using them, content that they just aren’t for me.

10/3/26 Maple Leaf neighborhood

As I mentioned in the dry-run post, using a limited palette that has been curated for me by a set is unusual – I’m so used to having a full range of colors to pick from. Sometimes I feel frustrated (I want a darker green, for example, and the set could use another midtone), but the palette has been mostly working out OK so far.

One thing I’m especially happy about this InkTober is that my chosen ink is colored! Although at least one year I used a variety of colors of fountain pen inks, I typically choose black ink for InkTober. That means I’m often frustrated that my black line drawings prevail during the most colorful season of the year! (Yes, of course, I could color the black line drawings, and sometimes have, but then what would I be learning? It seems pointless to participate in an art challenge if I don’t push myself to try something new.)

My biggest learning so far is that size matters, at least where scale of the page is concerned (I mentioned this a couple of days ago). Now that I’m using an A5 sketchbook instead of trying to use up a pocket-size sketchbook, the bold brush markers feel comfortable.

One thing I have always liked about markers is how easy it is to get high value contrasts immediately. That’s always been one of the most seductive aspects of markers (as well as a drawback, if subtlety is desired).

10/5/26 Crown Hill neighborhood. I'm pleased by how easy and efficient it was to get those bold darks in. It takes a lot more work to get high value contrasts with colored pencils. The odd mix of colors on the foreground car is regrettable. That green was the best midtone, but I didn't like the color for this car, so I colored over it with indigo.

I’m still working on not fighting the marker-ish look and instead embracing the mark-making that markers are good at.

(Days 1 and 4 were included in previous posts; today’s post shows the rest of the first week.)

10/6/26 Roosevelt neighborhood

10/7/26 Green Lake

Leaf-Peeping Season is On!

 

9/21/26 Sugar maples, Crown Hill neighborhood

After Mary Jean and I sketched the enormous chestnut tree in Fremont, we went west to the Crown Hill neighborhood, where she knew that the sugar maples on North 80^th Street were near peak. A noisy arterial, 80^th is not a pleasant place to sketch, but it’s worth it to see these fiery beauties. They’re the same maples that Kim and I had sketched last year, though that was several weeks later and nearly past their peak.

As we shared sketches with each other, we officially declared it: Leaf-peeping season is on!

And So it Begins

 

8/31/26 Green Lake sweet gums

Well, folks, there’s no denying it anymore: Fall is just around the corner. The Green Lake sweet gums say so.

These trees, by the way, are the ones I sketch most regularly in fall, sometimes more than once per season (this post from a few years ago includes a retrospective of many of them). In my early sketching years, I always stood right next to them, where I struggled to fit them in. (Back then, I was still calling them “maples”; I didn’t learn that they were sweet gums until quite a bit later.) More recently, I’ve been sketching them from across the lake, where their colors are a brilliant blur.

This week I stood where I could focus on the sweet gum at the head of the line, which consistently begins turning long before her sisters. The others are still mostly green.

Reddest

 

11/4/25 Maple Leaf neighborhood

Just when I thought leaf-peeping season was winding down, I got a hot tip right in my own ‘hood. Seeing that the intersection was within walking distance, I bundled up for temps in the mid-40s and took a hike. I could spot its brilliance from a block away: possibly the reddest maple I’d ever seen in these parts, and certainly this season!

Halfway through, it started drizzling, so I was hasty, but I was determined to try to capture that color to document it for my own future reference. Despite my efforts, I didn’t do it justice, so I’m also including photos below for your leaf-peeping pleasure. Photographed with no filters!

Maples Afire

 

10/27/25 Maples, Crown Hill neighborhood

After the weekend’s atmospheric river and high winds that took power down in some areas, I was afraid leaf-peeping season was over. Ever hopeful, I drove over to the Crown Hill neighborhood again, where I had intel that a certain intersection was blazing with red maples. 

Indeed, four of them were afire! In fact, driving to the spot, I saw quite a bit of glorious color. Though late to turn this year, the trees are going out in style.

Close to Home

 

10/16/25 Maple Leaf neighborhood

This maple a couple of blocks from home is fun to watch each fall. It changes colors in a very irregular pattern, with some leaves at their peak while others are still as bright green as summer.

Material note: I sketched this one with my faithful watercolor pencils in an A6-size Hahnemühle sketchbook. As much as I love using water-soluble crayons in a (necessarily) larger book, nothing can beat the portability and convenience of colored pencils and a small sketchbook – materials so small and lightweight that I can take them on my fitness walks. I would miss a lot of sketches if not for that.

Leaf-Peeping in Crown Hill (and Pencil vs. Crayon Dilemma)

 

10/15/25 Crown Hill neighborhood (Caran d'Ache Museum Aquarelle pencils)

Caran d'Ache Neocolor II crayons

On what was probably the last gorgeous, sunny afternoon for the foreseeable future (and we’ve had more than our share this season – a rare treat in these parts), Kim and I met on Crown Hill for leaf-peeping and -sketching. Although she couldn’t join us, Mary Jean had scouted several intersections in her neighborhood with flaming maples. I parked near one and walked to the rest to check them all out. I had time for only two, but I snapped photos along the way for your viewing pleasure (end of post). What a lovely time of year!

Material notes: For many years now, Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle water-soluble colored pencils (with occasional Derwent Inktense in the mix) have been my color medium of choice. Highly pigmented, super soft, portable, versatile, easy to use and carry while standing – they are hands-down the ideal color medium for the way I like to sketch on location. 

Importantly, their portability and ease of use in an A6-size sketchbook make them an ideal choice on my fitness walks, like the sketch at Green Lake that I showed yesterday. Without water-soluble colored pencils, I would have missed that sketch that day because I don’t bring along a larger sketchbook or crayons when my main purpose is walking. I have long been in a deep, meaningful, committed relationship with these amazing pencils (sketch at top of post).

Svelte, lightweight, easily used in a small sketchbook while standing: The ideal color medium. (Look how ratty the Inktense barrels get after being daily-carried for a while.)

Once in a while I’ve flirted with Museum Aquarelle’s heftier cousin, Neocolor II water-soluble crayons. Chunkier and heavier, the crayons require a larger sketchbook to use them freely and slightly more water to activate fully. Not all the hues have top-level lightfast ratings, so the range is much wider than Museum Aquarelle’s, and I have several favorites in Neo II that I can’t get in MA. They are definitely not as easy to use as pencils while standing, though. I’ve managed to find a workable solution using a Rickshaw Sinclair as a standing case, but crayons are cumbersome.

Still, I used them quite a bit this past summer and even started wondering: Could this be the beginning of a serious, long-term relationship? What keeps me coming back to Neo IIs is that their large, blunt tips can’t be used to draw fiddly details, so they encourage me to think more like a painter. I enjoy the challenge of making large blocks of color and vague shapes (like the cars in the second sketch) instead of drawing tiny details.

Cumbersome but painterly.

In addition, Neo II crayons have taught me how to use Museum Aquarelles in different ways. For example, the crayons don’t activate quite as readily as the pencils, so I sometimes add layers of different colors after the first is dry, and then reactivate. I’ve lately been doing this more often with MA pencils, too. (By the way, to do this, strong, high-quality watercolor paper is necessary. I can do it with 100 percent cotton Hahnemühle, but not with most other sketchbook papers, which will start to shred after multiple wettings and reapplications.)

I know I don’t have to choose; I can have a happy, non-monogamous relationship with both. However, for a compact urban sketcher like I am, it’s burdensome to carry both. It’s been so long since I’ve made a substantial change to my portable sketch kit . . . is there an acceptable compromise I can find?

Green Lake Sweet Gums Redux

 

10/9/25 Green Lake

These are the same sweet gums I sketched at Green Lake on Sept. 25, but from a different location. I could definitely see more color; in fact, when I got closer, I could see that they were past their peak – lots of leaves were already on the ground.

Late Start to Leaf-Peeping Season

 

9/25/25 sweet gums, Green Lake

Usually by early October, leaf-peeping and -sketching season is at full bore, but this year the trees have been slow. While I’ve been spotting the occasional Japanese maple since the end of August, some maples are still mostly green (or going directly to brown, skipping the colorful stages). The Green Lake sweet gums that I try to sketch every year seem a bit behind schedule (above).

The Dayton Avenue maples in Greenwood (below) are at about the same stage as last year, though they have been trending later and later over the years.

9/30/25 Dayton Ave. NW, Greenwood neighborhood

Although I admire this bright red maple at Green Lake Park (below), it has not been on my general leaf-sketching tour, as it’s difficult to get a good composition of it. But since I’ve been jonesin’ for color and had brought along my Hahnemühle sketchbook on my walk with the purpose of catching some, I gave it a go. When there’s not much to actually “draw” in a composition like this, it’s fun to take a more Impressionistic approach.

10/7/25 maple, Green Lake Park

Perhaps the sunny days and cooler nights we’ve been having lately will give the slower trees a nudge. Why am I in such a hurry for the trees to turn? Admittedly, we've been having the kind of October that I usually envy other regions for because we rarely do: Sunny and warm and beautiful. Any day now, though, the weather could turn cold and wet, and that will be the end of the sketching part of the season. It’s a precarious time of year.

That River in Africa

8/20/25 Maple Leaf neighborhood

 It’s the beginning of that season I know well, named after the river in Africa: Denial.

It started a couple of weeks ago when some of the neighborhood’s Japanese maples showed a blush of orange against their mostly green foliage. I averted my gaze. Plenty of summer left.

Last week during a walk, I passed one of my favorite maples. No, no, say it ain’t so!

Last of the Color

 

11/15/24 Japanese maples, Maple Leaf neighborhood

11/11/24 Maple Leaf neighborhood

With all the heavy rain and wind we’ve had lately, I always set out on my walks wondering if all the color will be gone this time – and then I’m delighted when I see that it is not. I spotted one house with multiple Japanese maples still near their prime, brilliant in the welcome sunlight.

On some streets, there’s more color on the ground than in the trees. Thank you, trees, for the pavement rainbow.

Pencilvember: Hahnemühle Wins Again

 

11/7/24 Derwent and Caran d'Ache watercolor
pencils, Pentel Pocket Brush Pen in Hahnemuhle

As mentioned a couple of days ago, I wasn’t happy with using graphite with tan paper. I had considered replacing the tan Uglybook with a white one for the remainder of Pencilvember, but I was already daily-carrying a Hahnemühle sketchbook while the trees are still hanging onto color. Why carry two white books? Could I use the Hahnemühle with graphite?

My first thought was that Hahnemühle paper has too strong a tooth for soft graphite. Secondarily, it seemed wasteful to use good, 100 percent cotton paper that was made to (ab)use with wet media for nothing more than dry graphite. For the sake of science, however, I decided to give it a try.

11/7/24 8B Uni Super DX graphite in Uglybook

11/8/24 10B Mitsubishi "brush pencil" in Hahnemuhle

Intending to make a full-color sketch on a sunny morning in Wedgwood, I started with a thumbnail in graphite only to test the Hahnemühle. To my delight, the paper’s tooth was quite pleasant with the 10B Mitsubishi “brush pencil” – one of the softest graphite pencils I own. Now it didn’t seem “wasteful” to use the book with graphite because I enjoy both the experience and the results.

Moving on to a full spread for the color version, I tried something else new: Typically, I don’t mix graphite with watercolor pencils, but Pencilvember seemed like an ideal time to do it. This time, I switched to an extra-soft Blackwing.

Once again, the Hahnemühle wins for its versatility (if not its less-than-svelte profile): Fabulous strength, sizing and tooth, even with dry graphite.

11/8/24 Derwent and Caran d'Ache watercolor pencils, extra-soft Blackwing graphite

  

My hand is full of the mix of graphite and watercolor pencils!