Henry

 

1/23/26 Henry (reference photo by Lori Merriam)

When a friend shared a photo on Facebook of her dog with a fresh haircut, Henry stole my heart. Posting another photo recently, she sadly reported that the elderly dog had to be put down. I went back through her images to find the one of Henry’s haircut. Drawing his sweet face brought me much joy; I hope it brings her some comfort.

Maggie

 

7/11/25 Maggie (reference photo by Katelyn This)

Here’s Maggie, whose life had to end prematurely and very tragically. When I hear each pet’s story from the clients who commission the drawings, I am always moved. It helps me to feel a connection with the animal as I draw. Even if I’ve never met the dog (or the associated human, for that matter), and even if the result shows no difference, it’s somehow a very different experience from drawing a random Internet photo of a dog.

Material notes: Hmmm, I was troubled by this one, specifically the ArtGraf water-soluble graphite that I decided to use in front. As mentioned in my post about Dixie Sue, the last pet portrait I made, I was uneasy about using ArtGraf on Derwent Lightfast paper, which is not intended for wet media, so I skipped it that time. Before using it on Maggie, I practiced on some scrap paper to figure out the water balance I needed, but I don’t like the effect as much as I do on the Stonehenge Lenox Cotton paper that I usually use. It’s also not intended for wet media, but it takes ArtGraf in a mottled way that I like.

The easy solution would be to go back to Lenox Cotton, but Dixie Sue, Maggie and three more dogs I have yet to draw will all go to the same owner, and I don’t want to change the paper in case they will be displayed together: Lightfast has a much warmer tone than Lenox Cotton.

Argh. These are the types of issues I never have to think about with plain ol’ urban sketching in my sketchbook (and why I’m grateful that I don’t make this kind of portrait for a living).

Jax

 

5/31/25 Jax (reference photo by Katelyn This)

Although I’ve drawn plenty of dogs with their tongues lolling out, I rarely even see cats with their tongues out (given that my allergies force me to avoid cats in general). When I saw the reference photo of Jax, I knew he would be fun to draw – he was laughing at me the whole time! Even his tiny fangs are exposed!

Process notes: I worked on this portrait for short periods over the course of several days. The first day was only the basic block-in with graphite. By the end of that session, I knew something was wrong with the proportions – but I couldn’t figure out what. I didn’t get back to Jax again for several days, and when I did, I knew instantly what was wrong. It was easy to fix.

This has happened many times: If I just wait a day or two, I usually see the problem quickly. It’s important to give the brain time to process a drawing and not rush to finish when I know something isn’t right.

I remembered to show the stylus (toward the middle of the heap), which
I used to incise the paper so that whiskers will show up as white.

Farewell, Middle Fork

 

12/14/24 John Grade's Middle Fork in Seattle Art Museum lobby

In 2017, a remarkable piece was installed in the Seattle Art Museum’s lobby: John Grade’s Middle Fork, a 105-foot-long sculpture hanging from the ceiling. Built with the help of many volunteers, the sculpture is made of thousands of tiny pieces of cedar glued into a horizontal likeness of the tree that inspired it.

Meeting at SAM shortly after Middle Fork was installed, members of USk Seattle had been stunned and awed by its size and scope. Nearly eight years later, it is still no less daunting to sketch, at least for me. Since Middle Fork will come down in February (and returned to the Cascade forest floor near the 140-year-old tree that inspired the work), USk Seattle met in the SAM lobby again for one last chance to sketch it.

Since I had just been given a new Seawhite of Brighton concertina sketchbook, I thought it would be the right format for the 105-foot-long subject. First I filled six panels of the book by looking up at it from the lobby (above).

Then I went up to the second floor and sketched the “trunk” end head-on (I notated the spot in my first sketch where I was standing to make the second).

From upper level

With 15 minutes to fill before the throwdown, I went back down to the lobby near the admissions desk (below). I liked the contrasting patterns of Middle Fork’s organic “limbs” and the power-line-like rope stanchions.

Lobby admissions desk area

Farewell, Middle Fork – you never stopped inspiring awe whenever I visited. And now we are all wondering what kind of spectacular artwork will take your place. It will have large limbs to fill.

Technical note: Although the small concertina is fun for a subject like this, I had a heckuva time using it in my usual way – standing. Since I don’t usually use concertinas, I didn’t think to bring clips, so the book kept unfolding itself from both ends. In addition, while I was sketching across several panels at once, the pages had no support. I sat at one point to activate the watercolor pencils, and even my lap wasn’t firm enough – I need a desk to use it properly. These technical difficulties may curtail my future use of the book on location.

Edmonds Art Adventure

 

12/12/24 Cascadia Art Museum, Edmonds

An article I read recently about different ways to enjoy art museums made a provocative suggestion: Instead of sketching a painting I admire, sketch one that I don’t like. Doing so might increase my appreciation for the work and what the artist was trying to achieve. I had that exercise in mind as I viewed an exhibit at Cascadia Art Museum. Structure and Form: The Art of B. L. Hyde is the Tacoma artist’s first solo exhibition of oil paintings made mostly during the first half of the 20^th century. I picked my least favorite one to sketch (above left), hoping the exercise would make me appreciate it more (not really).

More enjoyable than sketching the art was simply sketching what I saw in the museum space (above right) – a chair, a sculpture, and the kids’ art room beyond.

It's always fun to see an artist's materials and tools as part of an exhibit.

Ali Serra's art at Walnut Street Cafe

I was with Roy and Mary Jean, and the visit to Cascadia was our first stop in an art-and-food-filled day in Edmonds. Next was lunch at Red Twig and then a stop at Walnut Street Café, where my friend Ali Serra has a show of his fun and whimsical robot art (at left).

Finally we ended our Edmonds art adventure with dessert at Canarino Gelato, which is the same gelateria where I enjoyed refreshments during Sketcher Fest. I have fond memories of being Andika Murandi’s workshop assistant outside Canarino on a lovely July day. Seated inside on a rainy afternoon, the vibe was different but still relaxing, and we all enjoyed sketching there (sketches below).

12/12/24 Sketch journal page of my outing with Roy and MJ

Roy surprised Mary Jean and me by giving each of us a small Seawhite of Brighton concertina sketchbook with the idea that we'd use them in round-robin fashion. We each sketch in the book, pass it along to one of the others to sketch in, and so on, repeating the rounds until all the books are full. Eventually the book we started would return to us to keep. Here are my first two sketches.

New Digs for Drawing Jam

 

12/7/24 I don't often get to draw a bunny in a 
Liberace-inspired tux! So frustrating not to be able 
to see his face or the front of his outfit well.

Except for the pandemic years, I’ve been attending Gage Academy’s Drawing Jam annually since 2012. Last Saturday was the first time the event was held at the school’s new South Lake Union facility, and it was also my first visit since it moved last summer – an exciting first for me!

My personal tradition has always been to arrive at least a half-hour before the opening so I can get a prime seat in the costumed models’ life-drawing studio, one of the most popular attractions. I recall many cold and rainy waits outside Gage’s door and one particularly memorable year when the temp was 20 degrees. Per tradition, it was pouring Saturday morning, but when I arrived around 15 minutes before opening, no one was waiting outside the door – I was the first attendee to arrive! And they let me in early! That set the right tone for the rest of my visit, which was more relaxed and less crowded than all previous Drawing Jams.

Oof... first sketch felt very rusty.

I don’t know if it was actually less attended or if it was just that the new building is so open and spacious that it just felt less crowded. (I’ve heard that the square footage of the new building is actually smaller than the old school.) In any case, I enjoyed the relaxed vibe all day. Even the most popular costumed-model studios didn’t feel uncomfortably packed.

Hallway and gallery lighting is much brighter so that student and instructor art on all the walls is easier to view. The previous facility was a very old building that was either roasting or freezing, and the toilets were scarce, delicate and unreliable at best. Hallelujah – the new school offers a long bank of unisex restroom stalls containing reliably functioning toilets!

When I got frustrated with the poor lighting, I focused
on limbs that had some light on them.

My only complaint (and it’s significant) is that lighting in the life-drawing studios was not directed properly: The backlit models’ faces and fronts were completely in shadow, while the artists had lights glaring in their eyes! Frustrated, I didn’t spend as much time drawing models as I usually do and had more fun sketching the artists and musicians.

Finally I got so annoyed with the lighting that I stepped to the back of the studio and had more fun sketching the other artists. Meanwhile, the model was in the dark. :-(

It was fun sketching Ask Sophie, a band that was familiar from sketches I made at Drawing Jam in 2019.

I’m not sure what’s up with the lighting – Gage has been offering life drawing for all of its years of existence and certainly knows how to light models optimally for drawing. I have given them feedback, and I’m hoping it’s just a fluke of Drawing Jam and not a reflection of typical studio experiences. I would love to return to a regular life-drawing practice again – I have sorely missed it (and I sure felt rusty on Saturday).

Gage Academy's entryway

DJ'd refreshment area offered coffee and pastries during the Jam. That evening, it became a 21+ drink and draw.

Well-lighted hallways for viewing art.

I had the place to myself for a while. . . a leisurely look at all the art.

Lots of pencils among the free art supplies! In the interest of downsizing, I helped myself to only one pencil!

Reliably functioning toilets! Hallelujah!

A rare photo of me at Drawing Jam. . . taken during a break, so I'm looking at my phone! :-0 (Image borrowed from Gage Academy's Instagram)

Dog Days

 

11/18/24 Roxie and Mugicha
(reference photo by Mark Rooney)

10/7/24 Ramsey (reference photo by Katelyn This)

The pet portraits continue sporadically by request, which is a comfortable and preferable pace for me right now. Although I enjoy making them, I’m not going to promote my fundraiser for Dog Gone Seattle this winter. With my ongoing downsizing/house-reshuffling project, which will likely continue for another month or two, I don’t want to overcommit and then get stressed making portraits.

Ramsey (left) was commissioned by a client who had commissioned two portraits of her own dogs last winter. This one was a gift for a friend shortly after Ramsey had crossed the Rainbow Bridge.

I made the double portraits of Roxie and Mugicha as a surprise gift for my niece and her husband. These two lively pups both have such expressive eyes that made me sweat a little because I knew that getting the eyes right was crucial (I adore Mugicha’s slightly worried brow). Ultimately, the sweat was worth it because I think I nailed it (which is not always the case).

Mostly Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils used for both drawings, plus a Uni Pin technical pen for the eyes. Both papers are Lenox Cotton, my favorite with dry colored pencils.

I forgot to include the Viarco ArtGraf water-soluble graphite, which was used for the mottled background. 

Building Character

 

11/10/24 Japanese maple

How’s this for a test of one’s resolve: Take a walk and spot a spectacularly red Japanese maple, then sketch it in graphite only (at left)? It’s the kind of thing that people say “builds character.”

11/10/24 Maple Leaf neighborhood

On the other hand, some sketches are purely satisfying because the scenes seem to be made for monochrome: This beautifully backlit street.

Blustery Evergreen Washelli

 

10/20/24 Evergreen Washelli cemetery

I've sketched the Doughboy monument nearly
every time I've visited the cemetery. I decided on
an abbreviated composition this time.

Totally unsheltered Evergreen Washelli cemetery is an iffy proposition in late October when the weather can be all over the place, but it seemed like a fun idea right before Halloween. USk Seattle decided to chance it. With high winds blowing all day and a forecast of rain by 3 p.m., I was afraid I might be the only one waiting at the American Doughboy monument, but seven other hardcore sketchers showed up!

The weather was definitely all over the place: Despite the harsh wind and eventual rain, the temperature was in the balmy mid-60s – unusually warm for October. My sketchbooks were hard to hang onto for most of these sketches. When I got tired of being shoved around by the wind, I drove to my favorite tree at this cemetery and sketched from inside my mobile studio: A gnarly yet elegant old sakura that I’ve sketched at least a couple of times before, including in April when the last of its petals were still clinging. This time I used ArtGraf water-soluble graphite, and I was reminded of how much I miss graphite! (I’m looking forward to Pencilvember.)

Cherry tree

We decided to meet for our throwdown a little earlier than scheduled to avoid the oncoming rain. As I pulled out of the cemetery for home, the first drops of rain started falling. Whew!

The windblown look!

Giant Sequoia

 

8/13/24 Giant sequoia, Green Lake neighborhood

Still two blocks from the address I was seeking, I looked up and spotted it: a 120-year-old giant sequoia. Although my knowledge bank of trees is miniscule, even I can identify the symmetrical, conical shape and distinctive fluffy-ish needle clusters (how’s that for arboreally technical?) of this type of conifer. With a 63-inch-diameter trunk, this healthy redwood near Green Lake is in danger of being cut down to build a driveway, according to the developer’s plans.

The Last 6000, the community advocacy group I learned about last year when I reported on Luma, brought the sequoia to my attention. According to the organization, architects have determined that a design change could save the tree while still providing parking for the development. “Designing around the tree will provide much lifesaving shade as well as every other benefit trees provide for clean air and habitat for wildlife. The Last 6000 hopes that the architect/developers, could apply more creativity to the project and change the designs footprint to include the tree.” Public events are planned to raise awareness and advocacy to save the sequoia.

Technical notes: I experimented with an interesting combo of media: For the sequoia, I used a Viarco ArtGraf water-soluble graphite pencil. For the nearby trees, car and utility pole, I used a non-soluble Blackwing graphite pencil, which I smudged liberally to take the attention away from them. Then I used my spritzer to activate the ArtGraf, increasing the contrast and also enhancing the texture. Since the other elements were non-soluble, I didn’t have to worry about inadvertently activating those parts. (In reality, all the trees were about the same value, but I took the liberty of lightening and blurring the secondary ones to make the sequoia more visible. My use of gray markers taught me that trick.)

I wrote this haiku above the clouds so that I could crop it out if I wanted to.
Sometimes my mediocre penmanship can wreck a page, and I didn't want
that to happen if the haiku turned out sloppy (like the crooked location line at the
bottom of the sketch! Arrrgh.).

Finally, I tried a technique I use often for backgrounds in pet portraits (such as the two shown in this post). For the portraits, I usually use the tinned version of ArtGraf, but I assumed the pencil would behave the same way, and it did. I wet the paper liberally in the sky area, then “licked” the ArtGraf point with a waterbrush to apply subtle gray clouds. The effect I got wasn’t quite as good as I get with tinned ArtGraf, but I blame the paper: I chose a Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook because I wanted a landscape format, but the paper isn’t sized as well as others I’ve since become accustomed to for wet-in-wet work. Overall, though, I’m pleased with these results, and I think the media combo is a good choice for trees.

Snow Gum Eucalyptus

 

7/15/24 snow gum eucalyptus trees, Maple Leaf neighborhood

When I first tracked down these eucalyptus trees from Taha Ebrahimi’s book, Street Trees of Seattle, I was delighted to realize I already knew these trees. Admiring them for years on one of my walking routes (almost daily during the pandemic), I had always wanted to sketch them, but the light was never quite right in the mornings when I tend to take my walks. Learning that these were special street trees, however, motivated me to look for the right light and finally give them a draw.

The best light turned out to be in the late afternoon when I’m least likely to walk, especially as the days grew hotter, and that time of day is the hottest. One day before our recent heatwave set in, I made a gestural sketch to learn more about their form and try to capture as much as I could of their height (yet I lost most of their crowns; on the right in the page spread below).

Gestural sketch on the right

A couple of weeks later it finally cooled enough to go back and spend more time focusing on their trunks (top of post). From this angle, it’s hard to tell that these are two trees and not one, but when I move so that both trees should be distinctly visible, that parked car is always in the way (of course, that’s a Murphy’s Law of urban sketching). This angle does have the best light, though, so I went with it. They seem to lean so precariously from relatively slender trunks.

6/13/24 My first thumbnail sketch

According to Taha’s book, these are Seattle’s first recorded eucalyptus street trees. They were registered on July 25, 1978, the same day that downtown Seattle’s Rainier Club first admitted a Black member. That type of historical note gives amazing context to the life of these street trees. That was only the year after I graduated from high school – not that long ago, from a historical perspective – yet it’s shocking to think that Blacks were not admitted to a social club in liberal Seattle before then.

Pet Portraits

 

6/2/24 Gracie (reference photo by Cindy Smith)

The pups I sketched for yesterday’s post reminded me that I’ve made a few other pet portraits recently that I hadn’t shown yet. At left is Gracie, whom I sketched as a surprise gift for a friend I visited in Portland.

Although I had sketched Ernest Theodore (below) previously from a photo, it was really special to be able to sketch him again, this time from life. Both he and Nyx attended a meet-up of Seattle-area members of a couple of Facebook groups I’m in – Field Nuts and the Erasable Podcast Community. Though not as polished as the portraits I have made from photos, these were certainly more fun (I don't have scans of these sketches because I gave them away on the spot).

6/14/24 Ernest Theodore

6/14/24 Nyx