Northlake Commons (and Green Disgruntlement)

 

5/7/26 Northlake Commons

Mary Jean recently introduced me to a newish business complex near the north end of Lake Union just off the Burke-Gilman Trail. Northlake Commons still looks largely unoccupied, but all the better to explore the huge public spaces. Best of all, the complex has been beautifully landscaped (approved by MJ, a retired landscape architect) to soften the hard edges of the surrounding modern architecture. If you stand at the top of a stairway, you’ll see peek-a-boo views of Lake Union and the downtown skyline. (I see a USk Seattle outing here in my future.)

First I wanted to continue experimenting with varying textures and colors of greenery by focusing on one of several weeping cedar trees at the foot of a stairway (top of post). It’s one of my favorite types of composition with organic foliage against hard, built environments.

I considered sketching the lake view from the top of that stairway, but I wanted to get closer. Across the street, I discovered that one of the peek-a-boos was a tiny pocket park with a bench and even a picnic table. Hidden from the sidewalk, it must be a well-kept secret: That afternoon, it was just me and a family of Canada geese.

Lake Union from a tiny pocket park

Color notes: I’m unhappy with my current selection of green water-soluble materials. For many years, I had used a go-to trio of Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelles that went well together, but growing tired of it was what prompted my lengthy exploration of primary triads several years ago. I wanted to get out of that rut.

Eventually I drifted back to the tried-and-true, but then my more recent discovery of designer Germanier’s surprising color choices led to my “wacky” palette experiments. Although I’m hoping that inspiration will still guide me now, when it comes to foliage, I always feel the tension between wanting to be true to nature and wanting to push myself.

Lots of greens, none quite right

My current dissatisfaction with greens is mostly due to my love of Caran d’Ache Neocolor II water-soluble crayons. Despite its wide green range (all of which I own), I can’t seem to find a trio (light, medium, dark values) that go well together. In addition, I also like to have a dark, cool green to take care of all the Pacific Northwest conifers fringing any horizon, and Neo II doesn’t have one that’s just right for that, either. Hence, I ended up with a nearly-turquoise green on the sunny edges of the weeping cedar which I made attempts to dull with a mossy green that I don’t like, either.

Using only Neo IIs for foliage wasn’t going to cut it. Since I’m trying to avoid my Museum Aquarelle green rut (sadly, MA’s range of greens is inadequate), it’s time to pull out Derwent Inktense Pencils. Although I went through an infatuation with Inktense a few years back, it had faded. However, seeing Colin Woodward’s use of Inktense revived the spark. Stay tuned for my green overhaul.

The Burke’s Irresistible Skeletons

 

1/4/26 Columbian mammoth, Burke Museum

I’ve sketched at the University of Washington’s Burke Museum many times, both at the old building and the current one, and I never seem to tire of the paleontology area. Who could resist the skeletons of huge creatures that have been extinct for literally eons? Apparently, no one: The prehistoric animal skeletons were by far the most-sketched artifacts at Sunday’s USk Seattle outing.

Although I’ve sketched the Columbian mammoth nearly every time I’ve visited the new building, it’s not necessarily because it’s my favorite (although it is one). Many of the smaller skeletons are backlit by the Burke’s floor-to-ceiling windows, which makes them harder to draw. I really wanted to use my black sketchbook that day, so I walked around to get the lighted side of its skull and amazingly enormous tusks (top of post).

Walking down to the lower-level entrance where the Burke’s mascot mastodon greets visitors (another favorite exhibit that I’ve sketched many times), I looked up at the Baird’s bearded whale skeleton hanging high above us all. I didn’t scale my sketch very well to accurately show how huge it is compared to Andika, who was sketching the mastodon on the floor below.

Baird's beaked whale's tail and Andika

In the time remaining before the throwdown, I needed something I could capture relatively quickly. From the stairway landing below the third floor, I looked up again, this time spotting the Elasmosaur replica hanging from the ceiling.

After the outing, I joined a few friends for lunch at nearby Café on the Ave. I was too hungry to sketch my food (which was a delicious salmon eggs Benedict made with a croissant instead of the traditional English muffin; regrettably, I didn’t even photograph it), but after I was full, I caught my friends.

Lunch at Cafe on the Ave

The Burke Nearly to Ourselves

 

2/14/24 Mastodon replica, Burke Museum

2/14/24 Columbian Mammoth

The last time USk Seattle met at the Burke Museum was right before the pandemic hit, so it was high time for us to visit again. I started on the top floor where all the paleontology labs are and some of the museum’s best specimens, like the Columbian Mammoth. I’ve sketched it from the other side before, so this time I focused on the skull and those incredibly long tusks (at left).

Next I looked through one of the lab windows to sketch a grizzly bear skull (below). A former Woodland Park Zoo resident, the bear was being cleaned and preserved.

2/14/24 Grizzly bear skull

My last stop was the Mastodon replica. The first time I sketched it was from the staircase above. Spotting Janet in a corner, I went to the opposite side of the gallery so that I could capture her in the composition and show the scale of the enormous beast (top of post).

On most visits, the museum has been filled with young students on field trips. On this Wednesday afternoon, we sketchers had the place nearly to ourselves, which was an unusual treat. The Burke is back on our list as a winter-weather standby!

Trash

 

7/28/22 Maple Leaf neighborhood

Walking in a north/south direction gives me lots of fun morning pavement shadows, especially on trash day. I can tell which side of the street has been picked up because the bins are disheveled afterwards. Sketching a few cans that were still in a straight row, I was delighted to see a truck heading my way: I caught both the truck and a collector.

People viewing my sketches sometimes tease me that I must have a thing for trash. I don’t, but I do have much appreciation for the people who take it away. I remember all too well when snow prevented trash collection for a couple of weeks early this year. I don’t take that service for granted anymore.

Paper note: How about this amazing avocado green? I love it! It’s an Uglybook with a “Grunge” theme. Like my favorite red Field Notes Sweet Tooth, it’s exactly the right midtone to set off both black and white.

And related to Uglybooks, I mentioned in my review that the covers are ideal blank canvases for making art or adorning with stickers. I’ve made a lot of my own, but I prefer to give those stickers away and use the ones I’ve received from others to embellish my sketchbooks. Going somewhat overboard in my enthusiasm for Uglybooks, I have five currently in rotation exhibiting stickers from (left to right) Rickshaw Bags, the Burke Museum, the Erasable Podcast, Ernest Theodore and Kate Buike.

Triceratops

 

4/20/22 Triceratops cast, Burke Museum

It’s been a long time since I visited the Burke Museum – more than two years, in fact. The last time was with USk Seattle when I took on the enormous mastodon replica at the museum’s lower entrance. I wasn’t quite so ambitious during our visit last week – I made a quick sketch of a triceratops skull – but it was good to be back among all the ancient bones and eons of biological history.

Mastodon

1/19/20 Mastodon replica, Burke Museum

Somehow the mastodon always calls to me. I’ve sketched it at the Burke Museum numerous times, but I never seem to tire of it. At the old facility, the big guy stood at the end of a dark, narrow exhibit area, so it was difficult to get any angle but head-on. In the Burke’s new digs, the replica of the 10,000-year-old skeleton guards the museum’s lower-floor entrance flooded with natural light. Looking down from the lobby stairway, this was my first attempt at sketching its entire length and girth in profile.

I love drawing all those bones, for sure, but capturing the sheer scale of this formidable monster is the real challenge: I used a full spread in my sketchbook this time, but I still didn’t have room for the tail. But at least I managed to get Suzanne and David in.

Stegosaurus Stenops and the Voices of Millions

11/13/19 Stegosaurus stenops at the Burke Museum

On my second trip to the newly reopened Burke Museum, I arrived shortly after the opening time. Quickly climbing the long flights of stairs to the third floor, I passed about a million or so elementary school children marching up the same stairs with their teachers. I was hoping they would stop on the second floor, but they were attracted to the same thing I was: the Jurassic period.

I found a support beam to stand against (and protect myself from the endless stream of kids) to sketch the cast model of Stegosaurus stenops, which was found in Utah during the late Jurassic. Five years ago, I sketched this vegetarian at the old Burke from a different angle – and its tail was so long that I had to continue it on a separate page. This time I faced it head-on. Just as I did the last time, I marveled at that tiny, tiny head supported by its massive body.

Although most of the million kids were more interested in
running through the exhibits, this group sketched as quietly
as I did -- and obviously enjoyed the same period.

New and Much Improved Burke Museum

11/1/19 Columbian mammoth exhibit, Burke Museum

The Burke Museum has been one of my favorite indoor locations for almost as long as I’ve been sketching. Whenever I got my car serviced nearby, I would dash over for an hour or so and sketch an artifact or two; I think I sketched almost all the large skeletons at least once, sometimes more, and some small fossils. The museum had been closed for about a year while its new facility was being completed and everything moved in, and I really missed it.

Who has a bigger mouth?

The new Burke finally reopened a few weeks ago, and the long wait was worth it! Spacious, well-lighted and with many more artifacts on display than they ever had room for before, the University of Washington’s world-class museum is three floors of natural and human history exhibits focused on the Pacific Northwest. What a sketcher’s delight!

Although my sketching interests tend to stay on the animal exhibits – what is it about drawing prehistoric skeletons that is so much fun!? – but the human history exhibits of native cultures are also fascinating.  

Last Friday’s visit was only a cursory run-through so I could plan future sketching objectives. I’ll be back again soon and often. Perhaps this winter won’t be so hard to endure after all!

I recall sketching this stegosaur a few years ago and not being able to fit the whole thing in my sketchbook!

Paleontologists and other scientists at work are visible
in many areas.

Biology exhibit

Big bones!

More Action at the Burke Museum

6/18/19 New Burke Museum building

A few months ago, I inadvertently stumbled upon demolition of the old Burke Museum when I was on the University of Washington campus to sketch cherry blossoms. Passing through campus earlier this week, I went to see what the site looked like now. Most traces of the old building are gone, but lots of excavators and other heavy equipment were everywhere, and the grounds (a new parking lot?) still looked rough and nowhere near completion.

In the background stands the new Burke getting ready for its grand reopening this fall. As excited as I am to visit the new, much larger natural history museum – the old one gave me many hours of sketching fun, and I’m sure the new one will, too – its new building is the type that I don’t enjoy drawing much. Clean and modern, the roofline is very subtly curved, so it ends up looking either like it was meant to be straight but my lines were crooked, or I curved it too much. In this case, it’s the latter – the roofline’s curve is more subtle than that. I hope to sketch the construction site again before it opens, so maybe I’ll do a more accurate job next time.

6/18/19 Construction worker taking a lunch break on a pile of debris.

Victoria, Part 2: Strategic Windows

4/13/19 Yates Street, Victoria

As Part 1 indicated, Victoria, B.C., was chilly and sometimes wet and bitterly windy on the days we were there. Strategically placed windows were my best friends.

After Gabi’s Architecture workshop on Saturday morning, my plan was to follow his afternoon People workshop students to wherever the workshop location was, but my teeth were still chattering! I went back to the Airbnb apartment that I was sharing with Cathy McAuliffe and spent a leisurely afternoon sipping hot tea as I sketched the spectacular street view (above). Within the scope of our huge picture windows on the seventh floor, an interesting mix of historic, modern and funky architecture shared the block.

When the sky was partially clear, we could see the snow-capped Olympic Mountains to the west. Although the Olympics are visible from various spots in Seattle, including our own street, the portion I see from there is different, so it was cool to see a new view.

 

4/16/19 Olympic Mountains

Another apartment window offered a view straight down into a courtyard. This mind-bending perspective gave me a fun challenge!

 

4/17/19 From the 7th floor

An especially strategic window was the one I learned about from Cathy: a perfect view of the Chinatown gate from Starbucks.  

 

4/15/19 Chinatown from Starbucks

On Sunday morning, Greg joined us, and we spent a few more days exploring Victoria. One of our favorite spots to escape the chill was the Royal British Columbia Museum, an excellent natural and human history museum. Our Burke Museum reciprocal membership allowed us free admission, so we visited twice. I found a number of skeletal and stuffed critters to sketch and even a couple of live ones.

 

4/16/19 taxidermy falcon and grizzly

4/16/19 bison skull, ammonite and weather symbols
as part of an excellent exhibit on climate change.

4/17/19 more skulls

4/16/19 These critters were sketched from life in a tank.

Finally, on the top floor of the BC Museum, I found my most treasured window sketch: the crowned dome of the Legislative Assembly Building. This is the kind of detailed sketch I thoroughly enjoy making, but the distance, cold and a sore neck would have made it difficult from any other location.

4/17/19 Dome of the BC Legislative Assembly Building

Of course, Victoria has plenty of other indoor attractions
during inhospitable weather, such as shopping at Bulk
Barn. . . I was so tempted to plunge my arm in.

It's never too cold for ice cream!

Sampling macarons!

I wanted the full Canadian experience... breakfast at Tim Horton's.

Fremont’s Ship Canal (and Zeta Disappointment)

3/30/19 Path along the Ship Canal

Although the Fremont neighborhood is best known for the Troll, the statue of Lenin and general irreverent funkiness, one of its highlights is the Lake Washington Ship Canal. Flanked by poplars and Google’s office buildings, the walking/biking path along the water is a city jewel that makes me happy to live here – especially on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

Technical note: Back when I was doing preliminary testing of my Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook for various media and techniques, I made sure the paper was sturdy enough to withstand the liberal spritzing I like to do with water-soluble colored pencils, since that’s a favorite technique of mine when sketching foliage. I forgot, though, that another way I use my spritzer is to spread water quickly onto the clean page before putting in some dissolved color for the sky (what I call the “licked” pencil technique). It’s just an efficient way to get the paper wet. When I started to use this technique for the sky in my Ship Canal sketch, I was alarmed by how the blast of water sank immediately into the surface of the Zeta paper in a measles-like pattern, and when I spread the blue with my waterbrush, the color collected more heavily in those spots. With my old Canson XL, S&B Beta and other papers sized specifically for watercolor painting, the water floats evenly on the surface until it dries. Although Zeta is heavy enough to withstand spraying and heavy washes, it is definitely not sized for watercolor painting applications.

Since I’m not using watercolor paints, this discovery was not a deal-breaker, but it was still a disappointment. I thought back to the sketch I had done the day before at the Burke Museum demolition site and wondered why I didn’t have that problem then. I remembered that I didn’t want to get out my spritzer, so I simply squeezed the waterbrush to spread a little water onto the paper. It was probably less water overall, and the day was cooler, so it evaporated less quickly. But I’ve also used the spritzer for the sky on other sketches that didn’t react with a case of the measles. Strange . . . I’ll pay more attention to how much water I use when spritzing to see if it’s just a matter of keeping it light.

Bye-Bye, Burke

3/29/19 Old Burke Museum building being demolished.

While I’ve been eagerly awaiting the opening of the brand new Burke Museum this fall, I somehow missed the news that the old Burke building, built in 1962, was being torn down. I thought it would be cleaned up and repurposed – or maybe that was just wishful thinking. In any case, as I walked across the University of Washington campus last Friday on my way to the cherry blossoms on the Quad, I was flabbergasted to see that the old Burke was being demolished. While the gaping foundation still stood in the background, an excavator was building a mountain of debris in the museum’s former parking lot.

As many times as I have sketched the skeletons and other natural artifacts inside the Burke, especially on rainy days while my car was being serviced nearby (it was my favorite way to kill that oil-changing time), I had never sketched the building itself. And all those years that I had walked by the Burke when I was a UW student suddenly flashed before my eyes. Filled with regret, I felt obliged to at least sketch its remains even as they were being heaped into dump trucks.

I must admit, though, that sketching an excavator helped to ease my grief. In fact, I decided that’s where all the action was, so I sketched it again with a bit more detail.

3/29/19 Where the action is!