Rear Views of the Center of the Universe

 

8/15/26 Lake Washington Ship Canal path, Fremont neighborhood

Lenin from the rear

Fremont, AKA the Center of the Universe, is one of my favorite sketching neighborhoods, and I was happy to be back there with USk Seattle. Although I’ve sketched the (in)famous statue of Lenin many times (and I’m sure other long-time sketchers have, too), I never seem to tire of his strong angles and challenging lighting from all the trees around him. This time I tried a fresh perspective – from the rear (at right).

After that, I took a long walk around Fremont to look for my next sketch and to soak in the happy Saturday-afternoon summer vibe. I found myself on the Lake Washington Ship Canal walking/biking path, where I stopped to see how the topiary dinosaurs (which I’ve sketched several times) were doing. Some years, they have looked shaggy or somewhat bald, but they were looking good last weekend. With temps in the mid-70s by then, I walked all around them to find a view that I could sketch in shade (top of post). Coincidentally, the only shady view was again from the rear. Unrecognizable in my sketch, the mama dinosaur’s rear end is on the far left.

Thumbnail to try out the square composition

The more inviting view was of the shadow pattern crossing the Ship Canal path, a power tower and the Aurora Bridge in the distance.

Material note: Lacking a fine-tip marker, I used a Pentel Sign brush pen to draw the relatively fine lines of the power tower in the color sketch – as well as the people, the dry-brushed border and to write the caption. The more I use it, the more I love this brush pen’s wide tip range and versatility (though I do curse its nonrefillable, disposable form factor).

Bob Blast’s Painterly Tips

 

5/21/26 photo reference

Bob Blast’s YouTube channel recently came to my attention. Scanning through his titles, I can see that he is a painter, not a sketcher, but as I always do with painting instruction videos, I try to apply his approach to any medium I might use. That’s how I use oil painter Ian Roberts’ extremely informative videos about composition. It’s usually a little more difficult to use pencils, crayons or markers in place of paint, but I enjoy the challenge of attempting it anyway. And almost always, the exercise reconfirms that basic art and design principles apply to any medium.

In the video I viewed recently, Blast (Bob’s real last name is Burridge, but I like that he uses “Blast”) shows how he designs paintings around figures by putting the highest contrast around the area of the focal point. He also uses negative space to clarify and design shapes. Finally, he stresses the importance of showing the direction of light. His style is more abstract than I would typically use for urban sketching, but its visual appeal made me want to try it.

Using a reference photo I had snapped on a walk, I picked out some primary colors in water-soluble markers and crayons. My color choices were based on values, not the photo, and I grabbed basic hues so that I wouldn’t get distracted by trying to “match” what I saw.

Although this approach is very different from the way I usually think, I like the result. I’m especially pleased with how the dark negative space defines the left figure’s lighted side. (I would have liked the way the high-contrast negative space defines the dog’s lighted side if I hadn’t inadvertently drawn the ground shadows through its body!)

5/23/26 Statue of Lenin, Fremont

Anyway, this exercise was a lot of challenging fun. It motivates me to take more high-contrast reference photos so that I can practice this exercise again. 

Could I ever do it on location? It’s often difficult to find a high-contrast scene with ideal lighting that would make this exercise easier, but now that I’m aware of what to look for, I see more potential. Last week in Fremont, I was thinking about Blast’s tips as I sketched the statue of Lenin. Several dense trees are behind Lenin’s head. I made the tree on the left (the lit side of the statue) darker to have higher contrast against the focal point. On that overcast afternoon, I also exaggerated the contrast between light and shadow on the whole statue and made the direction of light more obvious -- something I became more aware of because of Blast’s videos. 

This Time, Lenin and the Bridge

 

5/23/26 Fremont Bridge and Lake Washington Ship Canal, Fremont neighborhood

Sketching in the Fremont neighborhood is always a game of “choose your icon.” The Troll, JP Patches & Gertrude, Lenin, Saturn, the Rocket (bonus points if you can get both Saturn and the Rocket in the same composition), the Fremont Bridge, the topiary dinosaurs – did I miss any? USk Seattle hit them all last Saturday on a cloudy afternoon.

Although I’ve sketched all of them multiple times, I picked an icon that I may not have sketched as often. It was breezy and chilly by the Lake Washington Ship Canal, but I wanted to start with a peek-a-boo view of the brilliantly blue Fremont Bridge.

After walking around Fremont for a while to warm up, I ended up at the statue of Lenin, where several other sketchers were already settled in at the former Soviet Union leader’s feet. Always a bit daunted by the formidable monument, I walked across the street for a more distant view. I chose a purple and green palette that would contrast strongly with Lenin’s red hand.

In fact, the red hand was just what I needed to fill the short time remaining until our throwdown, when the sun finally came out.

Statue of Lenin

Touring Gas Works and Fremont

 

7/18/25 Gas Works Park

Gas Works Park is always my top choice for bringing visitors new to Seattle because you can see so much of the city in one fell swoop. The downtown skyline, Lake Union, Space Needle, seaplanes, towering steampunk-era gas works – what more could you want? We had Sketcher Fest visitors in mind when USk Seattle planned this outing for the day before Sketcher Fest got under way. I was pleased that our great turnout included visitors from Berkeley, Cincinnati and New York City!

7/18/25 Fremont

After the outing, I took Cathy (from Berkeley) to nearby Fremont for lunch and a leisurely sketchwalk around the neighborhood. As a resident, it’s always fun to see familiar icons through the fresh eyes of visitors (and their sketchbooks). Although our morning at Gas Works had been overcast and a little chilly, the sun came out for us in Fremont because, after all, it’s the Center of the Universe.

Obligatory selfie with Lenin in Fremont

North Fremont

 

6/9/24 North Fremont

When most people think of Fremont, the troll, Lenin, and the monument to JP and Gertrude probably come to mind. That’s what I think of, anyway, and that southern end of Fremont is the only part I’ve spent any time sketching. On Fremont’s northern edge, though, where the neighborhood butts up against Phinney Ridge, it’s a little less “Center of the Universe-y” and more working class or maybe just more neighborhood-y.

To celebrate a friend’s birthday, we decided to meet at Uneeda Burger, which is housed in a building that must have been a garage at some point. The sunny deck in front was an ideal spot to devour messy, drippy burgers (both animal- and plant-based and taller than they were wide) on a lovely Sunday.

Arriving a little early to make time to sketch (and finished after lunch and a fun visit to the Fremont Sunday Market), I captured a few other buildings visible from the intersection of North 44^th and Fremont Avenue North. The oldest was probably the Fremont Abbey Arts Center, a 1914 brick building that was originally St. Paul’s Lutheran Church.

Process notes: Like my old apartment building, none of these buildings struck me as particularly sketchworthy. The lighting wasn’t great on any of them, and let’s face it, I’m generally not a fan of sketching buildings just for the sake of sketching buildings (unless I’m in Amsterdam, Coimbra or Kyoto, of course). I’ve noticed, though, an interesting change in my attitude about architecture since I began making on-location comics. Because each sketch tends to be no more than thumbnail size to fit several on a comic-style spread, it’s much easier and faster to draw any building, even if it doesn’t interest me much. I look at each as simply a part of the larger story – in this case, an intersection in north Fremont – and it has become much more enjoyable to sketch these sometimes ho-hum structures. I don’t worry about getting angles or perspective right; I just choose a building’s corner and simplify it enough to fit into 2 or 3 inches. And I end up liking these small sketches much more than building portraits that I might fuss over for much longer. That’s a huge, unexpected benefit of embracing comics!

Advice I Would Give to My Newbie Self

 

3/23/23 Le Pen Flex brush pen, Moleskine sketchbook
(all reference photos by Earthsworld)

Back when my primary drawing tools were fountain pens, one of my techniques of choice was the ink-line wash. For years, I made line drawings with water-soluble inks, then washed the lines for shading. It was a low-maintenance technique on location – all I needed was a fountain pen and a waterbrush.

Using that technique with Marvy Uchida Le Pen Flex brush pens reminded me how much fun it is. It also made me realize that it may be a simple technique in terms of tools, but it is not necessarily easy. In fact, it’s quite challenging to make subtle modulations in tone, and controlling water flow is finicky with a waterbrush. In addition, paper sizing and texture affect the results significantly. All of that explains why I spent a lot of time and research back then trying to find the best combinations of inks and papers.

Perhaps most important from my then-newbie-self’s perspective is that it’s almost impossible to get a good range of values using nothing but a washed ink line. My darkest values were always relatively wimpy. (I recall vividly a sketch I had made of Fremont’s statue of Lenin during my first urban sketching workshop nearly a decade ago. I had washed the lines made with a gray fountain pen ink, and I thought I had done a decent job of bringing out tones and shadows. Squinting at the sketch, workshop instructor Frank Ching had remarked on the absence of darks. I recall thinking, “Oh – those pale gray marks aren’t dark enough?”)

In retrospect, I think it was a simple technique for a newbie to use – but not necessarily a good one to learn with.

3/24/23 Le Pen Flex, Hahnemuhle Akademie sketchbook

I thought a lot about this conflict – ease of use vs. ease of learning – during the weeks that I was taking Kathleen Moore’s Winter Sketchbook + Watercolor class (I have some comments on it in my summary of the last session). When I first began sketching, I looked around at all the other urban sketchers (online and in person) and saw that the vast majority used watercolor, so I thought I should, too. Easily cleaned and mostly non-toxic, watercolors seemed friendly – even kids use them.

Watercolors give the impression of being an easy-to-use medium. In fact, they are: All you have to do is wet your brush and stick it into the paints. But as anyone who has ever used them knows, they take a lot of practice to get good results and many years to master.

Thinking about everything beginning urban sketchers have to learn, all at once – how to draw, what to sketch, how to compose, where to stand or sit, what to bring – no wonder learning to sketch with watercolors was challenging, and my results were often disappointing.

3/23/23 Le Pen Flex, Hahnemuhle 100% cotton sketchbook

Sometimes I wish I could go back in time and tell my newbie self to skip the watercolors and maybe skip ink-line washes, too. My newbie self would hate me, but I would recommend something that would aid my learning instead of impeding it: How about a single soft graphite pencil? It’s easy to carry, and I can use any paper. With it, I can learn form and values while studying composition, and I can still sketch any subject matter I want. Gain a little confidence and skills with that before I add color.

A single graphite pencil??! Boooring! Noooo way!

Well, I tried.

Iconic in Fremont

6/24/22 J.P. Patches and Gertrude (sculptor: Kevin Pettelle), Fremont neighborhood

As many times as I have sketched in the Fremont neighborhood, I’m still always torn when I visit. On the one hand, Fremont is full of so many beloved icons (the Troll, the Fremont Bridge, the topiary dinosaurs, to name just a few favorites that I’ve sketched multiple times) that I never tire of sketching. But I also feel like I should branch out once in a while and sketch something less iconic or at least previously unsketched. Last Friday with USk Seattle, I couldn’t resist three icons, but at least I attempted one new subject.

The Saturn Building

First up was the sculpture of J.P. Patches and Gertrude, which I had not sketched since 2012, so I felt that a second sketch was long overdue. Since I had initially sketched it from J.P.’s side, this time I went around and took on Gertrude’s side. Probably only natives and long-time locals are familiar with J.P. as the host of a live-broadcast children’s TV program back in the ‘60s. Gertrude, J.P.’s sidekick and “girlfriend,” was actually a man. (Who knew that a man in drag would host a children’s TV show? Quite progressive for the ‘60s, even in Seattle!)

A water tower I hadn't sketched before

As we both sketched the sculpture, I discovered that Paul is also a Seattle native, so we chatted about all the local children’s TV shows we had grown up with. He went to high school with Stan Boreson’s son! I have had no such brush with fame, although my Brownies troop did appear on J.P.’s show once.

Feeling happy and nostalgic, I made a couple of quick thumbnail studies for my 30-day challenge: the Saturn Building, which I had sketched only last month, and a water tower visible from the J.P. sculpture, which I had not sketched before. There – something previously unsketched and less iconic!

6/24/22 Statue of Lenin

The meetup location was the statue of Lenin, which I have sketched several times. Although I wasn’t planning to sketch him again, I had about 15 minutes to kill before the throwdown – just enough time for a small portrait.

So the icons won again. It’s a losing battle in Fremont.

Just for fun, I’ve included below my first sketches of J.P. (from 2012) and Lenin (from 2013).

4/17/13 My first sketch of Lenin

8/9/12 My first sketch of J.P. and Gertrude

My childhood hero, J.P.

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.

Back to the Center of the Universe

6/25/17 water-soluble colored pencils, Tombow marker

I worried that news reports of dire traffic conditions from freeway lane closures and Pride events would keep sketchers away from the Center of the Universe, but I needn’t have. Even predicted temperatures in the mid-90s yesterday brought a good turnout of USk Seattle to the statue of Lenin and the rest of the Fremont neighborhood’s funky environment.

 

6/25/17 ink, colored pencils

Although I knew I had sketched Lenin before, I didn’t realize until I checked my blog that it had been as long as four years ago at my first outing to Fremont (a month later I sketched him again during Gail and Frank’s USk workshop). It was high time to sketch him again, and I did it first thing while the morning heat was still tolerable.

For the high noon sun, I knew exactly where I wanted to sketch: In the cool shade of the Aurora Bridge, where the Fremont Troll waits quietly. Although a troll under a bridge is supposed to be malevolent, the only other time I sketched him, also four years ago, he struck me as more curious than scary. Yesterday I thought I saw some surprise and endless patience in his single eye (now shiny silver, though in 2013 it was apparently red) as tourists climb all over him, day in, day out. 

Speaking of patience, I was losing mine as every five minutes or so, a tour bus would come by and disgorge a pile of said tourists so they could photograph each other. The sketch took me much longer than usual because I had to keep waiting for the view to clear. Still, I was in the shade with a cool breeze blowing through. Even on the hottest day of the year, I’d rather be sketching than not.

Rocket, But No Saturn

5/27/16 brush pen, inks, colored pencils, watercolor

Despite last night’s downpour and the early morning’s drizzle, Urban Sketchers Seattle’s outing to the Fremont neighborhood stayed dry and downright pleasant! After our initial meetup in front of Lenin’s statue, I didn’t have to go very far for my first sketch: the tiny Kwanjai Thai Cuisine on North 36^th Street. You’ll probably guess that it wasn’t the café, as cute as it is, that caught my eye – it was those humongous high-tension power line towers behind it. It’s hard to sketch in Fremont without capturing at least a glimpse of them.

By now I’ve sketched many things Fremont is known for – the topiary dinosaurs, the infamous statue of Lenin, the Solstice Parade’s nude bicyclists – but one I hadn’t yet checked off my list is the Rocket, and another is the planet Saturn atop its namesake building across the street. I circled the block twice, often walking backwards, trying to find a way to get both the Rocket and Saturn in the same sketch. Somehow there was always a tree, a building or just a clumsy composition keeping me from what I wanted. I finally settled on the Rocket alone, but I know there must be an angle I missed. Next time I’ll catch them both.

5/27/16 ink, watercolor

We had a great turnout on this weather-iffy day, including four sketchers joining us for the first time!

A Tour of Seattle, Urban Sketcher Style

5/18/13 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook

A day in Mount Vernon with the venerable Frank Ching and Gail Wong wasn’t enough for me; I went back for a whole weekend of their “Line to Color” Urban Sketchers workshop, this time in Seattle. Sketchers from as far away as Idaho and California joined local sketchers for what turned out to be a whirlwind tour of some of Seattle’s most sketch-worthy neighborhoods and attractions: Ballard, Fremont, Gas Works Park and the Pike Place Market.

The highlight of our Friday evening meet-and-greet over Ballard Pizza Company pizza was hearing guest and MC Gabi Campanario talk about the birth of the Urban Sketchers movement and how local workshops like “Line to Color” have become an ongoing adjunct to the annual international Urban Sketchers symposia.

5/18/13 Pilot Iroshizuku Take-Sumi ink, S & B sketchbook

In Ballard on Friday and Fremont Saturday morning, workshop participants practiced perspective and composition under Frank and Gail’s watchful eyes and thoughtful critique. As one participant kiddingly said, “I thought I was my own worst critic until I met Frank.” I worked hard practicing the exercises they recommended, but when they weren’t looking, I snuck in another sketch of Lenin (actually, my third, although he’s barely visible in the second).

By the time we got to Gas Works Park on Saturday afternoon, we were adding color to our lines. I finally got to practice wet-on-wet clouds over the Seattle skyline using the technique I’ve long admired in Gail’s sketches.

Sunday morning’s class at the Market was combined with the regular monthly Seattle Urban Sketchers meet-up, which brought out a record number of sketchers! (As far as social urban sketching goes, this sketchcrawl was an anniversary for me: A year ago this weekend I went to my very first.) I did one class exercise, a value study with selective color of the iconic Public Market Center sign. But after that, I decided class was over, and I spent the rest of the meet-up sketching my favorite farmer’s market subject: street performers (see next blog post).

5/19/13 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook

By the end of the workshop, I came to the same conclusion I always come to: Learning from the masters helps; hearing their critiques of my sketches helps the most. But the only way to become a better sketcher is to practice, practice, practice.

Thanks, Gail and Frank, for another great workshop!

Sketching in the Center of the Universe

5/10/13 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook

With ideal – no, pluperfect – sketching conditions (for me, that means wearing a T-shirt and sandals but not breaking a sweat while sitting in the sunshine), a good turnout of Seattle sketchers showed up for an ad hoc meet-up in the Center of the Universe.

 

My first stop was the Fremont Troll, long on my list of favorite Seattle sights to show out-of-towners. The Troll, who lives under the Aurora Bridge, was created in 1990 by Ross Whitehead, Steve Badanes, Will Martin and Donna Walter. When I started my sketch, the only other person there was sketcher/photographer Gordon, who climbed behind the Troll’s shoulder to take a picture of me across the street. But by the time I was finishing up less than an hour later, I had lost track of the number of tourists who came by – some in taxis with the meter still running; others on tour buses; still others on foot. I know the Troll is supposed to be scary, ominously clutching a hapless VW Bug. But as I sketched him, I realized he has very human hands and seems more curious than scary.

 

5/10/13 Platinum Carbon, watercolor, Zig marker, S&B sketchbook

A few weeks ago I sketched the statue of Lenin, prompted by the Urban Sketchers Flickr weekly theme, “Oddities in Your Town.” I couldn’t resist sketching him again, although this time I let him take a back seat to an elegant tree, nearly in full leaf, offering shade to Lenin and passersby.

 

After the sketchbook sharing and lunch at the PCC with Peggy, Susan and Nilda, I wandered over near the Fremont Bridge to sketch the popularly accessorized sculpture, “Waiting for the Interurban” (made by local artist Richard Beyer). Today some of the cast aluminum sculpture’s characters were dressed in T-shirts promoting “Team Josh.” One wore a few fizzled balloons, perhaps from a previous decorating. To get that full frontal view, I had to sit across the street near the Old School Frozen Custard shop, an exercise in frustration. Traffic was continually going by on North 34^th Street, and every few minutes cars would stop for a red light, completely obliterating my view. Giving up the fight, I finally put one of those cars into my sketch.

 

5/10/13 Platinum Carbon, watercolor, Zig markers, Stillman & Birn sketchbook

My parking meter had only a few minutes left on it – not enough time for another sketch. What to do, what to do. . . ? Eat frozen custard, of course.



Lenin in Fremont

4/17/13 Platinum Sepia ink, watercolor, Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook

If you look on the right side of my blog where tags are listed, you’ll see that I have one for memorials and monuments. Last summer when I visited Boston, I sketched several statues and other memorials, and those prompted me to start a list of all the memorials and monuments in my own hometown that I’ve hardly paid attention to, let alone sketched, and decided I would make a point of sketching them eventually.

 

Long on that list has been Vladimir Lenin, whose 16-foot bronze sculpture had been removed from its original installation in Czechoslovakia in 1989 after the revolution. Rescued from destruction by an Issaquah resident, the statue was installed in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood (not without controversy).

 

I mentioned my memorials and monuments tag because all the other statues I’ve sketched in that category have been erected to honor people or events. Given how often Lenin is “accessorized” in Fremont (in drag for the Pride Parade, with Christmas lights during the holidays, as John Lennon during the Solstice Parade, and the red paint on his hands), it’s hard to say whether the communist leader is being honored at the busy intersection of North 36^th Street and Fremont Place. But in Fremont, anything can – and does – happen.

 

In any case, still inspired by this week’s Urban Sketchers Flickr group theme, “Oddities in Your Town,” I knew it was time to cross this statue off my list. In addition to the one I used today, I spotted a number of other convenient benches and standing areas around this intersection that would make Lenin a good subject for multiple sketches from various angles. A Lenin-themed sketchcrawl, perhaps?