Nose to the Ground

 

11/3/26 Derwent Drawing and Prismacolor pencils in S&B Zeta sketchbook (photo reference)

On one of my visits to Thornton Creek Channel last summer, I snapped a few photos of a young woman walking two dogs (my trick whenever I see people walking toward me that I might like to photograph is to wait until they’ve passed me, then turn around; I especially like to snap dogwalkers this way). She couldn’t seem to get them moving because one or the other or both kept stopping for a sniff. I’ve never walked a dog, but I imagine it’s like this more often than not.

I started with the pale blue just to block in the main subjects, so it
doesn't show much in the sketch. The darkest pencil at the bottom
is Derwent Drawing Midnight (6710), which isn't even part of my
Pencilvember palette. I have been keeping it in my daily-carry 
kit for a while, though, because it's a favorite for dark values
without being black.

Technical notes: When using reference photos, I prefer to choose scenes that I might actually sketch from observation because they make better practice. This one doesn’t really qualify because it would have been almost impossible to capture both dogs and their human to this level of detail in real time, but it appealed to me – both the subject matter and the composition. You can probably tell that I became more interested in the dog at left than any other part of the sketch! Nose down, tail up: I see dogs in this gesture often, so it’s worth practicing.

I want to call attention to the subtle modulations of value on that dog (and also on the figure, though less finessed). Even without much detail, I hope it reads well. This is exactly why I love colored (and all) pencils so much: You can’t do this with markers! Or how about that sketch I made the other day of our foggy morning? Impossible with markers!

Thornton Creek Media Tests

 

9/12/26 Thornton Creek Channel (non-soluble colored pencils)

It’s mid-September, and that can mean only one thing: I’m gearing up for both InkTober and Pencilvember! For the past few years, I’ve been devoting each challenge month to a specific subject theme, such as ears or pets, with all drawings done from photo references. This year, I thought I’d go back to my roots of trying to draw as much as possible from life and without a theme. The challenge would be to stick to one medium that I rarely use for any length of time. It’s an effective way to get past any resistance and to practice a medium that doesn’t come easily. (Years ago, using ballpoint pens exclusively during InkTober got me to really enjoy and appreciate the medium.)

 

Derwent Drawing and a couple of Prismacolors

Without making commitments yet, I recently took a couple of media out with me to Thornton Creek Channel to see how they might do. Derwent Drawing pencils (or dry colored pencils in general) are a definite contender for Pencilvember. For a month now, I’ve been anticipating that fall might be a great time to give these pencils a solid try on location. As mentioned in that previous post, my plan would be to stay small with my sketches so that they would remain relatively fast. I’ve been so dependent on water to do the heavy lifting of building strong values with water-soluble pencils or crayons that using non-soluble pencils would be time-consuming. Or would it? Maybe this is a good time to see what shortcuts or techniques I can develop to make this medium more on-location friendly.

The sketch above, about two-thirds of an A5-ish page in my Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook, probably took twice as long as a similar size sketch using water-soluble materials. I’ll have to go even smaller for the same efficiency.

Staedtler Pigment Arts Brush Pens

I’m less certain about my candidate InkTober. For this trial run, I took a small set of Staedtler Pigment Arts Brush Pens, which I learned about from Roz Stendahl several months ago. Containing waterproof, pigment-based ink, they are similar to Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Brush pens, which I’ve been using for many years. The Staedtler pens are significantly cheaper than Faber-Castell, however. I go through Pitt pens fairly rapidly, especially Cold Gray III, which has long been a favorite for shading. The last time I needed to reorder Pitts, I thought I’d give Staedtler a try.

6 of the 12 colors in the "Nature" set

Although the lower price is appealing, one major disadvantage of the Staedtlers is that they aren’t available open stock. I chose the set of 12 “Nature” colors, which has a decent selection for landscape and urban sketching. I sort of enjoy the challenge of a limited, pre-selected palette that I didn’t even choose myself. But for 31 days during the height of fall color? I might need to supplement with Pitt brush pens, which I own in a much wider color range.

Perhaps the greater hurdle with brush markers is that I have never cared for the marker-ish look. My engineer brother once described the violin as analog (the ability to modulate from one note to the next) while the piano is digital (on or off). Along the same lines, colored pencils (or almost any dry media) are analog, while markers are digital. If I compare the two sketches here of the same scene, I certainly prefer the modulated look of colored pencils. (I didn’t like my recent attempts at Jimi Hendrix Park at all.) Maybe I just haven’t learned to use markers in a way that appeals to me.

Who knows – maybe I’ll declare December mixed-media month and use colored pencils and markers together! Past attempts usually haven’t been satisfying; brush markers have a way of taking over the party, no matter who else is in the room. But if art challenges like InkTober and Pencilvember aren’t for learning, why take part? I’m game.

This is the thumbnail I made to test the values and composition before
making the color sketches. The best part of it is the comment I overheard.

Once More at Thornton Creek

 

7/27/26 Thornton Creek, Northgate

I seem to have taken it on as a personal summer mission to introduce my sketching friends to Thornton Creek! It’s such a serene yet fully accessible gem in the middle of otherwise bustling Northgate. This time I met Mary Jean and Roy there on a sunny but breezy morning.

As much as I was cowed by all the foliage at Kruckeberg Garden last week, Thornton Creek is somehow friendlier to me. There’s plenty of multi-layered textures and subtle color differences to be endlessly challenging, yet there are also enough solid shapes to help guide the compositions. It also has a lot more light. This time I looked straight down into the winding creek at the center of the park (above).

With the few minutes before our meetup, I sketched a favorite Japanese maple tree (at left) that I’ve captured at least once before.

Delicious Weather at Thornton Creek

 

6/19/26 Thornton Creek

Sculpture at Thornton Place

We had some utterly delicious weather last week! Temps in the high-60s to mid-70s and sunshine – the kind of weather that makes me so happy and thankful that I live here!

Nilda and I chose one of those ideal days to sketch at Thornton Creek, which was new to her. Although the walking path is mostly sunny in the morning, trees provide pockets of deep shade. If I sketch there often enough, I’m going to run out of those handy spots, but so far I keep finding new views, like this one.

Up on the street level where I was waiting for Nilda, I finally got around to sketching a “leg” of some public art I see whenever I’m near Northgate. Three of these metal sculptures stick out of the ground, and I always think they look like octopus legs (or maybe a Dr. Seuss-inspired animal).

One more reason why I live here.

Thornton Creek in the Morning

 

6/2/26 Thornton Creek

Temps climbed to the mid-80s on Tuesday – unusual for this early in June (though I suppose it’s becoming the new normal). Getting out early for my walk to beat the heat, I went north to Thornton Creek. A couple of weeks ago when Kim and I had such a good time there, It was late afternoon. In the early morning, different parts of the creek’s plantings were illuminated, so it was like having a whole new landscape to choose from.

I inadvertently mixed this green at Gas Works Park -- a happy accident.

More green notes: A couple of days ago, I noted that my current greens were working well together, but I was still using them mostly conventionally. Then the next day at Gas Works Park, intending to use Inktense Iron Green, I inadvertently grabbed the overly cool Caran d’Ache Dark English Green (729) and mixed it with Spring Green (470) for the hillside foliage. Although the result was surprising, it made an interesting complement to the rusty, reddish gas works. That combo reminded me of the CYMK primary triads I had played with extensively several summers ago.

At Thornton Creek, I decided to use the same pairing for the maple tree’s foliage. The result is a little more edgy than my usual, “safe” mixes – and I like it! Maybe there’s hope for me yet, even if it takes a happy accident (as Bob Ross would say).

Thornton Creek

 

5/21/26 Thornton Creek water quality channel, Northgate neighborhood

Northgate’s Thornton Creek water quality channel is less than a half-hour’s walk from home, yet I’ve sketched there only a few times. Although the freshly landscaped channel, new in 2009, was still growing in when I first sketched there in 2013, it’s now lush with mature plantings. This time of year, it’s a zillion shades of green with spots of colorful blossoms.

Kim and I take advantage of the sunshine.

I think the main reason I avoided sketching there for many years was that I was intimidated by all that green. In that 2013 post, I drew the landscaping but avoided painting it, knowing that I’d end up with “a huge, dark green mess.” A month later, I was brave enough to get my green paints out (see below), but the foliage was no less daunting.

Kim had never been to Thornton Creek channel before, so I took advantage of a gorgeous afternoon to introduce her to it. Somewhere in the 13 years since those previous visits, sketching layers of lush greenery became less formidable. It probably happened around the time I quit watercolors and embraced pencils! This time I added water-soluble crayons to the mix. While it’s not without challenges, I’m relieved that I’m no longer intimidated by layers of green.

I bravely got my watercolors out for this sketch in 2013.

Sketch Strolls

9/13/16 brush pen, white gel pen

I keep a running list in OneNote (my digital notebook) of things or places I’d like to sketch someday. The ideas on the list can be fairly general – “Thornton Creek Park” – or very specific – “the large angel monument at Evergreen Washelli cemetery; sketch in the afternoon when the light is hitting the front.” If I’m running errands or attending a meeting in a certain neighborhood, I might check the list to see if there’s something nearby that I could stop and sketch. And when I know I have a chunk of time available, I’ll simply decide to visit a particular location and set out for it. I call this approach “destination sketching” – knowing before I arrive that I have a certain subject or location in mind.

In the summer months when I (hopefully) have many days of good weather, I usually do some form of destination sketching whenever I can. This past summer, however, I found myself more often taking a very different approach to sketching – taking casual sketch strolls in my own neighborhood. I simply grab my bag, walk out the door and keep walking until I find something to sketch. I don’t have a particularly interesting neighborhood, but something almost always catches my attention within 10 or 15 minutes of walking. I never know what I might find, but I enjoy the hunt without having a particular goal or destination. Hunt is not even the right term; I don’t aggressively search. I just remain engaged and open to what might be sketchable and see what appears. And if I come home with nothing sketched, that’s OK, too.

7/3/16 brush pen, white gel pen, colored pencil

At the risk of over-analyzing this, I’d probably say at least two things led to this different approach. One is that I had a busy summer of travel, so while I was home, I was tired of planning, organizing and having an itinerary. It felt good to sketch without a plan.

The other is the little Field Notes notebook that’s always in my bag along with my usual sketchbook. When I go out for a destination sketch, the destination or subject usually demands (at least in my own mind) a relatively large composition, a little color and enough of my time and attention that I feel compelled to use my full sketchbook. But with a Field Notes in my bag, I lower both my standards and my expectations. I don’t worry about color, context or story. I feel no pressure to share (although I usually do just because it’s fun).

8/21/16 brush pen, ink, colored pencils

If I take a walk and find nothing but a tire leaning up against a utility pole, it becomes an interesting tonal study on red paper. A toilet (!) abandoned on a sidewalk fits nicely on the Field Notes’ small page format. A couple of crows on a wire or a plastic flamingo? Ideal subjects for small vignettes. These casual sketches are not even a record of my day – indeed, they are nothing more than a record of a moment or two, as ephemeral as the paper they’re sketched on.

Maybe next summer I’ll go back to destination sketching; I certainly still have a long list of ideas at the ready. But sketch strolls have taught me that it’s just as much fun to skip the list and simply follow my notebook.

7/7/16 brush pen, gel pen

9/13/16 ink, gel pen

9/5/16 colored pencils, gel pen

Dry Run at Thornton Creek Channel

7/4/13 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook

Needing a break from packing and prepping for our trip to Europe, we took a brief walk through Thornton Creek Channel. When I sketched the channel last month, I took a wide view. This time, I closed in on a culvert where a small waterfall pours into the channel. In the foreground were some fuzzy purple flowers that the fat bumblebees really seemed to like.

 

This walk was my dry run for my Nomadic Wise-Walker messenger bag fully packed with all my Urban Sketching Symposium art materials as well as other travel essentials. I sketched and painted this standing, with the bag on my shoulder, as I often do. As long as I’m not tempted to continue filling the bag’s plentiful pockets and compartments, I think I’ll be fine. (The only thing I took out was the water brush filled with Diamine Grey ink that I like to use for shading; it wouldn’t fit in my TSA-approved zip-lock bag.)

 

Have a safe and happy 4^th!

Thornton Creek Channel

6/18/13 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, 100 lb. watercolor paper

According to a placard next to the site, the 11.6-square-mile Thornton Creek Watershed is home to 67,000 residents (including me), which means that all the typical urban pollution and runoff I help to generate used to flow directly into Thornton Creek and eventually to Lake Washington. The placard did its job of making me more aware of the creek that runs right under Northgate Mall and the neighboring area, as well as the potential urban impact on the stream. Thanks to citizen activism and a major project that was completed four years ago, the creek has been restored, and parts of it have been “daylighted” above ground. According to a Seattle Times article dated June 19, 2009, “A large, paved lot once devoted to overflow mall traffic and RV parking has been replaced with a landscaped, open space that allows the beginnings of Thornton Creek to flow above ground for the first time in decades.” The channel is now a natural filtration system for stormwater runoff.

 

Although I drive past this open space regularly when I run errands at Northgate, today was the first time I walked down into and around the wide, green space. First I walked completely around the periphery, and then I walked up and back down each of several long stairways, trying to pin down a sketch composition. I finally settled on a colorful glass sculpture that looks like its parts are floating in an exposed area of water, one of the many walkways, and a staircase with lots of interesting angles.

 

Making the initial drawing wasn’t too bad, although I still find sketching big, open spaces challenging. But I knew the worse challenge was going to be painting it. Everywhere I looked, I saw mostly dark green – the water, the vast landscaping, everything. Knowing I would make a huge, dark green mess if I started painting all of that, I started to panic. Then I remembered (before I started painting, for a change!) Gail Wong’s advice to let a sketch tell its story by painting selectively. So I selected a few visual elements that I hoped would lead the eye to the focal point I had chosen. Looking at the sketch now, I think it could have used a bit more paint, but I’m happy that I stopped when I did, because I’m sure I would have gone too far if I’d kept that paint brush in my hand.

 

So that I can squeeze in sketches on days that I have to work, I’ve been trying to find more sketch-worthy locations within a five- or 10-minute drive or walk from my house. I can easily drive to Thornton Creek Channel in minutes. I’m grateful to the concerned citizens who put pressure on the city to create this refreshing urban space, and grateful to the city for making it happen. To express my appreciation, I’m going to enjoy it more often.

 

(Technical note: This was my second sketch made in a hand-stitched signature carried in my “Stefano” sketchbook cover. One benefit of the thin, pamphlet-stitched signature is that the gutter in the center of a page spread is less visible in the scan than it is when I scan my Stillman & Birn sketchbooks. I’m also learning that I need to stitch the signatures together a bit more securely. I had deliberately used a fine thread and fewer holes on this signature because eventually I’ll have to take that temporary stitching off before doing the permanent Coptic binding. But the pages are moving around too much, which is causing the holes to spread. I think I’ll have this all figured out by the time I make all the signatures for my trip next month. Better to work out all the kinks now while they can still be worked out – at home!)