Kirara Logo

11/9/14 Pitt Artist's Pen, colored pencils, Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook

In August 2001, Greg and I visited Japan with part of my extended family on a tour of Yamaguchi prefecture on the western end of Honshu. The tour included attendance at a major expo highlighting the prefecture’s culture, commerce and industry. Called Kirara (a play on the word for sparkling or glittering), the expo culminated with a spectacular electronic and fireworks display (I’m amazed that I was able to find a link to the show 13 years later!).

Although the Kirara expo doesn’t really stand out in my memory, the trip itself is special to us for a couple of reasons: For one, it was not only our first (of several so far) trip to Japan; it was also our first trip with a passport. (It may now seem like we travel frequently, but that has only been true the past few years.) Secondly, we returned home from that trip only days before 9/11, so it was the last time we flew without going through the TSA security procedures that we all now know and love so well. After that, the world was forever changed, so I still associate a sense of innocence with that first trip to Japan.

Here we are at the expo with a 3-D version of the logo characters.

The logo for the Kirara expo included a musical band of five animal mascots who appeared in many forms all over the expo grounds. The Japanese are famous for their love of all things cute – Japan is the birthplace of Hello Kitty, after all. Since grown Japanese men have no problem wearing clothing or carrying backpacks with cute icons on them, the official expo T-shirt was emblazoned with this logo – and this logo only. There was no conservative (non-cute) alternative.

Of course my family ended our expo visit in the gift shop, where I spotted the T-shirts. I decided it would be a terrific idea if everyone in my family got the shirts and wore them on the flight home, expressing some kind of family team spirit. Everyone managed to dredge up enough spirit to buy the shirts, but I didn’t see many wearing them (I’m guessing my brother wouldn’t have been caught dead in a “cute” shirt even in the privacy of his own home).

Greg and me in our Kirara shirts at Kansai airport.
I think my nephew Jason was the only other family
member who wore his on the flight, but I couldn't
find a photo of him wearing it.

I, on the other hand, not only wore my Kirara T-shirt on the flight home; I continued to wear it to Jazzercise, to wash the car, to clean the bathroom or to do any other activity that required my least formal attire. I tell you all of this seemingly irrelevant information because today, 13 years later, I’ve decided to retire that shirt. (A hole finally appeared in the armpit after its last washing.) Despite what you may be thinking, I’m not one of those people who keeps on wearing clothes until they are rags, but I guess I was sentimental about that shirt. (And although the logo is a bit faded, that T-shirt has held up better than most!)

Normally if I’m feeling sentimental about an object that needs to be tossed, I get Greg to take a photo of me with the object, and then I can let it go. This time I decided to memorialize the logo by sketching it. I tried to reproduce the details and colors as faithfully as possible. Despite the many years that I wore the shirt, I had never studied the logo as carefully as I did today. It incorporates an amazing number of colors – I had to use 12 colored pencils!

OK, now I can toss it. (But it’s not the last time I’ll see the logo; it also appears on a dishtowel that I still use!)

Wishing I Had More Markers at Hmong Festival

11/8/14 Pilot Iroshizuku Take-sumi ink, watercolor, Canson XL 140 lb.

With all those festive, colorful outfits in the photos online, I figured the Hmong New Year Celebration would be a fun sketching opportunity. I put the call out for an ad hoc sketch outing, and Anne joined me at the Seattle Center Armory, where we weren’t disappointed. Fringe, neon colors, sparkling coin-like tassels and the most amazing headgear!

Sitting in the audience of the main stage would have put me too far away from the action, not to mention being blocked by lots of heads. So I kept walking around until I found a spot at stage right, which gave me an excellent view of most of the performers. 

My only regret for the day was that I didn’t bring more Zig markers. I used watercolors when I could, but I don’t have anything in my paint box that would mix the right shades of hot pink and neon green! (And yes, I do have plenty of markers in those colors that I almost never get to use while urban sketching!)

Markers notwithstanding, Anne and I had fun comparing sketches of all those great hats!

11/8/14 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink

11/8/14 Pilot Iroshizuku Take-sumi ink

11/8/14 Diamine Chocolate Brown

11/8/14 Take-sumi, Zig
marker

Tina and Anne after sketching lots of colorful hats.

. . . and Irresistible Color

11/7/14 Platinum Carbon, Noodler's Brown 41 and Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu-syogun inks, watercolor, Caran d'Ache Museum water-soluble colored pencils, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

. . . And in honor of a sunny Friday after many days of rain and wind, I got out my watercolors on Crown Hill’s Eighth Avenue Northwest, where trees line the boulevard between the two sides of this wide arterial, and more trees stand on either side of the street. This late in fall, the color isn’t quite as bright as it was a month ago, and it was a little too cold to sketch outside my car. I could see blue sky and shadows, though, and that’s good enough for me.

Happy weekend!

Plain Ol’ Pen and Ink . . .

11/7/14 Pilot Iroshizuku Take-sumi ink, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

In honor of worldwide Fountain Pen Day, I used my favorite Sailors to sketch a few patrons this morning at Zoka Coffee. As much as I enjoy experimenting with all kinds of colorful media and trying unusual writing instruments like twigs, sometimes the elegant simplicity of plain ol’ pen and ink are all I need to keep me happy. . .

Happy Fountain Pen Day!

11/7/14 Pilot Iroshizuku Take-sumi ink

11/7/14 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink

11/7/14 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink

Homework at the MOHAI

11/6/14 Diamine Sapphire and Pilot Iroshizuku Kiri-same
inks, Zig markers, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

Gabi Campanario was signing his new book, Seattle Sketcher, at the Museum of History and Industry this morning, and Greg and I have been meaning to get over to the museum again, so it was a good opportunity to head over to South Lake Union.

After Gabi autographed my books (I brought along my copy of Architecture and Cityscapes, too), Greg and I went to see the newest exhibit, “Shalom! Open for Business: Tales of Jewish Merchants in Washington State,” as well as some old favorites.

After my frustrating afternoon yesterday, however, my ulterior motive was to look for a sketch for Veronica Lawlor’s Sketchbook Skool assignment: Sketch small groupings of people, observing the “stories” told by their expressions and gestures. From the second floor railing, I looked down over the kids’ activity table, where a boy was making something out of paper with his mom (in the hat) and a museum volunteer. It was an interesting but challenging perspective, and I only had a little time before our parking meter was to expire, but I hope I captured enough of the “story” to turn in the assignment!

Gabi signs books for one of his biggest fans!

Not Enough Coffee Shops

11/5/14 Platinum Carbon and Noodler's Brown 41 inks, Caran d'Ache Museum
water-soluble colored pencils, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

You’d think in Seattle, of all places, that I could find a place to sit and sketch at any of hundreds and hundreds of coffee shops at any time of day. Apparently not at 2 p.m. on this particular rainy Wednesday (OK, I admit, I didn’t try hundreds). My intention was to practice more sketches of people for Veronica Lawlor’s Sketchbook Skool lesson, so first I tried my favorite place for that, Zoka Coffee. Not a single open seat! (All that free Wi-Fi that makes patrons so easy to sketch is a double-edge sword – no one leaves.) Frustrated, I drove back north and tried what was formerly Forza Coffee and has recently been reincarnated as Fix Coffeehouse. It, too, was full, but I was tired of driving around Green Lake. Fix’s outdoor tables were protected from the drizzle by an overhang, and it wasn’t too cold, so I took my coffee outside.

I’ve sketched this scene of Spud Fish & Chips twice before – once in May 2012 and again in August the same year. I prefer the composition and angle I had used previously; today’s sketch didn’t come out quite the way I wanted. I felt like I got distracted by the one tree’s colors and didn’t pay enough attention to the rest. Anyway, I was muttering to myself about my dissatisfaction, feeling like I should have stayed home and done more metasketching instead.

Just then a young woman named Michelle approached me. She had spotted me sketching and said she sketched a bit herself, too. We chatted about watercolors and Urban Sketchers, which she knew about, and I encouraged her to join us. Our brief conversation was a good reminder that the result – the way my sketch came out – isn’t nearly as important or meaningful as the process of getting out into the world to sketch. It’s about making a connection with my surroundings – something that rarely happens in my own studio.

Another Metasketch (Plus Bookbinding) Day

11/4/14 Diamine Sapphire, Diamine Grey and Pilot Iroshizuku Yu-yake inks,
Lamy Safari pen, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

It’s still raining. I decided to do another metasketch – of a Lamy Safari pen and a bottle of Diamine Sapphire ink sketched with a Lamy Safari pen and Diamine Sapphire ink! Don’t I get double metasketching points for that? (The shadow is Diamine Grey, and the flourish is Pilot Iroshizuku Yu-yake.)

I had at least two ulterior motives for this metasketch: One is that I want to do more ink-only sketches this month, since I’ve given myself that challenge (the “ink” part of InkNaNoDrawMo). And the second is that I want to enter GouletPens.com’s Thanksgiveaway contest this month. The prize is an Omas Ogiva Alba fountain pen (valued at $495), and all you have to do to enter is send something handwritten with pen and ink to GouletPens telling them something you are grateful for. It’s not an art competition – the winner will be chosen randomly – so we all have an equal shot!

My September-October sketchbook.

A rainy day is also good for bookbinding, so I used the opportunity to bind my September – October sketchbook. On the covers are the Space Needle sketched with a twig at the Olympic Sculpture Park and the crazy monster tree I sketched in Tacoma. I chose these sketches for the cover because they represent two types of media I’ve been experimenting with a lot lately in various ways: twig and India ink, à la KK, and water-soluble colored pencils.