Hasty Lunar New Year

2/8/20 Lunar New Year festival, Chinatown/International District

USk Seattle didn’t plan a sketch outing to this year’s Lunar New Year celebration as we did last year, and I thought I would miss it completely. I had fully expected the day to be yet another dreary, rainy one, but the morning sunshine surprised me. Taking advantage of the weather reprieve, Greg and I dashed out to Chinatown/International District for the noontime festivities.

I could hear firecrackers and drums somewhere in Hing Hay Park, signaling the appearance of the lion dancers, but from where I stood on King Street, the red Gateway sculpture and food booths were all I could see. I didn’t mind; the noise, crowds and food smells were enough to get me into the spirit. And none too soon: Minutes later, it started raining again.

Review: Paul Smith + Caran d’Ache Artist Stripe Supracolor Set

Paul Smith + Caran d'Ache Artist Stripe Supracolor set

Before I begin this review, I’d like to make it clear that I don’t succumb to every set of novelty colored pencils associated with artists (like this Mondrian set, although given my interest in primary triads, I’m sure you can imagine my temptation), occupations (like this nursing set), or popular TV sit coms. Even if I were a nurse or a “Friends” fan, I know that novelty pencils are generally not worth using, so I manage to resist.

On the other hand, Caran d’Ache is my all-time favorite colored pencil maker, and Supracolor is a runner-up on my list of top colored pencils; how could I possibly resist a collaboration between the Swiss company and British fashion designer Paul Smith? True, I know nothing about his designs except that he seems to like stripes, but surely that’s reason enough to have a set of Paul Smith + Caran d'Ache Artist Stripe Supracolors.

The star of this set is the brightly colored, matte-finish tin, which wears the eponymous Artist Stripes. The lid bears the two companies’ logos.

The set includes eight Supracolor II Soft water-soluble pencils corresponding to the Artist Stripe colors. I have only one complaint, and it’s this: The eight pencils do not fit in the tin in a single layer – only seven fit. Therefore, the eighth must sit on top of the seven, and it tends to roll around, even with the foam above and below to protect them. I suppose Cd’A wanted the tin’s dimensions to align with the company’s other pencil tins for retail display purposes (for example, it’s the same width as the Bicolors tin), but the design lacks finesse. I think a single-layer tin would have looked better and more special for this designer who clearly cares about details. (But what do I know about fashion design or details; I still wear a coat I bought in the ‘90s.)

 

Only 7 of the 8 pencils fit in one layer.

The glossy, semi-hex-shaped barrel is identical to standard Supracolors. One facet has Paul Smith’s logo. The opposite facet has the standard Supracolor branding, paint brush icon indicating water solubility and “Swiss made.” Omitted are the 3888 numerical product designator and, unfortunately, color names and numbers.

No color names or numbers.

Although I was fairly confident that I recognized at least some of the hues from the standard Supracolor palette, I started wondering . . . would this collaboration have gone so far as to create a special edition palette of unique colors just for Paul Smith? I gleefully set aside a wet afternoon (in the middle of yet another “atmospheric river” weather event) for research.

Alas, the Paul Smith palette is not unique; I was able to find a Supracolor pencil to match each of the eight hues. Two, however, are from the Supracolor 30^th anniversary limited edition “exclusive new colors” (indicated with “L” in my chart below) – Chromium Oxide Green (212) and Rose Portrait (582). (Actually, Rose Portrait struck me as the only one that didn’t match exactly, yet nothing else comes close, so I’m going to say it’s a disturbing standard deviation.) If you already own all Supracolor hues in Caran d’Ache’s contemporary palette, there’s no need to rush out to add these eight to your collection.

If, however, you’re like me and must have all things Caran d’Ache colored pencil, by all means, rush out and get a set. I ordered mine from Paul Smith’s US site, which offers free shipping on all orders. Amazingly, it came to me from the UK by International Priority Mail in a few days! You’re welcome.

Green Oasis

2/7/20 Barn & Field Kitchen & Bakery inside Swansons Nursery

For the next assignment in my botanical drawing class, we were asked to bring a blossoming plant. I headed straight for Swansons Nursery, where they had exactly what I needed (you’ll see it soon).

It was a good opportunity for a sketch break at the nursery’s café. Whenever I visit Swansons with USk Seattle, I’m more inclined to sketch Santa and the reindeer than the plants. On this drizzly, gloomy morning, though, the café was a green oasis with orange koi swimming languorously in their pond. Looking around, I saw that patrons were having actual conversations instead of staring into devices (I don’t think wi-fi is available). It’s brightly illuminated with natural light, and the coffee and pastries are delicious. It’s not exactly in my neighborhood, but the drive is easy enough. I think I may have resolved the coffee shop issue I mentioned yesterday!

Uncomfortable Chairs at PCC Market

2/6/20 Salad bar at Green Lake PCC Market

2/6/20 Lunchtime patron

I haven’t been going lately to Zoka Coffee, my former favorite sketching coffee shop. Unless I get there when it opens, every table is taken by free wi-fi squatters who seem to stay all day conducting everything from employee interviews to staff meetings (not to mention scrolling through their endless Facebook feeds).

I’m looking for a new regular place I can count on for sketching. On this very rainy afternoon, I tried the dining area at my neighborhood PCC Market. A huge benefit of this food store is underground parking, so I can pull out of my own garage and into theirs without getting wet at all. The downside is that the chairs are very hard and uncomfortable, so no one wants to sit long, including me.

It won’t become a regular place, but with the Atmospheric River still flowing, it was good enough this time.

Review: Isotoner Convertible Mittens (Plus Thoughts on Walking/Creativity)

2/4/20 Sketching in the snow... intrepid? Or insane? You
decide! But either way, gloves are essential!

My walk/sketch fitness program has been going well. I admit, I haven’t been able to push myself out the door during our “atmospheric river” days of deluge, but in temperatures no colder than the mid-30s or in light precipitation, I’ve been getting out about two more days per week than I used to before I started this program for myself. My sketch-as-proverbial-carrot is working.

Essential to the success of my program has been the pair of Isotoner convertible mittens I received as a Christmas gift. Although I’ve tried three pairs of fingerless or convertible gloves of various styles in the past, none has worked for me. They all offered some way to expose the thumb and fingertips as needed, but they are designed for tapping on smartphones or using cameras, not drawing. I found that they didn’t sufficiently expose the critical area between thumb and forefinger where the sketching instrument is held, so I always felt like I was wearing boxing gloves. When I received the Isotoners as a gift from a friend who thought they would be handy for sketching, the failed gloves of my past made me skeptical. But on the first cold day this year, I went looking for my regular gloves, and they were nowhere to be found, so I grabbed the red Isotoners instead.

Isotoner convertible mittens expose just enough of the thumb and forefinger.

To my surprise, they expose exactly enough of my thumb and forefinger that I can hold any pen, pencil or waterbrush as well as I can without gloves. A mitten top and thumb cap flip over the fingertips and thumb for normal wear. Silly loops are supposed to fasten buttons to keep the mitten top and thumb cap out of the way, but of course, it’s impossible to unfasten tiny buttons while wearing the gloves, so they are useless. However, the unfastened caps do not get in my way while sketching, so I don’t mind that the buttons and loops are useless.

Fingertips and thumb covered.

These have fast become my favorite (and apparently only – I still haven’t found my regular pair) gloves this winter. (I couldn’t find the same style at online retailers, so unfortunately, it has probably been discontinued.)

Incidentally, an interesting and unexpected outcome of my walk/sketch program is that whenever I sketch after I’ve walked for a while, I find that it’s somehow easier to draw – it feels like my brain, hand and eye are more closely connected. A recent The New Yorker magazine article seems to confirm this connection. “When we go for a walk, the heart pumps faster, circulating more blood and oxygen not just to the muscles but to all the organs—including the brain.” The article was about writing, but I would extend it to other forms of creativity, including drawing.

Technical note: It was snowing lightly when I made this sketch. The Uni Pin brush pen I started with gave out when the tip got wet. But a soft graphite pencil saved the day! I’ve never known a pencil to fail me.

Botanicals in Color

Exercises to practice making feather-light pencil strokes

When I first registered for the botanical drawing class I’m taking at Gage, almost everything about it appealed to me – except that our only medium would be graphite. As much as I love using graphite (and I really do), the thought of 10 winter weeks of nothing but shades of gray gave me a frowny face. Amazingly, during the first session, I discovered another opportunity to learn botanical drawing – but with colored pencils! When I saw examples of the workshop instructor’s vibrant, luminous works of full-color flowers, butterflies and birds, I could not sign up fast enough!

The weekend workshop was with artist and certified natural science illustrator Crystal Shin, who has been a long-time student of Kathleen McKeehen, my current Gage instructor. The focus of Shin’s workshop was specifically in her techniques of colored pencil application that enable her to achieve the brilliant hues and luminosity that her work is known for.

My instructor's ogle-worthy pencils. Her favorite brand is Faber-Castell
Albrecht Durer, which she applies dry and does not activate with water.

Unlike the colored pencil classes I had taken previously, which emphasized using a relatively limited palette of earthy hues on our landscape subjects, Shin’s supply list encouraged students to bring as many colors as possible. Grabbing all 120 pencils in my Faber-Castell Polychromos set, I gleefully exclaimed, “Color – bring it!”

The hallmark of Shin’s technique is to use many pencils to “paint” what most of us might see as a single hue. On day 1, we focused on drawing a single holly berry. During a demo, we saw her apply as many as a dozen hues of yellow, pink, orange, red, violet and blue to achieve the berry’s redness. She takes full advantage of the blending qualities of the colored pencil medium to develop complex, life-like hues. Each application was so light that we had to squint to see her feathery pencil strokes. Indeed, she often used a magnifier to see her own work more closely. To maintain her extremely fine strokes, she keeps her pencils needle-sharp.

2/1/20 Result of day 1's work: a single holly berry

Emulating her technique, I stared at a single berry to try to identify all the hues visible, then picked out more than a dozen pencil colors that I thought I could see. The extremely time-consuming method resulted in the drawing shown here (it’s larger than life size – about 1-inch diameter).

On day 2 we were assigned to draw one (or more, if we were ambitious) holly leaf. Again, after watching her demo, I tried to select the full range of greens, yellows, blues and browns I saw. She also showed us how to incise lines for the leaf veins (my leaf drawing is life size).

2/2/20 Result of day 2's work: a single holly leaf

We were all a bit blurry-eyed and stiff-necked when we left the workshop (held at Winslow Art Center on Bainbridge Island), but I thoroughly enjoyed learning Shin’s techniques. I especially valued learning how to blend many, many pencil hues to develop rich, complex, natural colors. Practicing this color method will surely help make winter less gray!

Shin using a magnifier to see her work closely.

These are all the pencil colors I used for these two tiny drawings. I kept 'em sharp!

White Poodle

2/2/20 canine commuter

I first spotted the elderly woman and her white poodle at the transit center, where we all boarded the 41 southbound. They sat in the seat that I had the best view of from mine. I could have sketched her, but I have fewer opportunities to sketch dogs than people, so I went for the pooch. Just as I snapped a photo of the sketch, she rang the bell for her stop. For me, the best part of the sketch was done – I had sketched. I tore it out of my sketchbook and gave it to her as she got up to leave. I knew the sketch would mean more to her than it did to me.