One More in Wedgwood

 

3/11/22 Wedgwood neighborhood

Congratulating myself for finishing the One Week 100 People challenge with 102 sketches, I celebrated by stopping in the neighborhood on my way home from PCC. All week, I had been so taken up with sketching a hundred people while also drawing from memory that I hadn’t had time for more relaxed, ordinary sketching. I pulled over on a quiet Wedgwood street with nothing but non-moving cars and trees. A dog walker wandered by, and it felt completely natural to put him in: 103.

#OneWeek100People2022: Live!

 

3/7/22 Northgate Light Rail Station from the John Lewis pedestrian bridge

One Week 100 People, the annual sketching challenge initiated by Marc Holmes and Liz Steel, has always been one of my favorites. It’s a fun opportunity to work on my people-sketching chops while seeing other sketchers’ work online. Since its inception in 2017, I haven’t missed a year. Although the challenge rules include drawing from photos, I always prefer drawing from life. Using photos invites spending too much time on a single drawing. When you know you have to do a hundred of them, it’s easiest and most efficient to simply capture people in public going about their business.

The 2020 challenge has a strong emotional connotation for me. One Week 100 People was to begin just as news of COVID was becoming increasingly alarming. We had planned an Urban Sketchers outing for the purpose of participating in the challenge, but by the time the outing rolled around, we had serious concerns. The other admins and I went back and forth about whether we should cancel or go forward. Ultimately, we went ahead with it, and I participated, but not without trepidation. As it turned out, that outing was USk Seattle’s last for 15 long months.

One of 58 selfies from 2021

Last year COVID continued to take the fun out of the challenge. Not feeling safe in places where I might see enough people to draw a hundred, I decided to make self-portraits using a mirror. I only made it to 58, but I learned plenty (and gave myself a giggle or guffaw each day). Although it wasn’t my favorite way to do the challenge, it was still worthwhile as a drawing exercise.

As I started seeing announcements from Marc and Liz for this year’s challenge, I was still not feeling completely comfortable going into crowds, but I felt safe enough in outdoor spaces. I zipped up my jacket, straightened my hat and declared that One Week 100 People was on! Usually I give myself additional goals (besides hitting 100). This year, however, my people-sketching skills were so rusty, and I was so thrilled just to be back at it, that I decided to give myself a break. I would be happy enough if I simply captured 100 gestures from life, even if they were nothing more than glorified stick figures.

Although the official first day was Monday, March 7, I got started on the Saturday before (a “week” is seven days long, right?) because I wanted a busy weekend day at Metropolitan Market. In the parking lot, I nabbed 24 victims rushing to and from their cars with groceries.

On Monday, which turned out to be cold and windy, I invited USk Seattle to join me at Northgate Light Rail Station. Only one other sketcher showed up, but we had fun catching the steady stream of commuters going into and out of the main station entrance. Standing on the John Lewis Memorial pedestrian bridge, I was hoping to get a few more people near the upper-level entrance, but only one made it into my sketch (top of page). The wind was biting up there! That took care of 25 through 47.

Joyce and Tina at Northgate Light Rail Station

Tuesday was a scattered, busy day of errands and appointments, so I got only a few more. I made a quick stop at Volunteer Park, which was empty that drizzly afternoon, but I knew that people always stop for photos near Isamu Noguchi’s sculpture, Black Sun.

On Wednesday I was meeting a friend to walk around Green Lake, so I arrived a little early to catch a few more people. My challenge there was to draw the legs and arms of runners so that they look different from walkers.

The weather report was sunny for Thursday, so USk Seattle scheduled a sketch outing at Volunteer Park – our first in-person outing since December. So much for the promised sunshine – it was cloudy and cold. I had really hoped (and expected) to finish my hundred at the park, but I only got 66 through 84 – not to mention chilled to the bone! Even so, it was fun to be out with the group again.

Friday was my last chance, and you know me – I was going to finish, come hell or high water. Right after breakfast, I headed out to the PCC Market parking lot, which is much smaller than the Metro Market lot. It meant that I could park facing the entrance and get a better view of shoppers going in and out of their cars and the store. It took me all week to warm up, but I felt like I was finally hitting my stride. I finished off my last 16 in a half-hour and then did a couple more for good measure.

Whew! It was like running a marathon without training first! Though I was creaky and out of practice, there’s nothing like the endorphin rush of trying to keep up with moving people. It was the most sketching fun I’ve had in months!

Curiouser and Curiouser: Who Makes Uni Water Color Pencils?

 

Sisters of different mothers? 

A reader recently informed me of a huge curiosity! While researching Mitsubishi Uni Water Color Pencils, she found a review on the blog Robot Ninja Monsters in which the blogger had made a stunning observation. A regular user of his favorite Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer Watercolor Pencils, Robot Ninja noticed that the Uni pencils matched corresponding colors in his Dürer set:

“While the hue of their barrels might be slightly different, their lead cores’ hues were virtually identical. The color swatches perfectly matched both when dry and when they were blended with a waterbrush.” He also observed that the color coding matched “perfectly.” He speculates that “Mitsubishi Uni-ball pencil company might have outsourced production of their watercolor pencils to the German manufacturer Faber Castell.” [insert emoji of Tina’s head exploding].

The blog post is dated July 2009, which means his observations and speculation have been out there for 13 years! Where have I been?!

I wasted no time in getting out my Dürer and Uni Water Color (both the full length and mini sets) pencils to make my own comparison. In my Uni review, I had already determined that the full-size and mini pencils contain identical cores, but I wanted to include both sets in the comparison anyway. I chose six colors that were common to all three sets.

Although some names differ, the cores are identical, and the last two digits of color numbers match.

As the Ninja had observed, the last two digits of the color numbers match exactly. The color names differ in some cases, which threw me off (my eye tends to look for color names instead of numbers when I’m searching pencil barrels). For example, I was looking for Prussian Blue in all three sets, but the Dürer number for Prussian is (2)46, not Uni’s (8)51. I could see that the Dürer color called Prussian was not the same as Uni’s Prussian, but when I ignored the names and matched the numbers, Dürer’s (1)51 (Helioblue-Reddish) matched Uni’s (8)51. Both wet and dry, I’d have to agree with the Ninja that the cores are identical! The cores also look to be the same thickness (sadly, I still don’t own calipers to measure . . . I know I should have some).

The barrels are different enough – Dürers are slightly wider – that I don’t believe Mitsubishi is simply repackaging Dürer pencils with a different paint job. I tend to agree with another blog reader who commented that perhaps only the cores are made by Faber-Castell, while the pencils are assembled in Japan by Mitsubishi. As the Uni sets state, they are technically “made in Japan,” – but while their bodies may be Japanese, their hearts and souls are German!

As noted in my review, although many non-soluble colored pencils are manufactured by major Japanese makers (notably Mitsubishi, Tombow and Holbein), Japanese water-soluble sets are rare. In fact, the Uni sets are the only ones I am aware of – and now I’m convinced that the cores are not Japanese at all! What does it all mean? More sleepless nights for me as I stuff the pieces of my brain back into my skull.

Whatever Journal Update

 

The whatever journal book I just filled was a slightly larger-format
Field Notes Signature edition (on top).

I just started a third Field Notes notebook for use as my whatever journal, so I’m filling about one per month. Despite (or maybe because of) the randomness of its contents, I’m finding it more satisfying to fill one notebook quickly rather than multiple, compartmentalized notebooks that take longer to fill.

I am especially enjoying the chronological integration of skyscapitos, 100-Day Project drawings, urban sketches from my walks, scribbles of people this week during the One Week 100 People challenge (more on that soon) – almost all the sketches I make except larger ones with color that demand better paper. If I were still drawing my hand every day (don’t worry; I’m not), I would probably put those sketches into my whatever journal, too. More than any other sketchbook or written book I’ve used, it feels like a true journal that collectively documents my day-to-day life.

A sketch made on loose paper was taped right in.

Another pleasure in the randomness is the ease with which I can incorporate sketches that were made on other papers. For example, I made a sketch on a loose sheet for my review of Rite in the Rain paper. Normally, I wouldn’t have a place to put a sketch like that, but it took no thought at all to simply use a couple of strips of washi tape to adhere it to the Field Notes I was using for my whatever journal (at right). (Did I mention that my washi tape collection has inexplicably grown in the past couple months? Strange how that happens.)

When Weather Bunny gave a weather report on 02/22/22, the sketch required a page in a red Sweet Tooth Field Notes. Since Sweet Tooth pages are perforated, it was a no-brainer to rip it out and again adhere it with washi (below). Done.

Weather Bunny sketched in a red Sweet Tooth was torn out and 
washi'd in.

These taped-in pages are fully inspired by Nina Khashchina’s fabulous sketchbooks, which contain translucent overlays, glue-ins and many other visual and textural delights. How I would love to leisurely page through one of her sketchbooks! (If you want to be inspired too, be sure to view one of her flip-through videos.)

In February I used a slightly larger Field Notes Signature edition. I love the heavier paper (intended for sketching, it can support a very light wash), its light tooth that’s wonderful with graphite and especially the larger but still comfortable format. In fact, I miss all three qualities, now that I’ve returned to a standard Field Notes. Maybe I’ll go back to Signature in a month or so – or not. Since paper quality is not a consideration for my whatever journal, choosing the next book – any book – is at least part of the joy of the process.

The cover of the Field Notes I just started has an original illustration by local artist Ali Serra (Etsy shop: ErnestTheodore).

Notable Pencils: The Colors of Michael Graves

 

At least a year or two ago, I had spotted an interesting set of colored pencils online. Although the theme caught my attention, I knew the pencils would likely be disappointing, so I kept those 25 dollars in my pocket (see, I do occasionally exercise willpower). Fast-forward to a few weeks ago, when I was perusing the unusual and unique wares at Princeton Architectural Press. There it was again: An Architect’s Pencil Set: The Colors of Michael Graves – but on sale for 6 bucks! Score!

I didn’t know much about architect, industrial designer and professor Michael Graves (1934 – 2015), so buying the set prompted me to learn more about him. In addition to award-winning architectural work, he was also well known for consumer product designs for companies like Alessi, Target and J.C. Penney. The New York Times described Graves as “one of the most prominent and prolific American architects of the latter 20th century, who designed more than 350 buildings around the world but was perhaps best known for [a] teakettle and pepper mill” (quoted by Wikipedia).

As I had surmised, the pencils are nothing to write home about, but the chosen palette is what makes this set intriguing. The enclosed brochure, taken from text Graves wrote in 1990, explains his concepts for how color can be used in architecture:

“If we use nature as a reference, then the floor refers to the ground, the ceiling to the sky, and the columns to trees. Interpretation in color would call for warm, heavy tones at the base of the structure, shades of green in the middle range, and cool, light yellows or blues at the top – colors of the ground, landscape, and sky. . . .

“Although color is two-dimensional, when used in this way to replicate nature, we understand it in three-dimensional terms. If a surface is painted terra-cotta to allude to brick, our first association is with brick, in its full depth. Even though we are conscious that the color is applied to a surface, we see color first as representational. To some degree, therefore, it possesses the quality of an object.”

Learning Graves’ principles of architectural color is certainly worth 6 bucks! Not to mention the packaging – what a visual delight! I’ll stop talking now so you can enjoy the pictures.

The outer box is perforated to reveal color stripes on the inner box that correspond to the pencil colors.

The opened brochure shows a rendering of the Denver Public Library, 1995

Carrots on Sticks

2/10/22

Except on invitingly sunny days (which have been way too few and far between), I haven’t been getting out much lately to sketch, even in my car. But I still catch sketches now and then on my daily walks. As the carrot on my stick, a potential sketch is often the only thing that shoves me out the door on these cold, drizzly, dreary days (you can see raindrops on a couple of pages).

Every now and then we’ve been rewarded with unexpected afternoon clearings. That’s when we take our walk around Maple Leaf Park to see if Mt. Rainier is out. Paying homage to Her Majesty is almost worth the chilly dreariness of February.

2/25/22 Mt. Rainier from Maple Leaf Park

3/1/22

3/4/22

2/20/22

3/3/22

Drawing from Memory

 

My first try on this shoe wasn't very successful, so I tried again
the next day (below).

Sketching shoes and hair-dos from my imagined past was nostalgic fun, but to sustain my interest for 100 days, I had to up the challenge. Beginning with Day 15, I decided to focus on drawing less from imagination and more from memory after close, direct observation.

On the second try, I got more details right.

While I would like to continue developing my imaginative drawing skills, drawing from memory is actually a more useful skill for sketching on location. I know we all do some of that automatically: A person walks by, and we catch some part of the gesture, but they are long gone by the time we finish, so the rest must be drawn from a remembered image. It’s a fleeting image, though, and if anything interrupts before getting it on the page – poof! It’s gone.

Developing my memory muscles for this purpose is a worthwhile exercise. When I was practicing life drawing on Zoom, I tried covering up the screen for part of the pose time to see how much I could draw without looking at the model. It was a good exercise, but hectic to manage so that a portion of the pose time was saved for drawing again from observation. My current project is much easier in one way: I’m allowing myself to study the object for as long as I think is necessary.

So far, my process is to choose an object and observe it closely from all angles until I feel I have a firm, three-dimensional mental image of it. Then I walk away and do a few things for a while so that I’m not drawing immediately. I know the image fades quickly from memory, so I’m hoping to lengthen the time that I can retain the picture in my mind. I have deliberately chosen simple objects with clear forms (nothing amorphous like bushes), but if I improve with the simple objects, I hope to graduate to more complex ones eventually.

On the crank side, it should be red, not black! I did better on the front.

Because I know I have difficulty with even simple mechanisms (how parts are put together), I have been paying special attention to those parts. Ironically, I have focused so much on those parts that I miss really obvious details – like colors! In the first shoe exercise, I completely missed the red interior lining as well as the shape of the sole and how it connects to the leather. I felt I had missed enough that it was worth doing it again the next day, when I did much better.

I did fairly well on the red pencil sharpener (sketched with a new red Blackwing), but I couldn’t remember how the crank handle attached, despite what I thought was careful study of the mechanism. With the soap dispenser, I again focused on some mechanical details, which I did well on, but then the basic bottle shape wasn’t quite right. The soap was particularly illuminating as a subject: It’s something I look at and use multiple times a day, yet it was obvious that I had never really seen it until I made the effort to observe it with the purpose of drawing it.

I find it helps if I talk to myself (hopefully silently) and use visually evocative words to describe what I’m observing: The top of the soap pump is shaped like an alien head. The pump is wearing two turtlenecks. From the side, the bottle has rounded shoulders.

Ten years ago when I took my first-ever urban sketching class, instructor Jane Richlovsky gave us a challenging assignment. At the Ballard Locks one day, we had been sketching from observation in the usual way. Toward the end of class, she instructed us to choose a scene and visually memorize as much of it as possible. We were not allowed to take a photo. Then we were to wait several hours or even until the next day to sketch whatever we could recall. At that point, I had had less than a year of sketching experience in general, and I had never done that type of memory-drawing exercise before. I failed the exercise badly – I could barely visualize the scene beyond the very general, and I did not have enough technical skills to organize whatever I could remember into a drawing.

Now that I have 10 years of observational drawing experience under my belt, drawing from memory is certainly easier than it was that day at the Ballard Locks, but it’s still extremely challenging. I’ll keep at it for as much of the remaining days in the 100 Day Project as my brain can stand! Whew, it’s exhausting!

I did well on most of the details, but I didn't get the shape of the handle right.

I waited 6 hours after observing to draw... which was too long, it turned out! I missed a lot of details that I had mentally repeated to myself and revisualized during the day to help me remember, but by the time I put pencil to paper, I had forgotten. Way off on the proportions! But I'm pleased that I got the hexagonal shape of the button right.

One thing these exercises have taught me is that "everything is designed" (as a designer has been quoted saying), yet I take for granted the design elements of common objects like this electric kettle. It has no straight lines anywhere -- everything is roundish. I would not have noticed that if I hadn't drawn it, and maybe especially from memory.

I missed key elements like the basic shape! You can check my work. ;-)