Lunar New Year

2/9/13 Zig markers, Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

 

Although I grew up in a nearby neighborhood, I hadn’t been to the Seattle International District’s Lunar New Year Festival in decades. When Jane initiated an ad hoc sketch meet-up near the Lion and Dragon Dance stage, I decided it was high time to see the festival again. But something happened in the decades since I was last there – the crowd grew by a thousand-fold! 

 

I met two sketchers, Kate and Connie, at the meeting location, and we quickly staked out some space on the bleachers that looked like it would give us an ideal vantage point. Even though I was standing most of the time, this photo shows what I was able to see!

 

I bumped into a couple other sketchers on my way out, but due to faulty communications (I couldn’t hear my phone ringing amidst the firecrackers and other noise), I missed Jane completely. But I had fun and managed to get a sketch of a lion.

 

Happy Year of the Snake!

Museum of Flight



2/8/13 Platinum Carbon Black ink, watercolor, Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook

A flying car! That’s one of many amazing things I saw and sketched at the Museum of Flight today with Kate, Peggy, Carleen and Nilda. The museum also houses many other amazing things that, unfortunately, I never got around to seeing and sketching this time, so I’m looking forward to going back again.

 

“After World War II, many people envisioned an airplane in every garage,” according to the placard. Moulton Taylor, a man with that vision, developed the Taylor Aerocar to meet that apparent need. This sketch is of the Taylor Aerocar III made in 1968. It took only 15 minutes for the car to fully sprout its wings and be ready for flight. (By the way, this counts as my car-sketch-of-the-week. As I sketched, I thought the Aerocar’s front oddly resembled my Miata.)

 

2/8/13 Diamine Grey ink, Zig markers

On May 15, 1918, the first U.S. air mail service flight was made. Along with the mail, this Boeing Air Transport, Inc. plane carried passengers, like this one about to board her 26-hour flight from New York to San Francisco. (Whenever I sketch people, I try hard not to make them look like mannequins. Here, I sketched a mannequin and wondered if she would look like an over-dressed museum visitor.)

 

Another mannequin takes flight aboard the Gossamer Albatross II, a pedal-powered aircraft that weighs about 70 pounds (according to the docent I overheard as I sketched).

 

2/8/13 Diamine Eclipse ink, Zig markers

Outside the museum, a bronze sculpture called “Team Effort” by Larry Anderson is a memorial to Katharine B. Lenhart and Lieutenant John J. Lenhart, U.S. Navy Schneider Team Pilot, 1927.




2/8/13 Diamine Eclipse ink

Make Sketches While the Sun Shines

2/7/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook

I had errands to run this afternoon, but suddenly the sun appeared! I dashed into the zoo just long enough to paint some flamingoes and sketch a giraffe’s head.

2/7/13 Platinum Carbon, Platinum Sepia inks, watercolor

The Brush Pen Approach

2/7/13 Kuretake Fountain Brush Pen, Pitt Big Brush marker

A few weeks ago I did some brush pen portraits from old photos of my mother and father. The broad, relatively imprecise stroke of the brush pen forced me to look for the essence of the face and character of the person instead of obsessing about resemblance.

 

In the past when I’ve used brush markers in the field, it was usually to capture the essence of a landscape or eliminate the details from a wide open view that would otherwise overwhelm me. I decided to take out my brush pen again – this time to try for a few portraits from life. Interestingly, even though the brush still didn’t allow much detail, I think I captured the resemblance of some of these people better than I sometimes do with the fine point of a fountain pen.

2/7/13 Kuretake Fountain Brush Pen, Pitt Big Brush marker, Hand Book journal



2/7/13 Kuretake, Pitt Big Brush

Hair Studies



2/5/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink

Among the 10,000 challenging things about drawing people is hair. If you try to draw its shape, it can look like a helmet. And the way light reflects on its varying surfaces plays such an important role in showing its texture and volume.

 

Waiting at a Starbucks while my car got its oil changed, I found two “victims” with interesting hair to use as studies.

2/5/13 Caran d'Ache Grand Canyon ink, Hand Book Journal

The Toroid of Wedgwood: Top Pot Doughnuts

2/4/13 Platinum Sepia ink, watercolor, Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook

to·roid

noun Geometry.
A surface generated by the revolution of any closed plane curve or contour about an axis lying in its plane. (Dictionary.com)

Or, as Debora posted on the Urban Sketchers Flickr weekly theme thread, “A toroid is a round shape with a round hole in the middle. Think bangles, bagels, rings and tires.”

I admit, I had never heard the name of the geometrical form toroid before, but as soon as I read the description, I knew what I wanted to sketch: the Wedgwood neighborhood’s Top Pot Doughnuts.

I’ve sketched the interior of this Top Pot a couple times before, but whenever I’ve driven past its funky palm trees and retro giant donut on the roof’s overhang, I’ve made a mental note to sketch the exterior someday. With a theme like toroid to respond to this week, today was the day.

Australasia’s Dozing Residents



2/1/13 Platinum Sepia ink, watercolor, Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook

The weatherman promised temps in the high 40s, possible sun breaks and no rain! That was good enough for me – I made time in the afternoon for the year’s first trip to the zoo.

 

Making my way toward Australasia with hopes of seeing the snow leopard cubs, I found a wallaby leisurely resting in the shade. She stayed nearly still for a full 20 minutes, allowing me the rare opportunity to use watercolors at the zoo. Amazingly, just as I finished up, an emu came by to annoy the wallaby, who hopped away.

 

2/1/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Zig markers

The snow leopard cubs weren’t out today, but I got a different rare treat: a view of their exquisite mom. Like the wallaby, the leopard was dozing and stayed still for the 10 minutes I sketched her – and got up to leave just as I finished.

 

Despite the balmy temperature, I was chilled by the time I got to the owls, so I didn’t linger long. Once again, a snowy owl looking dozy posed perfectly still for a few minutes – just long enough for me to capture it.  

2/1/13 Diamine Eclipse ink