Northgate Trees

3/7/13 Kuretake Fountain Brush Pen, Pitt Big Brush marker, Hand Book journal

Although the Northgate Branch of the Seattle Public Library doesn’t showcase stately Carnegie-style architecture, it’s probably one of the best branches in the city for scenic seating. In addition to the usual carrels and desks, the branch offers a long line of lounge chairs facing floor-to-ceiling windows that look out over a park. You can sit in one to read a pot-boiler novel and pretend you’re on a cruise ship.

 

I left my pot-boiler at home and instead sat in one of the lounge chairs to sketch a stand of tall trees lining the perimeter of the park. On the other side of the trees is the Pacific Medical Center’s Northgate location.

Deductive Reasoning

3/7/13 Private Reserve Velvet Black ink, Hand Book journal

This week’s Urban Sketchers Flickr group theme is “Students.” As we all know, I spend a lot of time sketching people of all ages in coffee shops, some of whom are probably students. But to be more precise in fitting the theme, I decided to go to the Northgate branch of the Seattle Public Library, where I thought my chances of catching a student actually studying (as opposed to simply surfing on the free wi-fi tide) would be higher.

 

My subject in question fit the profile: increasingly slumped posture, frequent yawning and stretching, laptop on the table, backpack on the floor. My keen powers of observation and deductive reasoning zeroed in on the key clue: On the laptop screen was a text-based document – not Facebook. Bingo.

Book Review: Drawing from Within

1/2/13 Kuretake brush pen, S & B sketchbook

“The drawing surface has been and always will be where the artist’s real education takes place. So if it’s learning you’re after, close this book and open to the pages that will really teach you what you want to know. Your own sketchbook.”

 

Those are the closing words of Nick Meglin’s book Drawing From Within – Unleashing Your Creative Potential, and that’s also the philosophical viewpoint that forms the basis of the book.

 

Meglin’s book was one of several drawing books that I had checked out from the library. After reading the others, which were typical “how-to” instruction books, I was surprised and delighted by Meglin’s completely opposite approach. If you are looking for step-by-step instructions, you will not find them here. Instead, you will find the author’s firm belief that drawing skills cannot be taught, followed by numerous drawing exercises intended to instill the pleasure of drawing for its own sake, which ultimately leads to self-expression.

 

2/7/13 Velvet Black ink, Hand Book journal

A former instructor at the School of Visual Arts in New York City as well as a former editor of MAD magazine, Meglin writes with humor, outrageous puns and a sheer love for drawing. “No one can teach you to draw,” he insists. “Where art education often fails is in the premise that drawing can be taught. It can’t. Then how does one learn to draw? One doesn’t! One draws! The education of an artist is the result of his or her experiences of drawing.”

 

The statement above was immediately followed by Meglin’s account of how this message was always met with groans from his School of Visual Arts students. Nonetheless, his “method” of helping students learn through experience led to more expressive work that also gave the students greater pleasure.

 

On every page are reproductions of works from sketchbooks of Meglin’s students, contemporary artists, Rembrandt and other old masters, and Meglin himself. The sketches are all so fresh, spontaneous and evocative that their makers’ joy in drawing is obvious.

 

The how-to-draw books I returned to the library. But after reading Drawing from Within, I went to Amazon.com and purchased a copy. Although I’ve always known that the only reason I draw is for fun, Meglin’s wisdom and bad puns will cheer me up whenever I got discouraged about my drawing skills. I also want to enjoy viewing the sketches again and again as examples of what results when drawings come from within.



(This review also appears on Amazon.com.)



2/14/13 Platinum Carbon ink and ink wash, Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook

Alki Avenue Southwest

3/5/13 Platinum Carbon Black ink, watercolor, Zig marker, Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook

I was meeting a friend for lunch at Cactus on Alki Avenue Southwest in West Seattle, so I arrived a little early to sketch more bare trees.

 

Unlike cars, my previous sketching nemesis, trees and their intricate network of branches fascinate me, so my current self-inflicted sketching exercise doesn’t feel quite as onerous. In fact, I’m surprised by how much I’m enjoying this challenge, as difficult as it is.

 

Unfortunately, my arboreal knowledge is even narrower than my automotive knowledge, so I can’t tell you what kind of trees these are. But if you look at yesterday’s sketch at Green Lake, you’ll have a sense of déjà vu.

(Nearly) Bare Nekkid Maples

3/4/13 Platinum Sepia ink, watercolor, Zig marker, Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook

Sunshine!

 

The temperature was only 49, but rain is predicted again for tomorrow, so I took the top down and headed for Green Lake.

 

This stand of maples is one of my favorites there – bright green in summer, a blaze of orange and red in the autumn. I sketched them twice last year – once in October and then again in November – because they seemed to be dressed in their fall finery long past their usual deadline. The tallest tree in the center of this sketch was in denial even longer than I was; it held onto red leaves at its very top all the way into December. Today I was surprised to see that that same tree and a couple of others still had a few brown leaves. I like their attitude – going into winter kickin’ and screamin’. My hunch is that they’ll be the first to get their green on come spring.

As for me – I was chilled to the bone by the time I finished this sketch. It ain’t here yet.

Edmonds Fire Station Memorial

3/3/13 Platinum Sepia, watercolor, Zig markers, Stillman & Birn sketchbook

Seattle sketchers Kate Buike and Peggy Gloth were among the artists whose works are included in an exhibition of miniature paintings at Gallery North in Edmonds. I went to the artist’s reception this afternoon and saw lots of beautiful, tiny works of art.

 

Since I don’t get up to charming Edmonds as often as I’d like, and since the day turned out to be as sunny and pleasant as any we’ve had the past several months, I looked around for something to sketch. Driving slowly (it’s the kind of town where people don’t honk or give you the finger if you’re driving slower than the speed limit) up and down residential streets, I stumbled upon the Edmonds Fire Station.

 

In a tiny spot of green across from the station was a memorial called “Somewhere Every Day” in honor of Captain Bill Angel, who died in the line of duty at the age of 48, and other lost firefighters. The nearby sign said that it was the site of the future Edmonds 9/11 memorial.

 

My sketch makes the memorial look larger than the station behind it, but I was actually standing very close to the small memorial. Still, it seemed appropriate to sketch a memorial for firefighters lost in the line of duty as larger than life.

7 and 12 Minutes

3/2/13 Diamine Grey ink, Pelle journal

What can you draw in five minutes?

 

I’ve recently seen challenges like this on various websites such as The Sketchbook Project, intended to make the point that you don’t need a lot of time to draw. The important thing is to draw in whatever time is available.

 

3/2/13 Diamine Jet ink, Zig markers, Hand Book

I wasn’t consciously thinking about this prompt yesterday, a busy day, but as it turned out, that’s about all the time I had for a couple of sketches I squeezed in. After scarfing down a panini during a short lunch break at the Central District’s Starbucks, I sketched an outdoor umbrella’d table and the ghost of a car that pulled in after I started sketching. It took about seven minutes.

 

Later the same day, we arrived a little early for dinner at Fuji Sushi. Parked in their lot on Sixth Avenue South in the International District, I had an obstructed view of the Smith Tower that I sketched in 12 minutes.