King Street Station Redux

12/15/13 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Sailor pen,
Canson XL 140 lb. paper

Last May when the Friday sketchers got together at King Street Station, I went up to the upper level to sketch the view below. Today the full Seattle Urban Sketchers group stormed the station with our sketchbooks, and I still thought the view from upstairs was the most compelling. But before that, I took advantage of the not-yet rainy weather and temperatures in the high-40s (downright balmy compared to last week) to sketch the station’s clock tower.

12/15/13 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor,  Canson XL 140 lb. paper

Seattle Choral Company at St. Mark’s

12/14/13 Diamine Eclipse ink, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

Seattle Choral Company presented “An Irish Christmas,” a spectacular holiday concert last night at St. Mark’s Cathedral. It was probably one of the best choral performances I’ve heard in a long time.

Before the concert began, I started with a sketch of St. Mark’s round sanctuary window and one of many chandeliers. Then I spent most of the concert sketching while we listened to traditional Celtic carols and anthems.

Maybe because music and sketching both occupy the same side of my brain, I find that I can sketch and listen without one activity detracting from the other. If anything, I find I listen more intently while my eyes and brain are engaged with sketching. 

12/14/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown & Eclipse inks

12/14/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown & Eclipse inks, Sailor pen

Gingerbread Village (and Strike Two on Santa)

12/13/13 Platinum Carbon Black ink, watercolor, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

To celebrate the first anniversary of the Seattle Urban Sketchers ad hoc Friday sketchers group, we met at the same place we sketched a year ago: Gingerbread Village at the Sheraton. (We had a much larger turnout than the original five who showed up last year – yay for Friday sketchers!) At this festive, popular event, local architects get together with the Sheraton’s bakers to create elaborately detailed, often-animated gingerbread houses (although “house” is clearly an understatement).

12/13/13 Platinum Carbon, watercolor

Last year I deliberately chose the less-extravagant back side of Alice in Wonderland’s Castle so that I wouldn’t be overwhelmed by details. This year I took a different approach to dodge the same issue: I stood behind the endless line of people passing between the sweet sculptures and myself, focusing more on the viewers. My first sketch was of a fabulous ship with the theme “I Saw a Ship a-Sailing.” Then I moved to the other side of the exhibit to sketch “Hickory-Dickory Dock.”

After Kate, Nilda and I had lunch at Pacific Place, my plan was to sketch Santa. As luck would have it, he went on his break and wasn’t due back for another hour, so I decided to call it a day. That’s the second time in as many weeks that Santa has evaded my sketchbook. This is not boding well for my personal goal of sketching more than two Santas this year. . . but I still have 12 days until Christmas.

Peru Exhibit at SAM

12/12/13 Private Reserve Velvet Black ink, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

The Seattle Art Museum’s current exhibit Peru: Kingdoms of the Sun and Moon is an impressive collection of ancient Peruvian artifacts as well as paintings and sculptures from the post-colonial era. However, today was not a good day to see it, as we had to compete with about a million elementary school students on a field trip.

Needless to say, it wasn’t a good day to try to sketch the exhibit, either. But in the afternoon when most of the students had left, I found a dark corner where I could stand out of the way to sketch this silver and gold Eucharistic urn depicting a pelican (which is believed to allow its young to feed on blood from its own body – thus, the Eucharistic symbolism). The large bird had some amazing details like gemstones in its head and a brightly shimmering silver finish that I couldn’t capture, but they were stunning to see. According to the placard, it also has a moveable tongue.

This was actually my second attempt at a sketch. The first was a miserable failure in pencil that I gave up on quickly because the pencil seemed so slow and pale compared to my usual pen and ink. (Technically, I think I’m supposed to use only pencil at the museum, but a guard came by to see what I was doing three times, and he didn’t scold me for using a pen, so I decided that was permission to keep using the pen. He was certainly quick to scold others who were trying to take photos.)

Tina’s 2013 Top 10

Is it too early to count down my top 10 art supplies and tools for the year? Last year I waited until after Christmas to succumb to that media cliché. But since the retail holidays arrive earlier and earlier each year, why not jump on that bandwagon, too?

A few comments before I get to the list: If you compare this year’s list to my 2012 Top 10 list, you’ll see that seven of the 10 products remain the same (marked with *). Since my reasons for keeping a product on the list probably haven’t changed, you can refer to the 2012 countdown for more details. I also changed the criteria slightly. Last year I chose my top 10 favorite products, even if I didn’t use them often. The Cretacolor Nero extrasoft pencil and Faber-Castell PITT Big Brush Artist Pens are still my favorites in their respective categories of graphite pencils and permanent markers. But they fell off the list this year because I tend to use them only for specific types of sketching (life drawing in both cases). This year’s list reflects my top 10 most-often-used products as well as my favorites. Like last year, except for Nos. 1 and 2, the numbering does not necessarily indicate a ranking.

10. Handbound sketchbooklets. My little handmade sketchbooklets made it onto the top 10 not simply because I’m pleased as punch with the way they came out. It’s not really even the booklets themselves; it’s more the idea of having a need that couldn’t be filled with something store-bought, so I had to resolve it by making the solution myself. (See No. 1 below for more on this concept.)

9. * Lamy fountain pens. The Safaris and Al-Stars remain the workhorses of my sketch kit. (Note the latest color in my collection!)

8. Sailor DE Brush Stroke Style Calligraphy Fountain Pen. This pen (55-degree angle nib shown), which I reviewed in September, is neck-and-neck with the Lamys as a pen I reach for first. Its ability to produce lines of varying widths by tilting the funky bent nib continues to challenge even as it fascinates me. (I also own its blue brother, the 40-degree nib version, but it has just recently taken to skipping when it used to be very smooth flowing. It’s out of the picture, figuratively and literally, until I resolve the issue.)

7. * Kuretake Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers. These are still my favorite water-soluble brush-tip markers.

6. * Kuretake waterbrush filled with Diamine Grey ink. This listing is actually two products in one: The Kuretake waterbrush (large size) remains my favorite; it’s an everyday workhorse just like my Lamy pens. Shown here is one that I’ve filled with undiluted Diamine Grey ink, which I use for shading.

5. * Escoda Reserva Sable Travel Brush. This brush is still on the list, though with some ambivalence. You can read my thoughts on how the waterbrush is generally my preference in the field. But this past summer and fall, I used the Escoda frequently for painting skies, and I know my waterbrush isn’t up to that task. Having to remember to bring a water container used to be what kept me from using the Escoda more. But I found that a small lid from a plastic milk bottle is deep enough to swish the brush around once or twice, and I can carry that easily in my everyday bag, so the brush gets used more often now.

4. * Diamine Chocolate Brown ink. This warm, rich hue is still my favorite for sketching indoor scenes. In general, Liverpool-made Diamine inks are the best-behaved I have used, at a very reasonable price.

3. * Platinum Carbon Black ink. At $20 a bottle, this Japanese ink is pricier than most. On the other hand, I use it almost daily, and I’ve hardly made a dent in the bottle that I first opened a year-and-a-half ago. It’s probably one of my best sketching investments.

2. * Self-made mint tin watercolor sketch kit/mixing palette assembly. As you might guess from previous posts, my attachable watercolor assembly housed in a Trader Joe’s mint tin remains a mission-critical part of my portable sketch kit. Note, however, that most of the components that make up the assembly have changed in the past year. I swapped out the stubs of Daniel Smith watercolor sticks for more traditional Winsor Newton and Daniel Smith tube watercolors in half pans. (Fewer colors fit, but I prefer the ease of mixing tube paints to the DS sticks.) And I’ve changed the mixing palette three times – first to a switch plate cover, then to the lid of a Sakura Koi watercolor box, and most recently to the lid of a Van Gogh watercolor box. And the last significant change is that this year it has moved from the No. 1 position to No. 2, because the single-most critical component is. . .

1. My “Stefano” sketchbook system. If you read my blog regularly, then you’ve already heard me go on and on about this leather sketchbook cover (custom-made for me by Stefano Bramato of BroLeatherWorks) and its many advantages. (If you haven’t heard me go on, please indulge me.) But beyond all of those advantages, the Stefano is No. 1 because it opened up a whole new source of creative joy when I discovered bookbinding. That’s why I call it a sketchbook “system”: It includes the entire process of initially stitching the signatures with various papers of my choice; carrying slim individual signatures instead of a heavy sketchbook; and finally handbinding a collection of signatures into a finished book.

Honorable mention goes to my hard-working Rickshaw Bagworks bag.

Honorable Mention: Since it’s not an art material and not exactly a tool, I haven’t been putting my Rickshaw Bagworks bag on my Top 10. But I’ve used the term “workhorse” to describe several products on the list for their hardy, everyday reliability. Surely my bag deserves honorable mention for being the hardest-working horse of all, hauling my art supplies (and everything else) day after day.

7:37 a.m.

12/11/13 watercolor, Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook

As much as I prefer sketching outdoors most of the time, sketching indoors has distinct advantages.

Today at 7:37 a.m., the advantages were many: I could use a 9” x 12” sketchbook (too large and heavy while standing outdoors) for a wider view unbroken by the page gutter. I could use a large, flat brush (its long handle discourages portability) to make the wash of sky as well as interesting brushstrokes to paint the trees. The watercolors dried at a predictable rate.

Not to mention heat blasting through the bedroom vents – a very distinct advantage when it’s 30 degrees F outside.

A Second Look at Inks

Diamine Eclipse

During the winter months when I spend most of my sketching time in coffee shops, museums and other indoor venues, I tend to use less watercolor and reach instead for water-soluble inks to make monochromatic sketches. So it was almost exactly a year ago that I set out to try a variety of ink samples from GouletPens.com to determine my favorites in black, brown and blue – one waterproof and one water-soluble ink in each color. For waterproof inks, my main criteria were for the ink not to smear with the application of water after the ink dried, and to dry within a few minutes. For water-soluble inks, I was looking for rich line color with bold, complex washes (maybe I should become a wine critic). I ended up choosing eight:

Waterproof:

Platinum Carbon Black

Platinum Pigmented Sepia

Sailor Sei-Boku Blue Black (no longer available at Goulet)

Water-soluble:

Private Reserve Velvet Black

Private Reserve Ultra Black (fast dry)

Diamine Chocolate Brown
Diamine Twilight
Diamine Grey

Private Reserve Velvet Black

Since then, I have continued to try out other inks as they have come to my attention or when I’m in the mood for something new. (I’ve even experimented with mixing my own.) With the gazillions of inks available, I keep my mind open, willing to change my go-to ink choices if I find one I like better. But time after time, I go back to trusty favorites. Eventually, I eliminated a few from my favorites list for various reasons, and now I have the list down to a solid, reliable five:

Waterproof:

Platinum Carbon Black

Water-soluble:

Diamine Chocolate Brown

Diamine Grey

Private Reserve Velvet Black

Diamine Eclipse

Diamine Chocolate Brown

Regarding the waterproof inks, I realized that if I was adding watercolor to a sketch, I wanted the line ink to be as neutral as possible, so I stopped using Sailor Sei-Boku Blue Black fairly quickly. I like using a waterproof brown sometimes, but Platinum Sepia lacks umph – neither warm nor bold. (What a shame that Platinum doesn’t make a brown that’s the equivalent to its Carbon Black.) So Platinum Carbon Black is still my waterproof ink of choice and has no challengers as far as I can see (don’t even mention Noodler’s, which made it onto my Bottom 10 list).

Diamine Twilight is a beautiful dark blue – but its wash can be too bright. I found myself reaching more often for Diamine Eclipse, which was on my preliminary list but didn’t make the final cut previously. Its more neutral blue/black hue and gorgeous, complex wash eventually worked its way onto my favorites list and pushed Twilight off.

Although I loved the solid, rich black that Private Reserve Ultra Black offers, it turned out to have bad habits: it clogs my pen quickly, and it has a sparkly sheen even after it’s dry. I stopped using it after several months of annoyance.

Diamine Grey applied with a waterbrush
to make the shadows.

Diamine Grey is still on my list, but in a new form. As a drawing line, it has a beautiful, cool-gray hue, but its wash is too pale to suit me. So several months ago, I filled a waterbrush with full-strength Diamine Grey and use it for shading. It’s transparent like watercolor, so if I want darker shading, I just brush on more.

The others that have stayed on my list all along – Diamine Chocolate Brown and Private Reserve Velvet Black – are my ever-reliable inks that still have no contenders. In fact, I hadn’t used Velvet Black for a few months, and when I went back to it, I wondered why I ever stopped. (Although just lately I’m wondering if it was because it has the same clogging issue that Private Reserve Ultra Black has. . . either that, or it’s time to give my pens a thorough cleaning.)

Pilot Iroshizuku Take-Sumi

On the second tier – the inks I occasionally reach for when I want a change – are the afore-mentioned Diamine Twilight and Pilot Iroshizuku Take-Sumi. The latter makes a lovely warm gray line that flows beautifully – but with a wimpy wash. I love the hue so much that I keep using it, but as soon as I put water to it, I’m left wanting. (Maybe I should use it only for writing in my journal.)

Speaking of flow, by now I have a huge collection (probably more than a hundred) of Goulet ink samples, and if I can make a blanket statement about any of the brands, I’d say that Diamine flows the most consistently and never gives me problems like clogging or taking too long to dry for this lefty.

Diamine Twilight

I think of myself as fairly fickle about art materials, so I’m a little surprised to find that I’ve been as faithful as I have to several inks for more than a year. We’ll see what I say a year from now.