Tina’s Top 10 Memorable Sketches of 2015

I have a few year-end retrospective blogging traditions, and this is one of them: my 10 most memorable sketches of the year. (Here are links to my most memorable sketches of 2014 and 2013.)

Note that I don’t call them my “best” sketches of the year or the ones I like the most. These are sketches that bring back the strongest or most meaningful memories. After all, for me, one of the most important aspects of sketching is being able to preserve moments of my life. What are your most memorable sketches? (Clicking the title of the sketch will take you to the original post.)

March 26, Maple Leaf Park, Seattle (left): There I was in late March, sitting under a clear blue sky and 70 degrees – it felt like summer! I knew it wouldn’t last long, but what a treat to sketch the park on a day like that after a long winter.

May 16, Eiffel Tower, Paris (right): Unlike some artists who poo-poo the well-known sights and go for lesser-known views, I don’t have an issue with sketching the world-famous. Sketching the Eiffel Tower felt like a dream come true.

July 17, construction site for 200 Occidental Building, Seattle (left): The main reason this sketch was so memorable is that it was made under the noisiest conditions ever! I was happy that I had ear plugs in my sketch kit.

Aug. 9, Star of India, San Diego (right): After the West Coast Sketchcrawl in San Diego came to an end, a few other sketchers and I decided to do a bit more sketching on the waterfront. There’s no doubt that the Star of India was a memorable sketch subject, but what makes it stand out for me was the record number of people who planted themselves right in front of me to photograph it, completely blocking my view.

Aug. 29, Alix and Seila’s wedding, Half Moon Bay (left): Although I didn’t have as much time as I had hoped, sketching my niece Alix and her fiancé Seila saying their vows was a very special moment for me.

Sept. 2, T-Rex at California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco (right): After spending several hours exploring San Francisco’s spectacular science museum, I was getting antsy because I still hadn’t sketched one of the many dinosaur skeletons. This overpass view of the T-Rex was impossible to resist.

Sept. 27, Top Pot Donuts, Seattle (left): I spend a lot of time sketching people using laptops in coffee shops, so this dude at Top Pot on Alki was nothing special. What made the sketch memorable was that mega-sketcher and artist Don Colley was by my side during his fantastic urban sketching workshop, showing me how to improve the sketch.

Oct. 6, roofers, Seattle (right): I don’t get many opportunities for a front-row sketching seat of roofers at work, so when the house next door got a new roof, I was upstairs sketching from the bedroom window. I’m easily entertained as long as I have my sketchbook!

Nov. 16, Himeji Castle, Himeji (below): The weather was warm and gorgeous (perhaps the best we had during our trip to Japan), it was my birthday, and 800-year-old Himeji-jo was gleaming in the sunlight. That’s a memorable sketch all-around.

Nov. 21, egrets and herons on the Kamo River, Kyoto (right): After spending more than a week in tourist-crowded Kyoto, we were weary of battling crowds. Sketching birds from the nearly deserted bank of the Kamogawa was just the quiet and solace I needed, and it was one of my favorite days of the whole trip. 

Coffee, Coffee Everywhere, But . . .

12/28/15 ink

One thing Seattle is well known for is plentiful coffee. One statistic says that we have 35 coffee shops per 100,000 residents, putting the total at more than 200 in a city of 84 square miles. (Actually, I was surprised to read that the number was that low – it feels like we have one on every block.) With that many choices, you’d think I would have no problem finding dozens of coffee shops I could sketch in on a cold, rainy day (the second thing we are well known for).

The problem is that I’m picky. For the best sketching, the ideal coffee shop is relatively large (plenty of “victims”); has good interior lighting (preferably natural); has tables arranged at various angles so that I can see profiles as well as fronts and backs; has tables that are sufficiently close together so that I can see people well but not so close that they can see what I’m doing; interesting interior decoration or architecture would be a bonus. And of course, they all have great coffee – but do they have fresh scones? I’ve walked by many of those 200 coffee shops and rejected them outright for not qualifying in one way or another. Up until now, only Zoka Coffee fit the bill perfectly.

12/28/15 ink

Cloud City Coffee, within walking distance of home, is probably my closest coffee shop, but I’ve sketched it more often from the outside – either standing on the street or from one of its outdoor tables when it’s warm – than I have from the inside. Although it was the first place I ever dared to sketch in public four years ago, I’ve only been inside for the purpose of sketching a couple of times. The tables aren’t arranged ideally as they are at Zoka, which is also much larger. Architecturally, Cloud City’s interior isn’t as interesting, either. But the last time I sketched at Zoka, the lighting was different, and the interior was much darker than before. I decided it was time to look for a new regular haunt.

12/28/15 ink

This morning I gave Cloud City another try. People waiting in line had to stand right next to me and my sketchbook, and I couldn’t hide in the corner as I usually try to. But maybe that’s just a habit and not really a preference, because I found that I didn’t care if I was seen sketching. The interior lighting is bright, and I also like the natural light coming in from the front windows. Bonus: I could smell scones baking. Maybe it’s a keeper.

12/28/15 ink

12/28/15 ink

12/28/15 ink

Stopping in Time

12/26/15 brush pen, colored pencils

Running a series of errands yesterday, we stopped first at the hardware store, where I opted to stay in the car for a sketch. Roosevelt Way Northeast is lined with gnarly, knotty old trees – all of them split open on top to make room for wires.

12/27/15 Infinite Painter

I was just thinking about putting in a vague suggestion of the buildings and other background when Greg finished his shopping. I’m glad I didn’t have more time – I think the sketch turned out better because I stopped when I did.

That is one major drawback of digital sketching. With that blessed undo key and dozens of tools to try, I can fiddle and refiddle with any sketch way beyond where it should have ended. An overworked watercolor sketch is usually bad news, but an overworked digital sketch is no better. 

Like Spray Paint

12/25/15 Infinite Painter

Last night before settling down for the evening, we went out for a drive in the neighboring areas to see the Christmas lights. The temperature was in the 30s (as it still is today), so I didn’t have the courage to get out of the car, but I got Greg to park for a few minutes so I could try sketching a lighted tree with my tablet. As clumsy as my stylus felt, the subject matter seemed ideal for digital sketching – a lighted object in the dark. Last year when we watched the Christmas ships, I had tried it with traditional toned (black) paper and opaque gel pens, but I wasn’t happy with the results. I’m not exactly thrilled with last night’s attempt either, but it’s not bad for a first try at sketching a tree in the dark. I also used a different app this time – Infinite Painter – which I like much better than Autodesk Sketchbook.

This morning I tried again, this time with a still life. With my primitive stylus, which feels like sketching with a chunk of ice that slides all over the tablet surface, I realize it’s much easier to paint rather than draw (which I’d been attempting previously). Again, I’m not thrilled with my result – no matter which tool I chose, it felt like using spray paint with a really huge nozzle – but I’m having more fun now because I’ve accepted my stylus as a paint brush rather than a fountain pen.

12/26/15 Infinite Painter

It’s like using any medium: You have to use the appropriate tool. Until I get a better stylus (which doesn’t seem to exist for Android?), I’m OK with digital painting instead of drawing.

Christmas Eve Still Life

I’ve been seeing some really fun holiday sketches online the past few weeks – Santas, decorations, special tree ornaments and their related stories (see Joan Tavolott’s blog for a great series!).

12/23/15 colored pencils

As I’ve enjoyed them all, I’ve tried to think of something unique from my personal holiday traditions to sketch. You’ve seen my record-breaking Santa series, of course, but I was trying to think of something in my home to share. I rather hastily sketched our Christmas tree a couple years ago, and in 2012 I included some Christmas tree stories along with the sketch. Other than a tree, I don’t do much holiday decorating . . . what could I sketch?

One food-related tradition for Christmas Eve is that Greg and I pick out some extravagant cheeses, smoked fish, champagne and other favorites that we don’t generally indulge in the rest of the year. The past few years we’ve been getting Dulcet “double cream” cheese from Beecher’s, a local cheese maker that started out in Seattle’s Pike Place Market (there’s now a store in NYC, too). The reason we can’t indulge in this cheese the rest of the year is not so much because of the cost (although it is a bit pricey); it’s the fact that it contains so much fat that our arteries can’t handle it more than once a year! Dulcet is, by far, the best cheese I’ve ever eaten (well, except maybe in France).

We’re also going to have some really sweet local pears and juicy satsumas to neutralize the fat in the cheese. (HA!)

So – before we gobble them up tonight, here’s a still life of some of our holiday goodies. Merry Christmas!

Technical note: I sketched this with Caran d’Ache Supracolor II and Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer water-soluble colored pencils. I decided to use water only on the cast shadows because I like the texture of the paper showing through on the fruits. One thing I really like about sketching with colored pencils is that I can draw the initial contour lines with the same color that I will be filling in the contour with (rather than a black pencil or pen), so the contour line fully disappears. Another thing I love about colored pencils is how easy it is to blend a mix of colors (see photo below of all the colors I used). What I don’t like is that it takes me so much longer – this little sketch took a full hour, and I’m sure I could have done it with watercolors in less than half that time. 

Fun with the Modified 6mm Parallel

My modified 6mm Pilot Parallel nib.

Right before I left for Japan, I had discovered Andrew Tan’s instructions for modifying Pilot Parallel pens. I tried the mod immediately on my 3.8mm Parallel. As a general rule, I bring only tried-and-true art materials and tools with me when I travel, but my first impressions of the hacked nib gave me such a kick that I took it with me on my trip. Even while I was still traveling, I ordered a 6mm Parallel to modify when I got home.

I’ve been using the 6mm ever since, and the fun continues!

This is the unmodified 6mm nib right out of the box.
 As you can see, I had to sand off quite a bit of the nib.

Because I’d already been enjoying the unmodified 6mm Parallel, I left the first one unchanged. Out of the box, the flat-cut 6mm nib is good for making straight, angular marks, which I like for some things, but it’s difficult to make smoothly rounded lines. That’s where the modified 6mm nib comes in. I find it much easier to make curved lines with its rounded edge (see below), and a varying line can be made more gradually. It’s become a different nib altogether. Still, I’m happy that I left one 6mm nib unmodified, because it might still have its place.

Now that I’ve been using the hacked 6mm Parallel for several weeks, I’m thinking that the modified 3.8mm that I took to Japan might be the more versatile of the two. While I can’t get the broad strokes of the 6mm nib, I can still get smooth, curved lines as well as a finer point with the 3.8mm. But both modified Parallels seem to give my line a more spontaneous look, which I prefer to a rigid, calculated line. The modified Parallel line isn’t as fluid as the one either my Sailor fude or my newest Sailor Cross Point can make, but those steel Parallel nibs are a whole lot of bang for the buck (less than 7 bucks, to be exact). (But darn those non-posting caps! I almost dropped one into the Kamo River in Kyoto!)

Want to read a veritable encyclopedia on fountain pens? See Liz Steel’s recently completed series of seven fantastic posts on the subject!

9/25/15 The unmodified 6mm Parallel makes more angular
marks.

12/21/15 The modified 6mm Parallel can
make smoother curved lines. 

10/30/15 The modified 3.8mm Parallel allows
slightly finer detail.

12/18/15 modified 6mm Parallel

12/18/15 modified 6mm Parallel

12/5/15 modified 6mm Parallel

Caught!

12/22/15 inks, colored pencil

Cozy and warm, sipping hot tea, I heard an annoying buzzing sound outside. Through my studio window, I saw the source: Our neighbor’s huge and very lopsided tree – one I’ve sketched numerous times through that window (see below two sketches from earlier this year) – was getting hacked by the city utility! I couldn’t miss this sketch! After all the hacked trees I’ve sketched, this would be only the second time I’d catch one in the act!

Unfortunately, I couldn’t see much of the workers and cherry picker without going out on our little front deck (where I’ve sketched utility action on previous occasions), so I reluctantly left my tea behind and pulled on a parka (sigh – no rest for the wicked).

In less than 15 minutes, they were done, and so was I, because that was about as long as I could sketch in 42-degree weather. (It’s gone up a whopping 3 degrees since this morning.) I’m grateful for one thing: The workers trimmed off that one lower branch that stuck way out like a bad cowlick!

Here's how the tree looked in February. . . 

 . . . and in March.