Centralia Excursion

9/5/18 Amtrak Bistro

About 90 miles south of Seattle is the town of Centralia. Known mainly for its outlet mall and antique shops, it also has many older buildings, some better kept up than others, and plenty of small-town charm. Those 90 miles can be an unpleasant drive (taking as long as two-and-a-half to three hours on a bad day), but one of Centralia’s highlights is that the Amtrak stops there. Kate invited a few of us to join her on a sketching excursion by train, which was a relaxing and often scenic alternative to grim and boring I-5.

The last time I rode Amtrak was decades ago from Seattle to St. Paul (which required two nights in a sleeper car). Although this trip would be much shorter, I decided to think of it as “travel” anyway and make the kinds of sketches and journal entries I would if I were in Europe or Japan. Somehow I observe more when I believe I am traveling!

Antonella, Kate, Loretta and me at Centralia Station

Even while grumbling that the ride was too rough for sketching and the view was uninspiring, we all sketched on the way there anyway. I chose a man sitting in “the Amtrak Bistro” (also known as snack bar) that I could barely see through the frosted door.

9/5/18 Centralia Art Park

In less than two hours, we arrived in Centralia and explored the town. Three of us were immediately attracted to a colorful corner filled with sculptures. As we sketched, Rebecca Staebler, owner of Hubbub, came to chat with us, and we learned that she had curated the Art Park. In fact, she herself had painted the Mondrian-inspired utility box that appears in the corner of my sketch.

Mondrian-inspired utility box

Kate had a mission at the King Agriculture Museum, and I was torn because I knew it was full of tractors and other equipment that I would have enjoyed sketching. But the day turned out beautiful, and I knew our summer could end any minute, so I decided to stay outdoors. A number of interesting buildings caught my attention, but the neon butterfly sign at the Shanghai Café was unbeatable.

 

9/5/18 Shanghai Cafe

The plan was to meet for lunch at McMenamins Olympic Club Hotel, Café and Theatre. Since I had to leave right after lunch (the others caught a later train home), I decided I’d record as much of the venue as I could in the montage style that Michele Cooper teaches in her Visual Journaling workshop. I arrived at the Olympic Club a few minutes early so that I could start the page with a lamp post outside and the venue’s neon sign.

Inside the ladies' room

Inside, the Club is a visual feast of eclectic antiques and unusual décor. One wall in the women’s room is covered with a collection of faucets and other fixtures. When I used the facilities, I took a couple minutes to put a faucet in another corner of the montage.

As you know, I generally don’t sketch if there’s food in front of me – especially if the food is McMenamins’ famous mac ‘n’ cheese accompanied by an Irish stout. But since my time was short, I carried on a personal drink & eat & draw while capturing a couple of the many antique light fixtures all around us (plus Loretta and Kate).

Yummm. . . 

9/5/18 McMenamins Olympic Cafe montage 

9/5/18 Loretta and Kate

After a quick throwdown selfie, I was off to catch my train.

 The largest windows on the Amtrak Cascades are in the “Bistro” car, so when we started the part of the trip that hugs the Puget Sound shoreline, I went in for a cup of coffee to enjoy the water view. I really did feel like I was traveling somewhere more exotic, and I jotted observations of the day in my “travel journal.”

Tacoma Narrows Bridge

King Street Station from the platform

Product Review: Derwent Lightfast Colored Pencils

Derwent's newest Lightfast pencils

Unless my colored pencil radar has been faulty, the last time a major pencil maker came out with a new product line, it was Derwent’s Procolour last summer. I was therefore a little surprised to hear that, almost exactly a year later, it was the same British manufacturer that released yet another new collection: Derwent Lightfast. (Of course, Derwent probably has more colored pencil lines in production than any other maker, so it shouldn’t have surprised me much.)

This line is clearly targeted to professional colored pencil artists; the primary distinguishing feature is that every pigment in the collection has the highest lightfast rating for art products. “Derwent Lightfast pencils are formulated to be 100% lightfast,” the enclosed brochure says. “The revolutionary core is resistant to prolonged colour change ensuring artwork will not fade for up to 100 years under museum conditions.”

Since none of the notoriously fugitive hues (bright purples, pinks, some reds) are included, the Lightfast range is necessarily narrow – 36 colors. For a change, I resisted my usual impulse to buy every color available. Instead, I followed my own advice about trying a new colored pencil by starting with a basic set of 12.

One reason to be conservative is that Derwent Lightfast pencils are pricey. They are right in line with Caran d’Ache’s Luminance 6901 collection, which is similarly “designed for works intended for exhibition, collection and museum purposes.” The Swiss company’s premier colored pencil is “quite simply the most lightfast colour pencil ever designed.”

Other striking similarities with Luminance are Lightfast’s round, larger-than-average diameter, lightly varnished natural barrel, and glossy, colored end cap (coincidence?). Although it’s always easier to identify a pencil’s color if the entire barrel indicates it, I have to say that the natural wood grain showing through is beautiful, and the finish feels nice in hand.

 

Hmmm. . . any resemblance?

A lovely natural finish and colored end caps on both.

When I opened my metal box of 12, the first thing I noticed was the unusual color range. Nearly every basic set of 12 colored pencils I have ever seen – whether artist quality, student grade or novelty – has contained a variation of a full rainbow (red, orange, yellow, yellow-green, green, blue, sky blue, violet, sometimes pink) plus brown, black and white. The Lightfast set includes a much narrower rainbow: scarlet, sun yellow, mallard green, mid-ultramarine, violet; five earthy tones of sandstone, salmon, yellow ochre, natural brown, brown ochre; and black and white. A very practical, functional palette for most landscapes and probably portraits, it made me wish more pencil manufacturers would offer colors like these in their basic 12.

 

Lightfast's basic box of 12 has an unusual color selection.

As for how Lightfast feels, this is where it differs from its Swiss competitor Luminance, which is wax-based. Lightfast is oil-based. The only other oil-based pencil I have much experience with is Faber-Castell Polychromos, and the German brand is significantly harder than Lightfast. In fact, I’d say Lightfast is easily as soft as Luminance (which is among the softest I’ve used) but feels (paradoxically) waxier and creamier than Luminance. In the way it applies and layers, I think it comes closest to vintage Prismacolor pencils (before they went bad through outsourced production sometime in the ‘90s).

8/26/18 Derwent Lightfast pencils in Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook

Perhaps colored pencil artists who pine for the “old” Prismas and pay top dollar on eBay for vintage sets finally have a contemporary production line that feels similar. (Given the price of Lightfast, though, those eBay prices look pretty good.)

These Lightfast pencils are a joy to use. I thought Stillman & Birn Epsilon’s smooth surface would be a good match for Lightfast’s softness, and it is. In my apple sketch, pigments blended well without much effort, and the hues are as rich and vibrant as you’d expect from an artist quality pencil.

Left: Derwent Drawing Pencil; right: Derwent Lightfast

The consistency and application are similar to Derwent Drawing Pencils (shown at right). Differences are that Lightfast’s core is smaller (I’ve yet to find another colored pencil with a core as thick as the Drawing Pencil) and produces less dust.

Because of the functional palette in my set of 12, I can further follow my own advice: Instead of buying the largest-available set (tempting as it is), I could probably add just a few more essential hues (a cool yellow, a mid-range blue and maybe a couple more greens) through open stock and be very happy. Unfortunately, according to the brochure, the yellow I own is the only one available, and the only additional blues are blue violet and dark turquoise – no true blue. Hmmm, those are surprising limitations for a professional line, even when lightfastness is considered. Perhaps Derwent plans to release more colors later.

While I’m wildly speculating, indulge me in some more: Now that Derwent has introduced a collection clearly intended as a direct competitor to Caran d’Ache’s premier line of traditional colored pencils, what are the chances that the British company intends to introduce an artist quality water-soluble collection to compete with Caran d’Ache’s Museum Aquarelle pencil? As much as I love the Museum Aquarelle palette range, which is sufficient for most of my needs, it has a few holes that I’d like to plug with an equally soft, highly pigmented brand. A girl can dream. (Stay tuned this time next year to see if I am saying, “Yes! Yes! I was right!”)

Updated 10/11/21: More thoughts on Lightfast.

Soft, creamy, delicious.

Poplars

9/4/18 Seward Park

For our last Drawing Nature class, we met at Seward Park on the south end of Lake Washington. On a clear day, Mt. Rainier can be seen in full view from this park, so it’s a favorite among plein air painters (including instructor Kathleen Moore, who had told us about that view). Early yesterday morning, I spotted “the mountain” from near my house, so I was hoping it would still be visible by afternoon. Alas, although cloudless, the sky was just hazy enough near the horizon that Rainier was invisible.

No matter. I was just as happy drawing this stand of poplars at the shoreline casting a tangle of shadows. For my last class assignment, I debated whether to again use the charcoal pencils that I had befriended last week, but the temperature was so comfortable and the light so lovely that I wanted a slower medium. I wanted to indulge in this end-of-summer treat for as long as possible. Using three grades of graphite, I took two-and-a-half hours to compose this 7-by-8-inch drawing carefully and build the values gradually.

In addition to getting over my charcoal anxiety and exploring graphite further, I learned more about making strong compositions in this very enjoyable class. Kathleen was immensely helpful in pointing out small changes I could make to improve my compositions. For example, I hadn’t yet decided what to do behind the trees. I could see the lake and the opposite shoreline between them, but my impulse was to leave it all blank back there as I often do with sketches (especially when I’m not sure what to do). She pointed out the triangular shape made by the water, which further emphasized the strong diagonal I had created with the line of trees, and I realized immediately that it would strengthen the composition.

Paper note: I’ve lately been using a different paper with graphite (and last week’s charcoal): Borden & Riley drawing paper with a vellum surface, which has a tooth somewhere between Bristol smooth and cold press watercolor paper. The texture is pleasant to use with graphite, which grabs on well but still erases easily. I have yet to try it with the Bajzek method, however, so I’m eager to do that. So far I’ve had better results with smoother finishes when using his techniques, but I’m adding this vellum and a Strathmore Bristol vellum to my ongoing paper tests anyway. (You know – for science.)

Freeway Park

9/2/18 Freeway Park waterfall

Greg’s nephew was in town over the weekend for the PAX West game developers’ con, so we met him and a friend for lunch near the Convention Center. Afterwards we walked them back to the venue and wandered around inside, a bit staggered by the number of people and amused by costumed individuals. I would have enjoyed trying to sketch some of the more stationary characters (see below), but in general, they were all passing through too quickly.

Instead of chasing gamers, we walked outside to Freeway Park, where it was a gloriously sunny Sunday afternoon. I only had a few minutes, but I wanted to capture one of the park’s several waterfalls. Last year when USk Seattle met at the park, the water features were all dry that day. The rush of falling water throughout the park masked the roar of Interstate 5 just below us.

One of many interesting characters we saw inside the
Convention Center.

SpectraFix: An Adequate Fix?

SpectraFix fixative test: graphite on Derwent sketching paper

A few days ago when I blogged about my charcoal sketches, I mentioned that I was about to try a fixative that could alleviate the transfer and smudging issues I’ve been having with both charcoal and graphite. It’s called SpectraFix, and I got it from DickBlick.com (it’s also available on Amazon). It’s available as both a concentrate and a ready-to-use product. I was attracted to it because it is non-toxic (made of casein and grain alcohol) and is applied with a non-aerosol pump spritzer.

This is not a full product review, as I haven’t used it enough to evaluate fully, but so far, I’m luke-warm about it. I purchased the concentrated form, which is easy to dilute with “clear alcohol, such as vodka,” according to the label. (I used gin, which we happen to have on hand.)

I made the test swatches above with a soft 3B graphite pencil on Derwent sketching paper, which I received at the symposium (110-pound weight). I smudged the top untreated swatch with more pressure than a sketch in a sketchbook would probably experience, but I wanted an extreme test.

I spritzed the second swatch liberally and waited for it to dry completely; using the same pressure, I then smudged the upper half. I spritzed again and waited for it to dry, but I apparently didn’t wait long enough, because the damp paper wrinkled next to the lower smudge. In either case, you can see that the fixed graphite still smudged a bit (and I don’t see much difference between one application of fixative and two). When held against another sheet of toothy Derwent sketch paper, I could see some transfer, but not nearly as much as unfixed graphite. Since it’s made of alcohol that simply evaporates, it leaves no visible or tactile residue.

A greater concern with this lightweight Derwent paper is that it buckled from the spritzing and stayed buckled even after drying (you can see it in the scan above). After fixing these test swatches, I used SpectraFix on my Queen Anne cell tower sketch, which was made on 100-pound Canson XL Bristol smooth. Despite its labeled weight, Bristol feels much thicker than the Derwent sketch paper. It buckled slightly after spritzing, but once it dried completely, most of the buckling flattened again (which is similar to the response I get from spritzing 140-pound Canson XL watercolor paper).

Since I tend to avoid toxic, aerosol fixatives that are more commonly used on artwork, I don’t know if they would protect graphite better. Perhaps my expectations were too high in thinking no smudging would occur after fixing. Still, it’s safe and inoffensive to use, and it protects a sketch better than nothing. I’ll keep giving it a try. If SpectraFix prevents transfer enough so that I can still use the opposite sketchbook page, and if it keeps from spoiling a finished sketch with inadvertent smudging, that’s probably good enough for me. But if anyone knows of a non-toxic, non-aerosol fixative that works better than this product, I’m all ears.

Popsicle

8/30/18 4th and Blanchard, Seattle

Who could resist a giant red popsicle? It’s a sculpture by Catherine Mayer that has been on my list ever since I saw the Seattle Sketcher’s sketch of it a while back. But as I approached it at Fourth and Blanchard, I spotted a jackhammer poised right next to it (fortunately for my eardrums, the jackhammer wasn’t working). A giant popsicle and heavy equipment in the same composition – I was in heaven! And my timing was good, too: Just after I finished sketching it, the jackhammer was hauled away.

Slow and Fast

8/31/18 Queen Anne cell tower

Yesterday morning’s sketch outing in the Queen Anne neighborhood was an interesting time management (or lack thereof) exercise for me. As I approached the area, which is especially rich in older buildings (many of which seem to be in the process of being converted to condos), a crazy cell tower on West McGraw had caught my eye. I decided to make that my first objective. Lacking color, it made a good exercise in graphite tones, and with all those strange shapes and angles, the tower was a fun challenge.

Completely losing track of time (in a good way) in that drawing, I realized I had only about 25 minutes left before the throwdown – and I hadn’t yet sketched any of the architecturally interesting buildings. I hoofed it over to the street where several stood and picked the Queen Anne United Methodist Church to sketch. After hastily putting in a few lines, I slammed down a Pitt brush marker for shading, scribbled in some color and power lines, and called it good.

8/31/18 Queen Anne United Methodist Church

I’m discovering that it generally takes longer to sketch with graphite than with other media, but I don’t yet have enough experience with it to know how to budget my time well. On the other hand, I’ve gotten pretty good at gauging how long it takes to use my usual methods and media. If I know I have only 20 minutes, I can usually finish a sketch in those 20 minutes by adjusting the size, scope, composition and level of detail to fit (I talk more about that in this post). I think with more graphite experience, I’ll become faster, and I’ll also get better at knowing how to make those same adjustments if I have a time restriction.