Air Conditioning

7/10/19

Our neighbors next door are getting air conditioning installed. Through a kitchen window, I could see three men working at the side of their house, one on a tall ladder up to their second story. Standing at the kitchen counter, I tried to capture some of his gestures, but he was constantly moving and seemed to be leaning away from the ladder in a precarious way.

Finally Summer on First Hill

7/12/19 Town Hall Seattle

Historically, it begins the day after the 4^th of July. Following days of gray drizzle, it arrived lazily yesterday a week late. With shades and sunhats on, USk Seattle welcomed summer with a sketch outing on First Hill.

When I first scouted the meetup location a month or so ago, Town Hall Seattle, undergoing renovation, caught my eye. Built in 1916 by The Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist, the Roman Revival building has been an event venue since 1998. As my first sketch of the outing, the building was a bit intimidating, so my intention was to make a value study as a small thumbnail. Fairly quickly, though, I changed my attitude to “what the heck,” and I went for a full-page sketch instead. It was a popular spot: Kate, Alice and Tim all did their variations of the same view.

Next I went to the meetup location at a tiny pocket park (defined as such by a few colorful tables, chairs and planters in the street) at Ninth and University, where the Pike Place Market opens a pop-up farmers market on summertime Fridays. With St. James Cathedral in the distance, the small, quiet market gave nearby Virginia Mason medical clinic employees a sunny respite.

7/12/19 Pocket park and pop-up market at 9th and University

Kate, Tim and Alice sketching Town Hall

Southcenter Mall

7/9/19 Southcenter Mall

If I had to name the least inspiring, most boring location for urban sketching, it would be a shopping mall. I admit, I have been known to sketch Santa at my neighborhood Northgate Mall, which is also a good place to find easy victims for the annual One Week 100 People challenge. In most cases, however, I find malls to be deadly dull.

A few days ago, I had about 10 minutes to kill while Greg ran an errand at Southcenter Mall. A typical tactic in that situation would be to sketch a few passers-by, but on a Tuesday morning, very few people seemed to have need to be there. My eyes were about to glaze over at the mundane uniformity before me when I realized that no matter how blah a scene may be, it always includes lights and darks: Southcenter Mall was a values study waiting to happen. I pulled out yellow and purple colored pencils and got to work.

Roofers

7/8/19 Maple Leaf neighborhood

Another new house is going up in the ‘hood. I arrived just after the roofing material had been delivered, and the crane was driving away (darn – if I’d been just a little earlier, I could have sketched the crane lifting the materials to the roof). I’ll wander by again in a few weeks to see the progress.

Vintage Colored Pencils: Eberhard Faber Design

Eberhard Faber Design

If you hang out in the vintage colored pencil world as I do, you will be familiar with the Design Spectracolor name (branded as both Eberhard Faber and Faber-Castell) as well as the Venus-branded Spectracolor name. All of these thick-cored pencils are richly pigmented and apply with a soft, waxy coverage that many prefer. I love them, too. It’s no wonder they are highly sought by artists and collectors alike.

An interesting item came up on eBay recently that was new to me: a small assortment of Eberhard Faber Design colored pencils. Lacking “Spectracolor” in their name and sporting a metal end cap, they seemed to have the same thick core that evoked the pencils I was familiar with. Could they be similar? I’m used to being outbid because I set low limits for myself (I was super lucky to get a rare EF Design Spectracolor Doublecolor set last year), so I was surprised to be the only bidder – and a bit disappointed. They must not be good pencils if no one wants them, I thought. But I was happily wrong!

Although one was missing an end cap, most of the pencils I received are in good condition and barely used.

The thick cores sharpened up beautifully.

 

Thick cores!

Lovely end caps

I put an EF Design pencil next to an EF Design Spectracolor, Doublecolor and Faber-Castell Design Spectracolor, and they all have the same chunky cores.

 

From top: Eberhard Faber Design, EF Design Spectracolor Doublecolor, Faber-Castell Design Spectracolor

The lovely end cap, logo and general design evoke a few random Eberhard Faber Mongols I have, which are slightly different from the boxed set I reviewed last year. However, the water-soluble Mongols have very hard, thin cores with little pigment.

 

Based on design, the EF Design is probably from the same era as the Mongol.

Left: EF Design end cap; right: EF Mongol end cap

After admiring their appearance for a minute, I put the pedal to the metal. Sketched in a Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook, the Rainier cherries came out deeply pigmented, and layers were easy to apply and blend. Compared side by side, the soft, creamy pigment is very similar to all the “Design Spectracolor” pencils mentioned previously – I’d say identical. Are the Design pencils an early predecessor? That would be my geeky guess. These relatively rare pencils are a joy to use, and I’m now gloating that I got them for a song.

6/20/19 EF Design colored pencils in Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook

A joy to use!

On Stage at Phinney

6/28/19 Steve Church

Summer is in full swing at our neighborhood farmers markets. I didn’t allow as much time as I had wanted at the Phinney market – I was there to pick up fresh strawberries and tomatoes – but I couldn’t resist a quick sketch of the featured stage (tent, actually) musician. Singing original tunes as well as folk and country classics, Steve Church played guitar, harmonica and what he called “voice trumpet” – a skill he learned from his mother. A one-man band, for sure.

Professor Trelawney at Capitol Cider

6/27/19 Shawna as Professor Trelawney (5-min. pose)

Gage Academy has been sponsoring a bimonthly drink and draw for a while now at Capitol Cider, but I’d never gotten around to it for various reasons (mainly the challenging parking in that neighborhood, despite its relative proximity to home). However, I recently had so much fun at the cosplay drink and draw in Renton that I became more motivated to give Capitol Cider’s event a shot. Natalie was game to try it with me, so we braved traffic and parking issues, and the fun evening was worth it!

The theme that night was Harry Potter, and the featured model was dynamic Shawna dressed as Professor Trelawney. I’ve sketched Shawna many times at Gage life drawing sessions, but usually when she’s nude, so it was a new treat to capture the flowing gown and red scarf she wore. At Gage, the shortest poses I’ve done are one minute long, so an additional new challenge was the series of 30-second poses Shawna gave us. I’m not sure if the beer helped or hindered me, but I sure had a blast! We’ll be back for more.

5-min. poses

A pose by Dumbledore, who was also the emcee
(10-min. pose)

1-min. pose

30-second poses