Lazy InkTober

 

Painter John Singer Sargent once said that a portrait is “a likeness in which there is something wrong about the mouth.” Indeed, with all the portrait practice I’ve done with Earthsworld’s reference photos, I have definitely found the mouth to be challenging. If the head is turned even slightly, perspective and foreshortening complicate matters. Worthy of concentrated practice, the mouth seemed as good a theme as any for InkTober this year.

Despite that inherent challenge, I must admit that my primary motivation in choosing the theme was sheer laziness. As I did last year with noses (and ears for Pencilvember), using Earthsworld’s daily image posts makes finding a reference photo fast and easy. In fact, I upped my laziness game further this year by deciding I would sketch whatever mouth Earth posted that day – no scrolling required!

As for ink, I’ve been using Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens and acrylic markers so much lately that I’ve been missing good ol’ Bics. I may change it up later in the month, but for now, I’m just going with that basic of pens. Paper was a no-brainer: October screams for an orange Uglybook.

Happy InkTober to those who are participating (it’s my 10^th year)! I’m posting daily on Instagram, and I’ll report in here on my blog periodically.

Happy birthday, WB!

By the way, Oct. 5 was Weather Bunny’s eighth birthday! Although I don’t always remember to observe her birthday, it was during InkTober of 2016 that I first made the prototype sketch that would eventually evolve into the WB we know today. The organic way in which she developed is one of my best examples of how a creative challenge like InkTober can lead to unexpected and unplanned results – which makes them worth doing, even if the challenge itself might not feel productive.

Green Lake with Roy

 

10/2/24 Green Lake Village courtyard and Green Lake

After seeing some of my sketches of Green Lake, Roy said he hadn’t been there in decades. I decided it was high time for him to make a sketch-visit at one of my favorite sketching (and walking) locations. We met up first for lunch at the Green Lake Village PCC, then walked to the lake. My favorite sketches were of the various types of birds hanging out at the shoreline, as common as they are.

Further walking revealed some color just beginning on a variety of trees. The one at right was so sporadically colored within dark green foliage that I thought maybe the red was coming from berries. Examined up close, however, I realized it was a maple, after all, with an unusual spotty pattern.

We may have stopped at Ben & Jerry’s for ice cream after our walk, but neither of us sketched, so there’s no evidence of that. (Ha!) A chilly morning turned into a beautifully sunny afternoon – my favorite kind of fall day.

VP Debate

 

10/1/24 Vice presidential debate sketched from live TV broadcast

The vice presidential debate didn’t raise my blood pressure nearly as much as previous debates have (or might have, if I hadn’t sketched). In fact, it was downright civil. Maybe because of that, I focused more this time on trying to capture likenesses. Maybe not so much with Walz, but I thought I captured Vance (at left) fairly well.

Maple in Maple Leaf

9/30/24 Japanese maple

Leaf peeping in my own ‘hood hasn’t been too fruitful yet . . . many of my familiar trees seem to be behind schedule. Not the Japanese maples, though – they’re always first to the party. This one is a favorite just a couple blocks from home.

Leaf Peeping in Greenwood

 

9/29/24 The Dayton maples

Leaf-peeping season has begun in earnest, and I’m having mixed results. Some trees I’m familiar with seemed to be turning prematurely back in early September, while others seem late. Every year, I try to sketch the maples growing in a traffic circle at 83^rd and Dayton in the Greenwood neighborhood (at right). By late September, I fully expected to see more color than I did last Sunday. For example, when I sketched them on Sept. 14, 2017, they definitely had more color. It’s nice to know I still have more color to look forward to; I’ll keep checking back.

After a cool, overcast morning, Sunday afternoon turned out to be so beautiful that I left my car parked on Dayton and decided to take a walk through Greenwood. I spotted numerous trees that were way ahead of the Dayton maples in color; I noted their locations to sketch later. When I stopped for a Cortado at Herkimer Coffee (my favorite first stop whenever I sketch the Greenwood Car Show), I noticed that the tree across the street by the 74^th Street Ale House was just starting to turn gold around the edges (below). It’s probably not the type of tree that eventually turns red, but I enjoy sketching trees with any part of the fall palette.

9/29/24 Greenwood neighborhood, Seattle

Salvatore Ristorante

 

9/28/24 Salvatore Ristorante, Roosevelt neighborhood

Salvatore Ristorante in the Roosevelt neighborhood has been around since 1988, and the spouse guy and I had patronized it since its beginning (even before we were married). In addition to amazing Italian food, it has a charming, timeless ambiance. A whimsical touch is a mural of Italian village life on one diningroom wall. Decades ago when Greg and I had noticed that patrons had taken to gluing tiny images of themselves into the scenes, we decided to do that, too.

We have not been back to Salvatore since the pandemic, but whenever I walk or drive by, I have thought that I want to someday sketch the building, which is on a curving corner of Roosevelt Way and Northeast 61^st Street. A friend had a birthday party at Salvatore last Saturday, so I arrived a little early to sketch it from across the street. The food was just as good as I remember it. In fact, nothing about it had changed. (I meant to look at the mural to see if our photo was still attached, but I forgot. I’ll go back another time to check.)

Ballard Errands

 

9/27/24 Rosellini's, Ballard neighborhood

With several errands to do in the Ballard neighborhood, I decided to make a whole morning of it, starting with breakfast at Rosellini’s Fine Cakes and Baked Goods. Knowing what a fan I am of Macrina Bakery, several friends kept urging me to try Rosellini’s croissants, insisting that they are even better than Macrina’s. A bit skeptical, I was certainly willing to do my own research. And darned if they weren’t right! Holy-moly, that was the best croissant I’ve ever had – maybe even better than those I’ve had in France! Thank goodness I can’t walk to Rosellini’s in five minutes as I can to Macrina’s, or I’d be in big trouble.

Fully fortified, I got on with my errands, and in between, I had time for a couple of tree stops. The first was a group of birch bark cherries documented in Taha Ebrahimi’s book. The other was a Japanese cherry that looked like it was on fire – both its color and its shape.