It’s Pity Party Time!

 

4/17/23 Uma's Pity Party on Zoom

While actual drink-and-draw parties are ongoing in Auckland, those of us who are not attending the 11^th Urban Sketchers Symposium are finding ways to good naturedly console each other. Uma invited friends to join her on Zoom for commiseration while sketching – a virtual drink-and-draw party!

We all joked about our misery, and I do miss friends that I get to see only when I attend the international symposiums. As the first symposium since 2019, Auckland is likely an extra-special reunion for many. But I’m happy for everyone there this year, especially all the sketchers in the southern hemisphere who are finally able to attend a symposium closer to home. (All but the Paraty, Brazil, symposium have been held in the northern hemisphere.) As I wistfully view sketches and photos that symposium attendees have been sharing online this week, I can’t help but remember with fondness the thrill and joy I’ve experienced at past symposiums. It’s an experience like no other to be among hundreds of one’s tribe and to see that the Urban Sketchers community really does wrap around the globe. I wish all sketchers could enjoy that experience at least once.

If you want a visual taste of what a symposium is like, watch Teoh Yi Chie’s (also known as Parka) well-edited video coverage of the entire event.

To read about my own symposium experiences, see these posts: 

Barcelona, Spain, 2013
Paraty, Brazil, 2014
Manchester, UK, 2016 (This symposium was especially significant to me because I served as one of four sketch correspondents covering the event.)
Chicago, USA, 2017
Porto, Portugal, 2018
Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 2019

Roundish

 

4/17/23 Green Lake neighborhood

Many new buildings have sprung up around Green Lake in recent years, and almost all of them are boring boxes. This one, which is among the older of the newer buildings, is slightly more distinctive than most because of its rounded corner. In addition, each “cake” layer is a different warm color from yellow to rust.

Although it was overcast that morning, the clouds were thin enough that one side of the building was illuminated. It’s always an interesting challenge to show the gently bending light on a roundish surface. After losing some of the curving shape when I added water, I went back in with dry colored pencils to modulate the shading a bit more gradually.

David’s Cherry Tree

 

4/16/23 Maple Leaf neighborhood

This cherry tree belongs to David across the street. The first pandemic spring, I didn’t get out to see the cherries at the UW Quad, so I had sketched it with wistful longing for all the blossoms I would miss that year. Other years I have taken it for granted because I was too busy peeping petals all over town. A year ago, it was a convenient tree to sketch on a rainy day.

And so it was again this year. It was late to bloom -- more than three weeks later than its peak in previous years, according to my sketch dates -- just like all the other cherries in town. I went upstairs to sketch it through a bedroom window on a wet, gray morning.

Walking Through the Seasons

2/22/23 Maple Leaf neighborhood

My fitness-walking sketches from the past couple of months distinctly show the changing seasons – yet not changing enough. On Feb. 22, I went out walking in wet snow flurries. Some days in March were so cold that I had to duck into PCC for coffee or shop at Bartell just to warm up. On April 15, I sketched a late-blooming cherry tree, yet I didn’t want to spend more than 10 minutes because the harsh wind made the morning feel much colder than 48 degrees.

The trees and flowers seem to say, “Spring at last,” but I’m still saying, “Will spring ever arrive?”

2/27/23 Maple Leaf neighborhood

3/11/23 Bartell Drugs, Green Lake

3/13/23 PCC Green Lake

4/12/23 Green Lake

4/13/23 First I sketched the line worker to 
be sure I caught him quickly. Then when I saw 
that I had more time, I drew the whole
truck (at right).

4/14/23 Downtown Seattle skyline from Maple Leaf

4/15/23 cherry tree, Maple Leaf neighborhood

Halfway Through My 100 Day Project

 

Just as quietly as I began, I’ve been diligently marching through this year’s 100 Day Project. While it’s certainly not as challenging or time-consuming as last year’s, I’ve been surprised that it hasn’t been as easy as I initially thought it might be. Now that I’ve passed the halfway point, it’s a good time to check in on my progress.

This year’s challenge is to write a sentence or two each day that make an observation without diving immediately into related thoughts or feelings. I fill enough journal pages with the latter, so I wanted to focus on external observations. Although writing in general comes relatively easily to me (compared to, say, drawing), the project is making me aware of how much my writing begins inside my head and gets stuck there. I’m enjoying the challenge, and it has been successful in that it keeps me from going on autopilot as soon as I take out a journal-writing pen.

One reward of keeping all the 100 Day Project writings in one notebook is that it has become fun to go back and read my observations (not always true of my general writing journal, which I rarely read). It snowed on Day 1, Feb. 22, and I’ve seen my observations become more and more about spring in the past 50 days.

Another benefit of keeping these writings separate from my general journal is that it’s the kind of notebook I wouldn’t mind if someone found and read. The notations are personal and probably somewhat revealing, yet do not meander through the deep weeds of the rest of my mind (writings that I would prefer not to share).

In some ways, I feel I’ve come full circle: Before I started sketching, I used to make more of these kinds of brief observations in my written journal. After I started sketching, I made a conscious effort to describe what I saw with a sketch instead of words (which came so much more easily to me). Although drawing is still more challenging than writing, it became such a pleasure that I lost the need to write that way. And now I’m getting back to that kind of writing again, which brings a different kind of pleasure.

A minor encumbrance is that I need to carry the second Field Notes with me at all times if I want to catch spontaneous observations. When the project is over, I’d like to maintain the habit but incorporate the entries into my regular daily-carry Field Notes, which is otherwise filled with ephemeral, utilitarian notes like restroom security codes, phone numbers, and book or TV show titles.

Anyone else doing the 100 Day Project? How’s it going?

Can’t Get Enough

 

4/13/23 Holy Names Academy, Capitol Hill

Did I say petal-peeping season was winding down? In fact, I didn’t get enough of the street I had just discovered on Capitol Hill, and I certainly couldn’t wait until next year. I went back the next day, this time with Ching, Natalie and Suzanne, who concurred that it was a sight to behold.

Petal-peeping cohorts

Once again, walking in the middle of the street whenever possible (where the view is best), I slowly took in the splendor on both sides before settling in for a sketch. At the south end of the long block, a small cherry tree marked the exit from fairyland, and behind it stood Holy Names Academy. All I knew of it was that it was a girls’ Catholic school; a quick Google search told me that it is Washington State’s oldest continually operating school, open since 1880.

Material notes: Since I’ve had a good run of sketching pink trees this season, I felt like I had nothing to lose. Before putting it away, I wanted one more try with the Pentel Milky Brush Pen, which I had rejected early in the season. Since the afternoon was cloudy when I headed out, I grabbed my gray Stillman & Birn Nova sketchbook as a toned base for the opaque pink marker. Mixed with my usual colored pencils, the Milky turned out better than I expected, and the toned page was the right way to bring out the opaque pink. Maybe I’ll pull it out again next year after all.

A New Stop on the Tour: Capitol Hill

 

4/12/23 Capitol Hill neighborhood

The blog of Fran Gallo, my yoga instructor, alerted me to a new stop on my petal-peeping tour – a long residential block on Capitol Hill with cherries on both sides of the street. Dashing out the day after I read her post, I caught the splendor in the very nick of time: A bit past peak, the blossoms were still glorious, but the drifts of pink snow were deep. It’s always bittersweet when pink season winds down, but that’s what makes sketching it precious and special.

Technical notes: Still not quite happy with Caran d’Ache Supracolor’s Aubergine for blossom shadows (the hue is right, but pigment is pale, and for some reason, it feels harder than most Supracolors), this time I used the same Museum Aquarelle Night Blue that I used for the trunks and shadows. I always thought blue would be too cool, but I like it here.

Compositionally, it’s my typical sidewalk scene, but I consider it a triumph for one reason: I actually got the entire pink canopy to fit, and the scale is accurate. Whenever I’ve set out to include a whole tree or the canopy of a cluster of trees, I usually lose control of the scale or proportion – how can these trees be so much wider than they are tall? – and end up cropping out much of the crown’s shape. It took me most of petal-peeping season, but I finally got it.