Urban Sketchers Seattle featured in Seattle Times

 

Last Friday’s online edition of the Seattle Times included an article about Urban Sketchers Seattle and published works by numerous local sketchers, and I was thrilled to be included! My sketch was from a USk outing last month. It was great publicity for both USk Seattle and Sketcher Fest (more on that tomorrow).

The print edition appeared on Sunday in the Mix section.

Touring Gas Works and Fremont

 

7/18/25 Gas Works Park

Gas Works Park is always my top choice for bringing visitors new to Seattle because you can see so much of the city in one fell swoop. The downtown skyline, Lake Union, Space Needle, seaplanes, towering steampunk-era gas works – what more could you want? We had Sketcher Fest visitors in mind when USk Seattle planned this outing for the day before Sketcher Fest got under way. I was pleased that our great turnout included visitors from Berkeley, Cincinnati and New York City!

7/18/25 Fremont

After the outing, I took Cathy (from Berkeley) to nearby Fremont for lunch and a leisurely sketchwalk around the neighborhood. As a resident, it’s always fun to see familiar icons through the fresh eyes of visitors (and their sketchbooks). Although our morning at Gas Works had been overcast and a little chilly, the sun came out for us in Fremont because, after all, it’s the Center of the Universe.

Obligatory selfie with Lenin in Fremont

Cruise and Brews Lead Up to Sketcher Fest

 

7/17/25 Ice cream cruise aboard the Fremont Avenue

The long-awaited Sketcher Fest in Edmonds and lead-up events in Seattle kicked off last Thursday with an ice cream cruise! The chartered Fremont Avenue boat launched from Fishermen’s Terminal, and Captain Mike took us down the Ship Canal and across Lakes Union and Washington.

This event was one of last year’s highlights, so I was delighted to be invited again. A relaxing opportunity to catch up with friends (especially visiting artists, instructors and attendees I hadn’t seen in a long time), the cruise was also a fun way to sketch familiar sights from an unusual water perspective. We all laughed at the challenge of trying to capture continually shifted views as we floated by.

Some of my favorite sights were when we cruised under the three bridges that I drive over so often. Another novelty was seeing Gas Works Park from the water side instead of the usual grassy side.

Figurehead Brewery drink & draw

Immediately following the cruise, we met more sketchers across the street from Fishermen’s Terminal at Figurehead Brewery for a drink & draw. It was all a great opening to Sketcher Fest festivities!

The relaxing, 2-hour cruise gave me plenty of time for selfies with Justin...

...Jane and David...

... Jim (visiting artist/instructor from Florida)...

Jenny (visiting artist/instructor from Chicago) and Gabi...

...Roy and Gail...

...Kim...

...and Cathy (visiting from Berkeley)!

Lapin (visiting artist/instructor) and his family from Barcelona

Jett

 

7/16/25 Jett (reference photo by Katelyn This)

Getting on in years but still a pup at heart, Jett is in the same family as Maggie and Dixie Sue. I was given several reference photos to choose from, and this head shot made the best portrait, but I loved the purple necktie Jett was wearing in a different image. I took liberties to put that tie on him for the portrait.

‘A Robust Attitude’

5/3/25 Maple Leaf playground

“The enjoyment of sketching derives from the experience of recording the world around you, and your materials shouldn’t hinder that enjoyment.”

-        James Gurney and Thomas Kinkade, The Artist’s Guide to Sketching

Isn’t that exactly what I was just saying in my post about how to downsize your kit?

5/6/25 Green Lake

I’m currently reading the recently republished edition of the classic that probably qualifies as the OG guide to urban sketching. Originally published in 1982 and long out of print, the book includes remastered illustrations by two modern masters (well, many would argue that Kinkade wasn’t a master, but he’s certainly well known). Many consider it one of the bibles of on-location drawing.

I’ll be writing a full review when I’ve finished reading, but for now, I just wanted to mention how tickled I am that their approach and philosophy toward sketching aligns so closely with my own. As my kit keeps getting simpler and smaller, it was reassuring to learn that these two then-young men would have nodded with approval. To go with these sketches from my fitness walks, I’ll leave you with these words from Gurney and Kinkade:

“A robust attitude toward working on the spot will ensure your enjoyment of sketching far more than does your drawing ability. You will find that much of the reason that you go sketching will be for the fun of the outing itself, of being outside, discovering new things, and meeting new people.”

If that’s not the core of urban sketching, I don’t know what is.

5/6/25 Maple Leaf

5/23/25 Cloud City Coffee, Maple Leaf

6/8/25 Mt. Rainier from Maple Leaf Park

6/4/25 Maple Leaf

7/16/25 Maple Leaf

How to Keep a Sketch Journal

5/22/25 Some time to kill captured in my sketch journal

10/29/24 A special celebration captured from a selfie

It has been a year and a half since I restarted (yet again) a daily sketch journal habit – something I had tried to develop many times over the last decade. In hindsight, this process has been especially interesting to me because it parallels my overall process of drawing and learning to draw: Many starts and stops until finally it stuck (and has stuck for going on 14 years). Why is one attempt at making a creative habit finally successful after many faulty starts? From a process perspective, that question fascinates me.

Trying to answer that question for myself, I analyzed my sketch journal process about a year in. Now that I’ve kept it up consistently for a year and a half, I finally feel confident enough to write this post as a general how-to based on what I’ve learned.

Perhaps the title “how to keep a sketch journal” isn’t quite right; it’s really about how I keep a sketch journal. A journaling process will always be unique and personal. I’m hoping, though, that my tips and experiences might be helpful to someone who is trying to develop their own unique sketch journal habit. Let me know if you are and what ideas you’ve used to stay engaged. I’m endlessly fascinated!

• 

  A6-size, daily-carry Uglybooks are
  still my sketch journal format of choice.

  Choose a sketchbook format that’s small and light and therefore easily portable. This
  might not fit well with everyone’s lifestyle, but I do believe it’s imperative for a sketch journal to be a daily-carry for it to stick as a regular habit. Sketchwaiting and other unplanned, spontaneous opportunities for sketching happen all the time. In fact, I am convinced that they happen more often when you are prepared to capture them because you are more open to seeing those opportunities.

• Incorporate sketch journaling with some other routine you already have. Maybe you commute by bus or train – that’s a prime opportunity for a daily sketch. Or you walk your dog. If your dog wouldn’t cooperatively wait while you sketch (I know of only one dog who is that patient), snap a photo from wherever you are when he/she stops for a pee or a sniff. Then sketch later from that photo. For me, it’s fitness walking: That’s another daily habit, so the two reinforce each other.
• Don’t decide ahead of time what you want your sketch journal to be; in other words, don’t make rules. Leave space and time for your process to evolve organically into one that fits you best. Early in my sketching life, I wanted every sketch in my journal to be from life. If I hadn’t sketched anything by the end of the day, I would sketch any random object in front of me, and that would be a frustrating and meaningless exercise. Another time I tried a large-page format so that I could include multiple vignettes from the whole day. I couldn’t carry the large book with me, so I had to work in it only at home. That didn’t last long. Neither did the time I decided all sketches would be from imagination or memory. My current sketch journal – mostly from life but also some sketches from photos, memory and even comics – has stuck because it’s flexible.

• 

  7/13/25 The most common sketch journal content
  comes from my daily fitness walks. I enjoy recording
  the date, time and weather conditions and capturing
  the seasons.

  Be cautious if one of your motivations for keeping a sketch journal is so that you’ll have something to share regularly on social media. Like a written diary, a sketch journal can be totally private, or not. But if you make each entry with the intention of sharing, it may hold you back from authenticity.

• What should be the subject matter of the sketches? One way to answer that is to ask yourself, What would be enjoyable to look back on years from now? What might prompt a memory of a place or incident I had forgotten about? Or which would be more meaningful – a sketch of my new shoes, or a sketch of a random face from the Internet?

• What about writing? As a lifelong journal keeper, I have a separate written journal, so I don’t write much in my sketch journal except the date, time and weather (I like the diary-like feeling of those facts). But if you don’t keep a separate written journal, you may enjoy jotting notes about the sketch you just made or some unrelated thoughts. Be open to it if it happens, but again, no rules.

• 

  3/26/25 A sketchwaiting opportunity at my
  optometrist's office. This page also documents when
  I got a new pair of glasses.

  Ultimately, sketch journaling should be something you look forward to doing each day, not a burden that gives you anxiety when you’ve fallen behind. If you allow the process to tell you what you want your sketch journal to be instead of the other way around, I think it will be a pleasure, not an annoyance. 

7/15/25 I had snapped a photo of this carpet cleaning
service vehicle parked in front of a neighbor's house to
reference the phone number and website. Later, I 
realized it would make a good sketch to document
a potential step in Phase 3 of my downsizing project.

7/12/25 This page spread didn't fill out as much as I had intended, but Natalie and I chatted more than we sketched during lunch, and that's a good thing to document, too, by way of omission.

A Little Color Before Shopping

 

7/14/25 Bryant neighborhood

When I’m short on time on a grocery day, but I want to sketch (like there’s ever a time when I don’t want to sketch?), I go to Metro Market. Before shopping, I walk just a few steps to a tiny pocket park next to the Burke-Gilman Trail. Tall trees keep the few benches and tables shady but let narrow streams of light in from the trail side. A few minutes with my Caran d’Ache Neocolor II crayons, and I’m ready to hit the food shelves.