The Space Needle Turns 50

5/26/12, Copic Multiliner SP pen, watercolor

I was almost four years old when my family went to Century 21, the Seattle World’s Fair, in 1962. I remember very little about that Fair – only a yellow plastic lei I received at the Hawaii pavilion (I guess?) and a plastic pen shaped like the Space Needle. I don’t remember seeing the actual Space Needle at all, though I’m sure I must have. The Space Needle is celebrating its 50^th birthday this year, so here’s my birthday portrait, sketched from Gasworks Park.

Bell Harbor Pier (Plus Two Bucket List Items Checked)

5/15/18 Space Needle from Bell Harbor

Located on the north end of the waterfront, Bell Harbor Pier might be one of Seattle’s last remaining secrets. Connected to the Bell Harbor Conference Center by a pedestrian bridge, it probably attracts event attendees between seminars and buffet lunches, but it’s also always open to the public. On a gorgeous Tuesday afternoon, the waterfront was crowded with tourists and other pedestrians on the street level, yet just a few flights of stairs up, I had the pier nearly to myself.

I almost sketched the city skyline (see photo at bottom of page), and the moored boats were also tempting. But when I swiveled around to look to the north, I spotted the Space Needle peek-a-booing from behind a stack of buildings. The Needle is still wearing its ugly hat while renovation continues on new features intended to lure more tourists and their money (yawn).

Now that I know how beautiful and undiscovered the Bell Harbor Pier is, I’ll probably be going there more often just to sketch. On that day, however, I had another motive:

The name Aaron Draplin became familiar to me after I started using Field Notes and discovered that he is the designer of the little notebooks that I have grown fond of using as pocket sketchbooks. But it wasn’t until I had viewed several video recordings of the motivational talks he gives to designers that I became a fan – not specifically of his design work but more of his philosophy toward design and freelance business. I’m not a designer nor an entrepreneur (anymore), yet he was inspiring even to me. I imagine that he is very motivating to young people just getting started in their design careers.

Aaron, Aaron and me!

I’d heard that Aaron was coming to town to give a seminar at a Drbbble design conference, which was to be followed by a party that was open to the public. I decided I would go meet him there. After sketching the Space Needle, I waited in a long line of other people for the party to begin. In the distance, I could see Aaron in the middle of a crowd, and he seemed to be waving to me! Although he knew that I followed him on Instagram and hung out in the Field Nuts Facebook group, we’d never met before. . . was he really waving to me? In fact, he was, and came right over to talk to me! Here’s how he described it on Facebook the next day:

A-ha – so my shirt turned out to be a very good investment! 😉 (That’s the same shirt I wore when I made my pilgrimage to Field Notes headquarters in Chicago last year.) He’s a very cool guy, and I was thrilled to meet him.

Even more thrilling than meeting him? Sketching him! So that’s two things I checked off on my life list that day.

Skyline and Elliott Bay from Bell Harbor Pier

Seattle Center Winterfest

12/17/17 Seattle Center Winterfest miniature train and village

Although the Friday sketchers tend to end up in the Armory whenever we meet at the Seattle Center for one event or another, I think it’s been almost exactly five years since the main USk Seattle group has met there for Winterfest.

12/17/17 Shane the caricaturist

The Armory’s main visual Winterfest attraction is a miniature train and turn-of-the-previous-century village, whose centerpiece is a train station and clock tower that look remarkably similar to King Street Station (above).

I had a great table for sketching the train station scene that I didn’t want to lose as the Armory started filling. I looked behind me and spotted a caricaturist at work, so I simply swiveled my chair around. My intention was to include his client in the sketch, but he finished drawing her just as I had finished drawing him.

Although a little reluctant to give up my warm, cozy spot inside the Armory, I knew it wasn’t raining, so I pulled up my hood and ventured outside. Like that USk outing in 2012, it was bitterly cold and windy, so I spent no more than 15 minutes sketching the top of the Space Needle covered up with colorful tarps and scaffolding for remodeling. (Waiting at the bus stop for my ride home, I spotted the Space Needle from the opposite side, so I sketched it again as an inset. From that distance, I could see more of the construction equipment on top, plus the Christmas-tree-shaped lighting on the needle.)

12/17/17 Space Needle wearing its top-heavy hat

Even in my down coat, I was shivering and ready to retreat indoors again. At the Armory entrance, though, a pair of buskers called Fascinator Jazz Band was performing, and you know I can’t walk by buskers without sketching them. I decided that if these hardy musicians could play in the cold (the bass player kept stopping to rub her hand warmers between songs), I could shiver for another 10 minutes to sketch them. 

Considering that it’s the week before Christmas and probably the busiest weekend for holiday activities, we had a great turnout of sketchers, including Anya from Anchorage and Juliana from Londrina, Brazil! 

12/17/17 Fascinator Jazz Band

Seattle Center with WSU Students

 

10/11/24 Pacific Science Center

Chihuly's "Sonic Blooms"

A long-standing USk Seattle tradition has been to host interior design and landscape architecture students from Washington State University for an urban sketching meetup. Organized by prof Bob Krikac and his colleagues, the annual outing is always a fun opportunity to sketch with engaged and enthusiastic young people.

I missed last year’s outing, so I was especially eager to attend Friday’s gathering at Seattle Center. In fact, the last time I was at the Center, it was for a rainy Folklife, so I had done all my sketching indoors. Friday was chilly but dry, and I was in the mood to hit a few icons that I hadn’t sketched in a long time: the Space Needle, the Pacific Science Center’s white arches and Dale Chihuly’s whimsical and colorful Sonic Blooms outside the glass artist’s museum (at left and below).

Knowing that the Center grounds are full of trees, I came prepared for color, too, and found some brilliant yellow ones in front of the Science Center arches (top of post).

This was the first time I sketched the Space Needle close enough to see people walking around on the newish transparent platform up there!

Including the 49 students, we had a huge throwdown full of impressive drawings. Bob and fellow instructors Michael Sanchez, Steve Austin and Alaina Pulay stress the importance of practicing drawing by hand from direct observation for the design work their students are studying. It was exciting to see from their sketches that they are well on their way to careers that will make use of their observational skills.  

I wasn't the only one who tackled the Space Needle!

Chubby Needle

 

1/24/24 Maple Leaf neighborhood

I’m not a fan of blow-up holiday lawn ornaments, especially when it’s the fourth week of January. As a native Seattleite, however, I had to put aside my curmudgeonly attitude when I saw this chubby Space Needle on a recent walk.

Although I’ve sketched the actual Space Needle many, many times, I’m still always challenged by its shapely proportions. It’s an icon; if you get it wrong, even people who have never seen it in person will know something’s off. I chuckled as I sketched this squatty Needle: Finally license to draw it fat.

Outdoors and Indoors at Seattle Center

 

2/25/23 KEXP radio's cafe

After we had to make a last-minute venue change on a cold afternoon, we were afraid USk Seattle might have a small turnout at the Seattle Center, but as usual, our hardy members didn’t disappoint! Gathering at KEXP radio’s café (now managed by Caffe Vita), we had our choice of sketching anywhere at the Center or staying cozy inside the café.

Already chilled from sketching the rally in support of Ukraine before the outing began, I warmed up with a mocha and Ching’s company inside Caffe Vita (above). A huge venue with large windows on one side, it was a fun place to make a backlit sketch.

Climate Pledge Arena and Space Needle

Fortified, I wandered around outside for a while, looking for an interesting composition. It’s been so long since I’ve sketched at the Center that I was feeling sentimental about the Space Needle. I didn’t have to go far to find this view of it behind Climate Pledge Arena (left).

Chilled again, I was thinking about going back to Caffe Vita when I spotted Sugar Bakery & Café across the street (it’s hard to resist a café so blatant about its primary ingredient). I grabbed a table with an ideal view to make another portrait of the Needle. I know it’s easily recognizable even if I get it wrong, but I always think it’s important to get its proportions right. (It’s my civic pride as a native.) I suddenly realized that the top of the Needle is made up of five stacked ellipses (below) – no wonder it’s challenging to draw!

Sketchbook notes: This was my first sketch outing using only my A6-size Hahnemühle sketchbook. As I had anticipated, sketching across the gutter annoys me; I have to plan the composition to make sure the crack doesn’t land in an unattractive spot. But I must say it was really nice to carry my small and light fitness-walking bag instead of my larger, heavier bag. The A6 is also much easier to hold while standing than my usual A5 sketchbook.

A6 Hahnemuhle next to my mini-size Rickshaw bag 

It's not visible, but I also have a pocket-size Uglybook next to the A6 sketchbook. Less weight, less bulk, a much easier daily-carry. . . will I be able to stand the smaller sketchbook full-time?

Camel and Black Sun

7/6/14 Platinum Carbon and Diamine Grey ink, Zig markers, Caran d'Ache Museum
water-soluble colored pencils

Outside the doors of the Seattle Asian Art Museum are two camel statues. Kids and adults alike love to sit between the camels’ humps for photo opps. On this warm and sunny Sunday afternoon, Volunteer Park was full of people. I set up my stool a distance away, figuring that I would start the sketch, and as soon as someone sat on the camel, I’d be ready to sketch them in. But for the 30 minutes I took to sketch this, no one came by! (Maybe they saw me sketching and hesitated. . .? Hmmm, doubtful – usually bystanders are happy to get in my way!)

Next I sketched Black Sun, Isamu Noguchi’s elegant “donut” sculpture, which is another favorite Kodak moment. If a photographer stands in just the right place, the Space Needle can be framed perfectly inside the donut hole (Google “space needle noguchi black sun” and you’ll see hundreds of images). Visitors can’t resist trying to frame both the Needle and a loved one in the hole. This time I wasn’t disappointed. I just started sketching the sculpture, and eventually a man came by and put himself in the hole. Behind him, another tourist took photos of the Needle.

7/6/14 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Caran d'Ache Museum water-soluble colored pencil, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

Lake Union Park with New Friends

 

6/18/22 Space Needle from Lake Union Park

Urban sketchers and fans of products from Traveler’s Company and Art Toolkit have a lot in common: They all love documenting their days, and they all love fun sketching tools! Seattle urban sketcher and Traveler’s rep April Wu invited USk Seattle to help introduce urban sketching to users of Traveler’s Company art journaling materials. In addition, Maria Coryell-Martin, developer of the Art Toolkit, gave a demo and showed her popular portable watercolor kits at the event last Saturday. It was fun to meet new sketchers, and we hope they’ll continue to join USk at future outings.

The chosen location, Lake Union Park, is one of my favorites, and it was a productive afternoon for me: Several compositional studies, a couple of which made the cut for larger, color sketches. A bonus was the gesture sketches I got of the many critters hanging out near the water.

First on my list of priorities was documenting the Space Needle, which was recently repainted in its original “Galaxy Gold” to commemorate its 60^th birthday. I tried a composition with the Needle next to the Museum of History and Industry’s old clock, but I didn’t like it enough to do a full-color sketch. A walk around the park led me to some large purple allium flowers that seemed a perfect contrast to the orange Needle.

As many times as I’ve sketched at Lake Union Park, I don’t think I had captured the Center of Wooden Boats building before. To me, it’s not a very interesting modern building, so I looked for a composition that would frame it. While I sketched, some aggressive Canada geese walked right up to me, honking their demands for food! Anyone who gets in my face like that should know they will be sketched.

Aggressive honkers and prolific poopers... but they did have cute goslings in tow.

Lots of wildlife to sketch that day!

April (at right) and Maria (in cap) introduce urban sketching to
fans of Traveler's products and the Art Toolkit.

Great turnout of many first-time urban sketchers as well as long-timers!

Dry at Last!

1/11/19 Amazon Sphere and Space Needle in South Lake Union

Café Suisse is a cute venue in the South Lake Union neighborhood. Filled with lots of fun, colorful décor in a Swiss theme, it also offers a wide variety of pastries, including many that are gluten-free. Greg would have loved all the GF goodies, but I was there without him (he didn’t miss out; I got him some muffins to go) to meet Natalie and Kathleen.

1/11/19 Cafe Suisse

Right outside the café, I spotted a peek-a-boo view of the Needle near the Amazon Spheres. It was chilly but dry! After being rained in for what seemed a long, long time, it was wonderful to sketch outdoors again.

After that, I needed a warm-up. I dashed into the café, where Kathleen and Natalie were already settled in. I had planned to sketch other patrons, but in the direction I was facing, the chairs remained unoccupied. Although many decorative items filled the space, I simplified the composition significantly to focus on the challenging perspective of the tall chairs. Sketchers often bemoan the perspective difficulties of architecture, but personally, I find interior perspective to be just as difficult.

And speaking of simplification, my minimal kit is working out well so far. The limited palette is forcing me to make choices I otherwise wouldn’t think to make (like the purple and orange Space Needle). It’s hard for me to be imaginative about color otherwise, so this challenge is good for me.

Minimalism!

New group selfie technique!

I’m a Magnet for Heavy Equipment

4/26/19 former Key Arena under renovation

Ostensibly the Friday sketch outing was scheduled for the Cherry Blossom and Japanese Cultural Festival at the Seattle Center’s Fisher Pavilion. An indoor venue, it was a safe bet for these iffy spring days. My secret intention, however, was to sketch outdoors as long as the weather was hospitable, and it was. In the sunshine, I would even go so far as to call it “warm”!

4/26/19 at the foot of the Space Needle

In all directions, the Seattle Center is full of things to sketch, but I just followed my ears to the noisy commotion at the former Key Arena, which is undergoing a major renovation. Sitting on the edge of the International Fountain, I caught a crane and a few smaller machines doing their thing. The only problem was that from that distance, I didn’t realize the crane was standing on a lower level, so I couldn’t see most of its base. It looks like a crane without an engine. (Still, I’m pleased that I was able to get both the crane and the arena in the same composition while maintaining the correct proportions on both – all on a 5½-by-8½-inch page. I credit Gabi Campanario’s Pocket Urban Sketching workshop for that.)

I seem to be a magnet for heavy equipment – no matter where I go, I find some. (I realize that’s not a challenge in this city.) At the foot of the Space Needle, I found a machine with nothing to do, but its tire treads made an interesting study of light and shadow, as did the Needle itself.

Happy sketchers in the sunshine!

UpGarden

8/18/19 Space Needle and sunflowers

UpGarden is aptly named: It’s the highest p-patch in Seattle. Noted as the nation’s first rooftop community garden, it opened on the top level of the Seattle Center parking garage in 2012. Now thriving and filled with flowers, fruits and vegetables, the garden is a welcome spot of green in the shadow of the Space Needle. USk Seattle has been meaning to meet there for quite a while, and it finally landed on our calendar yesterday.

I took a leisurely stroll around the garden and noted several fun potential sketches: the Airstream trailer (filled with gardening tools) in front of a crane; corn stalks with the Queen Anne towers behind them; a vintage Ford Galaxy 500 filled with plants. The hard part was choosing! Although the sunflowers were past their prime, I didn’t mind: I liked the composition of the tall plant’s heart-shaped leaves in front of the Needle.

8/18/19 Views from UpGarden

What’s next? I couldn’t decide, so I pulled out the trick that served me so well in Amsterdam: I made a page of thumbnail-size sketches of the compositions I’d spotted earlier.

The first time I sketch again with USk Seattle after I’ve been traveling, I’m always filled with joy and gratitude for my community here at home. I’m fortunate to be able to travel and sketch with people from around the world, but it’s when I do that I am reminded not to take my homies for granted. Many sketchers don’t belong to a local group, so the symposium is their only opportunity to be with like-minded folks. I’m much luckier than that; I can do it several times a month.

Driving home with the top down on the Express Lanes, it was 73 degrees and clear. This is, unarguably, the best time of year to be here. I don’t want to be anywhere else.

A purple Ford Galaxy 500 filled with plants

Good to be back with my homies!

Mega Pity Party Weekend!

8/11/17 Calder's Eagle at the Olympic Sculpture Park

When we heard that the 5th Annual West Coast Sketch Crawl in Vancouver, B.C., had been cancelled, many of us in Seattle were very disappointed. I had a great time in Tacoma last year and in San Diego the year before, and I had been looking forward to another terrific long weekend of sketching in that lovely Canadian city to the north.

The USk Seattle admin team decided that we weren’t going to cry over lost sketching. For the same weekend that would have been the Sketch Crawl, we scheduled an extravaganza of outings on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Not intended to be a formal replacement for the cancelled event, it was just a way to give everyone as many sketch outing options as possible as we move toward the waning days of summer.

8/11/17 Space Needle

On Friday we met at the Olympic Sculpture Park, which has become something of a summertime staple. Although I sketch Calder’s Eagle just about every time I visit (last year, twice in 2014 and in 2013), I was magnetically drawn to it yet again. This time, however, I chose a partial view, and as I sketched, I remembered fondly Calder’s similar but much larger Flamingo in Chicago.

I wandered around the park a long time, simply enjoying the not-too-hot sunshine and not feeling particularly compelled – until I saw the Space Needle peeking over some buildings. Then with only a few minutes before the throwdown, I made a quick sketch above the amphitheater with Richard Serra’s Wake in the background. The empty space on the page was a good spot to hold the badge that Kate had playfully given to participants.

8/11/17 Amphitheater and Richard Serra's Wake

8/12/17 Sketcher on the ferry

For Saturday, Day 2 of our extravaganza, we chose Bainbridge Island for an entire day of sketching. Meeting up on the ferry, most of us started sketching right away, and I spotted a woman I didn’t know who looked like she was sketching, too. When we talked to her later, it turned out Martha was aware of Urban Sketchers but didn’t know we would be on the ferry that day. A life drawing student, she simply enjoys sketching people on the ferry. Imagine meeting a sketcher in the wild who isn’t part of Urban Sketchers while we’re on our way to a sketch outing!

After the initial meetup in Winslow, I headed for the Bainbridge Farmers Market, where I was lured by music and the smells of good foods cooking. I had to leave the house so early to catch the ferry that I had skipped breakfast, so I ate a big piece of carrot cake while sketching Good Karma Blues, a lively band with a terrific vocalist.

 

8/12/17 Good Karma Blues at Bainbridge Farmers Market

8/12/17 Eagle Harbor

That was a lot of fun, and I could have stayed all day sketching nothing but the market, but I was on an island, after all, so I found myself gravitating toward the water. At Eagle Harbor, the sun started to break through the overcast sky as a few lazy boats knocked against a pier. 

After the sketchbook throwdown, the group split up – some going to Rolling Bay to take part in the art studio tour and some staying in Winslow for lunch and whatever. I opted for the latter, and after a leisurely lunch of symposium gossip, half the afternoon zipped by on island time. A few of us went to the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, where local artist Bill Hemp has an exhibit of pen and ink drawings of island locations. Interestingly, the pieces are reproductions of his sketchbook pages that look like they are torn right out of a spiral-bound book.

While I often have opportunities to sketch ferries, I see them only when they are either stopped briefly at a dock or a long distance away where it’s hard to see details. I took advantage of a moored ferry near the Winslow terminal to squeeze in one last sketch before hopping on the ferry back to Seattle. I think being able to take my time to observe and draw all the details on this one will help me fake it a little more realistically next time I need to sketch a ferry on the fly.

8/12/17 Washington State Ferry at Winslow terminal

For our third and final day, we chose the West Seattle Farmers Market, one of Seattle’s few neighborhood markets that are open all year round. As I was driving across the West Seattle Bridge, the drizzle on my windshield started looking like it could be “measurable” rain, which made me wonder if we had finally ended our record-breaking spell of consecutive dry days. I also started wondering if our sketch outing would end in a soggy mess. As it turned out, we did end our dry streak with 56 consecutive rainless days, but I needn’t have worried about sogginess – the measurable drizzle stopped as quickly as it had begun, and it was my favorite sketching weather – a comfortable temperature, not windy, the sun darting in and out of clouds just often enough to provide shadows or light, whichever you need at the moment.

 

8/13/17 Bluegrass band at West Seattle Farmers Market

I mentioned a few days ago that I had hardly sketched any people in Chicago, so today I made up for it. A lively bluegrass band, a young cellist, and a guitarist standing in front of a huge mural all provided the tunes for a fun morning at the farmers market.

8/13/17 guitarist and mural

8/13/17 cellist at the market

8/13/17 Junction Plaza Pocket Park near the West Seattle Farmers Market 

Despite the iffy weather, we had a small but stalwart turnout for our pity party finale. And Sue and I get the prize (each other’s respect!) for participating on all three days!

Stalwart sketchers at the Day 3 finale

Sue and I made it to all three days!