SAM with WSU Students

 

10/10/25 Seattle Art Museum's Hammering Man

SAM interior

Every October, Washington State University professor Bob Krikac and his colleagues bring their interior design and landscape architectural students to Seattle for a variety of educational opportunities. Meeting with USk Seattle is on Bob’s agenda each year, and we always look forward to sketching with about 50 young people. Bob and the other instructors feel strongly that observational drawing on location is an important skill for any design student to learn (and I certainly agree). What could be better than giving the students that experience with Seattle USk?

This year we chose the Seattle Art Museum for our joint outing. In the center of downtown Seattle, the museum building itself, especially the huge Hammering Man sculpture, and surrounding buildings are great practice in architectural drawing. In case of rain, we could all duck into the museum’s free lobby area. (About halfway through the outing, we were happy to have that option, as the morning’s drizzle turned to rain.)

At right is "Little Cloud Sky," the long-term exhibit over the SAM lobby.

I got a good opportunity to sketch both outside and inside SAM, including the newish Little Cloud Sky long-term exhibit over the lobby. The herd of three-dimensional cloud faces is cute and uplifting, I guess. Compared to Middle Fork, the huge hand-built tree that hung over the lobby for several years, or the crazy overhead cars before that, these rubbery smiley faces are a bit underwhelming. They are, however, a deceptively difficult perspective challenge, so there’s that (if you’re into that kind of thing).

As always, it was invigorating to be around the enthusiastic students, who were all eager to draw.

One of our biggest throwdowns ever!

Cheerful but deceptively difficult to sketch!

Colorful Hing Hay Park

9/29/18 Chinatown Gate and King Street Station

Yesterday USk Seattle met in Chinatown/ International District with Washington State University interior design students and their teachers, who were in Seattle for job shadowing and to research local resources. 

Over lunch afterwards, instructor Bob Krikac told me that learning to draw by hand is an important part of the curriculum because he believes clients are more receptive to early design concepts when they see them hand-drafted. As someone who obviously values old-school sketching on paper, I was pleased to hear that there’s still a place for that in contemporary design, where so much of the work is done on computers.

9/29/18 Gateway in Hing Hay Park

As you’ve seen, I’ve been using a lot of graphite lately, which I love for its expressive, tonal aspects and because it is helping me to see and understand values better. But the heck if I was going to use graphite in the colorful ID and Hing Hay Park! First up was a sketch of the historic Chinatown Gate and the equally historic King Street Station peeking behind it. I sketched a similar view last year during the Lunar New Year celebration when it was mobbed with celebrants. By comparison, it was relatively quiet in the ID yesterday.

Several months ago, I sketched a larger view of the dramatic Gateway in Hing Hay Park. This time I got up close, where a guy was eating lunch next to the bright red metal sculpture.

It was a fun morning sketching with the students and USk Seattle on what might be the last day of our streak of beautiful fall weather.

Bob and some of his students

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!

Convention Center with WSU

10/5/19 View from Convention Center

As has become an annual tradition, Washington State University prof Bob Krikac and his sophomore interior design class joined USk Seattle for a sketch outing yesterday. He brings his class from Pullman to Seattle every fall as part of the curriculum, and their week ends with urban sketching. An avid sketcher himself, Bob believes in the importance of drawing from life and encourages his students to keep a sketchbook. For us regular USk Seattle sketchers, it was fun to have lots of young energy at what was probably the largest gathering we’ve had in a long time.

Since we knew the weather could be iffy in October, we chose the Convention Center and Freeway Park for the outing – convenient for both indoor and outdoor options. While I waited for the group to assemble at the fountain, I made my InkTober sketch with the white Uni Posca pen I’ve been trying out with my trusty red Field Notes. (I’ll review this pen soon. Spoiler alert: I like it better than the white Sakura Gelly Roll I’ve been using for years – with some minor reservations.)

10/5/19 Convention Center fountain

Once we all got up to the Convention Center’s top floor with its floor-to-ceiling city views, I picked the one with cranes (of course). The overcast sky made it tricky to see values, so it was a good opportunity to pull out my red/blue pencil. (Only three cars on the freeway. . .? Perhaps a post-apocalyptic scene. 😉)

Although I didn’t have time for another sketch at Freeway Park, I was happy to see that many students wandered out to enjoy its unusual nooks, crannies and fountains.

Washington State University sophomores and USk Seattle took over the Convention Center!