Third Place Commons

 

5/7/24 Third Place Commons, Lake Forest Park

Third Place Commons is an ideal spot when Roy and I want to talk about and make comics. It’s a huge space, so we can choose close-up, middle-ground and distant compositions, and it’s full of people meeting and talking and who tend to stay around for a while.

Recently I had been thinking about some exercises I had done in Taylor Dow’s Observational Cartooning workshop three years ago. I remember clearly the exercise that I had enjoyed most: Going out to Volunteer Park to draw from life while speculating about what people or things were saying or doing. Even though the “characters” were real people and not imaginary, I could use words to add an imaginary layer. I especially had fun making up dialog between inanimate objects – it was comic-making that felt easier than anything else I had tried.

Hearing all the chatter around us as we sketched, I warmed up with the blue Uglybook (above) to capture some of the yackers (and a young woman who was quietly studying). The page was a way to get back into that fun frame of mind from the workshop.

Then I immediately started a second comic spread in a larger, lavender-colored Uglybook (below) to capture the different types of communication going on with more speculation. Fun! I think I’ll do this more often when I sketch in places with lots of people.

The scanner cut off the right edge, so I'm also showing the photo image below.

The "bible" of autobiographical comics.

While at Third Place Commons, I stopped in at Third Place Books to pick up the book I had ordered: Lynda Barry’s Making Comics. I had read a library copy three years ago. Back then, my focus was on learning to draw from imagination more than on making comics, so I didn't get far with Barry's remarkable teaching methods. But if Scott McCloud’s books are seen as the “bibles” of all comics-making, certainly Barry’s books are the “bibles” of autobiographical comics. Making Comics is rich in creative exercises and techniques to help people mine their personal stories and get them out in comics form. It was time to own a copy.

Comics campadres are at it again!

No Dogs at Third Place Commons

10/20/19 Lake Forest Park parking lot

Somewhere out at the farmers market adjacent to Third Place Commons, dogs were supposed to be participating in a Halloween costume competition. I was hoping to sketch said dogs during the USk Seattle outing last Sunday, but the cold and drizzle kept me and all the other sketchers indoors.

Fortunately, I found a large window looking out at the lower level parking lot, which was blazing with red maples. As I was finishing up this sketch, I started hearing bluegrass music from the stage. Four men – the Milner Family Fiddles, according to their CD cover – played guitars and violin, and their lively, toe-tapping tunes made me feel like I was sketching at Wintergrass. The middle guitarist had an interesting way of elevating one knee to support his guitar.

 

10/20/19 Performing on the stage at Third Place Commons

10/20/19 On a table or on the floor? Who knows...

My sketch of the chess pieces has, unfortunately, no sense of scale. A toddler was occasionally running onto the chess board, so my plan was to block in a few pieces, and as soon as she ran onto the scene, I could put her in and show that the knight was only a bit smaller than she was. But of course, she never returned.

I made the last sketch while eating lunch after the outing and chatting with other sketchers. It’s the type of sketch that Liz Steel calls a “reflex” sketch – made without paying much attention because the conversation is more interesting than the scene.

 

10/20/19 diners at Third Place Commons

A good turnout on this chilly fall morning that might as well have been winter!

Unseasonably Wet at Third Place Commons

 

8/15/25 Third Place Commons parking lot through upper-floor window

Unusual for this time of year, an atmospheric river was headed our way. With heavy rain and wind in the forecast for Friday when USk Seattle was scheduled to meet at a garden, we made a quick change to Third Place Commons, which is typically a wintertime mainstay for us. We were grateful to have this rare gem in Lake Forest Park, where a huge space of public seating is available for small meetings and other gatherings.

Grateful, yes, but I’ve also sketched there many times, so I walked around for quite a while trying to find a new angle. I spotted a small table tucked away next to large windows overlooking the parking lot (above). I recalled sketching from that same table many years ago, so I thought it would be fun to do it again. It was pretty comfy sketching with a hot cup of coffee through rain spattered glass as the atmospheric river got under way. (Here’s the blog post with that sketch from 2012 – my first time visiting Third Place Commons.)

After that, I wandered around again until I ran into Natalie. Sharing a table with her, I sketched a few people and lamps, happy to have my Urban Sketchers pals to hang out with on that unseasonably wet morning.

As is often the case, I can't spell and sketch at the same time. ;-)

Third Place Commons Filled with Sketchers

1/21/18 Lots of sketchers at the giant chessboard!

The “third place” – a concept popularized by Ray Oldenburg in his book, The Great Good Place – is where people gather to create a sense of community. I’d say that yesterday at Third Place Commons in Lake Forest Park, Urban Sketchers Seattle formed a large part of the typical Sunday morning community there – we had an amazing turnout of close to 40! (It probably didn’t hurt that Urban Sketchers had been featured on NBC Nightly News the day before!)

The giant chessboard is always an eye-catching focal point, and I managed to get Kathleen, Olivia, Gabi and Steve all in my sketch.

1/21/18 Third Place Commons parking lot

I spent so much time chatting with sketchers, including many I hadn’t seen in months and even years, that I barely had time for a second sketch. I wandered over to the large windows in the very back, which look out over the parking lot, power lines, and lots of fir trees fringing the main thoroughfare. 

I didn’t get a formal group photo, but here’s most of our group trying to get close enough to the throwdown to see the sketchbooks. It was great to see so many sketchers on the first main meetup of the year!

Queuing up to see the throwdown!

360 at Third Place Commons

 

3/29/25 Third Place Commons, Lake Forest Park

Five other sketchers and I tried something fun during Saturday’s USk Seattle outing. Sitting together around a table, we each sketched the slice of view directly in front of us, forming a 360-degree view of Third Place Commons. When I’ve participated in 360 sketches previously (once at the downtown public library and another time at the UW Quad), the participants sat in a circle facing out. For this one, we all faced each other toward the center of the table, which meant we all included fellow sketchers. Fun!

After I finished my first sketch that included Kim (at right), I turned around in my seat 180 degrees to sketch whatever had been directly behind. I like that sketch better (below) because I could see further out into the distance.

During the last half hour before the throwdown, I walked around a bit and sketched a few more people enjoying the Commons on a Saturday morning.

Our 360 throwdown was incomplete because a couple of participants had already left by the time we remembered to photograph all of them together!

Third Place Books

4/28/21 Third Place Books in Ravenna

Although Third Place Books in the Ravenna neighborhood is only about a mile away, I have spent more time and money at its other branch in Lake Forest Park. That’s because USk Seattle has met at Third Place Commons numerous times, and a stop at the book store is always fun.

To celebrate Independent Bookstore Day last Saturday, I ordered from three local shops – Phinney Books, Elliott Bay Book Company and Third Place Books in Ravenna – and they all kindly offered curbside pickup services. In addition, Blackwing put out a limited-edition pencil to commemorate the day, so of course I had to get some of those, too.

I scored an ideal parking spot at Third Place facing the trellised entryway to Café Arta and Pub, which is adjacent to the bookstore. The café has an inviting-looking patio (with heaters, a sign assured chilly potential patrons) that I hope to enjoy sometime soon.

Books and limited-edition pencils, too!

Third Place Commons

12/13/12 Private Reserve Black Velvet ink, Zig markers, Stillman & Birn Gamma

Third Place Commons in Lake Forest Park is a rare find in an urban community: A large, indoor, public gathering space with lots of seating and tables, several food venues, a kids’ play area, and even a giant chess set. It’s like a mall food court with significantly better ambiance. A friend had suggested that it might make a good winter sketching venue, so I decided to check it out. 

 

12/13/12 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Zig markers

 

With a mug of coffee from Honey Bear Bakery ($2 with free self-serve refills! Sshhh… it’s probably the best-kept-secret coffee deal in town), I walked slowly around the huge facility to stake out the right table. The scale is much larger than the coffee shops I’m used to, so the tables are farther apart. I couldn’t get the usual close-up view to sketch people, so I decided it was a good opportunity to take a more challenging (for me), wider view. First I used a fountain pen to focus on small clusters of people in the foreground. Then I filled in Third Place Books in the background with Zig brush markers. Finally, I put in some reflections on the polished floors with washed Zig markers. (This is a slightly different application of the ink/Zig combo I’ve been using lately.)

 

That sketch done, I refilled my mug (did I mention free refills?? Is this place for real?) and took another walk around the floor. I found a table right next to the large windows overlooking the parking lot, where I spotted a completely bare tree flanked by maples still stubbornly hanging onto quite a few of their leaves.

Ciscoe at Third Place Commons

6/14/14 Diamine Chocolate Brown and DeAtramentis Moss Green inks,
Zig markers, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

Third Place Commons invited Seattle Urban Sketchers to participate in its annual garden tour and plant sale event. Garden expert and lively local TV personality Ciscoe Morris broadcast his KIRO radio program live from the Commons. He was fun to sketch and even more fun to get an autograph from!

Although other sketchers were purportedly present, Blanche and I spotted only each other, so we decided to do a mini-sketchcrawl photo. 

6/14/14 Diamine Chocolate Brown, Pilot Iroshizuku Tsuyu-Kusa and DeAtramentis
Moss Green inks, Zig markers

6/14/14 Pilot Iroshizuku Take-Sumi and deAtramentis Moss Green inks, Zig markers,
Caran d'Ache Museum water-soluble colored pencils

Blanche and Tina show off their autographed Ciscoe sketches!

One Week 100 People, Year 10, Part 1

 

3/9/26 Metro Market parking lot, Crown Hill neighborhood

Although I participate in a few annual drawing challenges regularly and others more sporadically, my all-time favorite is One Week 100 People. Reading Marc Taro Holmes’ blog reminded me that this was the 10^th year of the challenge, which means I’ve participated for 10 consecutive years!

If you scroll through all the years, you’ll see that my style hasn’t changed much, nor has my goal: To capture people from life as simply as possible but also as unique individuals, not generic symbols. At least one year, I went to a studio life-drawing session for some part of the hundred. During the pandemic, I made self-portraits from a mirror – the only year I didn’t hit a hundred! All the other sketches were done in public spaces capturing whoever I saw. It’s all been so much fun while being great practice.

Sketching from my car in a grocery store parking lot has become a reliable though challenging standby: A regular stream of people going in and out. My favorite part is when they load groceries into their cars. With only seconds per sketch, it’s often frustrating, but I enjoy that tension. By comparison, Metro Market’s café was slow.

Metro Market cafe

That was Day 1. The next day, Roy, Mary Jean and I met at Third Place Commons to work on our hundred together. We all noted that the place was full of ideal “victims”: Some groups held meetings; others played cards. A crafting group was working on needlework and knitting; another group was painting and drawing. I caught a trio of bluegrass musicians jamming together. The best part: Almost everyone hardly moved!

3/10/26 Third Place Commons, Lake Forest Park

(Stay tuned for the rest of the week in Part 2.)

In the Zone at Third Place Commons

11/15/14 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Canson XL

After attending a meeting at Third Place Commons this morning, I stayed for lunch and a little sketching. I wish this place were a little closer to me – it’s ideal for practicing sketches of people of all ages. The huge space with lots of tables is congenial for small, informal meetings, chatting over coffee or just staring into one’s laptop screen. Although I’ve sketched there several times (most recently last summer when I sketched Ciscoe Morris), it had been a couple of years since I was there without a specific event as the focus.

Today I didn’t even try to give these “floating heads” a story or context as I often try to do when sketching people in the urban landscape. I had my choice of so many faces that I just sketched whoever sat in front of me. (I probably could have paid a little more attention to proportion when drawing the woman reaching for her daughter’s salad – her arm looks about 10 feet long!)

This type of sketching is, for me, what Liz Steel refers to as “reflex sketching” (which, for her, is usually of teacups): being mostly on autopilot and in “the zone.” I think it’s the only subject matter that can kick me into the zone immediately, and I find it completely relaxing and meditative. I really lose all sense of time and space. I could have stayed there sketching people all day! (Unfortunately, I couldn’t.)

I wish I could move that quickly and easily into the zone with any subject matter. I usually do get there eventually, regardless of the subject, but with architecture or complex scenes, it takes me a while to get past the technical processing (where is the vanishing point?) or internal arguments (Don’t sketch that! That’s too hard!) before I can get into the pure pleasure of the eye-brain-hand connection.

What kind of subject matter puts you in the zone immediately?

Comic Diaries with Roy

 

4/17/24 The panel at upper left was imaginary. The rest of the page spread was sketched on location at Third Place Commons in Lake Forest Park. 

My friend Roy has become a comic diary afficionado as I have. We met at Third Place Commons last week to talk about the process, exchange ideas and, of course, make comic pages. Fans of comic artist and urban sketcher Drewscape, we were both taken with his video about “real-time” autobiographical comics. It’s really no different from the kind of urban sketching Roy and I always do, but framing the practice with a comic approach gives context and “story” to drawing whatever we happen to see or experience.

I really admire and aspire to Roy’s sequential narrative and strong graphic appearance. Learning from him, I’m trying to apply more solid blacks to backgrounds, which adds to the comic book look and serves as a compositional tool to aid the viewer’s eye. You’ll see more of my attempts in tomorrow’s post.

Look how comic-booky Roy's page spread looks! I aspire to that -- or my own version of that.

38th Worldwide SketchCrawl: Third Place Commons

1/19/13 Kuretake fountain brush pen, Zig marker

Seattle Urban Sketchers made a bigger-than-expected showing at the 38^th Worldwide SketchCrawl today at Lake Forest Park’s Third Place Commons. I had suggested this location because a free community tango lesson was promised at the center stage, and I thought it would be a great opportunity for gestural sketches of lots of figures in motion. Unfortunately, only one community member came forward for a lesson, so there weren’t as many figures or as much motion as I’d hoped for. I had to settle for a few scribbles of one of the instructors during the demo.

1/19/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook

 

Tango dancers notwithstanding, there were plenty of other people to sketch throughout the complex.

To see all the sketches from today’s worldwide event, see the SketchCrawl.com forum.

1/19/13 Diamine Eclipse ink, Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook

Peach Pie

 

8/5/26 Third Place Commons, Lake Forest Park

When I realized that I had a conflict on the day of the Ballard P-Patch’s annual Art in the Garden festival, I was so disappointed. Of course, I love sketching the flowers, live musicians and people enjoying this community summer event, but we all know the real reason I go: for the bake sale table! Specifically, the peach pie, and most especially when it has been baked by Mary Jean!

When I told her of my disappointment, MJ offered to bake one just for me at a later date, and I could still donate to the P-patch. When Roy heard of the special offer I had received, he decided he wanted a peach pie, too.

On Wednesday afternoon when it was too smoky to sketch outdoors, we met at Third Place Commons to devour peach pie together. With the carton of vanilla ice cream that Roy had picked up from Always Summer (where we’ve sketched before), we had ala mode.

Good friends, freshly baked (that morning!) peach pie ala mode, followed by sketching: Even on a smoke-filled day, it gets no better.

More Wacky Colors

 

12/31/25 Third Place Commons

Here are a couple more experiments using my wacky color palette. I’m diggin’ it!

I made the one above at Third Place Commons, where a few friends helped Natalie celebrate her birthday. The people I sketched were not part of our group; they happened to be sitting on the other end of the community table, and they were all sketching, too! In the background is the Honey Bear Bakery's mascot.

The one below is of Top Pot Doughnuts in Wedgwood. Most of the café space is filled with shelves containing old books, which form an interesting background pattern.

1/2/26 Top Pot Doughnuts, Wedgwood neighborhood

These values-based colors are fun to use in interior spaces. I haven’t tried using them outdoors, though – that will be next-level testing. Given all the rain and cold still ahead, though, it could be a while before I can get to that. In the meantime, I have more excuses to hang out in cafés.

Play Date at Third Place Commons

 

2/17/25 Third Place Commons in Lake Forest Park (Caran d'Ache Luminance and Museum Aquarelle pencils in Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook)

The day after the Suzzallo Library USk outing, I had another opportunity to practice warm/cool color studies on location at an art play date with Roy and Mary Jean. I also got an idea to use watercolor pencils and non-soluble colored pencils together in a strategic way. I had tried it years ago but then forgot about it until my current colored pencil class reawakened old ideas.

Same pencils in one of our round-robin Seawhite of Brighton concertina books

The strategy is to use non-soluble pencils first for the drawing and the main coloring. Then in areas where I want more saturated coverage, I used watercolor pencils with washes, often in the opposite color as the initial layer. The non-soluble pencil marks show through, retaining the “pencil look” that I often miss after I’ve activated watercolor pencils too smoothly.

So exciting to be using and thinking about colored pencils again!

BIG Play Date

 

1/15/25 Third Place Commons (Neopastels)

Inktense Blocks

For most of a year now, I’ve been exploring a comics approach to on-location sketching (and thinking in terms of comics in general). I still love it, and there’s still much to learn and try. But I’ve lately been feeling constricted by my small sketchbook format made even tighter by the multi-panel approach. Each sketch ends up being only two or three inches, which requires using finer media and small spots of color. I’ve been craving BIG! Or at least bigger.

The thing is, I don’t like using thick, soft media when I’m sketching on location in my usual manner: standing. I need a table for support so that I can apply pressure to a larger page, which limits the places I can use them. But winter is when I spend the most time sketching indoors in cafes and such, so it’s a good time to go big and chunky.

I knew that they had both been using them lately, so for our next play date, I proposed to Roy and Mary Jean that we all bring our fat media: Crayons, pastels, chunky water-soluble sticks. I hoped that hanging around with them as they used theirs would encourage me.

And it did! With all of us spreading our toys out on a large, round table at Third Place Commons, I had no trouble jumping into the thick of things, so to speak. I used Caran d’Ache Neopastel oil pastels (which I had previously tried only on portraits) and Derwent Inktense Blocks. Next time, I think I’ll bring some Caran d’Ache Neocolor II water-soluble crayons.

Nothing like chunky toys and inspiring playmates to kill the winter blahs!

Inktense Blocks

Our playground!