Category Archives: Urban Sketchers

Blessed Sacrament Church

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I’ve been attending Blessed Sacrament Church, a Dominican parish in the University District, for over 30 years and I’ve marveled at this view every time I’m in the nave of the Neo-Gothic church. This past Sunday, I finally remembered to bring my sketchbook to Mass and to draw the imposing space from my usual position in one of the rear pews. Even though the design intention when the structure was built in 1925 was for the interior to be clad in wood and marble, the brick walls, concrete columns, and steel roof structure remain exposed to this day. Yet, the rawness of these elements do not detract in any way from the grand scale and proportions of the space.

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This evening, I’m leaving for Rome, where I will be teaching for two months and visiting many more beautiful churches.

Seattle Workshop: Fall Edition

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I want to thank Gail Wong and all of the participants in our Line to Color workshop for a fun and stimulating weekend. For me, it was inspiring to see and feel the energy emanating from the group as we sped through downtown Fremont Saturday morning, settled into Gasworks Park in the afternoon, and then reconvened down at bustling Pike Place Market on Sunday, all the time being blessed with great weather and company. After a workshop it’s always difficult for me to gauge the impact of what two-and-a-half days of drawing can have but I did see a lot of progress and hope all who attended will continue to pursue and enjoy this creative activity.

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Being occupied with working with each of the participants, I didn’t have much time to draw on my own. But here a couple of very quick sketches. The first is one of my teaching sketches that I do to demonstrate how to block out a composition on a page.

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The second is a market scene where I dabbled with a waterbrush that I borrowed from Daniel, one of the participants, to see how the it might react with the ink lines. I kind of like the effect even though it’s quite subtle. The ease of creating gray washes with a waterbrush might be the first step toward incorporating color into my drawings.

 

Under the Viaduct

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Here is a view from beneath the Alaskan Way Viaduct where University Avenue meets Alaskan Way, drawn at the monthly meeting of the Seattle Urban Sketchers yesterday. Built in the 1950s, the two-level highway is a critical connector to Fremont, Ballard, and other points in northwest Seattle. And driving on the northbound upper deck offers impressive views of downtown Seattle and across Puget Sound to Bainbridge Island the Olympic Mountains beyond.

After the 2001 earthquake, civic leaders decided that the viaduct needed to be replaced for safety concerns. After studying various alternatives, including surface streets and bridges, it was finally decided after a long public process that a 2-mile long tunnel beneath downtown Seattle was the best option. On July 30th, Bertha, the world’s largest tunnel boring machine, began drilling operations.

The viaduct is scheduled for demolition in 2016. I will miss it.

Seattle Workshop II

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Gail Wong and I will be offering a second Line to Color workshop in Seattle September 6–8. As in our spring workshop, we’ll begin on Friday evening with an introductory sketching session followed by dinner and presentations at the Ballard Pizza Co. On Saturday, we’ll work in the Fremont neighborhood and at Gasworks Park. Then on Sunday, we’ll meet the Seattle Urban Sketchers at either Pike Place Market or Pioneer Square. As always, it should be fun. And beginners are certainly welcome!

Here is a pdf offering a complete schedule and more information.

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If you’re interested or have any questions, please contact Gail at gail@glwarc.com.

Fremont Mischief Distillery

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Mike and Patti Sherlock started making rye whiskey in the late 1990s from a recipe from the journals of John Jacob, an immigrant from Holland and Patti’s great-grandfather. When Washington state passed the craft law in 2008, Mike and Patti founded Fremont Mischief Distillery. Here is a view of the distillery with its retail shop and tasting room fronting the Ship Canal.

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Fremont Mischief distills whiskey, gin and vodka using winter wheat grown on Whidbey Island and rye from small Washington State farms and the Willamette Valley in Oregon. Quoting from the distillery’s website:

“Fremont Mischief is a full-circle distillery. We begin by selecting the finest organic, heirloom and small farm conventional grains & botanicals. Together with pure artesian waters, these ingredients are skillfully crafted into fine spirits with the help of our artisan stills. Then, our spent grain is reused and ultimately returns, full-circle, as organic compost for farms and gardens. We recognize the artistry in crafting fine spirits. Our stills are a work of art themselves. They are hand-made by Arnold Holstein Co., a German family that’s been building distilleries for many decades. We worked closely with the still-maker, to incorporate proprietary technology into our columns stills. No need for twelve times distilled or even three.  Our stills allow us to distill pure, flavorful spirits the very first run.”

Mukilteo Lighthouse

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The Seattle UrbanSketchers met at the Mukilteo Lighthouse on a cool, foggy morning this past Sunday. Surprisingly, the lighthouse is rather diminutive, only 38 feet tall and constructed of wood. It began operations in 1906 to guide ships on their way to Everett, Washington, as well as those traveling up Possession Sound and the Saratoga Passage.

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Because the lighthouse grounds didn’t open until noon, I walked along the beach at low tide, and climbed up on some rocks until I could capture this view from the top of the seawall.

The Mukilteo Light Station was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 and is now maintained by the Mukilteo Historical Society, although the navigational equipment is still maintained by the Coast Guard.

The Tar Paper Shacks

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These humble gable structures wrapped in tar paper have been around ever since I moved to the Fremont neighborhood in 1982. I don’t mean to demean the place by calling it the Tar Paper Shack; I actually admire the simplicity of the gable forms and how they manage to fit into the tight corner site in a rather graceful manner.

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I don’t know much about their history or story, nor anything about who might be living there. Nevertheless, I am sure those driving along Leary Avenue NW where it turns into NW 36th Street will recognize it, and maybe even miss it if it is ever replaced.

Arched Openings

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A common technique for composing a drawing is using a window or doorway to frame the scene. I particularly like using arched openings as a framing device since the shape is easily recognizable for what it is. Here are three examples, one of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, another of S. Ivo in Rome , and the third from an old brewery building in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

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In each case, I start with the shape and proportions of the arched opening. I then use this shape and size as the measure for everything that is seen and drawn within the arched shape. The arched shape also serves as the foreground element that establishes where I am and my relationship to what I am viewing.

Notice that I drew the archway leading to the courtyard and Borromini’s S. Ivo della Sapienza a little low but I didn’t let this prevent me from drawing the full height of its spire. This is a reminder to never let a framing device alter the proportions of what you are drawing.