Canton Alley

I just discovered this alley in the ID district.  It is located next to the Wing Luke Museum and looks to be part of the museum with old storefronts fronting the alley.  It is great to find an historic alley that has maintained its original character.

Power Outage

No electricity today.  Seattle City Light was working on replacing a telephone pole in our neighborhood so I was without power for 4 hours.  Couldn't work so I went to the Japanese Tea Garden to sketch and paint.

Fall Starting to Show at Japanese Tea Garden

This time of year, if you have a nice clear sunny day take advantage of it.  Who knows when the next sunny day will be in Seattle.  Sunday, I took the opportunity to go to the Japanese Tea Garden.  To my surprise so did a lot of other people.  There was a special drumming exhibition, bonsai exhibit and Ikebana exhibit as well as a traveling photography exhibit.  The trees are just starting to change colors.  So in the next few weeks, as it gets colder, we will really start seeing a change.  The Arboreteum and Japanese Tea Garden will be beautiful in all its Fall Glory!

29th WORLD WIDE SKETCHCRAWL: SAT. OCT. 16TH

This morning Seattle Urban Sketchers met in the International District for the 29th WW Sketchcrawl.

We had about 15-18 people show up to sketch.  Great day for it!  Crisp, sunny, fall day.  I drew one of the oldest storefront buildings in the ID district and the Standard Cafe Noodle Bowl sign (a favorite of mine).

League of Education Voter Lecture Series

Thursday night I went to a lecture at Mt. Zion Baptist Church.  The guest speaker was the Mayor of Sacramento Kevin Johnson  who in his past life was a NBA player for the Phoenix Suns.  After the NBA he established a charitable foundation St. Hope,  which focuses on education reform and charter schools to help inner city kids. For more information on Voices from the Education Revolution Speaker series see www.educationvoters.org

Friends of Garfield Orchestra

Monday night the Garfield High School Orchestra had a rehearsal and a parent group supporting the orchestra had the first meeting of the year in the Commons.  I took the opportunity to sketch while listening to the plans for the year.  Garfield High School Orchestra is under the direction of Marcus Tsutakawa and has grown from 10 students in 1985 to 160 with three levels of orchestra and smaller chamber groups.  See www.garfieldorchestra.org for concert listings this year.

Essential Baking Company Bakery

I went to Essential Baking Company Bakery this morning for coffee and a muffin.  It is located near Gas Works Park in Wallingford in an old historic Bakery.  It has great ambiance and a wonderful place to enjoy your morning jo.

Drawing people

I have a hard time drawing people. In fact I tend to avoid them when I sketch.  So I tried practicing by looking at a photo of these Chinese Opera actors.  The photo was taken by Tia an urban sketcher from Singapore.  Check out her flickr site for the real thing.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/tia_studio/4953705988/in/photostream/
Here is my sketch rendition of the photo.