Family Weekend @ WWU

Last weekend we went up to Western Washington University in Bellingham for the Family Weekend to see our son Ian.  It was a typical Northwest Fall....rainy and then blue skies!  During the stretches of dry I was able to do a sketch on campus, at the Saturday market, and then along the waterfront on the South Bay trail. I am testing out a new palette and new sketchbook.  Doing this really changes my watercolors and how the paint takes to the paper.  I am also testing out some of the exercises in Jeanne Dobie's watercolor  book "Making Color Sing".  I am using her palette of suggested colors.  Luckily I had most of them and only added two colors to my already existing tubes of colors.

Bellingham's Saturday Farmer's Market

View of the Alaska Ferry Terminal From the South Bay Trail

Jeanne Dobie's Palette

Bischofberger Violins

I took my son to Bischofberger Violins to get new strings put on his violin.   This is a great violin shop that looks just like what you think a music store should look like.  I would love to just go by and spend some time sketching in there.  While waiting for the strings to be put on I did a sketch on the resin receipt.

Ting MoMo

I just had lunch at Ting Momo today.  Of course I didn't bring a sketchbook.  I always seem to forget to have one with me because my purse is so full of other items.  But I did get a napkin from there and was able to sketch the place.  Great location in South Lake Union and a neat restaurant.  It is Tibetan food which I had never had before.  Some similarities to chinese food.

The Q @ Garfield High School

Practicing with watercolor pencils on a quick sketch I did outside of Quincy Jones Performing Arts Center at Garfield High School.

A Sketch and a Cuppa Jo

Essential Bakery in Wallingford is a wonderful spot to sit down for a pastry and coffee or tea, grab a newspaper and read the morning paper or like I did do a quick sketch.  It has wonderful ambiance. The napkin sketch was done on an earlier visit.  Then I came back to do a sketch from a similar point of view in my sketchbook.

Sketching on Capitol HIll, Seattle

Urban Sketchers met this morning on Capitol Hill, sketching the environs around Group Health and 15th Ave. East.  This is the sketch I did of First Church of Christ Scientist.  We were lucky to have a morning without rain.  It came down hard after we reconvened at Victrola Coffee.

Testing out new Watercolors from Daniel Smith

I bought some new watercolors from Daniel Smith yesterday since they had a 20% off on everything.
So I decided to test out my new colors on an old line sketch I did last Fall at Pike Place Market. This sketch was a quicky probably 15-20 minutes and I never had time to go back and finish it with watercolor. 

In front of Lowell's Cafe

Hydrangeas

Hydrangeas are in bloom what a wonderful way to have a bouquet of flowers from your garden.  Great colors!  Here are some I sketched and watercolored last night.

Urban Sketching @ Kenmore Air

Sunday Urban sketchers sketched the operations at Kenmore Air.  It is a great location and fun to see all the float planes being loaded into the water and prepping to take off.
Here are my sketches for the day.  Things happened so fast there you had to capture the scene quickly.  As a result I was able to do 5 sketches.

Fueling up.

Loading into the water.

Taking off!

Yellow Float Plane

Maintenance

Flowers from My Garden

My son and I were working on painting the trim on our house and I had to clear away some of the over grown bushes and flowers which made a nice summer bouquet.

National Night Out

Every year we have the Magnolia Big Band play at our block watch party.  One of our neighbors is a member of this band and their practice nights coincide with National Night Out.  Here is a sketch of the group playing.

Magnolia Big Band

View from My Porch

The hydrangeas are blooming!  And today was a sunny day so I sketched the view of our side garden from my front porch.

Practicing clouds and sunset

This sketch is from a photo shot by my son of South Lake Union at Sunset.

Sunny Day @ Japanese Tea Garden

Two bad days between our great weekend and we have  another great sunny day in Seattle.  This time I went to the Japanese Tea Garden and did a couple of sketches.

Finally a Summer Day in Seattle!

We haven't seen many hot summer days this year yet.  Sunday was incredible!  It was actually hot but not unbearable.  Here is a view from under I-5 looking across the ship canal and at University Bridge.

Phalaeonopsis

Bought a new watercolor sketch pad and wanted to experiment with it.  The paper is different it is a Daler Rowney pad 140 lb but not cold press.  The surface is rougher than I am use to and it takes the water color very differently.  The water color basically sits on the surface and it not absorbed as quickly.  But the effects with the water color is quite interesting.

Last Day of Architecture 415 sketching class!

Today was the last day of Architecture 415, a summer sketching class I am teaching through the U.W.
We had a sketching party at the Center for Wooden Boats at South Lake Union.  It was suppose to be a warm summer day,  however the sun never came out.  Cloudy and cool.

July Sketchcrawl

Today we had a sketch crawl in the South Lake Union Area.  The weather we really bad...rainy and overcast..so we looked for cover in a coffee shop.  Olivia and I went to Dahlia Workshop on Westlake.It was a great space to sketch very industrial.  Met up with the other urban sketchers and went to Brave Horse Tavern for lunch.  Great food there!

Sketching with Gabi Campanario

Today we had Gabi Companario the Seattle Sketcher from the Seattle Times as a guest lecturer for Architecture 415 (a sketching class I am teaching at the UW this summer).  It was great seeing his quick sketching approach and how he captures people in the environment.  We did quick 20 min sketches after he did his demonstrations.

Here are a few of my sketches from today.

St. James and Madison Park Starbucks

Went to St. James to take a photo so I could watercolor a sketch I did there on Thursday.  Then stopped off at Madison Park Starbucks to have coffee and did a sketch there.  Here are the sketches.

Madison Park Starbucks

St. James Cathedral

4th of July Sketch

We went to Bainbridge Island yesterday to celebrate the 4th of July with friends.  Had a wonderful BBQ and saw the fireworks of Bainbridge as we took the ferry home.  Here is a sketch from the BBQ.  Beautiful bouquet of flowers on the table with drinks and plate of hummus and pita chips.

The Remains of the Morning

I gave my architecture sketching students a daily drawing prompt which was to study light, shade and shadow on convex and concave forms like eggs and eggshells.  So I thought I would try it out myself.
Here is the result of drawing the remains of our breakfast effort.

Urban Sketchers @ West Montlake Park

We had a great day of sketching at West Montlake Park.  What beautiful scenery of Portage Bay and the edge of the University!  Here is my sketch from the day.

Japanese Tea Garden

We went to the Japanese Tea Garden on Friday.  What a beautiful day for it. Here is a sketch from the Wisteria Arbor looking toward the pond.

Garfield High School 2011 Graduation

Last night we attended our son's High School Graduation Ceremony @ Memorial Stadium in Seattle.
It was a night of celebration for over 400 grads.  Congratulations to all those who have graduated this year.  Go Bull Dogs!

Garfield High School Graduation Ceremony 2011,  Memorial Stadium

Seattle Chinese Garden

Today we took family to Seattle Chinese Garden and Kubota Garden.  Seattle Chinese Garden will be a wonderful place to visit once it is done.  Currently the first courtyard building the Knowing the Spring Courtyard is finished and the nearby Pine and Plum Pavilion.  These two will be linked by gardens and a future Lotus pond.  http://www.seattlechinesegarden.org/
Here is a view of the covered walk way that surrounds the courtyard.

View from Dunn Lumber

If you have frequented Dunn Lumber,  you know it is located at a great spot just west of I-5, by Ivars and Gas Works Park on North Lake Union.  The views are spectacular from the working waterfront of Lake Union.  Here is a sketch from Dunn Lumber looking towards the views South.  You can see Eastlake, Lake Union and Downtown Seattle.

View of Lake Union and the Waterfront

More quick Sketches From UW

These were done on Saturday each less than 30 min. sketches.

Gould Hall Design Build Garden

Cafe Solstice Again!