Sketch from the Alhambra

Jet lagged from our flight across the country and Atlantic, we overslept and almost missed our ticket time to see the Alhambra.  We rushed to get there in time to walk through the exquisite Palace.  I think you need to go through two times.  Once to just see it and once to sketch it.  This was the only sketch I had time to do at the end of the day after leaving the Palacio de Generalife. This is the view from the back side of the Palace.  Protected by the shade of the trees I found a spot to do this sketch.

 I will have to return to really sketch the main Palace.

Dusk Along Carrera Del Darro

While sitting at Cafe La Taberna De Tiacheta having a wonderful salad for dinner, I did this sketch.  It was dusk and the sun was setting so much was in shadow except the little bit of sunlight hitting the tops of the buildings.  A street musician was playing the accordian.  Wonderful musical entertainment with our dinner. 

Granada Spain

After 26 hours of travel to our first destination we arrived in Granada Spain at around 1:00 in the afternoon.  We were picked up by a shuttle and taken to our hotel which was located in the Albaycin neighborhood at the base of the Alhambra and just off of Placa Nuevo.  To get to our hotel we walk along one of the most scenic streets in Granada, Carrera del Darro which follows the river Darro.  The streets and buildings date back to the 16th and 17th century.  Our hotel was renovated from a 16th century building. 

Here is a view from Monte De Piedad looking up toward the Alhambra.  I didn't quite get the proportions correct in this sketch and realized it while I was sketching it.  The Alhambra should appear much higher up in the sky.  It was looming above.  I was able to capture that feel in a later sketch.  This was my first one in Spain and I had to get use to getting the verticality of the streets and start doing 3 point perspectives.  Because of the tight streets you find yourself always looking up.

Madrid Airport

Our first introduction to Spain was the Madrid Airport.  What an amazing piece of Architecture,  the most beautiful and elegant airport I have ever seen.  To top it off as we waited for our next plane to Granada, we were treated to Classical Spanish Guitar music performed by this young man.  Through out our trip in Spain we would hear people playing guitar on the streets, in the parks, in the subway and at the cafe's.  They were all really good!

Ceiling of Madrid Airport

9 hour flight to Madrid

After a four hour flight to Dallas,  we caught a 9 hour flight to Madrid Spain.  Middle section view.

First stop Dallas Airport

First stop on our long journey was the Dallas Airport.  Here is a sketch from the plane looking out the window as we fly over the country.

Sketches from our Journey to Spain

I will start posting the sketches I did while on our trip to Spain.  We start at the
Seattle airport leaving for Spain on July 4th.  We flew to Dallas Airport and then immediately took a plane to Madrid.  From Madrid we took another small Iberia plane to Granada Spain.

Seattle Baptist Church Entry

Sketch done while waiting for my son .  Testing out the use of my mini palettes .

Traveling Light

I have used little mint containers before to put watercolors in a small pocket size containers.  But the lid was either silver or gold and you couldn't really see the colors you mix.  These are Sucret containers that have a white lid with wording on the lids.  I bought a little can of glossy white enamel spray paint and sprayed the inside of the lid.  Nice and compact lightweight and easily fits in your purse of back pack.  You can easily get up to 12 colors in each container.

Prepping for our Group show in Edmonds

Yesterday Seattle Urban Sketchers went to Edmonds to sketch, preparing for our upcoming group show which will happen in October.  This was the view in front of Bill the Butchers shop looking at  the California Mission style building across the street.  It seems so out of character for the Pacific Northwest, however you will see this style of building pop up every now and then.

Getting Ready for Barcelona Symposium

I am so excited about the opportunity to go to the 2013 Urban Sketchers Symposium in Barcelona.
I just got my Moo Mini Cards today and also my new Hero Calligraphy pen to replace the M86 I lost.
The new Hero is the 593... and I bought it on Ebay  I paid $6.50 which included the shipping from China...amazing!   The nice thing about it, is that it doesn't use the plunger refiller.  It is a screw type of ink refiller.  Yay!

Great Fremont Friday Event at Johnston Architects Office

We had a great turn out for my sketching exhibit at Johnston Architects.  Lots of people, a glass of wine, and food made the celebration a wonderful event.  I want to thank Johnston Architects for generously hosting this event.  Their space is beautiful and they are gracious hosts. 
I didn't take pictures and forgot to ask someone to do that...so no photos of the nights festivities, but here is a new one of the red wall with my sketchbooks. 

Accordion sketchbook, Moleskine watercolor notebooks, The Art of Urban Sketching, and my calendars on display.

Photos From Sketch Exhibit at Johnston Architects Office

I just took some pictures of my exhibit set up at Johnston Architects.  Hope you can make it if you are in Seattle Friday June 7th 6-8 pm.  100 NE. Northlake Way Suite 200.

Fremont First Friday Art Walk June 7th

I will be having my first solo show at FREMONT FIRST FRIDAY ART WALK. 
Wish You Were Here: Sketches From Seattle
Artist Reception & Opening
FRI / JUN 7 / 6-8pm
Johnston Architects Office: 100 NE Northlake Way, Suite 200   Seattle, WA 98105
The show will be up for the month of June.  If you can't make the opening you can come by to see it during business hours.   Please sign in with the receptionist. Most pieces will be for sale.  They are original ink and watercolor sketches from 2011-2012.  All are framed and ready to hang. Hope to see you there.

Cafe Fiora

It has been a long time since I have had a chance to sketch for fun.  Today on the way back from a meeting I stopped by Cafe Fiora for lunch and Coffee.  I had never been there before.  It looked like a cool place from the outside and it was really cool from the inside.  It is a place with a lot of atmosphere and character.
One of the participants of the workshop asked me if I draw people or buildings first.  I told them I draw the space first because I can't draw people very well.  So you will always see lines through the people as you see here in this sketch.  The lines disappear visually after you apply watercolor....at least they become less apparent.
I have gotten a bit tight with my sketches and really wanted to just be loose.  So I took the following advice.  "Be loose, be free and be brave!"  Don't worry just sketch......  I liked what I got.

Pike Place Market Sketchcrawl

Sunday was the last day of our Sketching Workshop.  Our group joined forces with Seattle Urban Sketchers.  I think we had between 45-50 sketchers at the Market.  It was wonderful seeing so many sketchers out there sketching and it felt like a celebration when we gathered at the end of the day.  Here is my sketch of Pike Place Market and a link to photos of the group.

Line to Color workshops

Frank Ching and I just finished two workshops. A one day workshop in Mount Vernon and a two day workshop in Seattle. Both were great experiences. Between the two workshops we had people from all parts of Washington state, Vancouver, B.C., Denver, Wyoming, Oregon, Illinois and California. We immediately realized after the first workshop in Mount Vernon that we had too much material to cover effectively in a day, and even a 2 day workshop would not be enough time, but it was too late to change it. We've learned a lot from both experiences and will continue to fine tune it. Thanks to Frank for teaching this with me. It was great and I always learn a lot from him. Thanks to all the participants, both were great groups to work with. Mount Vernon participants' comments were so helpful in modifying the workshop for Seattle. I am already thinking of how we revise this workshop as I read the comments from the Seattle participants.

Spring is finally here!

It has been a long winter.  I think spring has finally sprung.  When we get to this time of year with hot days and beautiful views, we have to grab the outdoor opportunities. This is a view from the hill surrounding Portage Bay.  It is a view I pass through with my friend as we take our walks.  We stop at the top of the hill and look back to catch our breaths.  But this astounding view takes our breath away in a different sense.  How lucky are we to have this in our back yard!  While I was sketching two little girls stopped by to watch me sketch and paint.  They were from the neighborhood.  I told them they were so lucky to be able to see this view every day!

Montlake Cut

Uncropped view

Practicing Values

Practicing value painting.  This was based on a photo Jackie Helfgott posted of a view she saw while running.  The clouds were amazing and the light and shadows created a dramatic scene.  So I used that photo for a composition to practice values and clouds.  The clouds aren't quite right and it is a bit overworked.  I might have to try it again.

Arboretum View

I took the quick sketch I did yesterday as a composition and repainted it with a pencil line sketch under neath so values and color were the only thing to define object, space and light.   This was done with a limited palette of colors.  Greens were mixed from quin gold, aureolin yellow, pthalo blue, ultramarine blue and cobalt teal. Also used quin sienna with ultramarine blue to create browns and shadows.  Quin rose mixed with ultramarine and cobalt teal to get purple and lavendar colors.

Walking in the Arboretum

Along the trail through the Arboretum in Montlake.

After a rainy weekend the sun decided to come out (of course during the workweek).  I took some time to take a short walk in the arboretum today, brought my chair, sketchbook, ink pen and water....then looked for the watercolors and realized I forgot it.  So I jotted down notes where areas were dark, light  or mid tones and painted this from memory once I got home. 

2nd sketch from UVillage 39 WW Sketchcrawl

Looking back past Elemental Wood Fire Pizza Restaurant at U Village.

39th World Wide Sketchcrawl @ UVillage

Saturday Seattle Urban Sketchers gathered for the 39th WW Sketchcrawl, an event happening globally where people take a day to sketch their town or any place they happen to be.  We chose UVillage because we were not quite sure the weather would be with us and there are a lot of overhangs to protect us from the rain.  It was dry but very cold and hard to stay outside with freezing fingers.  We all hung in there.  Here is a sketch from that day and a picture of the group (I will add that later).

Practice 3 Sky

Another 30 minute watercolor practice sketch of sky, clouds and water.  This was done on paper with a little tooth you can see how different the water color takes to the paper if you compare this one with the watercolor practice 2.  Practice 2 was done on paper with a very smooth surface.  Compare this sky with the sky in practice 1.  Practice 1 started with a wash of clear water and then color was added over the wet wash.  Practice 3 sky was done on dry paper giving the hard edges of the clouds.  Additional color was added to give a wet gradation in the under side of the clouds.  I also lifted off color with paper towel to soften the edges at certain places.  The reflection on the beach was done with a clear wash first and then laying in color.

Practice 2 Landscape

Found a small watercolor book at Half Price books. It goes through step by step exercises on building up watercolor landscape paintings in around 20-30 minutes.  I did this one last night.  It took around 30 minutes.  Simple shapes but effective.  Working with loose washes from light to dark and hitting shadow patterns by adding a little indigo to the watercolor to create a darker value of the color.

Practicing

I am reading a watercolor book by watercolorist Robert Wade.  He recommends practicing pages and pages of cloud/sky studies. Here is my first.  Using a wet on wet technique in the cloud area.  Ultramarine blue and a mix of ultramarine blue and quinacridone sienna for the dark area.  This only took 5 minutes total.  Of course there was a wait time between letting the clouds completely dry before putting in  the hills in the foreground.

Urban Farming in Seattle

Getting ready for our trip to Granada and Barcelona, I have been walking through our hilly neighborhood and happened upon this idyllic scene.  On the hill overlooking the Japanese Tea Garden is this quaint urban farm..someones personal vegetable garden.  It is rare to see this much open land in such a dense part of the city.  It was such a nice sunny Easter day, I just had to take a walk and capture this.

View under the Net

This was the view almost under the net.  You can see how it spanned the whole room.  What was tricky to represent was the netting itself.  It created a transparent veil that was white -off white.  This made it difficult because our pens draw in black. So I tried to suggest the veil with the lighter washed out colors  as if you are looking through something.

Emerald City Trapeze Arts

Yesterday Seattle Urban Sketchers group went to the Emerald City Trapeze Arts studio to sketch aerial arts and flying trapeze classes.  What an exciting outing.  We saw both adult and children getting up enough nerve to swing on the flying trapeze.  I can imagine the adrenaline going!Here is one sketch from the day from above.  I used the the second floor mezzanine as a foreground element.  It was visually darker in this space so it created a great dark frame.    The mid ground was where the trapeze class was taking place had the brightest light.  The bright color of the instructor's and student's leotards becomes the focus of the drawing and draws attention to the activity in the mid-ground.

Urban sketchers sketching the flying trapeze class.

Sketch along the way home

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day in Seattle. I decided to walk home from grading at the UW.  This is the view I get while crossing the Montlake Bridge.  I decided to do it in pencil instead of my typical ink. I could have spent more time on this but it was a quick one.  I will try to go out again and do an ink and watercolor sketch.