Don Colley Workshop

Kate watching Don Colley illustrating people drawing through his sketchbooks.

I had a rare opportunity to be a student today at the Don Colley Workshop. We gathered this morning in the classroom at Daniel Smith, Inc.

But FIRST!! Look at the swag we got from Faber-Castell!

Thank you, Faber-Castell and Dan Smith, Inc. for the generous box of drawing stuff!

Don started us out with pages from his sketchbooks, demonstrating some fascinating techniques he uses with Faber-Castell marking pens. Check out his masterful technique through his video demonstrations here. Then we moved outdoors, to Alki Beach. Brrrrr!

Don teaching at Alki Beach.

I walked a ways down the sidewalk and saw two brave guys from the Fruit Chatter Box Food Truck who were setting up on the beach. I did my sketch while they set up and they took a photo of it when I was done!

 

I am told that as long as your head and chest are bundled up you can go ahead and wear your shorts, no problem!

It's 12:15 and our teeth are chattering by now, so we all walked down the avenue to Pegasus Pizza & Pasta for lunch. They fixed us right up, with delicious food and great service all at a big long table. Don decided to illustrate some basic measurements on the human head......his head!

Not forgetting about the Seahawks game that we were all missing, Don puts on his game face.

Back out for afternoon drawing on the beach! I had gotten accustomed to being warm during lunch and it seemed that the wind chill factor had inhumanely increased and whitecaps were really kicking up now. I couldn't believe that some people wore shorts and light shirts out there!

All the workshop participants had multiple layers on, but Tina and I still opted for another indoor venue.We got a nice hot coffee and a cinnamon roll to share at the iconic Top Pot Donuts. Ahhhh, bliss! Nothing better than being out on a sunny, albeit chilly, fall day, on or near the beach, learning something new!

Our instructor came in out of the cold eventually and he drew Tina and I while we were sketching.

See more of Don's sketches from today post workshop here. 

Tina's cup of hot coffee, our yummy cinnamon roll, one of the coffee pots displayed on the bookshelf wall at Top Pot Donuts and a 5 minute sketch of a customer from our pizza lunch. Oh, and finishing off the day with a little art supply shopping back at the "mother ship"!

Note: These are the raw sketches from our day at Alki. It will take me some time to try out all the new tools and techniques I learned today. When I do, I'll post them up and share my thoughts about working with all my new stuff.

Relics and Rain at Salty's on Alki Beach

Seattle Urban Sketchers' Ad Hoc outing started out with an overcast sky at Salty's on the Alki shoreline. Built over the water on its own pier, the restaurant is known for exceptional views of the Seattle skyline. Bronze salmon sculptures swim among relics of the old West Seattle Bridge in the aquatic-looking landscape at the entrance to the parking lot. The idea of recycle, repurpose and reuse has come to a whole new level. Owner, Gerald Robert Kingen calls it his "urban reef" in this video tour.

I barely noticed when the rain began as I stood halfway up the covered entry steps looking down at the giant lobster, a bronze sculpture by Lee Emmons. A pipe full of recycled water occasionally creates a "bubbler", splashing on the rocks nearby. More pieces of the old bridge form a habitat for the lobster as well as for the giant bronze crabs on the other side of the steps.

Sometimes your subject just stares right back at you.

Sketchers in Singapore enjoy famous chilli crab as I sketch a bronze lobster at Alki Beach. Thanks for the badges, Kate!

We all got badges, expressing solidarity (and a little bit of envy) for fellow sketchers attending the Singapore Symposium this weekend. Just for the occasion, I cracked open a new Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook and used my DYI Altoids travel kit.

Kate and I decided to wait out the rain and warm up inside the cafe. We got a table at the window and Marvin joined us as we sketched the misty atmosphere from our elevated view.

It seemed unfair that the rusty pilot house of the Kalakala was beached at the edge of the parking lot, forced to gaze through empty portholes as a tourist excursion sailed out toward two massive cruise ships on the opposite shore.

Once the #1 tourist attraction in Seattle, the Kalakala remained an icon to many of us who grew up in the area. I remember seeing her underway in Lake Union and moored there at the north end. Gabi wrote an article and sketched from a kayak when it was moored in Commencement Bay. The Urbanist documented the last ride of the Kalakala in January of 2015.

Much like the skeletal remains of a prehistoric bird, the pilot house, piston and drive shaft of the Kalakala are strung out along the edge of Salty's Restaurant parking lot.