Wild and Free

I skewed the first day's prompt a bit for World Watercolor Month to fit my little watercolor and graphite sketch from my North Cascades sketchbook.

As an artist, I've always enjoyed looking for the person behind the brush. You can see pencil marks in the watercolors of my heroes, John Singer Sargent and Winslow Homer. For me, it's an added bonus.

I trust you will get something extra from this intimate little sketch, pencil marks, over washes and all.

Baggywrinkle

I got to sketch with ASk at Cap Sante Marina in Anacortes on Monday. I was attracted to the tall ships at the end of the dock.

My sketch of baggywrinkle

From a distance, all those shapes along the rigging make it seem as though there is a colossal rat problem on the Hawaiian Chieftain. As I got closer (zoom in to ship's rigging) I thought maybe they were sponges. After talking to two girls on the crew, I learned they are handmade from rope and called "baggywrinkle". Hehe, that name just makes me chuckle. (Plural is the same, as in deer", they said) Their purpose is to prevent chafing of the sails against the rigging.

The tall ships Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain have set a visit for Cap Sante Marina in Anacortes July 9-27, which will include public tours and public sailings.