May 18, 2019--Urban Sketching Workshop Announcement

I’m looking forward to meeting my students in Seattle for the new USK 10x10 2019 Spring series of urban sketching workshops.

My class is  listed as #4, First Steps into Visual Journaling. May 18, Saturday.
Registration is now open for this one day workshop 

Ready to take your “First Steps into Visual Journaling”?

Registration begins Saturday, March 16, 2019, 9 a.m.The cost for each 3½-hour workshop is $60 through our “early bird” date, April 1, 2019. After April 1, the price is $70 per workshop. Registration will be processed by the event management website, Brown Paper Tickets. Please see the program schedule and workshop details and read  the FAQ for registration information. 

Have questions? Send email to: usk.seattle@gmail.com

The Occidental Tourist

The Seattle Urban sketchers Ad Hoc meetup took place at Occidental Park this morning. If you've ever been to the Pioneer Square district in Seattle, you may have discovered this tree lined square on the back side (east) of the historic Pioneer Building. 

I found myself smiling throughout the morning, affected by the upbeat atmosphere created by the combination of fantastic summer weather, Jambalaya Brass Rock music played by Tubaluba (one of the free lunchtime concert bands), and the mix of people in the square.

I imagined how a tourist might experience this place:

One might look up through the trees and see the top of the Smith Tower, once the tallest building on the West coast.

The top of the Smith Tower from Occidental Park-7/17/15

The shop front of Arundel Books is a reminder that Seattle is "the most well read city in the U.S." according to Amazon. I finished my sketch just as they opened the shop.

Arundel Books opened for business as I finished my sketch.

With only  twenty minutes left before sharing our sketches, I hurried into position to speed sketch the tuba player. Nearby, a couple "of a certain age" got up and broke into "buck jumpin", a New Orleans style of dance with bouncy, intricate footwork. They were smiling, too.

Rough Sketch, Tuba Player

The word play in my title ironically alludes to the novel "Accidental Tourist" by Anne Tyler. It's about Macon Leary, a travel writer who hates both travel and anything out of the ordinary.  But you would know that as one of those "well read" Seattleites.

Sunday with USk Seattle

This morning I am sketching with the Seattle urban sketchers at the Pioneer Square transit station. It's just behind the Smith Tower with an entrance on Yesler Way.

Brrrrrr! Since I have to leave relatively early to get there from here, the temperature hasn't had time to warm up yet. As I leave our garage at home, my weather app says that it's 18°!

Once I meet with the sketchers, I find it hard to believe that it's supposed to be in the low 40's. They must mean the sunny side of the street and not in the tunnel! The breeze down the stairs to the mezzanine creates a chill factor, I'm sure. But, we're all dressed for it, so off we go to make our sketches for the day.

My sketch journal page for the day.

A fellow sketcher, Tina, and I ducked into Shawn O'Donnell's American Grill Pub for a respite from the cold, hot coffee, and a rest break. We had another 25 minutes to find something to sketch, so we sat inside at the sunny window. I found two quick subjects to add to my NaNoDrawMo 2014 collection. Still need to post most of the ones I've done for the month, though. Goal: 50 drawings in the month of November.

Two more for my NaNoDrawMo 2014

Hey, Sunday Painters! How about trying the NaNoDrawMo challenge!?
Inspired by National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), NaNoDrawMo is a personal challenge to push would-be artists beyond the bounds of comfortable "when I have time" practice for one month and see what happens.

Loosely defined goals are for each participant to produce 50 individual works/drawings between Nov 1 and Nov 30. You can always do more than 50 if you've got it in you! That's just the minimum everyone should be shooting for.

You do not have to be good. There is no quality requirement. The idea is to force yourself to practice by setting a high quantity goal. Also, it’s not a competition (except with yourself). Any medium is OK, as long as you can get it onto Flickr somehow.

Please tag your uploads “nanodrawmo”.
Flag your upload as "Art / Illustration" or Flickr won't let you add it to the group. (quoted from Flikr description)

Oh and don't forget to have some fun while you're at it.
Check out the Flikr photostream of current national uploads for inspiration.