It’s a chilly January morning, but this picturesque bend along the Sammamish River Trail is busy with Sunday walkers and quite a few cyclists. My sketcher pals, Dave and Roy, and I aren’t deterred by the weather either. We are…
Dec. 12, 2021. Brrrrr! Cold morning with @uskseattle at King Street Station. Yet I couldn’t help but choosing to draw outside, which I haven’t done much lately. My hand was shaking after about 90 minutes sizing, penciling and inking this…
On New Year’s Eve, I went out for a walk hoping to make a sketch that would lift up my dwindling creative spirits. The scene of snow-covered houses was beautiful, and I was all bundled up and wearing my fingerless…
Oct. 10, 2021. I’m here to run the marathon Monday morning, but how could I not make at least one sketch! This city is an open book about the American Revolution, with plenty of storytelling (and eye-catching!) landmarks. Outside this…
I spent a wonderful weekend in Santiago de Compostela participating in “Historias de Cadernos de Viaxe,” a conference on travel sketchbooks included in the official programming of #Xacobeo2021. What an honor to be invited to teach a few workshops and…
Aug. 15, 2021. I’ve joined my pals Roy and Dave for a Sunday morning of fun sketching around the future Mountlake Terrace light rail station. After walking around the construction site for 15 or 20 minutes, I’m afraid that no…
THE SUN IS beating down hard on Beacon Hill at the start of summer, a prelude to even warmer days ahead in the forecast. But the scorching temperature — 89 degrees — isn’t keeping people from hitting some balls at…
The travel sketchbook is out again! First vacation of the “post-pandemic” times took me to the beautiful California Central Coast, where I sketched the rugged seascape at Montaña de Oro State Park and the impressive haystack-shaped rock at the entrance…
A GLEAMING sailboat named Happy is making a stop at the Port of Edmonds after a speedy sail at 11.2 knots from Bainbridge. It doesn’t take long for the sleek Moody Decksaloon 45, a German-built vessel owned by Hugh and…
June 13, 2021. This morning the @uskseattle group gathered to sketch in person for the first time in 16 months. It was a typical June-gloomy day of drizzle and clouds but everyone seemed really excited for the return of the regular monthly…
“THIS IS GOING to be quick. Just take a deep breath.” HealthPoint worker Bao-Yen Tran must have repeated those words dozens of times today. She is part of a team of health professionals administering a second dose of the Pfizer…
THE VULCAN, one of three floating machine shops built for the U.S. Army in the 1950s, still is filled with old tools that were used to repair Army patrol boats during the Vietnam War. The bulky barge has been permanently…
BACK IN EARLY June, the old building that houses the Seattle Police Department East Precinct on Capitol Hill became a focal point of protests after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. I remember sketching protesters when the whole area looked…
A TEAM OF ABOUT 20 medical assistants staffs a busy COVID-19 testing site in Renton on a recent soggy morning. Like a fly on the wall, I’m standing between the lanes of the former vehicle-emissions station to sketch the scene.…
I can’t believe it took me so long to try a cream-cheese-slathered “Seattle dog” from Betty Aklilu’s Deez Dogz stand at Fifth Avenue and Pike Street in downtown Seattle. Read the full column: For the owner of Deez Dogz, it’s…