In My "Blue Period"

Sapphire Sketches of Seattle Scenes

This piece was done in December last year, in the cafe at Swanson’s Nursery. It was the first piece I’d done with the Iroshizuku ink, as well as a new approach in my urban sketching. This was one of those times where you end up surprising yourself with how good the art coming out of your hands turns out. There’s a lot I like about this piece, but the rendering of those plants in the foreground was very satisfying to see turn out.

I’ve been looking forward to sharing these artworks with you because it feels like I hit a new level with my urban sketching late last year.

Several things came together over the last year that have resulted in my current approach feeling very well realized. These include:

1. Achieving a high enough level of skill with my linework, rendering, and tone.

2. Developing a approach to handling figures quickly and simply that looks good to me.

3. Finding and figuring out several tools and material choices that I really enjoy, like the brown ink with fude fountain pen + water-soluble blue ink in brush pens.

4. Deciding I’m going to sit and spend time on one, more carefully done piece instead of quickly sketching either more compositions or more details.

Of course, there’s always more room to improve, and different ways of working to pursue.

But speaking of that blue ink—holy cow, what a gorgeous ink. You can see it at full saturation in the pieces below (in the first one, above, I only used it diluted in washes).

The ink is called tsuyu kusa (dew grass) from the Japanese company Pilot’s Iroshizuku line of inks. I got it from an urban sketching friend who brought it to last fall’s “Gab and Grab” event, where people bring art supplies they no longer need for others to “grab” (while everyone “gabs” with each other). Everything that isn’t claimed after the event is donated.

I felt like the archetypal skilled artisan in a story who is given rare materials and says, “I can make great things with this!”

I did this one in January this year. We met up at the U.S. Bank Center building in downtown Seattle. The building has eye-catching, stylishly irregular shapes in its architecture. I particularly like how those seated figures in the foreground look, and the feeling of the air and space in the lobby.

You’ll notice that apparently, I’m in my “Blue Period”. I’m going to stick with the blue this year and try to make it out to an urban sketching event every month so that by the end of the year, I’ll have enough pieces with a generally cohesive look and theme (these sapphire blue environment drawings) to be able to put on a small exhibition in a cafe.

If I can make all that happen, I hope you can see the art in person, and regardless, you’ll hear about it here.

And this one’s from February, done in the University of Washington’s Suzzallo Library. I love the drama of the lighting and columns here. The richness of the tsuyu-kusa ink helps to punch it up even more. Amazingly, there really was someone in a hooded dress there that day! There was a wedding shoot, and the woman was wearing a stunning, white and grey, I think Muslim dress.