An old rail bridge and a bat box

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…

King Street Station on a chilly morning

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…

Light rail is coming

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…

Montaña de Oro State Park

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…

Illustrated map for the City of Snohomish Art Walk

Snohomish is a picturesque river town north of Seattle. When I was recently contacted by the economic development manager to create and illustrated map for the city’s upcoming art walk, I knew it would be a fun project. Here’s the…

June gloom over Gas Works Park

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…

Mount Rainier from Elliott Bay Trail

I often hesitate to use watercolor outdoors when the weather is cold —the washes take too long to dry. But the late afternoon scene by the Elliott Bay Trail the other day was too painterly for a line or tonal…

From pencil to ink

If you aim to make ink sketches with a certain degree of accuracy, it helps to block out the composition in light pencil first. I like to use an H pencil for that part of the process. The pencil marks…