Note:


All images on this blog are protected by copyright. Please inquire before using the images for any purpose. For information about purchasing original or giclee prints please contact me: janewingfield@gmail.com

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Georgetown Posters

I really like sketching Georgetown. Sturdy brick buildings + grunge. Something about contrasts. This past Sunday, a grey-but-not-so-rainy day I met the Seattle Urbansketchers at the Georgetown Elysian Brewery. It was a wonderful space but I chose to venture out.

Color is usually the thing that catches my eye the most and other than the characters on the streets,  the layers and layers of posters on the telephone poles boasted a colorful contrast to the old brick buildings and grey skies.



I aborted my first attempt, something I don't usually do Instead I started over. So the left side page was a messy blotch of smeared watercolor and pencil; the right a more finished sketch. The next day I went back to Georgetown, found a pole with old posters. (I promise I didn't tear up anything posted after December 2018.) Keeping with the poster theme I decided to plaster my sketchbook with poster samples.


I moved on searching for another inviting scene and again the plastered posters caught my eye. Mingled with telephone poles and wires, freeway overpass and more brick buildings, it seemed if not quintessential, at least emblematic Georgetown. When we met up as a group I only had the line work done. I added color later.

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

Determined Enjoyment

It's been a long winter, and although I'm really grateful we haven't had snow and that I don't live in the midwest where the polar vortex is still spinning, it's been too damn cold for much outdoor sketching. Nonetheless, when the local sketch group organized an outing in Centralia last Saturday I decided to join them. Centralia is a little country, a little 1890's - a place where people go antiquing, non-Starbucks coffee drinking and brunching at the local McMenamin's. So I braved it and sat outside with determined enjoyment, in the shade even to catch the signage and a bit of color. 

While I sat there, as often happens, someone stopped to chat. An older gentleman who was curious. When I asked if he sketched or did art work, he told me he engraves... on old guns. Now that's a medium I haven't tried. 

McMenamins Olympic Club - Centralia

That was Saturday. On Monday I planned to visit a friend who lives on Vashon. From Olympia, it's shorter to go through Tacoma taking the Point Defiance ferry. I missed the ferry I wanted and there was a 2 1/2 hour wait till the next one. So I backpeddled to Ruston.

Ruston, was mostly known as the town within Tacoma that hosted a very toxic copper smelter for many years. It was deemed a toxic waste site. Now, however, through the miracles of science (I hope)  and money the city is making a comeback. Ruston Point is a thriving, 21st century village. A bit like an outdoor mall with low buildings in that ubiquitous of multi-color, multi-materials style. New restaurants, shops, apartments, condos and a theater. It was damn cold also, but I stuck it out. 
Century Theatres - Ruston Point

I returned to Olympia and stopped at my bank. I had one more page in a sketchbook I started in late January. So there in front of me the perfect example of how anything is sketchable. You can see in the lower middle, those scratchy marks are  the place where I test my ink flow -usually inside the back cover of my sketchbook. 


Also, I've been working on creating thumbnails to work out composition and valuee etc. I didn't do that with the third sketch but I'm posting the one's I did for the first two sketches.


McMenamin's Olympic Club - Centralia, WA




 Ruston Point, near Tacoma, WA


Monday, March 4, 2019

Practically Pointless Perspective!


New workshop!!
Saturday March 23 
State Capitol Rotunda - Olympia, WA

Do you get hung up on the mechanics of perspective? Often our thinking gets in the way, but once you understand the basics in perspective it’s really just about drawing what you see. In this all-day workshop I’ll share some simple tools to use for believable scenes. We won’t use rulers or triangles, instead just your pen or pencil and some helpful tips. 

Find out the details here