Olympic Sculpture Park : Friday afternoon

Stopped in to see if M could have lunch with me. Busy until 2pm, so I got a snack to hold me over and walked down to Olympic Sculpture Park. I envisioned a little painting of the big orange-red sculpture (Alexander Calder's Eagle) set amid the blues and greens of its surroundings. I've given up for now carrying my paints around with me (yesterday the strap on my purse broke from too much stuff...even without my paints). I should carry around that new watercolor pad though to at least get the drawing down, then have the right surface to paint on once I am back at my studio. I painted this one with gouache in my studio — wishing I had done the drawing on watercolor paper. The sketch paper gets so wrinkled — not right for water. I kept debating if I should include a person in the foreground — for the contrast. In the end decided not too. Thought it would be too much the focus. Wanted the bright sculpture to remain the focus. Nice to get outside for this one. (I've always wanted to draw one of those giant barges!)

.18 fl. oz. x 3 : mini mani-pedi

9:30 - 11:45 : Swam 17 laps at YMCA / get ready / HM happy in the kids' room
11:45 - noon : Drive through bank with HM
noon - 12:30 : Giannoni's pizza slices { carmelized onion/sausage slice & Diet Coke for me, pepperoni/pineapple slice & apple juice for HM }
12:30 - 12:50 : Sally Beauty Supply — no luck with hair product so 3 mini Sally Girl nail polishes for HM { she picked them out — buy 2, get 1 free } and one mommy-size one for me
12:50 - 2:10 : Home / teal nails for me / HM nap
2:10 - 3:00 : Multi-colored mini mani-pedi for HM / story while drying
3:00 - 4:00 : Southwest Library { the orange one } / lots of books and movies for HM — a couple movies for me
4:00 - 4:20 : Tony's Market for fresh produce / blueberries for HM on the way to Safeway
4:20 - 5:30 : Roxbury Safeway / HM a little rascal with her pigtails and tiny, colored nails — lounging with flip-flops off and feet up in the kids' car eating rice cakes / no to Curious George fruit snacks / no to Coco Puffs
5:30 - 5:40 : Fill-up at Safeway gas with HM
5:40 - 6:10 : Make salad / HM watches "Big Bird Sings"
6:10 - 6:40 : Dinner with HM, M @ work { fried chicken, salad, rest of blueberries, milk }
6:40 - 7:00 : HM bath
7:00 - 7:40 : Jammies, pull-up, milk, new library stories, snuggle, songs, prayers, sleep

I think we set a record — 8 places together in 1 day! And...up until 12:30am in my studio.

"Daddy will be so surprised at these books!"
"Daddy will be so surprised at my nails!"
"I am putting lipstick on to get ready for my mani-pedi..."

Medium: pen & nail polish { photographed, not scanned }

West Seattle Junction

A bit of time before a meeting at Cupcake Royale and a bit of time after with lunch at Easy Street Records Cafe. I didn't finish the sign sketch because I got the perspective a little off and had to go into a meeting. I was going to do the brick building, windows, etc. too, but at least here's something. Sketching the items at the table while waiting for my Philadelphia Freedom sandwich reminded me of of all the sketching I used to do at restaurants and bars back when I was single — sketching my drinks and cigarettes. Thank God those days are over. Anyway, not too much to say about these.

Columbia Park cherry blossoms

It seems the only time I am finding (or making) to sketch is on Friday mornings between dropping off HM and getting to the Y for my swim class. Columbia City is always right on the way. I was determined to get something done. Speed sketching. I only had about 20 minutes and needed to sit somewhere besides the bakery (did get a double, short latte to go though...no baked items since I made waffles with strawberries this morning for breakfast) — somewhere outside. I barely recognized Columbia Park without the Farmers Market and all the people meandering — the only other time I have been there. I have really been wanting to get the cherry blossom trees down on paper. I love them — so soft, pink and fluffy. I just want to squeeze the little bunches of perfect blossoms — like they are baby cheeks or something.

I thought a pen and colored pencils would do it, but of course...I found I needed to finish with watercolor when I got home. I didn't have them with me or the time to finish at the picnic table anyway. I didn't have my Uni-ball black pen with me, so I used one from my new set — Pigma Micron 02. I can't believe it took me so long to rediscover these. A set of 6 — each with a different line width. From finest to thickest: 005, 01, 02, 03, 05, 08. Archival black ink. Great for detailed pen illustrations. For this sketch, I just used one...but they came in really handy recently for a pen illustration I had to do for another project. Anyway...got the pen and colored pencil sketch done in 20 minutes. Just added the watercolor back at my studio.

Finally, an outdoors sketch! Expect more as spring warms up and into summer.

On a side note...I also rediscovered Crowded House. Love every song on Recurring Dream. I never buy new music and still scrounge through my old case of CDs every now and then to find something.