Drawn the Road Again

Category: City Mouse

  • Gallery of wonders

    Gallery of wonders

    Of course, there’s the kind of “museum” founded by snake-oil salesmen…and then there’s the real thing. If you really want to get a taste of Northwest art and anthropology, there’s no better place to start than the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria. The museum is huge, with natural history dioramas, city artifacts, an IMAX…

  • Seattle schlock

    Seattle schlock

    These days, Seattle is a city that’s far too cool for school. It’s a place where rents are skyrocketing, LEED-platinum buildings are popping up like daisies, restaurants are whipping up the latest prix-fixe sustainable fusion menu du jour, and if you aren’t bearded and coiffed (or at least sporting a pair of hornrims and a…

  • Spring on the homefront

    Spring on the homefront

    It’s easy to get wrapped up in my sketchbooks of more exotic places, but walking around my own neighborhood reminds me that there’s plenty to see and sketch, right here at home.

  • City of lace

    City of lace

    Today it seems only fitting to hop from one French city to another. Other than the obvious connotation of the French Quarter, the multi-colored houses also made New Orleans remind me of Montreal. The thing that set NOLA apart, though, was all that stunning wrought iron. Since they call it the French Quarter, it’s easy…

  • City colors

    City colors

    Sketching the striped tulip fields last week reminded me of one of my other favorite colorful places: the Plateau neighborhood of Montreal. The rows of colorful balconies and porches might not be quite as vivid as the rainbow houses of San Francisco… but any city that breaks up endless blocks of brick with pops of…

  • A fine kettle of fish

    A fine kettle of fish

    One of my favorite walking routes in Seattle takes me across the Ballard Locks. There’s a lot to see there, particularly if you’re interested in watching all the fishing boats head in and out of the locks. But the best part, for me, is the fish ladder at the far end of the complex, which…

  • Garden notebook

    Garden notebook

    On this morning I took a hike in a part of the world I know very well. Yet while the path was familiar, the rocks seemed to get more alien the more I stared at them. I kept trying different angles and colors, but I never did manage to nail down what I was looking…

  • Black, white and drawn all over

    Black, white and drawn all over

    Other times, I do the opposite of what I showed you last time: I skip the color entirely, and focus purely on the line. I wish I could tell you that the reason for it this time was for some lofty, arty purpose…but, uh, no. I skipped the paint this time because I was hungry,…

  • Morning mist

    Morning mist

    On this morning, my city felt like a stage set of paper cut-outs. I just about killed this sketchbook dead by working and reworking the flimsy paper for this drawing—but even as the paper threatened to give out on me, I found myself wanting to add more and more layers. Capturing reality accurately proved elusive…

  • Tea for two hundred

    Tea for two hundred

    I don’t know if it’s the shape I’m attracted to, or merely the fact that I drink a ridiculous amount of tea every day, but I’m beginning to realize that within my pile of sketches I have quite a collection of teapots. So here for your viewing pleasure…is a collection of teapots. It seems appropriate…