Drawn the Road Again

Category: The Best Coast

  • Blue, and gray, and green

    Blue, and gray, and green

    It always amazes me how different the ocean can be, depending on what the sky is doing. I did the California sketch in the winter, and the Washington one at midsummer, and it seems like the seasons are reversed.

  • Big tow

    Big tow

    Seattle is one of the most tow-happy cities I’ve ever encountered. If you’ve ever tried to decipher the convoluted weekday parking rules downtown here (where signs say things like, oh, I dunno, “2-hour parking except third Wednesdays in months with an “R” in them, between 3 and 6 pm, and then only if driver is…

  • Perfect panorama

    Perfect panorama

    For the many days of the year, these mountains are invisible. If you showed up in western Washington in November, you might not even know we had mountains here. Our rainy Northwest climate makes these peaks disappear into the clouds on most days—even, sometimes, when you’re right there, standing amongst them. Not in the summertime,…

  • Perennial pagoda

    Perennial pagoda

    This Sunday my town is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the pagoda at Point Defiance Park. Originally a streetcar station, the building features an Arts & Crafts design, Japanese-style roof and Welsh ceramic roof tiles. A teenage arsonist nearly destroyed the structure in 2011, but the subsequent restoration brought back several of the original features…

  • Ghost lodging

    Ghost lodging

    The Panama Hotel was the centerpiece of Seattle’s once-thriving Japanese community, until every one of the neighborhood’s residents was rounded up and imprisoned during World War II. Many stowed their personal belongings in the basement of the Panama for safekeeping—and never came back to claim them. The few who did return after the war found…

  • Meditation station

    Meditation station

    Every time I’m in Portland, it seems like I have a list of errands a mile long. Inevitably I get caught up in the bustle of the city, ticking items off my list, and usually only taking a break long enough for a hurried sketch now and then. But whenever I get the chance to…

  • Field geometry

    Field geometry

    Wednesday’s post reminded me that like lighthouses, I seem to have a whole collection of farm field drawings—like this sketch I did last year. I always thought the inherent lesson in one-point perspective (sketching nerds unite!) is what made these fun to draw. But now I think it’s the geometry. There’s just something so satisfying…

  • Stay away, Paul

    Stay away, Paul

    You know, as much I love Paul Bunyan and his mighty axe, I’m breathing a sigh of relief that he and his ilk haven’t gotten to every bit of forest on the continent. Because far better than any lumberjack (even a mythical one) is a patch of virgin, old growth forest. Thankfully, the only folks…

  • 63 axe handles high

    63 axe handles high

    Well, I wouldn’t exactly call this statue the handsomest Paul Bunyan in the world, but you gotta love that plaid shirt and winning smile. He’s got plenty of moxie—which makes me think Portland is the perfect place for him.

  • Pink palace

    Pink palace

    If you’ve seen the film advertised on the marquee, you’ll know that there probably isn’t a better place to see it than at a bright pink vintage theater.