Monday, July 25, 2016

August 25th outing in Gig Harbor: St. Nicholas Church

Fourth Thursday August 25: St Nicholas Church

 


3510 Rosedale St NW, Gig Harbor, WA 98335 

From street view, it does not appear that the churches are view-able from Rosedale.  Look for this access sign.
Meet at 10 am in church parking lot (Thursday am Mass will just be ending). Sketch the old church (white with steeple) or the new one.  



Background: 
St. Nicholas Church was founded by early Croatian settlers who pooled together $300 and donations for construction from the community’s canneries and fishermen’s supply houses to purchase a half-acre of land and build a Roman Catholic Church. By Easter Sunday 1914, St. Nick’s celebrated its first Mass. Situated on the hillside overlooking the harbor, St. Nick’s is the only intact historic church left in Gig Harbor. In 1958, the parish expanded significantly in order to accommodate the growing community, adding a new church building, administrative offices, and other parish facilities.

Friday, July 22, 2016

First Saturday outing & USk Show: August 6

First Saturday Sketch Outing: August 6th, 2016
Tacoma’s Main Public Library
and
The Reception for our Urban Sketching Show
 
Tacoma’s Main Public Library
1102 Tacoma Ave. South (South of 11th.)

Free parking for us in two locations:
1)    the lot on the corner, just south of the library
2)    free to park in front of the library on Saturdays



Urban Sketchers will meet at 10 am in the main lobby of the library.Sketch Sharing and Group Photo at 12:30, at a location noted during announcements.  Library opens at 9 am. (for early birds).
 


Bring a bag lunch & beverage and we'll choose a location on site to have our lunch break.

Attend our reception for our show in the Library's Handforth Gallery
1:00 – 4:00 PM
Light Refreshments


a previous show is pictured
 

Thursday, July 21, 2016

2nd Wednesday outing: August 10 Ed Hume Seeds

The 2nd Wednesday outing:  August 10 Ed Hume Seeds

11504 58th Ave. E., Puyallup WA

This is a change to the regular monthly 3rd Wednesday outing for August, due to the proximity to the 4th Annual Urban Sketchers West Coast Sketch Crawl

We will meet Ed at 10 for a brief tour of his very special garden and seed company grounds. After Ed's tour we will do introductions, announcements etc and then sketch until 12:30. For those interested in staying in the area for lunch there are a few decent eateries to satisfy the hungry.






Parking is on site and free.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Second Thursday Outing - August 11th

Second Thursday Gig Harbor Sketch Outing: August 11th 
Patterson’s Farm Market

  The market is located at the corner of 56th St NW and 38th Ave NW in Gig Harbor.


Between the explosions of color and the heady scents of fresh fruits and vegetables there is quite a lot to sketch on this little corner just west of Gig Harbor’s Uptown area.  Hanging flower baskets and luscious peaches make for a very inviting location.  There is an old farm truck and an old tractor with lots of interesting things on the backside of the main store to sketch.

We will meet on the south side of Patterson’s Farm Market (on 55th St Ct NW) in Gig Harbor at 10am.

Directions:
Cross Tacoma Narrows Bridge
Exit to Olympic Dr NW
Turn left to cross the freeway (turn right if you are coming from the north)
Continue through the major intersection at Pt Fosdick
Olympic Dr curves to the right and then the left and becomes 56th
Turn left on 38th
Take immediate right on 55th to parking and the entrance

 There is quite a lot of street parking.  Patterson’s parking area is rather small and needs to be available to customers.  The aisles in the store are narrow so we need to be aware of where we set up to be out of the way. There is a port-a-potty on site.





At Valero’s across the street there is Rib Tickler’s BBQ for those who wish to remain on site for lunch.  

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Disc Bound

On Sunday Gail W. looked at my book and suggested I write ablog post about it. Here it is.

For some months now, I've been using this Circa Sliver Foldover Notebook as a sketchbook. It's my preferred size at 5 x 8.5 inches, light weight and adaptable. I like this particular notebook because it has a firm cover for support and the cover easily folds over so I can stand to sketch.  The source is on-line from Levenger's Circa line.



I tear full sheets of watercolor paper down to fit.  If I want a double page spread, I don't do the last tear but, instead, fold the paper.  All pages are then punched with the Circa desk punch.  There is  a travel punch available but it can only accept watercolor paper of about 90 pounds. I also like to have a page of card stock to hold the stickers I used to put on the cover of my sketchbooks.






I can easily remove just a single page to attach to my coroplast lap board if I want to sit.  Then I can put the page back so all my sketches can be reviewed in the book.




My book holds a divider with a pocket, some notebook pages and a zip pouch.  You could add other items, such as calendar or planner pages.  Letter sized paper can be cut in half and punched to fit the book so you don't have to buy the pre-punched refills from Levenger.  If more pages are desired, larger discs can be used.





As the book fills, I remove sketches and store them in envelopes.  I could "reconstitute" a group of sketches into a disc bound book at any time.



There is also the Arc system at Staples and Tul at Office Max/Depot.  So far, I haven't liked their notebooks as much because they are either too heavy or too flimsy.  Their choices are limited to leather (heavy) and "durable poly" (flimsy).  Except for the discs with which the books are sold, they do not offer any replacement .75 inch discs, which is what I prefer.  On the pro side, they are less expensive than Levenger.  I signed up for Levenger's email notification so I am alerted when items go on sale.

Of course, you could work out the same system using a 3 ring binder.  That would be cheaper and more easily sourced.  However, I've not found very many that fold over well so I still prefer this disc bound book.

Sunday, July 3, 2016

A "W" kind of day

By Kate Buike

Urban Sketchers Tacoma outing yesterday (Saturday, July 2) was around the Tacoma campus of the University of Washington.  The block letter "W" symbol was everywhere.  It made it into both of my sketches today.



As usual, I arrived early to our meeting location outside the UW bookstore.  I sat at some convenient tables there and positioned myself to sketch the nicely decorated light pole, complete with a "W" flag.  This flag also had the University's "We > Me" motto.  Not quite as math geeky as the Aviation High School's "√144"  Seahawks flag, but still geeky enough.



I commented that the Gay Pride month flags are "still" flying.  However, I later found a flyer that Tacoma's Gay Pride Festival is July 8-16.  Not in the usual June. 

Up the steps deeper into campus but not very far and I caught sight of the very large "W" sculpture which greets visitors at the upper end of campus.



We shared our sketches and had our group photos in Tollefson Plaza.





At least a couple people are missing from our group photo.