In Which Truman Is Supremely Bored

Another mild, sunny February day in Seattle -- so of course I went outside to sketch.  Lately I've been trying to sketch on my lunch hours at the UW, but it's not really enough time to find something to draw, find a good place from which to draw it (my goodness, the campus is full of other people who keep insisting on sitting on the benches that have the perfect view), and then draw and color it in, AND return to the office on time.

I've already sketched a lot of the good stuff that's quite close to my building, but I work on the most visually boring end of the campus, and it's a long walk to the fun stuff.  So this afternoon (FREE PARKING after noon on Saturdays and all day Sundays!) I tootled on up to the UW with Truman in tow so I could sketch as long as I liked.

There was a lovely view of the older buildings from a grassy lawn known as Rainier Vista.  I got out my handy camp stool and set to work.  Truman decided this was DULL.  He fussed.  He fussed when I put him in his stroller, and he fussed when I took him out of this stroller.  He fussed when I tried to take him for a walk, and he fussed when I tried to get him to snooze on a blanket.  Urban sketching, in the mind of wiener dog, is the most uninteresting activity that humans ever invented.  Only when I moved a few feet over and he located something gross and smelly that he wanted to roll in, was he happy.

And then a breeze picked up, and I couldn't keep the paper to stay put, and then tourists with small children came over and tried to pet Truman, which made him even grumpier, and then a woman walked by with two Corgis and you'd have thought they were Great Danes, the way he barked at them.  I mean, come on -- Corgis!

So I gave up, though I did get one sketch finished!  This is ink with watercolor:

And this is Truman, expressing his profound ennui:

Ah, well.  He's now happily sitting on top of the sofa, his favorite place in all the world, bored no more.  I, on the other hand, kind of wish I were still out there sketching stuff!