Sketch Outing Roundup

I've been out sketching three times over the past week.  First I went to the University district to check out the fraternity houses before the students return.  I found the buildings were too big and too complex, so I focused just on the entryways.

My next outing was with Tina to Magnuson Park, where we checked out an art installation titled Soundgarden -- it makes eerie noises when the wind blows.

It was getting too hot, so next we tootled a short ways down the road to the Laurelhurst Community Center park, which has tons of shade and some magnificent trees.

The third outing (also with Tina) was to the Bellevue Botanical Gardens, which I'd never been to before.

It's a lovely spot.

My first sketch got rushed at the end after I discovered the mosquitoes were biting, despite my liberal application of insect repellent.

I moved off in search of a less watery area.

This caught my eye, but it was too close to a pond.

I left the river/pond area and went to the sunny, non-watery rock garden area.   Unfortunately, the shady spot by a building that I chose turned out to be inhabited by large ants.  Sigh.  The resulting sketch was also quite rushed.

I wandered around some more, finding more fun stuff.

I returned to the rock garden and found a different shady spot where there weren't any ants.

However, by now it was 85 degrees, and even in the shade, not all that comfortable, so again I hurried my drawing.

Oh, well.  Some other day when it's cooler, this would be a fine place to revisit for more sketching.

As it is supposed to reach the low 90s today and upper 80s tomorrow, there will be no outings either day.