As a logo designer I expect my designs to come and go as the marketing world ebbs, flows, and changes. Therefore I am especially happy about the endurance of the Seattle Public Library globe (which I drew) that appears as part of the logo for this outstanding library system in my home town. The entire logo project was art directed by Seattle designer Bridget Culligan, founder of Golden Lasso, a Seattle design firm. While the drawing looks like it may have been jotted down on a napkin, it in fact took a lot of revising due to Bridget's renowned design scrutiny. As I recall, there were many faxes back and forth with my variations and tweaks. Yes, it was done back in the day of faxing, not emailing. It's an elderly logo now!

In 2015, the Library's name and branding were subject to a major review. Designers were asked to submit new names and new logo concepts. What happened? A lot of money was spent on the new development, but the familiar, popular logo survived and prevailed, as did the name of the library system. Thus, the globe-within-a-book lives on all around the city. 

(Please click here to read about the rebranding rejection)

Over the years, I've done a lot of artwork for my daughter's bands. When the gifted trumpet and cornet player Mike Davis from her current band (Emily Asher's Garden Party) decided to lead a traditional jazz band of his own, the need for a "period style" logo came up. Mike Davis' The New Wonders, also located in New York City, specializes in playing American jazz from the 20's and 30's. Mike was asked to find some typography from the era that might be used as an inspiration for a hand lettered style. He located old Victrola ads that spoke to him and that served me well as a model to use. Some rather rustic, irregular wooden type was used for these magazine ads.

Using a Speedball nib with ink on rough paper, followed by some digital texturing, I created this lettering for The New Wonders' eponymous first CD release. The lettering echos the spacious Victrola logo at the bottom of the page. In traditional calligraphic studies, the model for my lettering is called Foundational. FYI, most book typography is based on what are called Roman letters (as opposed to Gothic or Italic, for example).

I added the linear motif that was created with the same Speedball nib. 

My summer began early: in May. Off to Europe I went to make a 50-year anniversary visit to Germany where I lived during my senior year of high school. To make the trip an adventure, a friend I had made during that year rendezvous'd with me at the Frankfurt airport and off we went, bike helmets in hand, to board a venerable old barge headed out of Koblenz for the tiny town of Saarburg just past the southern end of the Mosel River. As a reminder of our fun week of barging, biking, and learning about Riesling viticulture along this scenic river, I made a map. Please click on the map to see an enlarged version. After all, you don't want to miss a thing!

Map is about 6"x9", done with a black gel pen and watercolor, freely written and drawn in my sketchbook.

 As a side note, I will be teaching my class, "The Art of Drawing Maps" at the North Cascades Institute's Environmental Learning Center in the gorgeous mountains of Washington State. This location is about a three-hour drive from Seattle. To read about it or register, please click HERE.

Every gardener I know has talked about the abundant growth that has beset all of our gardens this past spring. Along with the expanding shrubbery is the happier phenomenon of our exuberantly blooming roses. I'm not a serious rose gardener, but I have several hardy (they have to be) ones. All these are showy at this time: a delight.

I have one friend who, along with her gardener-husband, has a glorious, fully-tended garden and yard. Further, she is gifted at placing a few blooms in just the right container - usually a vintage one. When our little drawing group met at her house last week, she had a pudgy, antique, silver-plated teapot sitting on the table with a few dusty pink roses in it. We sketched it quickly as we had spent an unusually long portion of our 2-hour meeting catching up with one another about life happenings. Here's my sketch:

Above is a collection of four fragrant, cabbage-type roses from my own garden. A gift from my mother-in-law some years ago, this rose evokes such tender feelings because I know that she knew how much I loved these. We lost her in 2016. Often, I will lean in for a deep whiff of their unique fragrance.

When a close friend wistfully recounted a rural walk taken in the Yorkshire Dales by her and her husband, I felt compelled to offer to draw a map of the area and trail. One year later (yes, even I am overly optimistic about the time required to draw a map by hand), the map is complete.

Technique-wise, I was inspired by the beautiful colored pencil illustration work by Fred Marcellino. Recently, another artist friend sent me a copy of a charming map he had drawn for the book The Wainscott Weasel. If you click on this link, scroll down when you "look inside" this Amazon listing to see his map I am referring to. Mind you, my own map ended up being way more complex than Marcellino's map, but maybe you'll be able to see a resemblance between the two.

Here is the map in full. The artwork is 10.5" wide by 16" in height. All drawing is done with colored pencil. The monoline pen lettering was done with Rapidograph technical pens and India ink with the exception of the title which was done in gouache with a Speedball B-nib.

My friend who took the walk provided lots of photos for me to refer to. I chose to do pull-out illustrations based on those photos, placing them roughly in their pertinent locations. The bottom panorama drawing gives a more dimensional view of the bucolic landscapes of the Dales. Sheep are abundant, and all the pastures are partitioned by original stone fences. The gray dotted lines throughout the map represent these walls.

A word about the lettering: I simply loved Marcellino's lettering on his map, so I blatantly copied it. Style-wise, the letters seem to be inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's sketch labeling. All caps combined with generous letter spacing make for clean and legible titling with just enough personality. 

Other details: with the predominant greens of the pastures, red was the color I chose for decorative accents on the map. With all the texture in the pasturelands, I opted to leave the 1/4" border and the title box uncolored. The circular pull-outs are 1.25" in diameter. I did refer to a GoogleEarth image of the Gargrove Walk area as well as two existing maps to create this map. Creating a memoir for my friends to look at in the years to come was my intent and inspiration. 

Coll Thrush, a Washington state native and author of Native Seattle: Histories of the Crossing-Over Place, has written a new book published by Yale University Press: Indigenous London: Native Travelers at the Heart of Empire. The Seattle Times has just published a glowing review of this already-lauded volume. Coll, an associate professor of history at the University of British Columbia, approached me nearly three years ago to commission me to draw the maps he wanted to include in his manuscript. 

Maps were needed to illustrate the locations of the Indigenous peoples who, over centuries, travelled to London to challenge decisions made by those in power over British colonialism in the Indigenous peoples' homelands. The maps were to include simple outlines of the land masses, hand lettered names of the Indigenous nations whose peoples traveled to London, some navigational lines (primarily for ornament), and titles. All four maps appear at the beginning of the book. The one featuring North America is shown below.

When Coll and I first met to discuss the maps, I showed him a sheet of calligraphy samples. He liked this sample as a basic style for the labeling:

"Rigoletto" was written directly with a calligraphy pen without any retouching. For the maps, I felt I needed to polish the letters by writing them in ink, scanning them, and retouching them in Photoshop. All elements on the maps needed to be crisp and clear when reduced to a small size for the pages of the books. Ultimately, each map was assembled and completed digitally which was not how I originally intended to create them.

Here is a sample of the finished letterforms, enlarged. After individual letters were retouched, I used them almost as if they were a font, placing each individual letter. Therefore, I could correct the spacing and alignment to a higher standard. For the capital letters I kept flourishes understated. 

In addition to my maps, Thrush has included dozens of antique engravings, photographs, excerpts from letters, and poetry. The result is an enriched manuscript based on extensive research and heartfelt interest in the Indigenous experience. 

On the back of the book jacket is this quote: This book confirms Coll Thrush's position as the best historian of place working in Native American and Indigenous studies today. Indigenous London is a major contribution to the growing scholarship of the Red Atlantic. Jace Weaver, author of The Red Atlantic: American Indigenes and the Making of the Modern World, 1000-1927. 

Congratulations, Coll, on a finely crafted, original work. 

I'd like to share some of the beautiful block prints created by the participants in last weekend's blockprinting class sponsored by the North Cascades Institute. Some of the students had done block printing in previous art classes, but for others this was their first experience with the medium. Others had been dissatisfied with previous attempts but all were interested in developing their designs to suit the bold, positive/negative imagery this medium offers. We had two days to work in the spacious studio at The Mountaineers Center on Sand Point Way in Seattle. The work testifies to the time and focus invested in the design, carving and printing of the blocks. Special thanks go to Katie Roloson, the program director for the Institute, and Frank, the facility manager for the Mountaineers Center.

The first project was to design a small block using a leaf motif placed diagonally with mirrored positive and negative. As a pattern-making rubber stamp, this block served as a solid blank (the back) for printing a base layer. The carved surface was then printed on top. Each leaf block (some cut other motifs for this piece) was rotated to create a pattern of multiples. We used pigment-based stamp pads.

For the second project (a block of 4" x 6"), each student selected his or her own subject matter. On the left, a study of heads of garlic seems ideal as a carved subject. On the right, the whale is rendered in a more traditional illustration style with borders. The artists had the option of tinting their oil-based inked prints with watercolor or leaving them uncolored. The ink used was black, oil-based relief printing ink formulated for rolling on the carved surface of the block with a brayer. 

The slug image is shown here on the left before the entire background texture was removed by the artist. The final print had a spare, strong appearance (sorry, I didn't photograph the finished image). The octopus, by another student, stretches dramatically across the 4" x 6" surface.

This graceful ginkgo leaf composition is especially enhanced by the addition of watercolor tinting. 

A sea turtle commemorates a trip to the Galapagos by Katie Roloson, program director at NCI. The chanterelle mushrooms on the right are shown in a nocturnal setting next to their host tree trunk: a Douglas fir. 

Many thanks to all of the nature-loving artists who took the workshop!

There's a first time for everything, and this first-time project was fun. 

Here's my blouse and this is how this project got started: I wore this to go visit my sister-in-law at her new home in Fircrest, WA. She loved my blouse, and said so! The reason for our visit was to help select light fixtures for her new place. While we were all pondering the possibilities, she offhandedly said that for one big white wall in her kitchen she thought she would buy a large, bright fabric panel. Remember Marimekko panels that we baby boomers bought for our rental apartments, back when? (Think bold colors and Scandinavian design). I tucked this wish of hers away in my mind. From her house we went to the lighting fixture store where my sister-in-law was drawn to the blown glass pendant lights that were mixed primary colors, just like in my blouse. I took that image away with me that day, too.

Then, the following week I was thinking about my sweet sister-in-law, the blouse, the Marimekko idea, and the glass fixture she loved. That's when the idea popped into my head: make a painting on canvas with acrylic that would perk up that wall, the kitchen, and serve as something to enhance that pendant shade should she decide to buy it. Voilà! A great idea! I texted her to see if she liked the it, too. YES. So, I bought a 30" x 30" canvas the next day. Mind you, I'm no real painter in acrylic, but I have some big tubes of acrylic sitting around needing to be used. I got right to it. Above is my scale drawing based on the flowers in my blouse. The color guide is pencilled to the right. 

Originally I was going to enlarge the design via a proportional grid process. I soon bagged the grid approach of enlarging because it was taking a tediously long time. The "work smarter not harder" motto kicked in. Time to enlarge my sketch with my trusty old copy machine onto tracing paper. I traced over these with graphite transfer paper. I was then ready to mix paint colors to match the blouse colors.

Here's my first pass with ultramarine blue applied to the background. The white was then added. It was paint-by-number time. 

Then came the yellow, then the red.

I proceeded to mixing and painting each color systematically. The day we were to deliver the painting, I worked nonstop. After getting all the painting done I turned a wall heater on and parked the canvas nearby to dry before it was put in the back seat for the ride to Fircrest. Gotta love acrylic paint. A photo finish. Here is a rather blurry, partial picture of the painting hastily taken from the front seat where I was sitting!


And here is the, well, unoriginal original in its intended place. It's looking pretty good as blouse-inspired paintings go! My sis-in-law is happy.

Before meeting a new group of map drawing students, I spend several days preparing teaching materials for them. There are no prerequisites for the class. Therefore, basic instruction in many different drafting and drawing skills related to drawing maps is necessary. The students never fail to impress me as they devotedly toil over every phase of their map designs. The results are so inspiring that I often take their ideas and suggestions and incorporate them in the next workshop I offer. The photos below were taken early on day 3, before the final push to finish them so what you see are not the finished products. This class was offered through the outstanding North Cascades Institute and was held June 24-26 at their beautiful Environmental Learning Center up on Diablo Lake. I have program director Katie Roloson to thank for including this class in the curriculum. Here are several examples of the participants' hard work:

Mary and Charlotte Minor, one of two mother-daughter pairs in this class, smile in the midst of creating their personalized maps of Puget Sound, shown above their photo. A lot of hours go into making a map so being able to smile is helpful!

Alice Hibberd designed a ship's wheel "mandala" format for her map of memories of her childhood home life. She did complete this map over the course of the last day. 

Not far from our classroom is the Deer Creek Trail, a tranquil walk in the forest. Two of the students in this group did maps of this verdant place.

Aly Gourd, our NCI assistant for the weekend, designed a cerebrally-inspired pair of maps based on a hike she took with a friend.

To map one's own home property is particularly satisfying as well as thought-provoking. What matters most? How can certain features be best rendered? This map by Sue Adams was further colored after I took this photo.

 A note to the students: please send photos of your finished maps whether yours is shown in this group or not! I'll add the images as I receive them. It was such a pleasure to work with you all.

In my recent life, much of 2016 has been focused on family activities and caretaking, and teaching. Aside from a little sketching and a little map drawing, doing personal artwork hasn't played a part in the past few months. One way to assure that I pull out my seldom-used oil paints is to get together with my friend Claire for a day of painting together. Last week, we set up in my greenhouse and surrounded by ecstatically blooming geraniums and our happy spirits, we painted. I with my oils, and Claire with her watercolors. 

I set up a still life, and Claire brought a spectacular bouquet to paint. In retrospect, in terms of my own still life choices, I probably would have preferred to paint less fussy items. Or, perhaps because my personal bent is often toward rendering detail (something that oil painting usually liberates me from), I ended up spending too much time on this painting...but no matter; it was very absorbing and satisfying to paint. And a couple of days ago, after doing more work on it since we had our painting day, I declared it done. Below you will see the temporary painting "studio" with Claire in her spot. Following that is my finished painting. 

Claire tackles a large floral bouquet with watercolors, and in the foreground you can see my hastily assembled still life with a tiny, child's teapot, an antique bottle, a feather, and a columbine.

"Keepsakes with Columbine" 6" x 14" panel

Notes on the items in the still life: Rick and I were on a small boat on the River Li in China, in 2007, when a Chinese woman from one of the villages along the shore was allowed to board. She made her living selling things to passengers. In her basket was an assortment of small items wrapped individually in pieces of patterned cloth. One of these items was this tiny, chipped and stained teapot. It is common for vendors to approach tourists to sell their wares to them, but most items are new, mass-produced trinkets. We bought very few keepsakes in China, but the little teapot was something I did buy. On the opposite side is a scratchy decal of 3 traditionally clothed children. Hand-painted Chinese characters decorate the side you see here, and some tiny ones are on the top.

The bottle came from a sidewalk garage sale in Walla Walla, Washington. I was there about 15 years ago with a group of friends, and spotted this old medicine bottle for $1. It has held many an individual blossom or a few sweet peas in the years since I brought it home. The feather is my granddaughter Ada's. It's future is to become a writing quill. The columbine, selected for its soft colors and contrasting form, is from the garden outside my greenhouse.