Sketching at historic bookstore in Seattle

Last Sunday we had our monthly meetup of Seattle urban sketchers at Elliott Bay Books Company. We chose this location because, after 36 years here, the beloved bookstore is relocating to a different neighborhood. It's sad because the atmosphere will be hard to replicate. We thought it would be good to pay tribute to its soon-to-be former home at the historic Globe building by sketching here. I called them in advance to make sure they would let us sketch inside, since it's a private business. They said that as long as we didn't interfere with the customers we should be okay. We met at 10.30 in the morning at the café on the basement and gathered there again at 1 p.m. for the passing of the sketchbooks ritual.



The hardwood floors and brick structure give Elliott Bay Bookstore a warm feel and unique personality. Here I was able to draw a fellow sketcher and big fan of this blog, Frank. He drove 60 miles to join us. That's what sketchers do.



This is a closeup of the entrance of the bookstore. To the right is one of several historic clocks that you can find in downtown Seattle.



When it was time to pass the sketchbooks, the one by Ramesh generated a lot of conversation. We all loved his quick people sketches drawn on a handbound booklet of greenish paper.

When it was my turn to look at it, I couldn't resist taking a video with my iPhone while I browsed. Ramesh said he has plenty of them just like this one, which he made out of paper he found in the painting supplies aisle at Home Depot!

To see more drawings from our December sketchcrawl or previous ones visit the USK Seattle blog.