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Sketched Aug. 29, 2012
Since the Tubs Sun Salon closed five years ago, its empty shell has become an eye-stopping display of graffiti in the middle of Seattle’s U District. The collective artwork, however, didn’t happen spontaneously.
Taggers can thank Eric Sun, who bought the property in 2007, and his artist friends D.K. Pan and NKO for giving these walls a unique creative purpose all these years while they awaited the wrecking ball.
About 30 graffiti artists first collaborated on the “Tubs Memorial Wall,” which later became what Sun called a giant canvas for anyone to spray paint. Sun recalled writing the city to inform them: “We are turning this building into an art project, please don’t fine us.”
Sadly for taggers, Sun is finally getting around to his original plans for the site. He said Tubs will be demolished by the end of the year to make room for apartments.

I couldn’t have timed my visit any better. As I was sketching the building, three graffiti artists showed up and I was able to quickly add them to the main sketch, as you can see on the detail above. Then I went to talk to them and did two more drawings.

“Man, that’s tight,” said Scotty, when I showed him my sketch of him.

Scotty’s cousin, who goes by the artist name Solo, tagged the building with the words of his Nevada hometown, “Reno.”
He was disappointed when I told him that Tubs is going to be demolished. “Where else are we going to go now?” he asked. “We don’t want to get in trouble.”
Tubs memories
D.K.Pan is working on a documentary about Tubs. For more information visit facebook.com/tubsdocumentary.
What has drawn your attention around Seattle lately? Send me your suggestions of interesting places and people to sketch via e-mail, Facebook or Twitter. Have a great weekend!

May 31, 2012 (The sketch that will never be)
I did this drawing as a tribute to the people killed by a gunman at Cafe Racer last week. Prayers, memorials and any forms of artistic expression are good ways to show support. You can also make a donation to help their families at Cafe Racer Love dot org. The site also includes information on upcoming celebrations to honor the lives of Joe Albanese, Drew Keriakedes, Kimberly Layfield and Donald Largen.

Sketched May 31, 2012 [Click image to enlarge]
When I saw the chilling surveillance stills of Wednesday’s shooting at Cafe Racer, I immediately recognized the place.
I sat on those bar stools last year to sketch Jim Woodring, a local cartoonist and regular patron who would also hang out here with the “Friends of the Nib” drawing group. It’s “a place where your eccentricities would be appreciated,” he said.
Woodring took me to Cafe Racer because he thought I’d like the artsy locale, a hub for artists and musicians, and he was right. The cozy space teemed with wit and creativity. Where else could you find a spot like the OBAMA (Official Bad Art Museum of Art) room? And it was the perfect backdrop to draw Woodring’s newest cartooning tool, a 7-foot dip pen.
Like many other days, Drew Keriakedes was there, and Woodring introduced me to the easygoing musician. Keriakedes said he played the banjo and told me about his band, God’s Favorite Beefcake. “I should come sketch you guys one day,” I said.
But the senseless violence that took Drew’s life and four others Wednesday means I returned to Cafe Racer to draw a memorial instead.
Woodring told me this week he would always go talk to Drew every time he saw him at the cafe. “I knew him and I loved him,” said the cartoonist. “He was such a pleasure to talk to … always friendly and warm and enthusiastic.”
His murder is “cosmically wrong,” like John Lennon’s death, said Woodring. “It hasn’t sunk in yet … I just can’t accept it.”

Remember my sketch of the big “W” sign at the UW? (“Quiet retreat on UW campus,” April 20, 2012)
A reader commented that “to install it, they tore down a beautiful 1920s gothic stone gate.”
I found that hard to believe. I know there are two gothic-style columns on each side of the entrance, but was a 1920s gate really torn down to make room for this big capital letter?
Not at all.
Kristine Kenney, director of campus design and planning, said the “W” replaced a small slab of concrete inscribed with the words “University of Washington.”
That sign was out-of-scale for the Memorial Way entrance and often obscured by plants, said Kenney, who has another location in mind for it: the campus entrance at Northeast 43th Street and 15th Avenue.
The metal “W” that I sketched was installed in the fall of 2010 when the university started rolling out its new brand.
Michael Courtney, the local designer who came up with the idea of the giant letter, sent me the sketch of his original concept after seeing my own sketch. He drew it during a meeting with UW representatives and said the actual sketch helped them sell the idea and eventually find donors to build the sign.
Courtney also said UW President Mark Emmert wanted a sign where people would stop to have their photos taken, something emblematic.
I saw some people take photos of it while I was drawing it, so I think the sign is accomplishing its intended purpose.
It also makes a good sketch subject. Have you ever thought of drawing it?
If you do, send me your sketch and I’ll share it on my Facebook page.
“W” sketch courtesy of Michael Courtney Design.

Sketched April 10, 2012
Oh, spring at the U-Dub!
The best thing about it is that you don’t have to pay tuition to enjoy it. Anyone can wander through campus, and there’s much more to see than the striking, but fleeting cherry blossoms in the Quad.
This year, with the UW celebrating its 150th Anniversary (“HuskyFest” event wraps up Saturday), it was fitting that I discovered the Sylvan Grove Theater, home to some of the oldest-standing pieces of Seattle architecture: four, 24-foot Ionic columns that belonged to the original university building downtown.
The lush garden space, tucked between the Rainier Vista corridor and the Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering, is so secluded even some students miss it. Emilia Ptak, a recent graduate relaxing on a bench with a friend, didn’t find it until her third or fourth year.
Unlike the Quad, she said, it’s a quiet spot to concentrate and study.
Web Extra
Other sketches from my stroll through campus:

Block letters are so collegiate. A plaque by this giant “W” says the sign was donated by the class of 1960.

Denny Hall is the first university building to open on the current campus, back in 1895. As I started to sketch, I could hear a tour guide address his group. “This is where we come from,” he said, pointing to the castle-like building. “And this is where we are going,” pointing to the state-of-the-art architecture of Paccar Hall to the east. Paccar Hall is home to the Michael G. Foster School of Business.

I think Emilia Ptak had a point when she told me that the Quad is better for people watching than studying. On the sunny day I visited, the sensory overload was such that I can’t imagine anyone being able to concentrate there.

I sat on the steps of the Suzzallo Library building to sketch this view. Students crisscrossed the square in all directions on their way to class. Others stood under blue-covered tents, holding balloons and handing out fliers. When I finished my sketch, I walked over to the other side of the square to order a pulled-pork sandwich from a food truck, then sat on the benches at the center of the square to eat and remember my own college days at another beautiful campus, the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain.
What has drawn your attention around Seattle lately? Send me your suggestions of interesting places and people to sketch via e-mail, Facebook or Twitter. Have a great weekend!

Sketched Nov. 2
The U-District’s 90-year-old Neptune Theatre, which reopened as a concert and arts venue last summer, looks much the same now as it did when it was a movie house. You can still buy popcorn at the boat-shaped concession stand and admire the nautically-themed décor that includes portholes, tridents and mermaids.
Once “the finest suburban motion picture theatre in this part of the country,” as this newspaper called it when it opened in 1921, the Neptune has been redesigned mainly for live performances. Seats were ripped out and replaced with portable chairs that can be stored away to make room for dancing.
Concertgoers waiting for a Richard Thompson show this week said they like the transformation. “It’s very intimate … you are not very far away from the stage,” Lionel Halvorsen told me as he enjoyed a drink at the new bar.
John Brown has fond 1980s memories of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” –a regular midnight feature for years– but said now he’d rather go to a concert at the Neptune. “I’m glad we have another music venue.”
Web Extra!
These drawings don’t appear in Saturday’s print edition.

Cozy halls: As soon as doors opened at 7 p.m., the theatre’s historic halls were bustling with people buying popcorn or heading to the bar, which occupies the space where the last rows of seating used to be on the main level. A sign by the concession stand states the venue’s capacity at 885 people. “It’s the right size of crowd,” said Teresa Lawson, a Thompson fan from Port Townsend.

Lights, camera, music! I caught a glimpse of The Webb Sisters while they rehearsed before the show. The British pop-folk duo is joining Thompson on his U.S. tour.
Visit the Neptune for free: Those interested in the history and architecture of the theater will be happy to know that the Neptune also offers free public tours every third Saturday of the month. The next one is coming up on Nov. 19, just two days before the theatre’s 90th birthday.
What has drawn your attention around Seattle lately? Send me your suggestions of interesting places to sketch via e-mail, Facebook or Twitter. Have a great weekend!

Sketched Jan 5, 2011, 11:30 a.m.
Don’t expect Jim Woodring to start drawing on an iPad any time soon. The renowned Seattle cartoonist, whose hand-drawn, painstakingly inked comics are read by cult followers around the world, is taking old-fashioned pen-and-ink to new heights. Literally.
Over the past year, Woodring has worked with local engravers, jewelers and woodworkers to create a one-of-a-kind 7-foot-tall steel dip pen. He was told once at a London pen shop that a nib larger than 4 inches would not work and took that as a challenge.
The 5-pound pen has a brass-plated 16-inch nib and it has to be held horizontally at the hip to draw. “After drawing with it for 15 minutes I got a backache,” quipped the artist over a cup of coffee at the U-District’s Cafe Racer as I used my own puny fountain pen to sketch him.
On Sunday, Woodring will demonstrate the pen publicly for the first time at the Gage Academy of Art, dipping it in a 1-gallon ink pot and drawing giant cartoons on 6-by-4-foot drawing boards.
The three-hour free event starts at 1 p.m. Ink pots and pens –the regular size kind– will be available for the public to draw and Friends of the Nib, a local group of pen-and-ink enthusiasts, will provide instruction.

Sketch-worthy Seattle. Where should I take my sketchpad in 2011? Do you know of a good sketch story waiting to be drawn? I’d love to learn about it. You can send me your suggestions to gcampanario@seattletimes.com or via Facebook or Twitter.