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| 7/15/14 Platinum Carbon, Diamine Grey and Pilot Iroshizuku Tsuyu-kusa inks, Caran d'Ache Museum water-soluble colored pencils, Zig markers, Pitt Artist Pen, Canson XL 140 lb. paper |
Power lines and poles are by no means attractive, and they
have certainly marred scenic photos for many a photographer. But if they are a
prominent part of a cityscape, I like to include them in my sketches. Ugly as they may be, they add a certain rhythm
of lines, both vertical and horizontal.
A few blocks south of my house in the otherwise charming
Maple Leaf neighborhood is Seattle City Light’s North Substation at around
Eighth Avenue Northeast and Northeast 79th Street. Whenever I drive
by (which I avoid if possible), I feel bad for the people who live right across
the street and have to look at this eyesore through their windows every day.
This week’s Urban Sketchers Flickr group theme is “So Ugly it’s Beautiful,” and the North
Substation was my ideal candidate. This mother of all power lines, which looks
like a giant Erector Set, is unattractive,
to say the least. Yet as I stood uphill from it to sketch its vast, regular rhythm
of lines and transformers, I had to acknowledge a certain beauty. I even
thought about how all those lines and transformers are hard at work bringing me
electricity so that I can scan and blog about my sketches each day.
Thus acknowledged, I finished my sketch and was happy to
turn my back on all that ugly beauty.
You are right about it looking like something from an erector set. These spots are such eyesores, but are definitely part of our world. Good sketch of it.
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