Artist's Model by Day, Salad by Night

My Periscope broadcast this afternoon was about red pigments in watercolor with a quick live demonstration of a "personal size" watermelon. 

And then I made a watermelon feta salad with fresh mint from the garden and homemade balsamic dressing!

SKOL2016 at Roozengaard

Although I shared this series of sketches live on Periscope after a morning at Roozengaard, a tulip display garden, it's always nice to see the work in progress. Scroll down to view my accordion book sketches in reverse order, from end back to beginning.

The finished sketches of the day. 4.7.16.  Individual sketches shown in more detail on the replay at the 57min mark. Here on Katch.

I want to engage in the Sketch Out Loud Project along with other artists around the world. The goal of SKO/L is to help celebrate Landscape Architecture and World Landscape Architecture Month with a wide audience of sketchers to promote on location sketching as a way to observe and document the landscape. Learn more about SKOL2016 here.

Final sketch of the windmill and a trophy shot on a warm, sunny bench nearby.

As I sat on a bench sketching in the northwest corner of the display garden, a bee came to view my progress. It hovered for a few moments, so close that I could see it pivot in flight left and right from page to  page.  After it buzzed away, I sketched it in place exactly where it had been, took this photo and continued my work in progress. 4.7.16
Roozengaard

Artscope today on Mixing Three Frequently Purchased Premixed Watercolors

Paynes Grey, Neutral Tint and Sap Green are three of the most frequently purchased watercolors that are premixed for you by the manufacturer. That's three tubes of paint that you don't need to buy. If you have Aureolin, Alizarin Crimson, Antwerp Blue and French Ultramarine Blue, you can mix all three of these for yourself. Watch my latest live broadcast on Periscope to see how!

The postmark deadline for the 2016 Sketchbook Project is tomorrow! So before I send it off, I'm sharing a bit of mine on Periscope today. That's my DIY watercolor paper accordion insert with the watercolor sketch of blueberry pancakes. If you miss it, watch the replay on periscope.tv/michelecoopart or Katch.me/michelecoopart 

Don Colley Workshop

Kate watching Don Colley illustrating people drawing through his sketchbooks.

I had a rare opportunity to be a student today at the Don Colley Workshop. We gathered this morning in the classroom at Daniel Smith, Inc.

But FIRST!! Look at the swag we got from Faber-Castell!

Thank you, Faber-Castell and Dan Smith, Inc. for the generous box of drawing stuff!

Don started us out with pages from his sketchbooks, demonstrating some fascinating techniques he uses with Faber-Castell marking pens. Check out his masterful technique through his video demonstrations here. Then we moved outdoors, to Alki Beach. Brrrrr!

Don teaching at Alki Beach.

I walked a ways down the sidewalk and saw two brave guys from the Fruit Chatter Box Food Truck who were setting up on the beach. I did my sketch while they set up and they took a photo of it when I was done!

 

I am told that as long as your head and chest are bundled up you can go ahead and wear your shorts, no problem!

It's 12:15 and our teeth are chattering by now, so we all walked down the avenue to Pegasus Pizza & Pasta for lunch. They fixed us right up, with delicious food and great service all at a big long table. Don decided to illustrate some basic measurements on the human head......his head!

Not forgetting about the Seahawks game that we were all missing, Don puts on his game face.

Back out for afternoon drawing on the beach! I had gotten accustomed to being warm during lunch and it seemed that the wind chill factor had inhumanely increased and whitecaps were really kicking up now. I couldn't believe that some people wore shorts and light shirts out there!

All the workshop participants had multiple layers on, but Tina and I still opted for another indoor venue.We got a nice hot coffee and a cinnamon roll to share at the iconic Top Pot Donuts. Ahhhh, bliss! Nothing better than being out on a sunny, albeit chilly, fall day, on or near the beach, learning something new!

Our instructor came in out of the cold eventually and he drew Tina and I while we were sketching.

See more of Don's sketches from today post workshop here. 

Tina's cup of hot coffee, our yummy cinnamon roll, one of the coffee pots displayed on the bookshelf wall at Top Pot Donuts and a 5 minute sketch of a customer from our pizza lunch. Oh, and finishing off the day with a little art supply shopping back at the "mother ship"!

Note: These are the raw sketches from our day at Alki. It will take me some time to try out all the new tools and techniques I learned today. When I do, I'll post them up and share my thoughts about working with all my new stuff.

USk Workshop at SAM and Pike Place Market

My friend, Judy, and I attended a fantastic workshop today: The Urban Sketchers Workshop in partnership with the Seattle Art Museum. The event is tied to the exhibit Modernism in the Pacific Northwest featuring the work of the late Seattle artist Mark Tobey and other leading figures of the modern art movement that took place in the Northwest in the late 1930s and 1940s.

The workshop began with a tour of the exhibit, then lunch followed by a hands-on field sketching session at Pike Place Market led by Urban Sketchers instructors Gabriel Campanario, Frank Ching and Gail Wong. During the workshop, participants gained valuable sketching tips to draw on location —from perspective and composition to figure drawing basics— and channelled Tobey's spirit of sketching at the market.

Sketchbook sponsors: Stillman & Birn.
Pencils and 66 Watercolor "Try it Color sheets": Daniel Smith

Gail Wong, Frank Chin, and Gabriel Campanario were our Instructors.

We were divided into three groups and then rotated among the locations where each instructor gave their part of the program.

This was the plan.