Sunset on the Douro

Sunset on the Douro, Porto, Portugal

I was pretending to be in Porto again, inspired by the sunset photos some of the symposium participants posted the other night. So beautiful.

Here's the prompt for Day 16 of the Firefly challenge:

Day 16: Paint Night
You’re halfway through the challenge! Why not celebrate with friends by attending a Paint Nite or hosting your own at home.

Do you see my dilemma? Almost everyone is halfway across the world so how can I have them over for a paint night?

Then it occurred to me: paint. night. Yes! I will do a night painting! or rather a sunset one.

Sand & Seashells

Combining "Sand" and "Seashells" from the daily prompt for World Watercolor Month. Ha!

Just kidding around. I'll post my real watercolor later today.

Just a few of the "found" compositions made by the tide and foraging crows and seabirds.

Here's a quick sketch for #WorldWatercolorMonth and an iPhone snapshot. Okay, gotta go. Company coming tomorrow!

Bay View Textures

Looking north at Bay View
Class Demonstration

Using texture "en mass" to create the main areas of a painting: foreground, middle ground, background.

Aerial perspective is achieved by diminishing the appearance  of texture into the distance (size, color, contrast).

ATC, the answer for NaNoDrawMo slackers like me

Three before dinner and three after.....I'm catching up!

These 3.5x2.5" Artists' Trading Cards take a bit longer to make than you think, but it's actually a lot of fun! These are taylor made for NaNoDrawMo slackers like me!

Let's see, I have to do 15 more drawings/paintings in 8 days-Yeah, I have a few ideas. :)

Rocky Shoreline sketch

Ruckle Park Sketch
Original Watercolor by Michele Cooper

Here's a sketch I did on location with a group of students at my workshop on Salt Spring Island. Timing is everything if you want to get just the right lighting for your rocky shoreline.

How to fix a Watercolor

Cattle Point Light
Original Watercolor by Michele Cooper
Size: 5x7"       Price: $75 (with mat and sleeve)

Here's the corrected painting after I fixed my demonstration from this morning.

As you can see below, I removed a lot of the dead, overworked paint in the background trees. I lifted the dry previously painted area with a clean damp brush, gently scrubbing until enough was removed.

Once it dried, I reapplied softer, more varied middle tones and better tree shapes. I still wanted the contrast of the darker background against the white of the lighthouse, but with more atmospheric edges.

Bandon Lighthouse

Bandon Light
Original Watercolor by Michele Cooper
Size 5x7"   Sold
 
Here's an example of my "Warm/Cool--Light/Dark" method of painting the watercolor wash on a line drawing.

Lower left is the line work done with a Micron pen.