In the Shade

The prompt for day two of world watercolor month is, "in the shade" which couldn't be more appropriate! We are experiencing a beautiful sunny week of perfect 75° summer weather.

Just got back from a trip to the nursery and I'm  going to let these flowers rest in the shade while I have my lunch. I'll come back and add watercolor in a little bit and post the results on Instagram for #WorldWatercolorMonth. Then as the day cools off I'll plant them in the pots waiting for them out on the deck.

This is also a "momentcatchers " weekend. Candace Rardon hosts an online gallery the first weekend of each month for creatives around the world. I shouldn't wonder if this moment is shared by a good number of artists in the summer hemisphere this weekend.

New pen, new periscope broadcast, fun day in the studio

I had a fun day, sketching live on periscope.tv/michelecooperart while opening a package containing my new Seaglass pen. Fun chatting with you all, too. 

The finished watercolor sketch. Thank you to my students for the lovely handmade sketchbook. 

March Momentcatchers and Multitasking

In my usual multitasking approach, I am combining two online drawing challenges today; Candace Rardon's Momentcatchers (a watercolor every first Saturday of the month) and "One week 100 people" a global challenge starting up on Monday. (I'll post more about the 100 people challenge here tomorrow)

I took a moment or two to set out a bunch of sketching supplies to see what I might use for the the upcoming week's drawing challenge. Bing! THAT'S what I'll draw and paint this weekend for my contribution to the Momentcatcher's  Challenge---the pile of sketching stuff I'm using! This will be my third post for the year on this challenge. I plan to add one a month on the first Saturday of each month.
See more about the Momentcatchers Project at http://www.candaceroserardon.com/2017/01/moment-catchers-project/

In another spate of multitasking, I took some photos at each stage of today's sketch.

1. Drawing with my Sharpie Stylo Fine tip black waterproof pen in my new Stillman & Birn Zeta Sketchbook.
I chose this sketchbook because its thick, smooth paper is particularly pen-friendly yet allows for wet media, should I have enough time to add watercolor washes.

 2. I wanted to try out both the smooth paper of the S&B Zeta and my new very pointed tip travel brush. It's a #6 round Voyage by Silver Black Velvet

So I mixed up a semi neutral grey with my DIY Altoids mini travel tin and washed in the shadows over the pen drawing.

What do you think? Does it make that much of a difference from the simple line sketch?

3. Finally, I added watercolor washes over the previous two stages and used Picasa to superimpose a little text list of my choice of supplies for the challenge. I do that sometimes to see what it would look like if I add narrative to my sketches. I think if I do decide to add text by hand, it will be slanted to fit the angle of the drawing of the sketchbook page. You can see what it looks like without the text added on my Flickr photostream here.

I hope this qualifies for my Momentcatchers entry. There IS watercolor in it. :)

Oh, and here's a shot of my work in progress.

PS. My cappuccino got cold. I got carried away yet again and that part of my multi-multi-multi tasking failed.

Rainy Days and Memories

Thursday was Groundhog Day. For most people in the USA, it's a 131-year-old tradition, when the most famous groundhog -- Punxsutawney Phil -- emerged from his burrow at Gobblers Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, Thursday and saw his shadow, which, according to legend, means six more weeks of winter. 

Yesterday, February 3, was my parents' wedding anniversary. Now that they are gone, the date always brings up bittersweet memories.

So it's appropriate for me that today is my day to participate in a monthly online sketch project called #momentcatchers. I've been housebound with the seasonal cough, cold, fever lately. (Strike three!) I'm in the studio, puttering around and as I look out at the cold, grey, rainy afternoon, a touch of green in a dormant flower pot catches my eye........and our little hedgehog boot brush by the back door. Voila! I can catch this moment in my humble little sketch to express all the memories, a bit of ennui, and a hopeful sigh of optimism that Punxsutawney Phil's prediction might be off this year. Ahhhhh! Art is therapeutic. 

I stood inside the warm, cozy studio to sketch my take on the view by the back door, the weather, the season and my impatience with this irksome seasonal cold. Spring can't come too soon!

Capturing the Moment at Sea Life Park

We spent a lovely day at Sea Life Park on Saturday. What a great place to take two little girls, ages 3 and 7. 

I had a comfortable seat in the covered area of the bleachers at the Dolphin  Show. Good thing! Not just to protect us from the sun, but also a sudden change in the weather! On the horizon, you can see the huge bank of a rain squall coming toward us. I was able to keep the rain off my sketchbook but there was so much salt spray in the air that my sky washes went their own way!

As an urban sketcher, I take my sketchbook everywhere to record, report and to capture the moment. After returning home, however, I learned of a new online challenge using #momentcatchers on Instagram and Facebook. 

Here's what Candace Rose Rardon has to say about her new online project for 2017.

 "Over the past few years, I’ve taken part in several “sketch crawls” organized by the wonderful Urban Sketchers organization.  The premise of a sketch crawl is simple: A group of sketch artists meets up in a city, spends a couple of hours sketching, and then comes together at the end to share their sketches with each other.

My vision for the Moment Catchers Project is similar, except we’ll sketch on our own wherever we happen to be in the world, and then connect through social media to share our sketches with one another." See more about this project at http://www.candaceroserardon.com/2017/01/moment-catchers-project/

I hope I'm not too late to post this one for January, Candace!