Sketching Workshop AUGUST 30, 2025

 August 30

Take a line for a walk around Edmonds

Whether you’re looking to discover your own sketching style, or to build on existing knowledge, practical exercises on site will get you thinking, while being inspired by the charming village of Edmonds.

Learn more 

New 2020 Summer Series of Live Online Watercolor Classes

I found a lovely spot to paint in a nearby public garden.

Let’s paint on location this summer. I would love to share a few of my favorite spots with you where we can paint together, apart. As we follow official guidelines toward gradual reopening where we live, let’s share the joys of sketching and painting outdoors. Join me live online every 10 days or so as we explore the season with watercolor.

• Live watercolor demo from  Michele Cooper

• Suitable for ALL levels of painters 

• Plenty of Q & A

• Take advantage of the “mobile studio”

• Interact/chat with other attendees

• Paint along with me or paint later

• Send me a photo of your painting and I will critique and showcase in a special video on YouTube!

Register for Workshops

I am running a free live online informal meeting with a brief watercolor demonstration on Wednesday, July 8th at 6 pm PDT.  Wherever you are, join me for this Q&A session about the upcoming summer series of workshops and a free live demo of people walking dogs. To join, please fill out my 2 minute survey.

This online workshop is suitable for painters of any level.  Each session there will be an interactive demonstration/tutorial in Watercolor.  I will go at a slow pace and describe with commentary what I am doing and the techniques I am using.  The commentary will only be in English, and I will try and speak slowly in case I have any attendees where English is not their first language.

All you will need is a good/reliable internet connection, and a headphone or PC speakers to hear me and to hear each other .  If you want to, you'll be able to ask plenty of questions as I go along.  There is a $45.00 USD fee to attend this live session.  It will not be uploaded to YouTube (as a Public Video) or available to anyone apart from the attendees who have paid to watch.  I should be able to send you a link to the recording of the demo afterwards, which only you can see.  

The demo might be an hour to an hour and a half in duration (depends on how many questions/comments I get!).  We will paint at a slow speed and in stages.  So you can paint along with me if you want, or wait until you receive a link to the recording. I suggest that you find a quiet spot outdoors to follow along with the recording.

What you will need (apart from paper and water)

1. See my Sketching Equipment page for suggested on location equipment.
2. Your normal palette of colors (I mainly use, organic vermilion, alizarin crimson, burnt sienna, raw sienna, cerulean blue, cobalt blue, ultramarine blue, aureoline yellow and new gamboge yellow, white paint for highlights).  You don't need to use these colors.

Hope to see you online!

Register

Contact me if you have questions.

Watch my series on “Flooded Fields” ahead of time for tips on painting on location.

Here’s a free series to demonstrate my usual approach, special techniques and methods during a typical outdoor watercolor excursion.

• Flooded fields 1
• Flooded fields 2
• Flooded fields 3

Mark your calendar for the official month-long celebration of watercolor as World Watercolor Month returns in July! Founded in 2016, this is the 5th anniversary, and so I hope you'll help us spread the word! Psssst... also the souvenir shop is open and the prompts are posted! ;-)

The Story of an Icicle

I am excited about two things this morning:

1. I was given a Winsor and Newton Series 7 brush last week and can't wait to try it out. It's just the right size, #5 round, for adding watercolor to my ink sketches. (I'm not about to take such a treasure out of the studio, so I need to find something here to paint.)
2. An icicle is forming on the mailbox outside!

So I put on waterproof boots, two sweaters, a scarf and my woolly beret. I grab my sketchbook and a pen. I angle my white sketch paper to avoid snow blindness.

Standing in the driveway, focused on drawing the snow, the mailbox and the icicle, I hear the sound of an approaching motor.

It's the mail delivery truck!

I receive my mail by hand and chat with the courier for a few moments.

I prepare to resume my sketch only to discover that the action of opening the mailbox has completely dislodged the icicle and it lies in shattered fragments on the ground!

No worries, I already sketched my icicle. I go into the studio to warm up and lay in a few watercolor washes. Then when I go back out to compare my sketch with the scene for a few finishing touches, I discover that while I was painting inside, a new icicle was beginning to form on the edge of the mailbox. The circle of life!

My finished sketch of an icicle

A new icicle begins to form while I am warming up indoors.

Sketching at Da Shop with USK Oahu and family

My son’s family came with me to the USK Oahu sketch outing in Kaimuki at Da Shop, a relatively new bookstore that is part of a publishing warehouse. They specialize in books and authors from Hawaii and Oceania. Along with the books displayed in the store and online, they have children talk stories, food events, author and artist exhibitions, film screenings and lectures.

My sketch of my granddaughter, Ocean, sketching in the children’s corner.

I thought the children’s reading corner was so inviting. When I was a child I would have loved having a place like that to tuck into with a good book!

9 year old Leila sketching at Da Shop, Honolulu.

Leila’s sketches, minus one.

Our son, Matt, reading to his daughter, Ocean.

See more about the outing here oahu.urbansketchers.org/2018/12/07/next-event-44/

Arrival for a three day workshop on Nature Journaling in the NorthCascades

I'm looking forward to meeting my students for a weekend of sketching in the North Cascades.

The bridge across Diablo Dam

During the workshop, my focus will be on my students. When I have time I will draft a few articles, but I'll be posting these after we return.

The back of our classroom as seen from the surrounding path

The beautiful bronze eagles that overlook the amphitheater.

Part of the discovery at North Cascades Environmental Learning Center is the sighting of beautiful wildlife bronzes throughout the property.

Class today

The Stanwood gang at Heritage Park 

What a lovely day! Our last class, outdoors, sunny weather, and a potluck picnic afterwards! We should do this again!

Sketching Chickens

Jody brought her chicks to sketch in my class today. Abby and Harriet were so sweet. We all fell in love with them. Thanks, Jody.

My new tiny Pentalic Sketchbook

The University Book Store in Seattle has always been one of my favorite places. When our children were small, I took them upstairs for story time in the childrens' section. It was timed perfectly so that lunchtime was right afterwards. Imagine the swift run through I usually had to do downstairs in the art store!

No such problem while shopping with fellow sketchers last Friday! We ogled the beautiful fountain pens laid out in covered cases like rare jewels, found new supplies that we really didn't need (now on the wish list), and shared the reasons why we were buying our favorites.

3x5" Aqua Journal with my Micron Pen in the elastic holder

A friend told me about these tiny 3x5" Pentalic Aqua Journals, so I got one that day. An elastic brush holder is positioned at the top of the book and is designed to hold a travel brush or pen. The Aqua Journal is fitted with a ribbon marker, elastic band closure and storage pocket in the back of the book.

I have seen fellow artists using the 5x8" Aqua Journals, which will give you a nice sized 5x16" panoramic spread using both sides when open. So far, no results online for these really small 3x5" ones. I have already mentioned the Nature Sketch books (illus.) and recommended them to help my students work on daily sketching. In every instance, I really like the quality, weight and finish of their 130 lb paper. All these sketchbooks open out flat. It suits my direct style of line and wash sketching.

Why, you may ask, am I excited about the smaller size? I want to get over the idea of making a finished painting every time I'm out "sketching". Maybe if it's almost too small to see, I might think of it as merely a sketchbook and simplify my composition. It seems the more room I have on the paper, the more "finished" it appears to want to be. Don't hold your breath, though, I think it's my attitude that needs changing rather than the size of my sketchbook.

Hmmm. Maybe I should only paint things that are 30 miles away. Wait, isn't that a zoom feature on my iPhone camera? I have a pair of binoculars somewhere, don't I?

"Tea Party" at Gasworks Park

'

Rain was coming down in big, splashy drops as I arrived at the Gasworks Park meet up with USk Seattle this morning. There was a shelter, a restroom and the hope that for once the forecast would be accurate--diminishing rain throughout the morning. I was a bit early, and by the time everyone arrived, we had the rain break we were hoping for. Yay!

I found myself in an "Alice in Wonderland" state of mind. Perhaps memories of visiting the park with my children had something to do with it. I looked up above the main shelter and there was an orange "teapot" for me to draw! I had enough time to put some color on and start with my next subject, the "blue layer cake and sandwich plate caddy". It was in a puddle, just around the corner, below eye level. I had to dash in and out of the shelter now and then for a few details, since we had a few light misty sprinkles of rain.....evidently the "10%" that the forecast reported.

Visit here tomorrow for the tale of the last sketch of the morning. :-) "All mimsy were the borogroves,"

Making Water Portable for Sketching

Recently, I posted the first sketches of my equipment for small, portable water containers, etc.

My Portable Water System

Here's the page after I finished it today. These are the solutions I've come up with for minimal but effective ways of transporting the water you need for on location watercolor sketching.

Brushes: As you can see, some brushes come with water in a handle/reservoir, which can be squeezed out as needed to wet the paints or onto your palette or paper. Other brushes are made to fit down inside their own handle to protect the Kolinsky sable tuft. I like that the travel brushes extend to make a normal sized handle when taken out and screwed back onto the end. (Short handles make me clumsy!)

Sponges: I find that I need a synthetic sponge to regulate the water on my brush, as well as for cleanup after using my smallest travel paintboxes. The natural sponge is nonabrasive for pre-wetting the sky area, making it more receptive to soft, blended washes. (Sponges are better than tissues or paper towels because they can be rinsed clean, squeezed nearly dry, and there's no disposal problem. It's no fun trying to figure out what to do with a handful of soaking wet paper towels or tissues!)

Water Containers/Sprayers/Misters: The tiny Mister Atomizer is quite powerful and will wet down my whole palette in just one or two spritzes. With that and the water brush, I usually don't need to carry any more water for ink and wash sketches. (I use the sponge to clean off my brush between colors.)
The larger spray bottle and cap can hold enough extra water for an 8x10 or 11x15 sketch. (I pour half the water from the sprayer into the larger cap to rinse my brush.) Most times, you can refill as needed from your bottle of drinking water or a restroom faucet.

This page will be for my 2015 Sketchbook Project.