Ready for my USK 10x10 Students

I’m ready for my students in Seattle for the new USK 10x10 Spring series of urban sketching workshops. My class is sold out but those on the waiting list have priority for registration for my next one August 25. Meanwhile, here’s a peek at a few perks for you students who are ready to take your “First Steps into Visual Journaling”. See you soon!

Five Minute Sketches, WIP

I assigned Tuesday's watercolor classes a little warm up exercise: Take your sketchbook out for a 5 minute sketch. Use any simple tool you like, pen, pencil, etc. Take 5 minutes to find a subject, 5 minutes to sketch and 5 minutes to return to the classroom and share your sketches. It was raining, so just a few chose to brave the cold damp weather outdoors for 5 minutes. The rest chose to spread out all around the interior of the building, sketching what they saw out the windows. I was so impressed by what they did. I think they even surprised themselves! (Sorry, I didn't take a photo of their sketches.)

My five minute sketches from Tuesday, ready for a touch of color and narrative after breakfast today.

Towards the end of the day, I discovered this ingenious little light well with its own pocket garden, flower pots ready and waiting for spring, and a Tuscan mural to cheer up those looking out from the windows on the opposite wall. I only had time to do the ink sketch, planning to add watercolor pencil and ink wash later.

A light well hides a secret garden.

My 5 minute sketch with the Sharpie Pen after class.

Here's the result of some simple color and ink washes on the secret garden sketch. I have time lapse video demo on my Instagram feed of the color/wash process. See link in right column.

See my Instagram feed @michelecooperart for a time lapse video of process of adding color.

I managed to get a few trophy shots of my other two 5 minute sketches (see below)

Afternoon sketch. Looking straight across the alley at the cracked wall and weathered window on the next building.

I had planned to go outside and was headed for the elevator for my first sketch when an unusual appliance in the parking lot caught my eye out the second floor window.

I have no idea what this is....maybe a refrigeration unit? But what fun to draw!

I started on the right hand side of my Pentalic Aquajournal in the morning, then added sketches in the afternoon and after class.

Tuesday am sketch demo (right side) and pm sketch (left side)

I have a heading, 2nd FLOOR, but still haven't decided what my narrative will be for the rest of this two page spread in my visual journal. I will post it here when it's finished.

Sketching a Banana Plant

My finished two page visual journal spread about banana plants. 

I’ve been working on this off and on for a few days, interrupted by life, weather, etc. See my Flickr account for high resolution and zoom able scan. (In case you want to read all the commentary.)

A pause while sketching. Work in progress.

Notes from the South Pacific Studio:

At first I thought I heard the pattering sound of raindrops on the windows. In actuality it was the sound of palm leaves rustling in the Tradewinds. As I watched the wind ruffling the palms, my attention was drawn to the variation among the banana leaves.

Comparing neighborhood banana leaves

I love learning new things and the best way for me to "see" something better is to sketch it. Since there are banana plants literally all around our son’s house, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to compare the living specimens in detail.

I started out with the plant next door with a new crop of bananas growing from the flower. Although the flower I sketched from this plant was wonderful to draw and paint, it was too far gone to eat. The next sketch was of a section of the stalk. I was amazed at the variety of colors and textures to be explored.

A wild banana plant lives at the back corner of the house. After I looked these fresh green leaves over, I realized that they have a red stripe down the back. Many of the older leaves were shredded into fringe in the wind and rain storm last week. You can tell how windy it has been by the amount of “fringe” there is on the leaves. (Note to self: If I  ever buy a banana plant from the nursery, don’t bring it home in the open back of a pick up truck)

I learned that besides the fruit, you can also eat the inside core of the stalk and the banana flower. More research on the internet revealed that there is quite a cleaning process as well as an acidic soak required to get rid of the bitter taste of the stalk and flower.

A diagram of the edible parts of a banana flower

My Finished Sketchbook Pages for the 10x10 Workshop

Sketches from the morning session

I was recently honored to be a Seattle 10x10 instructor for the tenth anniversary series of urban sketchers workshops. My workshop took place in two sessions on May 20, 2017, morning from 9-12:00 noon and afternoon from 2-5pm. This is a "dual reportage" of the morning with personal observations as well as a report on the workshop itself from my viewpoint as the instructor.

From the morning session: I'm leaving the original pencil outlines of my modular layout pattern so students can see how I used (or ignored) them. I added color later to the original 3 sketches done on site and added narrative, headlines and ephemera to complete my montage.

I collected 3 pieces of ephemera for the morning: a business card with earthy image from Terra Plata, parking stub for the day, and part of one of the ID cards I made for students.

Sketches from the afternoon session

From the afternoon session: I ended up with more of a radial layout this time, ignoring most of my penciled in layout frames. Again, I'm combining my personal observations with reportage of the workshop.

I added three pieces of ephemera from the afternoon: my USk business card, partial card from one of my students' ID badge, the demo page from my spiral sketchbook with the actual demonstration sketches done on site for the afternoon class, glued on.

Thanks, everyone, for being such an inspiring group of students. It was great fun sharing a few tips and sketching our "sunny" city of Seattle with you!

WIP My USK10x10 Visual Journal

Right now it's 84° in the shade as I work on the finishing touches for my Visual Journaling urban sketchers sketch book. I'm gluing in a few bits of ephemera and adding some narrative to the sketches I did while on location with my students at the Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Seattle last Saturday morning.

I'm going to have to go inside where it's a bit cooler to finish this up and I will post those results as soon as possible.

For photos taken at the workshop, please visit my Flickr album.