Day Six of 30x30 Direct Watercolor

I think I'm catching the last of my Siberian Iris before they go to seed! Why do all my favorite flowers bloom at the same time!

No preliminary drawing, just direct watercolor with my Rosemary dagger brush.

I'm still getting used to the long wait time while the Kilimanjaro paper in my Cheap Joes Paintbook takes its time drying. Either that or it's a lot more humid around here today than I thought. But at last it's a day full of sunshine!

Getting the most out of my little bouquet.

Day Four and Five of 30x30 Direct Watercolor

DAY FOUR

I'm still frantically trying to keep up with the roses and the challenge of one direct waterccolor painting a day at the same time. I want to do several different sketches before they have to be pruned. There won't be another bloom until late August.

Just a few steps out the door from my studio.

I still need to post my Day Two sketch of the roses arched over my studio window. It's on different paper and not in this sketchbook.

After cutting a bouquet of Siberian Iris, Mock Orange and Ceanothus, I brought my sketch in to dry.

I left some room, albeit to the left of my sketch today, for tomorrow. I doubt I will have time to post these until then. (What can I say? Time is not really linear for me.) It's hard to keep up with the FaceBook group, Instagram and other social media during a marathon of sketching and painting.


DAY FIVE

Bees and Ceanothus (California Lilac)

See my post on the official 30x30 Direct Watercolor Facebook Group page for some compositional notes on why I arranged this sketch the way I did. #30x30DirectWatercolor2018

I think I saw at least 4 different types of  bees all over this ceanothus bush.

I posted the above photos plus a short little video of happy bees on my Instagram feed.
And here's what they look like together in my sketchbook.

Day 4 on the right and Day 5 on the left. :-)

Day Three of 30x30 Direct Watercolor

From under the patio umbrella in my back garden.

This was truly a day for "wet in wet" watercolor. As you can see, I checked about halfway through and it was 52°F with 88% humidity. I am literally "zooming in" by foot, between raindrops and then retreating to paint under the patio umbrella.

Work in Progress

I used my Rosemary 1/2" dagger brush and my Kilimanjaro Paint Book, vertically this time, and marked off an approximate 5x7" area with my blue painters' tape to keep the whole thing from running off the edges. I'm realizing this paper is great for wet lifting, but the wet stage lasts quite a bit longer than I'm used to with Arches 140lb CP.

Occasionally I had to run over to my subject for a few details.

No need for squinting to eliminate extraneous detail. My painting spot gave me just the right blur for the big shapes.

Day One of 30x30 Direct Watercolor

I’ll be posting my daily practice for better or worse during this challenge 

I thought I would just step out my studio door and paint the roses covering the corner trellis. But you need sunshine and shadows for that. AND it was National Donut Day so I had important business to take care of in town as well.

So I piled a bunch of watercolor supplies in the car and found a view I like. An important part of plein air painting from the mobile studio is safe and easy parking. This spot is across from a soccer field with a wide gravel roadside entrance. 

Waiting for washes to dry.

I’m using one of my Cheap Joes sketchbooks for the first half of the month. I haven’t painted in one of these for quite a while, so I’m not surprised that there’s a bit of an adjustment to make.


Then there’s the extreme humidity today and the distraction of horses wandering around the pasture!
Oh, and apologies to the Palomino for making you look like a mule.

I Call It “The Unicycle “ of Watercolor

The unicycle of watercolor 

I call it the unicycle of watercolor because you can make ONE entire color WHEEL from a SINGLE  primary triad. It's minimal, takes a little skill to become expert with it but it will get you around any landscape or urban sketch with a minimum of extraneous baggage. And I RE-CYCLED my empty eyeshadow case!

Materials:

1 empty eyeshadow case, washed and dried 

A sponge cut to fit the applicator tray*

Three primary watercolors:

1. Phthalo Blue (RS) Daler-Rowney 
2. Quinacridone Rose (M Graham)
3. Permanent Lemon Deep (Holbein)

Mix your colors in the lid when travel sketching.

*Use the dampened sponge to clean your waterbrush between colors

I surprised my watercolor class this morning  by giving this away in a drawing. Congratulations to Joan for winning the drawing!

The Gate at San Gimignano

"Gate at San Gimignano"
Original Watercolor by Michele Cooper
Size: 15x11"

We've recently been out of town, then had a succession of out of town visitors. Sorry for the wait as life has interrupted my painting and blogging.

 (I took this from my travel paintings while in Italy.)