#30x30DirectWatercolor2018 Day 13 and 14

The butterfly was so quick!

Daniel Smith watercolor stick--French Ultramarine Blue

More direct watercolors from my blue and white garden for Days 13 and 14. June is the perfect month for this challenge because that's when all my blue flowers bloom. The roses are already fading now and the blue flowers will be gone in a few weeks, except for the bell floweres, lobelia and pansies.

Had to add the butterfly and the half open blossom.

I started these out on a drizzly day, testing out my blues and purples and pinks to find the right combination. Daniel Smith French Ultramarine Blue watercolor stick was better than the DS Cobalt Blue for this subject.

Then today, the sun came out and I saw the buds of my hydrangea respond by starting to open up.

I saw a very dramatically marked butterfly pollinating my subject. It was so quick, but visited again and again. That gave me a chance to note the way that it almost looks upside down and the head is not where you might think it is. I think it might be the Canadian Tiger Swallowtail.

iPhone Live photo, Press to see brief video

My husband took this live photo a few days ago. I don't know if it will react unless you see this on an iPhone or iPad, but the original photo gave a few seconds of action.

#30x30DirectWatercolor2018 Day 11 and 12

One Dozen -- Direct Watercolor for Day 12

#30x30DirectWatercolor2018 Day 12 One Dozen, that's how many daily direct watercolors we've done in this challenge so far!

Number 11 & 12 -I used my Prima Tropical Watercolor Set for this page. and tried out my new free sable brush.

Day 11 and 12--reading from right to left.

It's a fun day in the studio today. Besides adding my daily direct watercolor to my sketchbook from the rose arbor, I got a package in the mail  of Turner Watercolor tubes, a free dot card and a free #4 round sable brush. 

Still have to say that Winsor & Newton is my favorite for the earth colors.

I'm always comparing different brands of Burnt Sienna and Raw Sienna to my favorite Winsor & Newton tubes. You can see the comparison here, so still not quite the same. I especially like the Winsor & Newton brand of raw sienna for a natural soft yellow for a glow in the sky. The Winsor & Newton burnt sienna plus French ultramarine blue give a much more neutral mix of warm and cool greys than these other burnt siennas that seem a bit redder and result in a mauve or purple type of gray.

Day Nine and Ten of 30x30 Direct Watercolor

I just got these finished for Day 9 and 10 of the #30x30DirectWatercolor2018 challenge and stepped quickly inside as it started to rain. I should have waited, because a beautiful sun break happened after the rain. On the other hand, you just have to know how to paint in diffused light if you're going to make watercolors in the PNW.

Working on Timing and expressive Brushstrokes

I feel fortunate that I have so many choices from my garden right now. I love Delphiniums for their unusual blue colors and interesting shapes all along the stem. You get to see every stage of the flower as it blooms from bottom to top.

Definitely wet on wet. Still wet while snapping a photo.

I tend to take a photo almost the instant I finish signing the painting. I sign the painting while the last brushstrokes are still wet.  There's a reflection from the sky in a bubble of wet paint, which you can probably see if you look closely at the center of the right hand stem.

Some watercolor effects after completely dry

Some watercolor effects take place while the painting is drying and aren't recorded in the snapshots that I take for social media. The Kilimanjaro paper takes much longer to dry than some other papers I use and causes a variety of surprise effects in the process. You can see this above, where I took another photo before posting this article.

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.

Getting Wet, Day 23

Okay so I actually painted this one the day we were supposed to! Wait! No! I'm two days late!

We're in Chicago for a visit with family and to attend the 8th Annual Urban Sketchers Symposium. This is the Buckingham Fountain, straight out the front door and across the park from our hotel.
Well, this month is crazy busy and I feel as though summer is slipping through by fingers, literally!

#WorldWatercolorMonth - It's Here!

Yay! Who's ready to have some fun with watercolor? Be adventurous! Make 31 watercolors, one a day, in the month of July. Let's play!

Help for beginners on YouTube

Just for the occasion, I have made 5 short video tutorials on easy watercolor techniques and will post them here each day. That way you can learn how watercolor works as you do your daily practice. Follow this link to my free short video tutorial.

Today is Day 1 so let's start with something easy.

Limited primary palette=three colors, wet in wet color spectrum. You will need:

1. A strip of 140# watercolor paper, 1/2" watercolor brush
2. water in small plastic cup
3. 3 small tubes of artist's quality watercolor (squeeze a bit out onto a saucer or make a DIY tiny travel palette and use the lid for mixing.
4. Colors: Azo Yellow, Quinacridone Rose, Phthalo Blue (green shade)

Learn to do this in my new 3 minute video tutorial.

Wet roads

It's amazing how much more one sees while sketching on location rather than by just trusting the camera and working from photos at home. During the time it took to do the sketch, a deer emerged from the woods and crossed right in front of me. The school bus got away before I had time to get my camera, and quite a few cars came up and down the hill in each direction.

There's something cozy about painting in the rain. In the car , of course!

Wet in Wet Snow

"Winter Walk"
Original Watercolor by Michele Cooper
Size 8x10"  Price: $100

Just having a little fun in the studio, playing around with wet in wet watercolor and the subject of snow. I'll bring this with me to my workshop on Sunday at Kirkland Arts Center.