Inktober starts tomorrow!

 Every year, people from around the world make a promise to themselves that they will work to improve their daily drawing practice during the month of October. They make an ink drawing each day and then this year they share the results on social media with the tag #inktober and #inktober2023.

I'll usually be posting my daily ink drawings on Facebook and Instagram. Now and then I will make a short YouTube video of my daily drawing.


How about it? Are you in? Here’s where to get more information if you’ve never done this before.

I post my art on various social media platforms.

Go to https://linktr.ee/michelecooperart and select the link you want. 

inktober 2019, Day 22-31

Dark, coat, ride

I wanted to play with three values: dark, medium and light. For dark, I have Noodlers ink “Dark Matter”. The eggplant is often darkest in a still life, but this time it’s the middle value with the lemon being lighter.

Rolling on a second coat of paint.

Toys R Us used to carry this vintage wooden Radio Flyer Scooter but the lettering was more like children’s printing.

Injured, Catch, Ripe

I just had to draw one of the fishmongers at Pike Place Market catching a “flying” fish.

I don’t know about you but I have the hardest time judging the right time to open an avocado.

Yay! Finished!

My personal time has been very limited this month. Although I knew that I would probably have to play a game of catch up this time and post late for much of this year’s Inktober, I love the challenge of daily sketching and the way Inktober generates involvement around the world. How could I resist? So here I am posting my last six drawings with one page left at the back of my sketchbook.

Thanks again, Jake, for another set of inspirational prompts.

Inktober 2019, Day 21-25

Day 21-25
Treasure. Ghost, Ancient, Dizzy, Tasty

treasure, ancient, dizzy, tasty

Ancient Greek columns were made to flare out slightly at the top so that at human eye level they would appear straight as the receded upwards.

I love fresh strawberries. 🍓🍓🍓


So where’s the ghost, you may ask? I have something in mind but I’m waiting for delivery of some white ink that I ordered. 😁

Inktober 2019, Day 18-20

Day 18, 19, 20
Misfit, Sling, Tread

 Misfit, Sling, Tread

 When my father wanted to express the idea of someone being a misfit he would say “It’s like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.“

My Sling style backpack holds a lot of my favorite sketching materials.

 This time of year proves to be an irresistible opportunity for children to stomp around in muddy puddles and then leave their boot treads and muddy footprints all over the floor when they come indoors!

Inktober 2019, Day 14-17

When I read the prompt for Day

Grandfather Cuts Loose the Ponies photographed in 2012

Grandfather Cuts Loose the Ponies (also known as the Wild Horse Monument) is a public artsculpture created by David Govedare in 1989–1990 and situated near Vantage, Washington. It consists of 15 life-size steel horses which appear to be galloping across a ridge above the Columbia River. Presented as a gift for the centenary of Washington's statehood, the sculpture was conceived as a memorial to the wild horses which once roamed the region. According to the Seattle Times, it is one of the most-seen public artworks in Washington state.

Overgrown  legend, wild, ornament 

John Singer Sargent is the legendary painter who is my art hero. As I looked over my ink wash portrait of him, I couldn’t resist tweaking it a bit. Here’s the result.

Inktober 2019 - Day 8 - 13

Day 8, 9, 10
 Frail, swing, pattern

A frail broken butterfly wing, a golf swing and a sewing pattern

The air is like a butterfly
With frail blue wings.
The happy earth looks at the sky
And sings. - Author: Joyce Kilmer

Day 11, 12, 13

Snow, Dragon, Ash

A snowy mountain, Seattle International District dragon, cigarette ash

Inktober 2019

Having fun with Inktober again.  

Announcing My New YouTube Channel

MicheleCooperCraft  is my new shop on Etsy

I've been sketching, drawing and painting watercolors on location for decades. Many of these  adventures are on my YouTube channel, MichelesNWStudio, featuring fine art tutorials and demonstrations. Now and then I have shared a few projects from the craft side of my studio as well.

I know that many of my subscribers on the original channel are interested in anything and everything having to do with hand drawn, hand made creative projects. If you're like me, sometimes you're in the mood to do something crafty and handmade. Other times, you're in the fine art zone. Rather than sift through all my tutorials and demonstrations to suit your mood of the moment, I thought I might divide my videos into two channels: one for crafts (like junk journals, handmade sketchbooks, handmade crafts, etc.) and the other continuing to feature fine arts like watercolor painting, sketching, plein air, urban sketching, etc.)

If you have a favorite tutorial on my handcrafted pocket sketchbooks and it's already on my MichelesNWStudio channel, I will leave it there. Going forward, however, I will limit that channel to fine arts demonstrations, tutorials and sketchbooks done on location. The Iris Field tutorial is one of the most popular watercolor videos.

Here's one of the new pocket sketchbooks on my MicheleCooperCrafts channel.

Pop on over to my new MicheleCooperCrafts channel and subscribe so that you won't miss out on all the new videos I'll be posting in the next few days and weeks. Psst! I'm participating in a global junk journal challenge and I can't wait to show you what I made!

Yes, yes, I know. I haven't posted the rest of my Inktober sketches yet and this is the last day! Don't worry. It's coming!

Try Prompts from Another October Challenge

This Doodlewash art challenge is open to anyone who wants to participate with watercolor painting and/or simply pencil or pen and ink drawings as well!*

*Participating in Inktober 2018? Awesome! Then simply add the tag #doodlewashOctober2018 as well when you post and share what you make with us!

Oh, the temptation! It was so hard to do this in black and white instead of the fall colors that I wanted to use! I saw these autumn leaves floating in our pond and it seemed so tranquil.......until they started sinking while I was sketching them!

See my IG for process and color photo.

It’s Inktober-Are you In?

Every year, people from around the world make a promise to themselves that they will work to improve their daily drawing practice during the month of October. They make an ink drawing each day and then they share the results on social media with the tag #inktober and #inktober2018.

I'll usually be posting my daily ink drawings on Flickr and Instagram. Go to https://linktr.ee/michelecooperart and select the link you want.


How about it? Are you in? Here’s where to get more information if you’ve never done this before.

For those who want the official daily prompts, here’s this year’s list.

In honor of the first day of Inktober 2018, I sat down at my drafting table in the studio this morning and drew a collection of my watercolor tubes, pans and pencils. All those in this photo are considered toxic, which fits the prompt for the day, "Poisonous".

Oct 1, 2018--Prompt is "Poisonous"

The pigments used in all media, watercolor, colored pencil, oil, acrylic, etc. may contain toxic materials. Most, but not all, of the toxicity issues are associated with heavy, or toxic, metals such as copper, cobalt, cadmium, lead. Caroline Roberts has written a comprehensive article about toxicity in artists' pigments here.

These are some of Caroline's suggestions on how to handle your materials safely:
 How to handle toxic paints safely

1. Do not use the same containers for paints that you do for food or drink. Well, duh, but thought I'd put it in anyway.
2. Do not put paint brushes in your mouth! Use a brush holder or a piece of kitchen towel.
3. Wash hands thoroughly after each painting session.
4. Even better, wear latex gloves whilst painting, or at least whilst using the toxic pigments. I hate wearing gloves but after researching this topic I will be wearing them. Simple as that.
5. Wear a dust mask if you handle pigment powders. Make sure it's the right one and keep it clean!
6. Do not have food in your studio and use covered drinks containers.
7. Since we don't want heavy metals in our rivers either, wipe up paints with kitchen towel and dispose of in the trash, not down the drain.
8. If you sand your paints at all (as an acrylic painter, yes I do) then wear a respiratory mask. Keeping the paint surface damp as you sand also keeps the dust down.

Author: Caroline Roberts

TA DA! Finished 31 drawings, ink and watercolor in 31 Days, Inktober 2017

So, initially, I thought I would interpret "Mask", the prompt for the last day of Inktober, with a drawing of my masking fluid collection. I left it too late on Oct. 31 to post before midnight, so the pressure was off.

Life continued to interrupt until after having visited the Seattle Art Museum and the Andrew Wyeth Retrospective Exhibit; I glanced over at the light on this old abandoned house this afternoon. Filtered through my recent experience of Wyeth's metaphor, it seemed as though the house was looking out through mask-like windows at the world passing it by. In a way, the exterior of a house masks from the outside world the lives that are lived inside. Sometimes, we get a glimpse through the windows, but in this case all their secrets have disappeared along with those who formerly lived here.

Mask-Day 31

Inktober Days 24-31. See my Instagram feed for "United"-Day 29

Ship, Squeak, Climb, Fall

I couldn't resist giving an Acme Sketch Kit to the sketcher out on the precipice. :)

I love the soft, filtered light that comes through the pleated fabric blinds in our bedroom.

From my reading chair. Day 24. Coziest, most comfortable sketching spot yet!

And that's a wrap until next Inktober! Thanks for the inspiration, Jake!

A Special Day to Catch Up

After a super busy week or two on our own projects, my husband and I took the day off to catch up......with each other and for me to catch up with my Inktober project. We took advantage of the beautiful autumn weather drive up to Anacortes.

The prompt for the 29th was "United". Since I was teaching a workshop yesterday, I took today's opportunity to "unite" all my sketching tools in a single sketch. I thought the idea of a ferry crossing that unites the mainland to Guemes Island was a nice little extra touch on the theme.

The quietude, time to listen to the waves, seagulls and wind soughing through the grasses......what a restorative time we had. AND I'm all caught up until the last day of Inktober tomorrow!

As I placed the rose hips I "Found" on the weathered picnic table, I also found that their round shapes were repeated in the round knothole and bolts. Inktober, Day 30, "Found"

Inktober 2017, Day 19-22

For some reason, I've been inspired lately by animals to represent the official Inktober prompts.

Day 20 - Deep (There are several pods of Orca here who swim the deep channels up the coast to the Canadian Pacific)

Day 21 - Furious (I have no idea why he is so upset, but it's hard to take infuriated squirrels seriously)

Day 22 - Trail (Ewwwww. We have snails AND slugs leaving lots of trails in this rainy season.)

Day 19- Cloud (You can hear the geese flying south above the clouds)

Although I am surrounded by glorious autumn color, it is still immensely satisfying to draw something with ink every day. Thanks, Jake Parker, for the inspiration!

Catching up with Posting Inktober, Days 10-14

Inktober Day 10-Gigantic (See my Instagram for caption)

Inktober Day 11-Run, that's what you do if you see this! My parents had a pair of geese that terrified our 4 year old son.

Day 12 - Shattered  (Condition of the cell phone and the owner who just realized the damage)
Day 13 - Teeming (The coral reef is teeming with life. May it ever be so.)
Day 14 - Fierce (Fang toothed Moray eels are truly fierce...the way they look, their fangs and the fact that they anchor themselves in the reef, latch on to their victim and don't let go!)

For high resolution photos of these and other work not shown here, please visit my Flickr photostream.

Screech!

Inktober 2017, Day 9-- Daily prompt "Screech"

 

"Screech!!!" Went the soles of my shoes as I stepped out onto the front porch and saw this awe inspiring lantern of a fall tree, lit up by the autumn sun.

 "Screech!!!" Went the brakes on the truck as it went around the sharp corner.

"Screech!!!" Went my paintbrush as I came to the decision that I had already said all I wanted about the beauty of the autumn color and light. I feel that if I add anything else at all, it would take away from the concept that I have so far.

Inktober Day 7--Shy

A rare semi self portrait

There could be a few reasons why I seldom, if ever, do selfies or draw/paint self portraits:

1. I'm suddenly shy when too much attention is focused on me.
2. There are so many more interesting things to document.
3. It's just too exhausting to go to the trouble of hair, makeup and lighting.
4. All of the above.

No filter, makeup, hair styling etc.

So I thought I would do one in my reading spot in the bedroom while lazing around this morning.

Reminds me of those "Killroy was here" drawings my Dad used to do when I was little. :)

Underwater x3

Above is my classroom demonstration of a wave crashing against a rock, depicting the concept of how much strength there is in ocean waves. Over time this action helps turn these rocks into the sand on the shoreline.

My demonstration for the beginners in the class.

Day 4 of  Inktober--the prompt is "Underwater"

I hated to leave my Cosmos #10 round kolinsky sable watercolor brush underwater in the jar for even the few minutes it took to draw this ink wash response to the day's prompt for Inktober.

Inktober Day 1

The official prompt for Day 1 of Inktober is swift.

"Spider-Man" on the sky bridge at the new Funko world headquarters in Everett, Wa.

What could be swifter than Spider-Man as he shoots out his web and swings from building to building?

Tomorrow it's Inktober! Are you in?

Want to get better at drawing? Want to have fun with other artists all over the world, drawing every day for the month of October? Jake Parker has just the thing for you!

See how it all started here on Jake's YouTube. Suggested materials are listed in the video itself and the video description.

If you can't think what to draw, here's the official prompt list from Jake Parker himself!
Scroll down some of my examples from previous years here.

When does Inktober End?

 

Thirty days hath September,

April, June, and November.

All the rest have thirty-one,

Except for February alone,

Which hath but twenty-eight days clear,

And twenty-nine in each leap year.

And then, of course, there is Inktober

With as many as it takes me 'till it's over!

So, obviously, I am still catching up on random days I missed for Inktober 2016. Never fear! I am determined to finish up all 31 "daily" prompts. Procrastinators, soldier on!
Here's a tree for Day 14.

So here's one for Day 21 and Day 22, from the prompt for Big and Little. I thought it would be fun to draw a big baby elephant and a small adult mouse.

And then, here's another for the prompt "One Dozen" conveniently provided by my butterfly collection. These are all supposed to be Pacific NW varieties. I usually do all my InkTober sketches in black and white, but it just seemed wrong to rob these butterflies of their color. Besides, by Day 24, I am absolutely DYING for color!