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.

National Donut Day 2018

Chocolate, Vanilla Drizzle, Raspberry filling, Fried Dough=A Thing of Beauty

It's 3:00 pm and I just now am sitting down to sketch my subject for the morning. I've come to the conclusion that I will never outrun or out-post my friend, Tina. She was blissfully unaware that today is National Donut Day until I happened to mention it in passing. 5 minutes later she's at Top Pot eating a gigantic chocolate covered doughnut and texting the first bite for me to envy!

Mustard or Sriracha anyone?

It's one thing to find a sketchable subject, but quite another if you're going to eat it, too! My final sketching destination ended up being Haggens bakery. Should have known. They even had red, white and blue sprinkles on their National Donuts! On a rainy, drizzly day, there's nothing quite like having a seat at the window in Haggens' cozy dining area with all the counter space I want, free WIFI and donuts! (Excuse me, I can't sketch and chew at the same time)

Haggen's is on it! Plenty of donuts at 2:31pm

My first choice was Karl's in Everett. They are within walking distance from Funko World HQ and I thought I'd better call. Yep! Wiped out by 11am.

2pm - All that's left of the second batch of the day at the Dutch Bakery

The 30x30 Watercolor Challenge for June

Since 2007, the subtitle of my blog has been Daily Painting Practice to Grow as a Painter. The masthead artwork of my blog is from a 15x22” watercolor that I painted directly without preliminary drawing. As you can see, from the beginning I have included many of my watercolors that were “direct paintings”.

I’ve been painting a majority of my watercolors  directly without preliminary drawing.for years. When it comes to architecture or portraits I generally depend on a light pencil drawing or even a sketch in pen for line and wash.

All this took place before I ever became aware of the urban sketching international group or any of the pivotal people involved. Fast forward to the present and I am pleased to be a blog correspondent for Seattle USK and a faculty member for the Urban Sketchers 10x10 Workshop Program. In fact, I just finished my Spring Workshop, First Steps into Visual Journaling.

Imagine my excitement when Marc Taro Holmes announced a new online watercolor challenge and Facebook group just for this event!

Naturally, I’m in! Are you?

Looking for the FAQ/Announcement < click here!

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!

Where Shall I drop this Urban Sketch?

We have an exciting weekend in urban sketching ahead! First, I'll be teaching my 10x10 USK Workshop on First Steps into Visual Journaling on Saturday. The workshop is sold out but I will be posting some tips and hints in the next few days and after the workshop as well. Follow me here and on Instagram. Set up alerts so you can see a real time hint when I drop this piece.

I'm hoping some of my students will be enthused with their new confidence and urban sketching skills and come to the monthly outing on Sunday at Wallingford Center. I'll be there to cheer you on!

So where shall I drop this? On Saturday or Sunday? I could use some suggestions to overcome my dilemma. Update: OK, tomorrow it is, Sunday the 20th at Wallingford Center sometime during the monthly sketch outing. Come join us for urban sketching in Seattle!

Going to abandon this greeting card with sketch print on the coming weekend during USK event.

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!

Intro to Watercolor weekend was a blast!

This was our classroom at the end of the Spring Introduction to Watercolor Workshop at Kirkland Arts Center this weekend. What a lovely bunch of brand new watercolorists!

Winner! Congratulations to Melania for winning one of my original watercolor greeting cards fresh off the demonstration board this afternoon!

May Challenges for Daily Practice

Now that you have got the daily sketching and drawing habit, what will you do? I'd like to direct your attention to two new challenges with prompts for each day in May.

If you take a look at the right sidebar, you will see a familiar badge for Charlie O'Toole's DoodlewashMay2018 challenge. This month's theme is "Smile Makers". Click the image or go to the links listed on the badge for more information.

The different list below is another challenge that prompts you to draw Every Day in May. There is a Facebook Group that you can join and post your daily work and a Flickr group where you can share your images.

I'm not promising to fulfill any one else's muse this month but I have a whole lot of art to make and classes in progress and upcoming workshops to teach. Subscribe here or follow me on Instagram @michelecooperart to stay in the loop! Practice is fun! I hope you'll join me!