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.

One more live broadcast on Periscope finished!

Here's the live demo and the original from today, side by side.

Thank you for watching, for the comments and for the hearts! Missed it? You can still see the replay and send hearts for a few more hours on Periscope.tv/michelecoopart  

Periscope videos vanish after 24 hours!

Would you like to see me do the background next?

News Flash! An Artful Touch, in Kirkland, just got in a whole selection of Lamy pens (Safari and Joy) and extra nibs of varying sizes! 

All 31 of my Inktober 2015 sketches

After enduring a rough nine days with the cough, cold, fever yuck that's been going around, I finally feel like scanning all my Inktober 2015 sketches and posting the collection. (Tap or click to zoom)

Bee Super Deluxe 6x12"sketchbook, Lamy pen, watersoluble ink & Aquash water brush.

My faithful Lamy fountain pen lasted until the very end. In fact, I think I could possibly do one more sketch with what's left in the cartridge. Wouldn't want to waste any ink now, would we?

Easy Turban Squash Recipe

Turban Squash, for all its dramatic color, is a scary one to cook. Why? Because you risk a tragic accident just trying to cut it! That goes for Acorn Squash, too! Once you have it cut in two and the seeds removed, just place the halves in a baking pan, cover 1/2 way up to the rim with hot water and roast at 375° F for 1 hr.

Wash the seeds, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Let them roast in a separate pan for about 10 minutes. Yum!

Catching the Leaves as they Fall

I pulled over for a tree today. I needed my Inktober Day 16 drawing and I caught a glimpse of it in the rear view mirror as I was driving home from my watercolor class in Kirkland. So I parked and stood on the sidewalk across the street from my car to sketch.

Market Street is quite dangerous for pedestrians, so the city has provided crossing flags for you as you prepare to use the crosswalk. Add that plus back lighting, no pockets, no chair, no color and leaves falling as you paint them and you've got a pretty thrilling 10 minute Inktober sketch. *James Bond music playing in the background.*

Inktober, Day 16--Lamy Pen, Waterbrush, Bee Sketchbook

House Made of Brick

Yes! You were correct. My third in the series is something made of brick. I'm not literally telling the story of the three little pigs and the big bad wolf. I'm just using the materials from which they made their houses as the spark for inspiration.

Inktober Day 14--House made of Brick

I had a bit of a challenge trying to find something that inspired me, but this back alley in Arlington was perfect. There's a small engine repair shop in an original old brick building which has been painted over. The big door (out of photo) in the back alley is where they take in the items needing repair and where all the character lives. Eventually all the guys in the shop had to ask if I was an artist and come over to see what I was drawing.

Straw, Wood,  Brick--Final Sketch in Progress

The sun came out while I was sketching and I may have gotten a bit of sunburn, since I thought that possibility was over for the year and wasn't prepared. I didn't even have sunglasses on hand! I did have a wide brimmed hat in the trunk of my car nearby, but it seemed a bit formal for an alley.

A House Made of Wood

Inktober 13, 2015--A House Made of Wood

I'm on Day 13 and the second in a series I'm doing for Inktober this week. Yesterday I sketched a "house made of straw". In my quest for something a bit different while still qualifying as a "house made of wood", the driftwood structures that emerge on the beaches here in the Pacific NW came to mind.

I have taken photos whenever I encounter them, but my goal for today was to do this Inktober sketch on location. I spent an afternoon prowling along Marine Drive near where I live, but all the beaches I wanted to visit were private or on tribal land and not open to me. So I ended up at Livingston Beach on Camano Island. (The teepee style driftwood structure in the upper left section of this photo collage was also on the beach where I was today, but it was on private property.)


I wanted to wait for a sun break at the end of my sketch so that I could catch some dramatic shadows. But the tide was coming in so I had to be satisfied with the light I was given. (Progress shot lower right.)

Can you guess what the third subject will be in this mini-series?

Sketching while holding an umbrella

I have the Sistene Umbrella. Not exactly like this, but similar.

It was wet out this morning and as I looked through my studio window, I saw the last roses of summer drooping in the rain. So I grabbed my umbrella, Lamy pen, waterbrush and sketchbook for today's Inktober.

Inktober, Day 7

Oh, my word! I just realized I drew raindrops on roses! (Got way too carried away with the raindrops.)
No, I will NOT be uploading whiskers on kittens tomorrow!

Funny anecdote: One of my Instagram friends wrote under the photo on Instragram:
        Hahahahaha, but that (those) are my favorite things........;)

46th Annual Quarterly Worldwide Sketch Crawl

I met up with Seattle Urban Sketchers for the 46th Quarterly Worldwide Sketch Crawl at the Frye Art Museum today.

The experience was a case of overlapping senses and time lines. It was multidimensional. 

Stillman and Birn Beta, graphite, Lamy pen, water soluble black ink and watercolor pencils.

I arrived early enough to sketch the domed tower from my car outside in the free parking lot. As far as I know, the dome is the only addition (1997) to the architecture of the building since the collection opened in 1952. At the same time, a cafe and reflecting pools were added on the north and west side of the building. Various interior remodeling projects have ensued. 

Haunting tones of the human voice echoed out into the entry way from Jessika Kenney's installation, "Anchor Zero". It's the last day of this show. I stood in the cube-like bamboo structure, called "Breathing Room" and read this poem:

I hadn't thought of breath as line before.

I wandered through rooms occupied by wall-sized videos of a figure walking through dreamlike forests, all in gray scale tones of black and white. The tonal scales of voice rose and fell, following me through to a side room of the next exhibit.

It was opening day of "Future Ruins" by Rodrigo Valenzuela. A "construction/destruction zone" of scaffolds and gritty papered floors is the environment, vague images of building shapes and bridges on the background walls. Large scale black and white images of "future ruins" hang from the scaffolds, dimly lit by spotlights. (See the artist's statement here.)

Already suffering from mid-winter grays, I found the color break I was craving in the gift shop. Giorgio Morandi himself (1890-1964) could have placed this collection of pots on one of the upper shelves. It warmed my cold winter palette and made me smile.

I felt present, past and future swirling around me at the museum today.

A Day Late and a Latte' Short

Possibly you've heard the old saying, "A day late and a dollar short". I'd like to amend that to "A day late and a latte' short." It expressos my recent experience here in Kailua. (Ha! Pun intended!)

My fellow sketchers back in Seattle met at the new Starbucks Roastery on Capitol Hill yesterday for their usual Friday meet up. Sadly, I missed it, since I am "stuck" here in paradise for just a bit longer. :) In a show of solidarity, I decided that I would also sketch at a coffee roastery. I knew just the place right here in Kaiua! Morning Brew Coffee House and Bistro, or simply "the Brew" as locals call it, is 5 minutes from where I'm staying....3 minutes if you don't worry about make-up and your shoes are flip-flops. 

My morning at "Morning Brew" Coffee House and Bistro, Kailua

So I really was going to go on Friday morning, but the "fam" wanted pancakes and I do make the yummiest, fluffiest ones ever! We also slept in. Then laziness and island time took over and before  you know it, it was pizza night already! I'm a day late with my coffee roaster sketch. Sigh! It's just so busy here on vacation!

Anyway, here's my Saturday sketch of the Morning Brew roaster for their in-house coffee. There's a small curved rail in front of it and a sign asking you not to touch. It's nowhere near as elaborate as the one in Seattle, but quite a piece of machinery nonetheless.  I understand that their coffee blender uses locally sourced artisan coffee and that the beans are roasted on sight in this very same equipment.

Local artists are wholeheartedly supported at the Brew. They have live music from 6-7 p.m. on Fridays and hang the work of local artists on the walls. Currently, the work of Mark N. Brown is still up from his December show. I have painted on location with Mark before and hope you get to see his large plein air pieces before they come down. The shop also sells logo merchandise like shot glasses, T-shirts, mugs, etc. I love the tasteful designs they come up with each year and the Hawaiian style hieroglyph of the sun for their logo. 

The "latte' short" in my title for today refers to the fact that there is no such thing as a small cup at the Brew. That is, unless you want to count the shot glasses. Espressos start out as a double shot. Sizes start at 12 oz. then 16 oz. for medium and 20 oz. for large! Huge! And it's great tasting coffee, too!

Note: For technical reasons I only added color to a few of the brass fittings and tubes. Anything left white on the roaster is really brass.

Seven from Starbucks

7 more for NaNoDrawMo! Total: 42 with 7 days to go!

As I left the house on a sketch hunt today, I thought I would be parking across the street from a barber shop I know. The light was good. I had my Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook, Micron Pen, Lamy Pen and mini kit. All I needed was a nice, warm latte to keep me company.

WELL. Turns out that the clouds came over and ruined my lighting. Plus, the chairs are quite comfy at one of our local Starbucks. So I ended up with 7 little sketches instead of a larger, more complicated street scene. This doesn't hurt my total for NaNoDrawMo, either!
Here's the story:

1. My most frequently used sketch pen, the Micron .01 Archival Waterproof. (The barista stand, #5, was with my Lamy pen, however.)
2. Left handed, leaning over, pouring cream in a to-go cup. No need to remove his huge puffy jacket. He's in and out in no time! (Yes, the mornings are pretty cold this week.)
3. Ignore pen again. *This ginger haired worker took his break in three different chairs. First, he sat in the sunny window which was decorated with long streamers of colorful tissue. I didn't sketch him the other two times as he faced me both times and seemed to be wise to my sketch hunting presence.
4. Two pounds of Starbucks Thanksgiving Blend. What a pretty, autumn leaf package!
5. Top edge of the baristas' brewing machine with the gigantic coffee filter on top right. Blurry scan.
6. Lower left. Another table hopper. He seemed so uncomfortable, trading tables four times, including using the bathroom, taking off his hat, smoothing his hair, opening and closing his 3 ring binder. He escaped before I could draw any more.
7. Lower right. This Mo Bro (I detect two different stages of facial hair--grown out mustache and newish beard) was easy. Even though he got up and down twice, he always returned to the exact same position. Thanks!

*Question: Are male coffee shop workers referred to as "baristos"? Answer from Yahoo: The term baristo (and correspondingly baristos) is occasionally found in English to refer to a specifically male bartender. This is a hypercorrection, as it is a misinterpretation of the -a ending as a female ending, while in fact barista is used for both males and females."

Personal observation: the vast majority of men in and out of the shop had facial hair. I wonder if they are participating in Movember? Wanna be a Mo Bro or a Mo Sista?

Sunday Painters: Be an unofficial Mo Bro or Mo Sista, even if you don't have a mustache. Draw and/or paint someone with a beard or mustache today!

Late Breakfast, er, Lunch and NaNoDrawMo #29

But wait 'till you see NaNoDrawMo #26!

So today I emerge from sorting through my camera roll, catching up on email and seeing what's going on in the art world online. Yikes! Missed breakfast! But I already have a plan.

Yesterday, during a class demonstration, my trusty collapsible water container finally sprung a leak. Sue Ann loaned me hers and the show went on. See blog post from yesterday. I knew I could replace it with a cottage cheese container from home. HOWEVER, there was still about a fourth of a cup left in it. (Really, who leaves three bites of cottage cheese in a quart container?) But I digress.

I'm washing out the container, remembering all those people who are already ahead of their goal of 50 drawings in 30 days for NaNoDrawMo 2014. I like the way the soap bubbles look. Full stop. Grab the sketchbook and Lamy pen and draw what I see in the bottom of the sink. Aha! Drawing #27!

No stopping now! The rules say that the drawings can be anything, and don't have to be good. Eggshells, #28. I am really hungry now, but just look how cute those egg yolks are. So before scrambling them for my omelet, I make another sketch for my total of #29! Sooooo hungry!
New Goals:

1. Cook and eat omelete - check
2. Post to Flikr group for NaNoDrawMo - check
3. Get busy on the last 21 drawings in the next 9 days. - Working on it!

Note to self: You can do it! Go for it, Michele!

Day 31 of Inktober 2014 - I did it!

For the last three ink drawings of Inktober I chose to draw windows, from inside looking out. Each one is a window from the building where I taught my watercolor class that day.

For Wednesday, I chose a view across the rooftops and beyond. For Thursday, I chose the window display at the gallery and through to the outside. For today, I looked out the second floor window of Kirkland Arts Center and down to the rainy street corner below.

All done! 31 ink drawings in 31 days! See my Instagram for the entire collection. 

Windows, Looking from the Inside Out

At the beginning of the month, the weather was as lovely as fall can get and I drew windows from the outside looking in. Now at the end of October, it is windy and raining in earnest. I decided to draw the last three days of Inktober from the inside looking out of windows.

One day to go for my Inktober challenge!

I drew this one from inside the gallery where I teach my Thursday watercolor classes. Then I went out to get a photo from the street side. Mark A. Ellinger's blown glass is too beautiful to leave in black and white.

Looks like a Teapot

This is one in a series of three teapots that I drew for Inktober and posted on my Instagram.

Although the first two subjects were real teapots, this one is one of my favorite clay pieces. It's made to look like a teapot but only functions as an art piece. All drawn from life.

I used my Lamy pen with Noodlers black ink and a Niji waterbrush.

Mad Art at UW and Burke Museum

From September 13th – October 25th 2014, the University of Washington welcomes MadArt’s newest public art installation, Mad Campus, onto its grounds. In this exhibit, temporary, site-specific works are displayed in various outdoor locations on the UW campus. Inspired by their locations, from hidden nooks to well-frequented vistas, the selected artists have created new sculptures designed to be interactive.

Some of the "bird relics" that drew my attention.

Evan Blackwell's work is fascinating. His installation called "Relics of Experience" is located outside the Burke Museum in order to inspire a dialogue of inquiry and wonder about collecting as it relates to nature, history, and living experience. The piece is made up of a series of ceramic boxes that are filled with responses to and representations of various artifacts from the Burke’s collection.

I hopped on the floating bridge ($4.90 toll by mail....Thank You!) after teaching my class at Kirkland Arts Center. The campus chimes rang two o'clock as I reached the installation at the Burke Museum. I got $12 refund for my $15 parking at the kiosk on my way out at 2:45.
I made these sketches with my Micron, Lamy pen, Pentalic sketchbook and a few watercolor brushstrokes.

Seattle Urban Sketchers were there this morning, sketching Mad Campus. Can't wait to see their sketches!
Update: I got the date wrong for the sketchers, they are meeting up next Friday! It's not too late for you to join them!

But wait, there's more!

I know I was planning to go back to Vintage Violet today, but it was too hard to resist getting in on a challenge to join "Inktober". It's an online challenge to make an ink drawing a day for the month of October. The rules are simple:

1. Make an ink drawing each day of October.

2. Post it each day on Instagram, Facebook, Tumbler, your blog, etc. 

3. Hashtag it #Inktober.

1 down, 30 to go. 

Paraty Colonial Church

From the Pacific NW to the coast of Brazil

So this is what was under the map in a recent post about our Paraty Pity Party. I had seen so many pictures, I couldn't help myself. I just had to see if I could sketch the beautiful colonial church. That arched part is mighty tricky and I can't imagine the challenge it would be from another viewpoint.

We have traveled to Madeira, Lisbon, and the Mediterranean coast of Portugal. Those memories added to a combined overview of several photos led to this interpretation of the scene.