Rita Sketching

I was tempted to do a contour drawing while Rita was focused on her nature journal at the top of the trail from Buster Brown Field.

I tucked this sketch into the fold over part of my handmade accordion sketchbook, ready to add watercolor washes later.

June 28, 2018 = 7:30pm Back in the studio on Thursday night, I did a live broadcast of some additions and corrections to my North Cascades nature journal. See the replay on periscope.tv/michelecoopart

Some souvenirs of our weekend in the North Cascades

My 19 minute demo on Periscope includes tips on making corrections and using watercolor, watercolor pencil and pen.

Rita sketching on a windy hilltop in the North Cascades.

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.

20 Drawings for Tuesday

On a cold, rainy day, I headed for the grocery store. Much to my surprise, the middle of my journey was occupied by road construction, causing us to line up single file and drive by in alternate queues. I started to draw while waiting, but the line started moving almost immediately, so I had to resort to a few quick snapshots with my smart phone and finish these first 6 people from photos.



I parked at Safeway and added color to the road workers, then went into the store to "buy bread for dinner" while stalking customers for my next 9 sketches. It seems my ninja sketching skills are waning and the most interesting profiles or face on people caught on to what I was doing. The one that gave me the most trouble was the lady in the lower right of the page who barely was able to hold onto her armload of groceries. I actually  tracked her all the way to the shopping carts, where she deposited her haul and promptly disappeared.

I realize that standing with your sketchbook in the grocery store might look like you have a very copious check list, but I really only had a package of dinner rolls in my cart. That florist was even faster than me and my grocery cart. She flitted like a bee all over the store and I felt I would look a bit suspicious hustling after her. Who knows what the security tapes already looked like during my 45 minutes in the store!

Lastly, I had 5 more people to draw for the day, so I went to the gas station, but there wasn't a good vantage point. Got gas. Then I thought there might be some people in the nearby Michael's hobby store on such a dreary day. Well, the customers were outnumbered by the clerks and here they all are. Well, 4 of them are customers and the lady with the strangely asymmetrical hair style was one of the clerks.

Tomorrow will be the last day that I can freely search for sketch models. I have to leave after dinner for my night watercolor class at Skagit Valley College. Then classes each day through Friday. If you come to class, I will sketch you!

21 Drawings for Monday

It's the first day of the One Week 100 People global drawing challenge. I decided to use a new black Pocket Brush Pen by Pentel on my second sketch below. The pen has cartridges that can be replaced and I figured it might be a good idea to have some backup this week. I imagine I will be using a lot more ink than usual!

It got pretty cold this afternoon when I was finally able to scout out one of our local Starbucks stores. I spent 30 minutes on 6 out of 7 sketches in my Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook. I haven't used the smooth paper from the Zeta series before. My usual Sharpie Stylo pen just glides over the surface!  I had to wait about 14 minutes to sketch the girl at the drive thru window because I only got glimpses between customers. By the time I left, it felt distinctly like snow was in the air! (It is snowing outside as I post this!)

These 7 sketches were done from life on location.

This morning, I caught a glimpse of a photo from Rome, which had a few urban sketchers in it. I liked the group shot, so used it to try out my new materials.

This one's from a photo, so doesn't really qualify as an urban sketch. It was not drawn on location- a weird dichotomy since I referred to a photo of 10 urban sketchers.

4 kids in a snow flurry

The last sketch brings the total up to 21, since I'm counting partial people. These kids arrived at the North Cascades Institute for Spring Mountain School amidst a thick flurry of snow. Three out of four were delighted and I wanted to see if I could capture the various reactions on their faces as they got off the bus.

I used a reference photo from the NCascades IG feed for reference.