Firefly Watercolor Challenge Rainy Day?

I have moved out onto the “patio studio” where the forecast is sunny and warm for the next ten days! This is my virtual Porto location where I pretend to be at the USK 2018 symposium. So I am having my virtual pastéis de nata with real espresso as if in a cafe in Portugal. 

For my sketching buddies at the symposium: I miss you! You will need these natas to fortify you to climb all over Porto. (We know. We have been to all the cities you have mentioned before.)

Insider Tip: Check for the words “Fabrico Próprio” when choosing a destination to eat your tarts. This means that the location makes their own pastries in-house, a guarantee that they are fresh and that care has been taken in their production. There are a lot of pretenders out there, keep your eyes open – as The Who so eloquently put it, “Don’t get fooled again!”  More info on natas in Lisbon

Looking over the day's challenge prompts for World Watercolor Month

Day 17 for Doodlewash prompt list is "city life". I can do that either on location or virtually through Google Earth. Hmm. Maybe I'll visit Porto or Lisbon.

Day 17 for FireflyWatercolorChallenge is "rainy day". I've been trying to do as many of these as possible on location. Aaack! What am I to do? Here in the Seattle area we finally have a real summer with sunny days in a row! I'm not about to mess with that! Is anybody getting rained on in Portugal right now? Send me a street scene.

In fact yesterday's prompt had me flummoxed as well. See? Here are the last two suggestions:
Day 16: Paint Night
You’re halfway through the challenge! Why not celebrate with friends by attending a Paint Nite or hosting your own at home.

Day 17: Rainy Day
Sometimes the rain is just as inspiring as the sunshine. Follow John Lovett’s lead and paint a rainy, abstract landscape scene.

I'm drinking my lemonade and thinking. Back in a little while

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Five Minute Sketches, WIP

I assigned Tuesday's watercolor classes a little warm up exercise: Take your sketchbook out for a 5 minute sketch. Use any simple tool you like, pen, pencil, etc. Take 5 minutes to find a subject, 5 minutes to sketch and 5 minutes to return to the classroom and share your sketches. It was raining, so just a few chose to brave the cold damp weather outdoors for 5 minutes. The rest chose to spread out all around the interior of the building, sketching what they saw out the windows. I was so impressed by what they did. I think they even surprised themselves! (Sorry, I didn't take a photo of their sketches.)

My five minute sketches from Tuesday, ready for a touch of color and narrative after breakfast today.

Towards the end of the day, I discovered this ingenious little light well with its own pocket garden, flower pots ready and waiting for spring, and a Tuscan mural to cheer up those looking out from the windows on the opposite wall. I only had time to do the ink sketch, planning to add watercolor pencil and ink wash later.

A light well hides a secret garden.

My 5 minute sketch with the Sharpie Pen after class.

Here's the result of some simple color and ink washes on the secret garden sketch. I have time lapse video demo on my Instagram feed of the color/wash process. See link in right column.

See my Instagram feed @michelecooperart for a time lapse video of process of adding color.

I managed to get a few trophy shots of my other two 5 minute sketches (see below)

Afternoon sketch. Looking straight across the alley at the cracked wall and weathered window on the next building.

I had planned to go outside and was headed for the elevator for my first sketch when an unusual appliance in the parking lot caught my eye out the second floor window.

I have no idea what this is....maybe a refrigeration unit? But what fun to draw!

I started on the right hand side of my Pentalic Aquajournal in the morning, then added sketches in the afternoon and after class.

Tuesday am sketch demo (right side) and pm sketch (left side)

I have a heading, 2nd FLOOR, but still haven't decided what my narrative will be for the rest of this two page spread in my visual journal. I will post it here when it's finished.

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.

Day 13 - Popsicles

These are all my favorite flavors. It was a special treat to buy Popsicles when we were little. With 6 children in the family and very hot summers in Eastern Washington, you would have had to own  a franchise to keep up with the rate of consumption we would have achieved. 

My Mom kept the sticks from store bought Popsicles, washed them in hot soapy water, then used them in homemade "popsicles". No fancy popsicle freezer forms for us! We made them in squares from Kool Aid in aluminum ice cube trays. At the time, my favorite flavor was grape.