On location sketching Workshop in Edmonds on August 31

 Stretch your Sketching Skills with Panoramas

Class Date: August 31

9-12:30

An on location sketching and watercolor painting workshop

with Michele Cooper, Instructor 

Follow Michele’s simple lessons on how to draw and paint an exciting panoramic sketch in line and wash. Meet at ARTspot at 9:00. After a brief review of the art materials and the painting strategy, join Michele on location as she simplifies this complicated subject. You’ll start by finding and drawing your key landmarks so you know everything is in the right place.

FEATURES included in this on location workshop:

• Learn how to simplify your sketch and paint a panoramic format 
• Use continuous lines to draw lively sketches in ink
• Watercolor techniques for spontaneous effects
• Quick drills on how to draw and paint water, trees, sky, buildings

Get drawing tips on how to quickly establish an accurate composition, how to add notes of interest with pen, and how to pull your painting together with watercolor tinting.

Location: ARTspot & outdoor location TBA

Date: Saturday, August 31 rain or shine

Time: 9:00-12:30PDT

Tuition: $140

Register through ARTspot. Students can sign up via the website (ARTspot Edmonds | Art Supply Store ) in person or can call at 425-640-6408.

Materials:

Sketchbook: Particularly for this workshop as we are sketching panoramic views:

A sketchbook designed for multimedia. Takes ink, pencil, marker, and watercolor equally well.

Hardbound books help support your drawing while standing or sitting with it in your lap.

1. I like *Pentalic Aqua Journal 5" x 8", Watercolor OR
2. Handbook Journal Co. Artist Watercolor Sketchbook Journal, Pocket Panorama 3.5 x 8.25 Inches, 140lb CP
3. or Choose your own preferred paper and make an accordion or maze book.
4. Binder clips. To hold the pages open.

Choose from the options in the rest of the materials list here.

Please call ARTspot or contact me through Instagram or Facebook to let me know if you have any questions.

About the artist:

Michele Cooper was recently one of the guest artist instructors at Sketcher Fest Edmonds. She has been associated with USk Seattle since 2014 and was a Seattle 10×10 instructor for the tenth anniversary series of urban sketchers workshops. Michele has two new books on travel sketching as well as three sets of greeting cards. One set is especially about Edmonds. Drawing, painting and anything to do with art has always been Michele Cooper’s  passion. She loves sharing her discoveries and has taught adult watercolor workshops both internationally and locally from Anacortes to Seattle since 1979.

My Instagram 

https://www.instagram.com/michelecooperart

My Facebook page 

https://www.facebook.com/ArtMicheleCooper

My Blog

https://www.michelecooper.blogspot.com

UPDATE! Classes added to Seattle USk 10x10 Workshops

UPDATE!

The response has been phenomenal to our upcoming USk Seattle 10x10 Workshops! Thank you so much, sketchers!

All of our classes are full and registration requests keep coming. In response to that, we have added classes so that those on the extensive wait list will not miss out.

My original workshop runs from 9:00am-12:00 noon on May 20.

There is now an additional class the same day from 2:00-5:00pm at the same location.

More info on my class here. http://michelecooper.blogspot.com/2017/01/class-8-visual-journaling-sketching.html

I know that May seems a long way off, but the list for the second class is already starting to fill up. So please register as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

Materials list will be sent once your registration is confirmed.

Class 8 - Visual Journaling: Sketching a Montage - Michele Cooper

May 20, 2017

Location: Starbucks Roastery at Melrose and Pike

Two sessions:

A. 9:00am-12:00 noon

B. 2:00pm-5:00

Registration and more information on all the workshops

Seattle 10x10: Discovering Your City One Sketch At A Time

Workshop Announcement--Explore our city of Seattle

Urban sketching is a way to combine drawing and writing. We cultivate the ability to be in the moment while standing apart as an observer. Not only do we record our drawings, thoughts, and observations for ourselves, we then post them online to share with everyone. Our motto is "See the world one sketch at a time".

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of Urban Sketchers, an unprecedented program of one day workshops is being offered in major cities worldwide. Each city will offer ten workshops by ten of the area's artist instructors.

I am honored to be among Seattle's USk instructors.

Come to Daniel Smith, Inc, in Seattle on Saturday, January 28, to meet all the instructors and a free preview.

11:00am to 1:30 pm

Join me on May 20 for my workshop on Visual Journaling, see details below

Registration and more information on all the workshops

Seattle 10x10: Discovering Your City One Sketch At A Time

Class 8 - Visual Journaling: Sketching a Montage - Michele Cooper

May 20, 2017

Two sessions:

A. 9:00am-12:00 noon

B. 2:00pm-5:00

Location: Starbucks Roastery at Melrose and Pike

Workshop Description
Sometimes the sketch location is more than a street view. It's often a collection of happenings; the sounds, the scents, the people, the weather and incidental details. There's much to explore: Melrose market, Starbucks Roastery building interior and exterior, Six Arms Pub, surrounding street views and signage. In this workshop you will learn how to combine drawing, writing, lettering and ephemera to capture your experience while on location.

During this workshop you will learn:

• four basic layouts for composing the page
• easy lettering tricks for headlines and narrative
• how to make simple figures in just six brushstrokes 
• how to combine multiple sketches with narrative and turn your observations into reportage. 

You will use/practice/refine these new skills in guided exercises on location.

Instructor will bring several examples of her sketchbooks in a variety of formats for inspiration and reference.

Transportation to Workshop Location: 

Melrose and Pike, Starbucks Roastery

Our location is the lively Melrose neighborhood on Capital Hill, just a 4 minute walk from Seattle Central College or 5 minutes on foot from the Washington State Convention Center.

For those visiting from out of town, you can easily get there on foot or by car, bus, uber or taxi. Check out this trip from Pike Place Market to the Starbucks Reserve Roastery - 1124 Pike St, Seattle, WA,  on @rome2rio: https://www.rome2rio.com/s/Pike-Place-Market/1124-Pike-St-Seattle-WA

Sketching the old Fred Lewis Building Now

Monday I had such a great adventure! Anacortes sketcher friends and I walked on the Port Townsend Ferry at Whidbey Island for a ride across the sea and a day of sketching. We prowled the town, both "Uptown" and "Downtown" but passed up the opportunity to explore "Undertown".

The old Fred Lewis Building (1889) is great fun to sketch! This is inspired by Liz Steel's online class Sketchingnow Edges. Tap to see a larger photo and to follow my process step by step. 

I got a bit carried away with my two new pens on that last bit. Not sure that it needed the sidewalk.

This building is on the National Register of Historical Buildings. The top two floors have been vacant for many years. Problems with the building are nothing new. A piece of cornice fell onto the sidewalk in 1999, nearly striking the mayor, who happened to be walking by. More debris was apparently dislodged during the Nisqually Earthquake in 2001. People with babies in strollers have been asked to move on.

Good thing I decided to be across the street so I could view the whole building.

EDim 28-A Yard Ornament or Statuary

I am using part of my summer vacation to catch up on some projects that got set aside during the last month of teaching weekly classes. So, although I sketched this today, I am belatedly posting the sketch for Day 28, May.

Is July 15 too late for EDM?

I just can't get over what a fabulous summer we are having. We have taken advantage of outdoor living, a rare thing in the PNW. This hand blown glass fountain sits in its own little pool between the garage and the studio side of the house. I can hear the sound of the water right outside my studio window. Today, I wanted to sketch a fountain, and all I had to do was walk out my own back door!

EDiM 16 - Ingredients for a Favorite Recipe

My take on Mom's Waldorf Salad

Ingredients for a Favorite Recipe
About this time of year, my family would have a family picnic in the park near where my grandparents lived. Grandma would make potato salad with homemade mayonnaise and my mother would make her Waldorf Salad.

I made my own version of Mom's Waldorf salad today and reminisced.

Urban Sketchers Seattle, at the Burke Museum

This morning at the Burke Museum, another sizable crowd of Seattle Urban Sketchers came together for the monthly outing. Along with families, individuals and a meeting of the Tlingit and Salish tribes, we all shared a cozy and warm place to be on a blustery, rainy day.

Again, as I always do in museums, I felt a convergence of experience and time.

One of the featured exhibits was "Here & Now: Native Artists Inspired", which showcases how today's artists learn from past generations. The exhibit features 30 new works by contemporary Native artists, paired with historic pieces from the Burke Museum that artists identified as key to their learning. Coincidentally, a contemporary tribal group met in an adjacent room where a man with drums chanted, wearing his own woven hat in the traditional design. See photos above/left depending on your display screen.

My sketches of wings and eggs from the ornithology display in the lobby.

The elegantly displayed Xiphactonus from Kansas.

Although I enjoyed touring much of the rest of the museum, I was captivated by what I found in the lobby, where we all met in the beginning. I stayed there most of the time and sketched the two sketchbook spreads seen above.

The Confluence of Science and Art: Wes Wehr's Inspiration is now on display in the lobby of the Burke Museum. It is a fitting tribute. The entire display was beautifully arranged, like the perfectly arranged cabinet drawers of treasure in the paleontology and geology collections – the focus of Wehr's study and inspiration.

Sketchers, both new and experienced, find their subjects.

 The sketches above are but a fraction of those set out to share at the end of the outing today. See the Seattle Urban Sketchers blog for more accounts and photos of the inspired results.

 I can hear these toothy characters now, exclaiming: "So I'm stuck out in the middle of nowhere without a dental plan!"
Psst. Hey, guys, I hear there's a drawer full of teeth downstairs. FYI.

Ravens

As you know, a global project is underway for artists, called Inktober. 31 drawings in 31 days. Draw something in ink and post it each day on FB, TWITTER, YOUR BLOG, INSTAGRAM, etc. View mine by using the Instagram button in the right hand column. There are half marathon and quarter marathon options.

I chose one of my unused sketchbooks that had enough pages to hold all 31 drawings. On average, I plan to draw two or three per page. Each collection over those days will have some sort of continuity. Usually they are placed consecutively by date. The current page on Monday was where I planned to draw number 3 of a series on balsamic vinegar bottles.  And then........... 

As you can see, I've taken some liberties with the models.

I visited a private home with some of my sketcher friends and was inspired by their collection of raven carvings, sculptures and objets d'art. 

What other traits do ravens have? The middle one goes in tomorrow.

Each piece in their collection was as individual as the artist who created it. After observing them for awhile, you notice this about animals and wildlife, too. For my sketchbook and daily drawing, I plan to do a page on ravens. Three ravens and three personality traits, highly exaggerated: the somewhat threatening, aggressive quality they sometimes have, (tbd) and their humorous character.

By the way, the two out on the power lines came and went on another sketching day and I dropped them in for balance. We have lots of trees in our neighborhood, but underground power, so our crows and ravens just walk around in the street.

Pike Place Market Line and Wash

"Pink at Pike Place"  Sold
Original Watercolor Line and Wash
8"x10"

This was a class demonstration. As usual, I used no preliminary drawing. I started with the head, using my Micron Pigma pen.
 
 Once I finished with the line work, I used watercolor, selectively, to complete the composition.

A lot was left out and a few things changed from my photo reference.

Seattle Sketches, Fold-Out

Accordion style fold out from my sketcbook
7"Hx24"W

One of our favorite things to do on a weekend day is to go to Seattle and prowl around the Pike Place Market. It's always really busy then, so if you want to have a little elbow room to do a few sketches, it's best to go on a weekday morning.

My pen and ink & pen and wash drawings are done without preliminary pencil work, just a micron pen on Fabriano Artistico 140#CP watercolor paper. The pencil sketch is usually done with minimum eraser, if any, to work out the general composition. Then I can have fun and do the rest with my #8 round watercolor brush.

Two of these sketches were done earlier this year while visiting the Gaugin Exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum on a Monday in April. It was nice (read: not raining) but very windy.....and just in time to meet the deadline for the Sketchbook Project, Limited Edition.