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.

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!

Not All Pi is Created Equal

You can google anything. For those in need of ideas, here are 8 Ways to Celebrate Pi Day.

As you can see, there is quite a size difference between the half apple pie sold at Haggen's (upper left) and the half cherry pie left over from Costco (upper right). It took a slide rule, pocket calculator, compass and protractor to even out the difference in the sketch above. Several attempts were made to create a slice in the precise formula of Pi but incremental adjustments (i.e. taking small bites out of imperfect specimens) have resulted in the half pie situation as evidenced above.

You can't say that we have not made a serious effort here at the Pacific Northwest Studio.

Bonus Sketch Meetup at the Burke Museum

Sunshine and shadows this morning at the Burke Museum entrance

Seattle Urban Sketchers arranged an Ad hoc meeting this morning to accompany Laurie W., a visiting sketcher from San Francisco. On a cold, frosty November morning, it was so nice to be indoors, discovering something to draw in the current exhibit. Kate sketched everything, both inside and out!

In the lobby, a woman in a white lab coat was seated at a small table holding jars of preserved snakes. She was counting the scales to determine which of three varieties of garden snakes they were.

We also shared the venue with a group of school children, some of whom gave encouraging comments on our sketches in progress.

Fossil Whale Exhibit

The first thing that caught my eye was the fossilized remains of a 30-million-year old baleen whale found on the Olympic Penninsula. I can't imagine the effort it would take to assemble this from pieces found in the mud. Other fossils, such as shells, were displayed with it on a bed of sand.

I used watercolor pencils while sketching fossils in the museum.

Since water media isn't allowed in the exhibit area, I used watercolor pencils to sketch, then went out to the lobby to blend the drawings with my water brush. The fossilized whale head, upper right, is how the pencil looks before adding water. The 180 lb. paper in my Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook works great for this.

THE REMAINS OF THE DAY

Afternoon sketches, parking ticket, lunch, etc. (tap to zoom)

Home in time to enjoy the sunset!

After sharing our sketches at 12:30pm, some of us went to the University Book Store for lunch in the cafe and shopping in the art department. I sketched a sandwich and Tina sketched me!

 Laurie brought her Moo Card collection of bird sketches (she let us choose one of the 50 in her series.) I got the hummingbird in its nest!

Virtual Paintout, Flower Market in Manila

Dangwa Flower Market on Dimasalang Rd, Manila, Phillipines- Google Street View here

I drew with my twig, Chinese ink and watercolor pencils in the Perfect Sketchbook.

It's fun to compare this one with a previous effort in Bangladesh, virtually of course. Here I used India Ink, twig, watercolor and white Signo pen.
Bill Guffey hosts The Virtual Paintout online, where you can visit a different location each month through Google Peg Man, walking the streets (virtually) and sketching. Then you upload your image and URL to share it with the other virtual painters around the world.

Update 10/5/15 My photo is now published on the Virtual Paintout website!

Bradner Gardens 2-"The Bride" and her Accessories

I've now added watercolor to my second page of sketches from the urban sketcher's Bradner P-Patch outing last Friday. This page is about the scarecrow bride and her accessories. More photos and original ink drawings were all posted that same day here.

As with any bride, the setting is as important as the dress. At Bradner Gardens, they have positioned her in a clearing of her own, backed by a screen of trees and flanked by a bed of pink cosmos.

Micron black pen, watercolor and watercolor pencils, logo collage.

Already a regally tall bride, her height is accentuated by her twiggy up-do and dangling high heeled boots. She's hung her wasp trap handbag on a nearby branch while posing gracefully with outstretched rebar arms. Clusters of ripening blackberries might have made a lovely bead necklace, but she has the non-perishable kind. Along with her "pearl" bead necklace, she has a tiara cleverly crafted out of plumbers' tape. Red reflector earrings, the built in wringer from a sponge mop used as a comb in her hair, I could go on and on.

"You look good from the back, too, girl."

A pair of green "nylon" ropes tie her boots on. I'm not certain whether the blush pink cloth draped around her shoulders is meant to be an old fashioned fichu or if it's her veil, blown about by the wind and tangled in her hair.

Needless to say, those skinny rebar arms could use a little protection from the elements. They're already a bit rusty.

It was a lot of fun guessing at the wardrobe allegories and metaphors.

Stayed tuned: one more page in this series to finish up and post.

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More From TerraBella

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I had another sketch from TerraBella, a wedding venue where the beautiful grounds and buildings are all set up for outdoor weddings. One of the buildings is called "Nest". It's exclusively for the bride and her party. A quiet place for them to rest before the ceremony.

Steps leading up to the porch and what I discovered in "Nest"

I didn't post this one yesterday because I had an idea!

Two reasons I didn't post my pencil sketch from yesterday:

1. I had an idea! I thought I might have fun using my watercolor pencils (which were at home) and couldn't wait to try them on this subject.....it's so curvilinear!
2. It was only a scribble of a pencil sketch and needed color. (besides, I got an extra 15 minutes from the sketchers before we shared our work and I decided to use them to finish the color on the Airstream.)

Nest Eggs-Original watercolor by Michele Cooper

I am putting this on the EDiM Day 31 page in my sketchbook. Still trying to catch up! But wait! There's More! I am working on another section of that page and will post the whole spread tomorrow.