20 People at the Outlet Mall on Wednesday

Here's 20 more people for the #oneweek100people2017 drawing challenge. That makes a total of 61 for the week so far.

I found a great spot at the window counter looking out onto the central square at the Seattle Premium Outlet Mall today. I had a tall bar stool to sit on, a long table for my stuff and a nice hot latte' to sip in the warm Starbucks coffee shop. Now that's what I call luxury sketching. I trust you can tell how cold it was out there by the hunched over posture and puffy jackets and gloves most people were wearing.

This store is usually packed with a line out the door, but the cold damp winter weather on a Wednesday made it difficult for all but the hardiest of shoppers to be out and about....and sketchers like me with a goal!

I enjoyed combining fine tip waterproof pens with brush pens loaded with water soluble ink, adding color with watercolor pencils and a waterbrush at the end. These seem the most appropriate for my new Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook with its smooth thick paper. What a fun challenge! I am constantly amazed at the variety of characters one encounters and it makes me wonder about their stories.

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.

Imagine All the People

How will I ever get 100 drawings of people in 5 days?!

That's probably one of the first things that pops into your mind when you see the proposed global drawing challenge on blogs by Marc Taro Holmes and Liz Steel. The idea is to draw 100 people in one week. It starts tomorrow, Monday, March 6, ends on Friday, March 10, and I'm in!  I'll post each day on my Instagram for sure and on my Flickr photostream and on this blog as time allows.
 

Start with something simple.
Ever since I first saw it, I have admired this contour drawing, a self portrait by John Lennon.

Lennon is remembered for his music but he began drawing long before he had a guitar. He attended Liverpool Art School between 1957 and 1960, before his sessions with The Beatles became a full-time occupation. Lennon would always maintain “Art came first.”

I became aware of the principles behind contour drawing through Betty Edwards' book, "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". It was revolutionary in 1979 when it was first published. It's the first book I advise my students to buy if they want to improve their drawing skills. I use my own particular adaptation of contour drawing all the time, especially in my sketchbooks.

Why not try a few contour drawings as warm ups and then just keep going tomorrow until you have 100 of them by the end of the week? If you like to use your watercolors, why not try simple 6 stroke figures like the ones I demonstrated here.

Don't forget to share your efforts using  #oneweek100people2017.

March Momentcatchers and Multitasking

In my usual multitasking approach, I am combining two online drawing challenges today; Candace Rardon's Momentcatchers (a watercolor every first Saturday of the month) and "One week 100 people" a global challenge starting up on Monday. (I'll post more about the 100 people challenge here tomorrow)

I took a moment or two to set out a bunch of sketching supplies to see what I might use for the the upcoming week's drawing challenge. Bing! THAT'S what I'll draw and paint this weekend for my contribution to the Momentcatcher's  Challenge---the pile of sketching stuff I'm using! This will be my third post for the year on this challenge. I plan to add one a month on the first Saturday of each month.
See more about the Momentcatchers Project at http://www.candaceroserardon.com/2017/01/moment-catchers-project/

In another spate of multitasking, I took some photos at each stage of today's sketch.

1. Drawing with my Sharpie Stylo Fine tip black waterproof pen in my new Stillman & Birn Zeta Sketchbook.
I chose this sketchbook because its thick, smooth paper is particularly pen-friendly yet allows for wet media, should I have enough time to add watercolor washes.

 2. I wanted to try out both the smooth paper of the S&B Zeta and my new very pointed tip travel brush. It's a #6 round Voyage by Silver Black Velvet

So I mixed up a semi neutral grey with my DIY Altoids mini travel tin and washed in the shadows over the pen drawing.

What do you think? Does it make that much of a difference from the simple line sketch?

3. Finally, I added watercolor washes over the previous two stages and used Picasa to superimpose a little text list of my choice of supplies for the challenge. I do that sometimes to see what it would look like if I add narrative to my sketches. I think if I do decide to add text by hand, it will be slanted to fit the angle of the drawing of the sketchbook page. You can see what it looks like without the text added on my Flickr photostream here.

I hope this qualifies for my Momentcatchers entry. There IS watercolor in it. :)

Oh, and here's a shot of my work in progress.

PS. My cappuccino got cold. I got carried away yet again and that part of my multi-multi-multi tasking failed.

Fun with Beginning Watercolor at KAC

Busy students working under the skylight at Kirkland Arts Center this weekend

On Saturday and Sunday, February 25 & 26, I taught another Introduction to Watercolor Workshop. It's a fun opportunity for adults with little or no watercolor experience to find out what it's all about. I do one of these workshops for beginners each fall, winter and spring. The basics are always there, but each season brings new subjects and new techniques to try. Join us for the next one April 29 & 30, 2017. More info here.

Over the two day course, we covered lots of techniques on how to control your brushes, water, pigment, etc. We practiced saving white space, using negative space, and basic color with a dual primary palette. As each project was finished we pinned the results up on the wall and made way for the next exercise.

Students got to take the art they made home with them along with a folder full of handouts for more practice at home.

Update 2/27/17: On Monday after the workshop, we woke up to a beautiful snowy morning! I was very glad to enjoy it from the comfort of my warm studio rather than worry about driving in it!

A page out of my USK Manchester symposium sketchbook.

Above shows how I used lettering in an expressive headline as an element of the design of the page. Materials used: watercolor, watercolor pencils, black Sharpie Stylo permanent waterproof pen, pencil. I had made these sketches on 32 lb. laser jet paper clipped to a clipboard. Then I cut and folded to fit my Pentalic Aqua Journal, attaching it at one end with permanent glue tape.

Group Reportage from Manchester Symposium, Inside and Out

Since I won't be able to be there for our group reportage Seattle 10x10 USK workshop, June 17, I've decided to organize my sketches and post some thoughts from my experience at Marc Taro Holmes' symposium workshop last July. Finally!
Perhaps this will give those of you considering the Seattle version an idea of how it works. (We do have a few modifications to the procedure, timing, etc. for Seattle, so read the program for details.)

Knowing how much information Marc Holmes imparts in any one workshop, I had a clipboard and stack of laser jet paper as well as my usual sketchbook, pens, clips and other supplies. I'm glad I brought an adhesive tape runner so I could attach one of the card prompts he gave us.

OUTSIDE

We walked over to a plaza across the street from the museum where Marc gave us an overview of the workshop with examples and a demonstration.Then we went out to tackle our first assignment.

We no sooner began our 1 minute, 5 minute and 15 minute sketch drills than it started raining in earnest. We dashed in and out of the small lobby nearby between sketches. We shouldn't have complained. Take a look at the poor "Holme-less" students in another location that morning with Liz Steel!

INSIDE 

The unrelenting rain forced us into the museum, where we met in a top floor room. Marc dealt out two decks of his cards, face down on the table and we all picked one for the first assignment. Then it was down the wooden staircase, card in hand, in search of a subject to sketch.

I found a display case with incredibly detailed hand sewn dolls by Jane Livesy, inspired by "things with antennae". Her pencil sketches, hand stitching and carefully selected fabrics showed a meticulous depth of research into her subject. She inspired me to find things with antennae for the first part of my reportage assignment. The assignment was based on this clipped on card from Holmes' set.
         Butterflies have antennae! So it's down a flight of stairs to capture them. I admit I found it challenging to apply the concept of the prompt and opted for basic overhead views. While running up and down the Victorian staircases, time ran out before I could even get started on the bees.

Today, I've cut down the laser jet paper to fit my Pentalic Aqua Journal and attached it and other ephemera using a permanent adhesive tape runner.

INSIDE OUT

Sharing final results after round 2

It was raining so hard that I made my second sketch looking out a ground floor window at a huge monolith in a rear courtyard. Included in the photo is my prompt from Marc's set of cards, clipped to the board. Here, we are just beginning to share all our results from the group reportage. (Crummy exposure on this photo, though)
THOUGHTS

My Bee Collection Sketch

I found that many of the students needed first round and sharing after to get a grasp of how this group reportage works. I liked the fact that when we shared our sketches, we would see an entire composite of the site, not 15 views of the front of the building, or some other scene that most of us might choose to sketch on our own. The final share in Manchester was awesome! Thanks so much, Marc, for the education and  inspiration. Bravo for keeping everything going despite the weather!

Because bees are such a symbolic icon for Manchester, I really wanted to sketch them while visiting the city. I had to wait for another opportunity and the next day I finally found a small collection of bees in a drawer in the museum's children's activities room.

Rainy Days and Memories

Thursday was Groundhog Day. For most people in the USA, it's a 131-year-old tradition, when the most famous groundhog -- Punxsutawney Phil -- emerged from his burrow at Gobblers Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, Thursday and saw his shadow, which, according to legend, means six more weeks of winter. 

Yesterday, February 3, was my parents' wedding anniversary. Now that they are gone, the date always brings up bittersweet memories.

So it's appropriate for me that today is my day to participate in a monthly online sketch project called #momentcatchers. I've been housebound with the seasonal cough, cold, fever lately. (Strike three!) I'm in the studio, puttering around and as I look out at the cold, grey, rainy afternoon, a touch of green in a dormant flower pot catches my eye........and our little hedgehog boot brush by the back door. Voila! I can catch this moment in my humble little sketch to express all the memories, a bit of ennui, and a hopeful sigh of optimism that Punxsutawney Phil's prediction might be off this year. Ahhhhh! Art is therapeutic. 

I stood inside the warm, cozy studio to sketch my take on the view by the back door, the weather, the season and my impatience with this irksome seasonal cold. Spring can't come too soon!

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