Knowing when to stop!

Today a met with a couple of sketching students to sketch at the Panama Hotel Tea and Coffee House.
I got there early so I started a sketch of the storefront entry from inside the space.  I was able to add color to it while students were working on their own sketches.  I got to a point where I was happy with it but then decided to add more color to the background walls.  I should have stopped before "adding"...sometimes it is better to call it a day  and then look at it 24 hours later to see if you really need to add anything.  Adding the background took away focus to the sketch.  What I had to do is add value to other areas to make it read again.  It turned out okay but I should have stopped earlier and reassessed it the next day!

Flags at Shilshole

It took me a  long time to find a view I wanted to sketch.  Maybe there were just too many options or maybe it was the fact that when you sat down the guard rail aligned with  your eye level.  I ended up standing to sketch the view I liked.  What drew me to this view were the colorful big flags on a couple of sail boats and the fog that had settled in, creating interesting atmospheric perspective.  Of course by the time I finished the sketch the fog had lifted so when painting the sketch I could add the color of the sky and a lot more masts seem to fill the background.

Obliteride

A couple of Thursdays ago I taught my Architecture sketching class at Gas Works Park.  Little did I know that there would be people setting up tents and stations for the Obliteride  Event.  Obliteride raises funds for Cancer Research and is an event that happens once a year.  The sketch below was the  drawn while they were in the process of setting up for the Friday start of the bike rides and events happening on the next day. 

This is the first sketch in my new travelogue Handbook.  The size is about 8x8 which is a perfect size for broad loose washes.  The 5.5 x 8.5 watercolor sketch books were feeling a bit small... this sketch book works well and is giving me more freedom in my watercolors and sketch layouts.

Obliteride set up at Gasworks Park.

The Magnolia Big Band at Night Out

This year's sketch of the Magnolia Big Band. 
I love sketching these guys.  It is fun to sketch the instruments and musicians playing.  This time I tried to do simple almost blind contour drawings.  The first sketch was done in pencil and the second in pen.  It is amazing how little you have to sketch but it is enough to tell the story and give a sense of what is going on.

Crossing of the Eagles

Today my son Matthew and two other Scouts Malcolm and Tristan became Eagle Scouts. The Eagle classification is the culmination of many years of scouting and many kids drop out before getting there.   Besides completing merit badges, and consistently being involved in Boyscout events,  the boyscout gets involved in leadership, and heading up a final Eagle Project.   So here's to the new Eagle Scouts Matthew, Malcolm and Tristan ....congratulations and great job boys.

This was a sketch of the boys arriving via canoe  and landing at Montlake Community Center.

Eagles Crossing

Practicing washes and the idea of reflections

This is totally a made up watercolor of my imagination.  I was trying to prep for demonstrating how to do washes for the sky and atmospheric perspective.  So I came up with this watercolor.

I used a lot of soft edges,  the foreground land mass should have been hard edged.

Water color sketch at St. Ignatius Chapel

Today my UW class Architect 415 went to St. Ignatius chapel to sketch the chapel in watercolor.
We tried something different, working directly in watercolor no lines.  Just looking for big shapes and values. 
It created a more abstract image with some interesting results.

Here are two sketches I did.  One on the outside of the building which took about 15 min.  The other inside the chapel which took only 5 minutes.

Demo's at Olympic Sculpture Park

Meet with my sketching class at Olympic Sculpture Park.  What a beautiful and hot day. 
I did two demos one on creating atmospheric perspective in your sketches.  And the other demo was on selective watercolor.

Atmospheric Perspective

Selective watercolor

Construction on 8th and Lenora

 Process sketches of construction going on on 8th and Lenora.  Done on location over two Sundays.
The first Sunday started raining and cut short my work.

Value Study 2

Here is the second image we gave the students.  I have scanned my value study and the final in two stages.  The final as the first and second wet washes before I let the whole thing dry.  And the final stage where I put in the darks for detail.

Final Stage

Value Study and Stage 1

Photo

Value Studies

Today my friend Cindy Esselman was the guest instructor in my Architecture 415 class.  We introduced watercolor and focused on shape, values, soft and hard edges.  Here is a black and white photo of an alley that was passed to the class to study. The idea was to  paint values in a series of layers from the lightest value to the darkest. The  painted value study is a simplified version of the photo.  Can you reduce the image to a few major shapes first and then add detail?

Here is the value study I did tonight from the photo.

New Line to Color Workshop in September

Announcing Line to Color Workshop in Tacoma Washington this September. 
Registration deadline is August 15th, 2014.
See for more information see Workshop Details .

Painting outside the Lines

Tonight I was messing around with the Windsor Newton pocket palette just to familiarize my self with how the paints respond.  So I started this with light juicy washes very wet.  Then added midtone and darks all directly on the paper with no lines.  So I was working with shape and value very loosely.
It ended up looking like a muddled mess so I decided to get my Hero bent nib pen and do a semi blind contour sketch over the watercolor once it had dried.  Here is the outcome.  Kind of fun switching it out.

Sketching people in Urban Settings

Yesterday my UW Sketching class went to Westlake Park to sketch people and activities.  That was the perfect spot.  Gabi Campanario was the guest lecturer and demonstrated how he approaches sketching people in the environment.  One hint he gave in sketching moving people is to watch their movements for a while and you will be able to remember the pose to capture it in the drawing.  Also exaggerate the movement.  It makes for a more dynamic drawing.

I sketched the sketch below before I heard those words. I will have to try it again.

Water and Reflections

I was just reading about reflections in a Zoltan Szabo's book on 70 Watercolor Techniques.  This is my second try at it.  Trying to simplify the strokes and washes.   I used a 1" flat wash from Daniel Smith. The watercolor washes went down beautifully.  The brush held a lot of water and laid down some juicy paint.

The following is the first study I did from a photograph in a book.  It came out too busy.  Too many reflections and there was not focus to the image.   Too many things competing with each other.  I simplified it in the second sketch.  The watercolor brush in this was also a smaller brush probably a size 10 or 12 brush.  I like the second try better.

Sketching and Painting Every Day

Last night  my husband and I met up with Montreal Sketcher Shari Blaukoph and her husband Spiro for dinner.  This was their final evening in Seattle after Shari's world wind West Coast workshops.  She is very diligent in sketching and painting everyday and I enjoy checking out her blog each day to see what new sketch she has done.

I asked her how she can do it every day.  She says thanks to her husband who supports and encourages her in doing it she just finds time and makes it a priority.  Even if you do a little sketch of something at home  it is great practice to just keep you eyes and hands in it everyday.  Get those hourly reps of painting and sketching.

This morning I decided to take some time to sketch the blue house on the corner of 26th and Boyer.
Here are the two stages of painting.  The light and medium values and then the darks.  I tried to capture the dappled light but I think I should have simplified by strokes.
Will try this again some time.

2nd Stage Darks

First stage lights and mediums.

2nd Annual West Coast Sketchcrawl in Portland

Yesterday I had an all day adventure going to the 2nd Annual West Coast Sketchcrawl hosted by the Portland USk Sketchers.  Sketcher Mark Ryan and I caught the 6:45 am Bolt Bus down to Portland for a 3 hour ride down which got us in at 9:45 am.  We just missed 15 min opening of the event but found the group of over 100 sketchers gathered in front of the Portland Art Museum.
Sketchers of all along the West Coast of the US and Canada met for a day of sketching I met people from San Diego to  Vancouver, BC and even found out there were two sketchers from Montreal who came out to join us.  It had a small symposium feeling an so fun to meet sketchers from other parts of the country.  Next year it is in San Diego, CA so look out for the advertisment of this event.

Final Sketch of the Day under the huge Elm tree  next to Portland Art Museum Sculpture Courtyard.  PAM was founded in 1892 which makes is the oldest Art Museum on the West Coast.

Director Park was a hopping place Celebrating Bastille Day and having a waiters and waitress competition.  It reminded me of Barcelona and how the streets and plazas can be the life of the city. Opened in 2009 this urban park covers a 700-space underground garage and was designed by  Laurie Olin of the design firm OLIN, and the Portland-based architectural firm ZGF Architects

At the corner of  SW Park Ave and SW Jefferson, was St. James Lutheran Church the only building I found in good morning light.  The cornerstone for the present building was laid in May 1907 and this late gothic revival building  is listed on the National Register for Historic Places.

The 6:45 am Bolt Bus to Portland got us there at 9:30 am.  An inexpensive way to get down to Portland and back.

Sketching Class at St. Ignatius Chapel

It was a hot day for sketching but we found shade and great light and shadows at St. Ignatius.  Today's lesson was to focus on seeing value and using the colors from Velasquez palette,  Ultra Marine Blue, Yellow Ochre and Burnt Sienna. With Daniel Smith Colors, I used Quinacridone gold (instead of Yellow Ochre), Quinacridone Sienna (instead of Burnt Sienna) and Ultra Marine Blue.  The Quinacridones are more vibrant and transparent alternatives.  Here are pictures of the class work and of my demo sketch.  I also got in a sketch in the interior of the church looking at the Baptismal Font .

Revised with additional Quin Sienna wash over walls and added value at glass.

Demo on Values Observing Light and Shadows Exterior of St. Ignatius Chapel

St.  Ignatius Chapel Baptismal Font

Sketching in the cool of the shade.

Sketching in the cool of the shade.

Looking at the final work at days end.

Final Watercolor sketches.

Stages of Building a Watercolor Sketch

Inspired by Shari Blaukoph's watercolor sketch of a bunch of bananas,  I had the Tuesday sketching class try their hand at doing still life watercolor sketches of bananas and nectarines. 

I decided to try it at home and scan it at various stages of completion to show the process of building up a watercolor.  Here are the 4 stages I took to completion. 

Stage 4:  Details and Final Darks

Stage 3:  Picking up some Darks.  Background and Shadows

Stage 2: Hitting the yellow of the bananas and some midtone areas.  Shadows cast by the banana.

Stage 1:  Light Washes keeping highlit areas white.