30×30 Guest Artist : Maria Coryell-Martin
30×30 with Maria Coryell-Martin
Now, I don’t precisely *know* Maria. We haven’t met in person, only online.
These days, don’t we all have people we’ve found on the internet? People who we don’t really know, but we love what they’re doing, and we’d kind of like to have their lives, if only for a few days.
Maria is a traveling artist on an entirely different level from my own experience. She’s on a kind of artistic adventure that brings to mind scientific illustrators from the turn of the century. She’s traveled with research expeditions to the Arctic, and, as the winner of the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, circumnavigated the globe making art in remote regions.
Find out more about Maria’s and her work at ExpeditionaryArt.com, or follow her on instagram @ExpeditionaryArt. She’s also on the Facebook <here).
It’s a great honor to have her joining us for 30×30. She’ll bring a unique viewpoint to the group. I’m very excited to see what she comes up with over a month of new work.
Five Questions for Maria about #30x30DirectWatercolor2018:
When you think about 30 days of daily practice – do you have a theme or a goal that might guide your work the month?
Maria : I moved to my home in Port Townsend, a small seaport town in western Washington, just two years ago. I plan to use the 30×30 project as an opportunity to sketch and learn about the town’s cultural heritage, maritime industries, and connection to the water.
[Ushuaia, on the southern tip of Argentina]
Are there any specific materials or techniques you plan to investigate? Will you use your reliable tools, or use this time to experiment with a new thing?
Maria : Ink and watercolor is my sketching comfort zone. For this project, I’m excited to leave behind my pens, using watercolor only (with some pencil sketches), with the Direct Watercolor Palette. <read more about this here).
I plan on using my favorite toned paper, with some additional white gouache for brights. The mood and techniques reference the natural history tradition which is an inspiration for my expeditionary art. I’ll be using primarily Arches Cover tan paper which has a beautiful soft feel, and perhaps some Canson Mi-Tientes (sand color) which is heavy enough for light watercolor wash, but dries very quickly. I buy both in large sheets that I cut down to size. I have prepared sheets in a couple of formats (5″ x 7″ and 6.5″ x 15″ panorama), so I have some choice for composition. I reserve the right to experiment with other colors or formats, no rules are written in stone.
[Here’s Maria writing about making this View of Niaqornat]
Do you think 30×30 will be a challenge? Or is one painting a day easy for you?
Maria : Painting daily (or doing anything daily for that matter!) is a challenge for me right now as I balance my life with a toddler and working at home. For the 30×30, I give myself permission to play, experiment, and embrace, “practice not perfection!”
Let’s have a small tip! Give us a strategy people might use to reach the goal of 30×30?
Maria : I recommend preparing your materials for the month all in advance, so they are ready to go. Choose your sketchbook or paper, prep your watercolor palette, and keep a small bag packed up so when you want to paint, you are prepared.
What do you hope have gained at the end of the 30-day marathon?
Maria : I hope this marathon pushes my understanding of my tools and techniques, and builds a daily sketching habit that I can sustain beyond the month. I’m also sure I’ll encounter some surprises along the way.
There’s a quote I love by David Boyle from his book, Art and Fear:
Vision is always ahead of execution, knowledge of materials is our contact with reality, and uncertainty is a virtue.
Thank you, Marc, for organizing this wonderful project!
Looking for the FAQ/Announcement < click here!
30×30 Guest Artist : Liz Steel
30×30 with Liz Steel
Liz Steel needs no introduction to readers of this blog!
Liz is the co-creator of #OneWeek100People2018, our week-long drawing-sprint that was the model for this bigger and better 30×30 marathon.
She’s the force of nature behind the worldwide artists’ community SketchingNow, and of course her immensely popular blog LizSteel.com. Both of which are packed with practical advice on location drawing, sketchbook journaling, and – increasingly – painting in watercolor. She can also be found on Instagram at @lizsteelart.
Liz is the sketcher who showed me the value of speed. (So important to a reportage artist!). When we first met, I thought I was pretty fast. Yet – she was doing three for every one of my pages, showing me what a real travel-journal could be like.
In a way, it was her, and other journal-keepers like her in the online community, that put me on my 10-year path towards Direct Watercolor.
Five Questions for Liz about #30x30DirectWatercolor2018:
When you think about 30 days of daily practice – do you have a theme or a goal that might guide your work the month?
Liz : As I’ll be traveling for the entire month of June, I won’t have any themes – except that I’ll be sketching different subject matter every day. I’ll be in Italy, Scotland, and Poland during June. < Ha! What an incredible way to do a 30×30! ~m)
Are there any specific materials or techniques you plan to investigate? Will you use your reliable tools, or use this time to experiment with a new thing?
Liz : I’ll use my normal materials – my standard watercolor palette and my 1/2 inch dagger brush (by Rosemary & Co) and I don’t expect to do any experimentation in regard to different materials/tools. This is because I’m traveling and limited to my most essential stuff.
Do you think 30×30 will be a challenge? Or is one painting a day easy for you?
Liz : Once again, because I’m traveling (and not teaching this trip!) this should be very doable. I normally sketch six days a week, doing a number of drawings a day. (Sunday is my rest day). What’s fun about this challenge is, it’ll force me to do at least one paint-only sketch per day. I normally start with ‘direct watercolor’ but add lines halfway through the sketch – so it’s only occasionally that I create paint-only sketches. I’ll have to be intentional to meet this challenge!
Let’s have a small tip! Give us a strategy people might use to reach the goal of 30×30?
Liz : Keep it simple! A 30 day challenge is a big commitment, so try to stick to simple subjects to paint – even if you want to sketch out on location for most of the month, make sure you have some ideas for everyday still life composition at home.
What do you hope have gained at the end of the 30-day marathon?
Liz : I want to develop some clear strategies for working with paint only. At the moment it’s a little random. I don’t know when starting my sketch whether I’ll just use paint, or add some ink lines at some point. Without any ink I’ll have to be more intentional with my washes – especially as my practice is to sketch very quickly.
Looking for the FAQ/Announcement < click here!
30×30 Guest Artist : Uma Kelkar
30×30 with Uma Kelkar
I first met Uma at the USK symposium in Chicago last year. We’re both about to return (in just a couple weeks!) to teach at the 2018 USK Chicago Sketch Seminar. We’re actually going to be there for the first few days of #30×30, making things extra complicated. (Or, even more fun – we’ll see).
You can find out more about Uma at her website: umakelkar.com, or follow her on instagram @umapaints. She also has an artist’s page on facebook.
I’m going to admit – It’s a little intimidating to be teaching next to her.
I’ve been following her work closely, and she’s tapped into a kind of wild spontaneity, that I’m only getting close to touching. I talk all the time about the fundamental need to work without fear of failure. A direct watercolorist has to be completely free to make marks by instinct. Uma has this mind-set on speed dial.
Five Questions for Uma about #30x30DirectWatercolor2018:
When you think about 30 days of daily practice – do you have a theme or a goal that might guide your work the month?
Uma: Yes, of course, I have a goal for the 30-day marathon. And that is to have a sustained habit not just for myself but also for the family around me so that they too help to make time for my painting. The goal, in addition, is to get looser but also to develop the thinking that goes on before the brush hits the paper.
Are there any specific materials or techniques you plan to investigate? Will you use your reliable tools, or use this time to experiment with a new thing?
Uma: I will use the 30 days to hone my skills, so it will be attempting to reach another painting level in the 30 days with tools I am used to.
Do you think 30×30 will be a challenge? Or is one painting a day easy for you?
Uma: Painting once a day, if I had the time, is not a problem at all – it is the making of time for painting that is the issue and which I need to solve quite urgently for my own sanity. I am hoping this 30×30 marathon more than nudges me into fixing my desire to paint every day into an unshakeable habit.
Let’s have a small tip! Give us a strategy people might use to reach the goal of 30×30?
Uma: I think since I want to improve my painting skills, I am going to come up with 4 topics – one for each week and repeatedly paint the same subject one week at a stretch until some of the decisions in painting that topic becomes muscle memory. This I think will free me to think more deeply on brush strokes and value composition.
What do you hope have gained at the end of the 30-day marathon?
Uma: Eyesight! I expect to have gotten a new eyesight, to pick out the important things in a particular genre of paintings, after 30 days of study with mini emphasis on a weekly topic.
Looking for the FAQ/Announcement < click here!
30×30 Guest Artist : Anne-Laure Jacquart
30×30 with Anne-Laure Jacquart
I first painted with Anne-Laure in at a 14-day workshop in Portugal, and immediately felt she was onto something with her calligraphic brush-work.
At the time, I was not 100% ready to be doing direct watercolor. I was gradually moving towards these new goals – but she pushed me to do it right now! Just make the change! She proved to me, once and for all, that anything that could be pencil-drawn and tinted, could be drawn directly with the brush using positive and negative shapes – and be stronger for it.
Anne-Laure is a vlogger on youtube at Following the White Rabbit, where she’ll be posting video-journals and possibly painting-demos during #30×30. You can also follow her on Instagram at @annelaurewatercolor.
Five Questions for Anne-Laure about #30x30DirectWatercolor2018:
When you think about 30 days of daily practice – do you have a theme or a goal that might guide your work the month?
Anne-Laure: I don’t have any theme or subject in mind, I like to paint every subject possible and variety will be nice for the marathon!
I have a few things in my mind at the moments, though… To keep working on the balance between looseness and refinement in my style, to pay always more and more attention to value and maybe less and less to local color. To record my day to day life always more spontaneously with striking quick studies… I hope to live for a month a brush in the hand!!! (What an ambitious goal!! I also need to be at the computer to work on the videos ;) )
Are there any specific materials or techniques you plan to investigate? Will you use your reliable tools, or use this time to experiment with a new thing?
Anne-Laure: I think I will rely on my usual tools for the challenge. I am happy and at ease with my squirrel and sable brushes, my Fabriano cold press paper and my favorites colors (even if I try or try again a new one from time to time). I already have quite a spontaneous experimental style so I hope that the experiment will be more with the techniques than with the tools.
Hopefully, I will keep investigating on traditional techniques like the amount of water and pigment, the color combinations, the rendering of values, and on some more loose approaches like working wet-in-wet in some areas, using granulation, backruns, and splatters. There also are some techniques I want to try to use more in my watercolors like card scraping, sprayer bottle use. Oh, and flat brush painting as well. Hey, this is a tool to investigate with! ;)
Do you think 30×30 will be a challenge? Or is one painting a day easy for you?
Anne-Laure: I would like to keep it daily and this is going to be a challenge for me. I am a bit like – when I start painting, you can’t stop me anymore! I will often do 5 sketches in the day. But there is always this sort of weird resistance that makes it difficult to start. I might investigate on this resistance. I just can’t understand why it’s always so difficult to do something we love. Probably something related to fears and laziness (?!) but let’s investigate!
Even if I don’t manage to paint every day, I have a good hope to manage to make my 30 paintings or sketches. But let’s not count the chickens before they are hatched! :)
Let’s have a small tip! Give us a strategy people might use to reach the goal of 30×30?
Anne-Laure: I start with a list of ideas to maintain the interest and inspiration. So that I have a variety of options available. Working on cars, vegetables, street scenes, object still lives, botanical of plants. NB: I will probably be more specific than that.
Plus, why not a list of techniques or ideas associated to a subject?!… Something like “Trees and scraping”, “Backruns clouds”, “Light and shadows flat brush urban scene” “Negative painting trunks” etc. <great idea! ~m)
What do you hope have gained at the end of the 30-day marathon?
Anne-Laure: I hope to make gains in spontaneity and inspiration. Having, in a more straightforward way, an idea what I could do with a subject. Like – seeing potential subjects everywhere ;) and starting painting the next minute without overthinking it. Not accepting excuses like no time, not sure about it, no energy.
Related to that, I think about trying to be more and more confident with my watercolors. My confidence always goes up and down so if I can make it going up and having a nice high plateau, it would be quite nice!!
I want to feel at ease, to be loose without ending up with a mess, knowing when to stop without overworking it. (Haha, so many challenges! ;) Technically, I think I sometimes paint my mid values too dark, so I hope to find a good balance and intensity in my values.
But, let’s don’t have too many expectations! I’m looking forward to knowing how it turns out at the end. I hope I will have something to tell you about my progress!! ;)
Looking for the FAQ/Announcement < click here!
30×30 Guest Artist : Suhita Shirodkar
I’m most motivated when painting at a workshop with artist-friends. It’s like one part inspiration and one part public-shaming. You can’t give into doubt or laziness when you’re painting side by side. Everyone is raised up by each other’s work. But at the same time, nobody want’s to be the first to quit for the day :)
That’s a big part of what I want to get out of 30×30. Recapturing the manic energy of a sketching trip with these people!
But I wanted to let the others tell you in their own words what they’re looking forward to.
So – let’s meet the people who will be posting a new work, every day, for the entire month of June!
30×30 with Suhita Shirodkar
I first met Suhita as a fellow volunteer instructor at an urban sketchers symposium, (not sure? was it Lisbon 2011?). <Suhita says: “Barcelona when I was correspondent, but really in Brazil What years were those? (2013/14) later than you think :)”
She’s an illustrator, an art teacher, and author, as well as being a popular art-blogger – and, you can follow her Instagram at @suhitasketch,
I’ve always admired her fearlessness towards sketching subjects.
I still remember (with amazement), seeing her walk up to a fish-monger inside a crowded market in Cambodia, and begin sketching – standing up, sketchbook only inches from the flying fish-guts, jostled on all sides by a clamoring mob.
The mental discipline to make a painting even when everything is stacked against you – that’s the kind of focus I’d like to learn from her.
Five Questions for Suhita about #30x30DirectWatercolor2018:
When you think about 30 days of daily practice – do you have a theme or a goal that might guide your work the month?
Suhita: I’ll be taking things I am already studying, and incorporating them into the 30×30 challenge. Right now I’m focussing on value studies, using more negative shape in my work, and mixing colors more mindfully. All of which will lend themselves well to 30×30.
Quick Tip: I’ll start by making a list of subjects for days on I can’t come up with ideas. Some days I can spend forever trying to decide what to paint instead of painting!
Are there any specific materials or techniques you plan to investigate? Will you use your reliable tools, or use this time to experiment with a new thing?
Suhita: As someone who works a lot with line, this is going to be an interesting challenge!
The “shape-first”, “keeping it abstract until pretty late in the game” approach will do me good.
Since this is quite different from much of my work, I won’t switch up everything: I’ll work with my usual palette of watercolors. And, I’m not ruling out the use of (some) line. My trusty Sailor bent-nib pen and Blackwing pencil will certainly be hanging around if I feel like they’re needed to add that last bit of definition on a piece.
Might I explore new materials? I don’t know. If something jumps at me in the middle of the challenge I’m not averse to dropping my plans and exploring a new route.
Do you think 30×30 will be a challenge? Or is one painting a day easy for you?
Suhita: 30 days is a pretty long challenge. One painting a day means remaining mindful about setting aside time for it, especially on busy days. It also means being flexible about the scope of a daily painting and allowing for days with more and less time.
Let’s have a small tip! Give us a strategy people might use to reach the goal of 30×30?
Suhita: 30 days is a marathon, not a sprint! Don’t overcommit to pieces that take so much time that you burn out in a few days. I plan to do larger pieces only on days I have more time, but I’ll do a small 5″x7″ piece on a busy day. Also, all’s not lost if I miss some days: I’ll jump right back on board and pick up where I left off.
What do you hope have gained at the end of the 30-day marathon?
Suhita: I’m hoping that 30 straight days focussing on direct watercolors will bring new confidence to working with shape-first. I love working in line (and I don’t think that’s going to change), but every new technique is one more arrow in an artist’s quiver!
Looking for the FAQ/Announcement < click here!
Suhita also has a web-store at: sketchaway.etsy.com where you can pick up her book Vintage Signs of San Jose.
Where did all the #30×30 posts go?!?
I’ve moved everthing from #30x30DirectWatercolor to its own page.
Click Here – or – go to the tab #30x30DirectWatercolor on the navigation bar.
Thanks!
Original Post:
I’m excited to announce, a new event: The Thirty by Thirty (30×30) Direct Watercolor Marathon!
For the month of June, myself, and a group of five friends will take on a challenge to paint thirty watercolor paintings in thirty days.
The goal is simple: we all want to do more painting!
Plus, we want to share in the benefits of daily practice.
Painting, like any art, sport, or science, calls for commitment. Like a musician doing scales or an athlete in the gym, a painter needs to paint. Ideally, every day.
For this entire month of June, we’ll be posting our daily progress. Success or failure, inspiration or slog, the five of us will share the results of our experiment – and – we hope some of you will come along for the ride!
What is #30x30DirectWatercolor2018?
- PAINT 30 watercolors in 30 days, from June 1-30 2018.
- POST your paintings in our new Facebook group: <HERE
We’d like to centralize the discussion around this group, to spare our usual sketching clubs all the extra traffic this might create :) - HASHTAG your work on any other social media (twitter, instagram) with the hashtag: #30x30DirectWatercolor2018.
This will help people find your work in the future. Here are some FAQs on how to use hashtags: FB | IG | Twitter. - Any size, format or subject is ok. I personally hope to paint on location, but it’s going to depend on weather and the situation at home.
- I plan to paint in watercolor, working as directly as possible. But if you want to tint drawings, or add in some mixed media, we’re not going to be enforcing rules. I won’t however, have a lot of advice about techniques I’m not thinking about this month.
- Our goal is experiencing sustained daily practice. If it’s better for you to do seven paintings on the weekend instead of one a day, that’s totally ok. Same with posting progress. One a day makes a good story – but do what works for you.
- It’s also completely normal if you fail to make 30! Or to need a few extra days. Like any marathon, just participating is the first reward. Though I’m sure any of us can catch up with some super fast, super small sketches if we have to!
In the next few days, I’ll post some introductions and advice from the other artists, and a few notes on my sketching kit for the summer. Stay tuned!
Meanwhile, if you want to go back in time and read my very first posts on Direct Watercolor – here’s a little historical archive.
And of course, if you want dive a little deeper, there’s my new book Direct Watercolor <affiliate link, thx). Plus: Here’s some sample pages.
~m
Cloning Napoleon’s Nieces
I was at the museum traipsing through a show on Napoleon. Ran across this double portrait by Jacques-Louis David portraying Napoleon’s nieces Zénaïde and Charlotte.
In the painting, (according to the didactic panel), they are posing as steadfast echoes of the Empire.
Crowned with gold tiaras, perched on a chaise decorated with imperial bees (?) < apparenlty a Bonaparte logo), brandishing a letter from uncle Joseph, no doubt encouraging them to produce lots of sons who might yet become future emperors. (Zéni. had 12 kids, Lottie – dunno – couldn’t find that info – but they both died in childbirth).
In any case – I felt like making a study, and so, here it is. And, as always, it’s about as faithful as anything I paint :) I want to learn – but I learn by play :)
I’m no expert, but it’s my understanding the jury is out on the practice of master copies.
Other than the secluded chambers of artist’s ateliers or the Chinese art factories – is anyone else doing them?
Send me some links if you are! Please post in the comments. I’d like to hear what other people are doing.
>
When I went to school, we were discouraged from copying historical painting. Other than as appropriation in the context of critical analysis. Which is a fancy way of saying – other than making fun of them.
I understand of course that we were being positioned against of all the misogyny and class warfare and imperialism inherent in the work. (I can get behind that). And as good students, we would turn our backs on the patriarchy of representation and make conceptual art. (That — I couldn’t quite get there).
But isn’t it more interesting what we can learn from this painting?
I find it fascinating how this is a kind of propaganda. The use of art, beauty, and elegance to portray a kind of right thinking young lady doing their part for the empire.
What virile King of Spain wouldn’t want one of these ladies as wives?
Deposed King Ferdinand as it turns out, refused Zéni’s hand. Forcing her to marry her cousin Charles – sire of those 12 pure-blood kids.
>
The best thing you can say (about the death of master-copies) is that art colleges are not trying to produce skilled-but-slavish craftspeople any longer. Rather, we want free-thinkers.
I think this is fallout from the post-war obsession with originality in art, which is can be blamed on the explosion of (artificial) value in contemporary art, and the perceived need for every single piece to be 100% from our own mind – so we’re always adding value to our portfolio.
This is something collectors want – as they need a body of work they can collect, market, and profit from.
It’s not necessarily anything artists should want – as they need to be thinking first about developing their skills.
You know – if you ask me :)
~m
Montreal Insectarium
We need only look at nature to be inspired by its infinite variety.
I love to paint creatures, big or small.
You have to know, you can’t really beat the universe at its own game. Just look at this!
Still, it’s fun to try :) And you learn something from every attempt.
These sketches are making me say this – I think you don’t need an art school or a teacher. You just need to get out and experience what life has to show you. Look at how far I’ve come in eight years since sketching the Insectarium.
The doing is more important than the having done, and the journey is the goal itself.
Never Fear the Blank Page : CSPWC/SFA Canada/France Exchange
I recently undertook a set of still life paintings of manual typewriters. I’d like to think, this is the one I’d use to write a detective novel.
Some people say they get stuck for ideas. Artist’s block! I’ve never had that problem – for paintings, (or for writing).
I keep lists. And lists of lists. Little books full of thumbnails, folders full of sketches. Subjects that won’t go away keep re-surfacing. I find the same sketches over and over (sometimes years apart). I come up with a concept, and I see I already have it on a list, buried in an old notebook.
I finally got around to these typewriters – just in time for the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolor. We’re doing an exchange with the Société Française de l’Aquarelle (SFA), and, I’m happy to say ‘The Mystery Writer‘ was selected for both shows. Halton Ontario at the Helson Gallery, June 6- July 7, and in Avignon, France at the Cloître St. Louis, Aug. 28 – Sept 17.
This one is clearly for a science-fiction screenplay. It doesn’t get more retro-futuristic!
Here’s a step by step of the painting process.
You’ll see I did a clean line drawing. Then it was simply a matter of taking on each major component one at a time. Not quite following my normal Larger>to>Smaller and Lighter>to>Darker approach. Mor of a nit-picky, one element at a time version. It’s a bit like assembling a model airplane or doing a jigsaw puzzle. A good rainy day activity.
Collectors of these antiques might know this particular machine. If you do, you’ll see I’m taking plenty of liberties. Just like that time I was sketching motorcycles.
I enjoy the game – giving the impression of mechanical gew-gaws without rendering every cog and flywheel.
This one is kind of a comedy of errors. I call it ‘The Cheshire Cat‘.
Once you see the cartoon grin, the painting is doomed. You can’t take it seriously any longer.
I debated showing this one at all, but I suppose it’s interesting that a piece can fail for reasons that have nothing to do with your drawing skills or paint handling.
I’d spotted that brassy grin early in the painting – and should have just junked it then. I’d hoped somehow I could down-play the illusion with the right values. But like the Cheshire Cat, the grin is persistent :)
Announcement: Direct Watercolor $20 Pop up Sale at USK:MTL, April 22d, Redpath Museum
Next Sunday, April 22, starting at 11am, Urban Sketchers Montreal is having a sketch-out at the Redpath Museum.
I’m going to be there with signed copies of my latest book, Direct Watercolor.
Even better – I‘ll be offering books for $20! (While supplies last).
As we speak, Amazon Canada has it for $31.34.
Such a deal I have for you!
Hope to see some of you there :)
~marc
And of course, if you can’t be here in Montreal, you can order from any Amazon outlet.
Thanks for your support!
~m
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Citizen Sketcher 