Thirty Days of Everyday Life, Charlotte’s Cafe… Day 29

Just one more day and this book is full!!!

My mother took my sister and me out to a little cute place in Newport News for lunch, Charlotte’s Cafe. It looks like it might be a nice place to suggest for the Hampton Roads Urban Sketchers group sometime! The walls are filled with the owner’s (?) paintings… very pretty… and lots of interesting quirky things, too.

One of the servers had very fun hair, a lovely color I almost but didn’t quite capture here… and I didn’t get the texture at all. (Looked very silky!) :

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I think this vase might be better than one I remember sketching this spring.

Entry hallway with a few seats (and a sister):

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Day 29: more watercolor study

I really like Peter Sheeler’s style… his quick loose sketches are exactly what watercolor is noted for AND exactly what I’m worst at (I think. I may not have found my worst yet) And I love the look. I’m going to continue to try his tutorials. There’s a lot I can learn from them. (I won’t do this every day, though… I’ll try to mix things up for you!)

I am finding that my lower grade paints and papers do not react the same way his artist grade supplies do. The end result is ok, but not the same. Some of this, I know, is skill, but since I am watching what happens as he applies the wet paint, I can see that some of it is materials. They simply act differently. I’m not prepared to drop several hundred dollars on paint. Or paper. Right now. But this is something I’ll need to adjust over time if I plan to pass a certain point, and maybe purchase even one or two colors at a time of some superior line. Regarding paper, some artists recommend purchasing student grade paper on which to learn and practice (that’s what I’ve done, and it made sense to me, since some of what I produce will be useless, and none of it will be “art” I plan to display.) Steeler suggests purchasing high quality paper from the beginning, and says you’ll have to relearn skills when upgrading from less expensive to professional paper because it feels and acts differently. This makes sense to me, too. I’ll think about it over the next few days.

These were sky studies.