Stand aside, #Inktober. Sit down, #OneWeek100People. Our sketching friends Marc, Suhita, Liz, and Uma along with a few others have come up with yet another great excuse to use up all those extra art supplies: #30x30DirectWatercolor2018.

Thirty days to complete thirty watercolor paintings, (preferably with no ink or pencil lines). Here I go!

Started off fairly simple: a red-crested cardinal from a photo I took in Kauai.



For my second one I leaned in the opposite direction: a complex scene painted on location at Garden of Eden, a swimming hole on the San Lorenzo River in Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. It's a mile-ish hike to get down there, and it was very sunny. This one was frustrating -- it was hard to see the contrasts in the bright light.



Went back to a photo for the third one - this is a view from the park behind our house, taken by M. on a mountain bike ride.



And here's my attempt at a direct-to-watercolor street scene, painted from a photo I took in Bakersfield late last year:



Onward!