Another one from Portugal using gouache and inks on tinted paper. Sketched while sat in the shade of a spreading oak tree on one of the terraces in the fabulously strange and beautiful gardens of the Quinta Da Regaleira in Sintra. I highly recommend a visit, but take a torch to fully explore the tunnels.
I think you have to blur your eyes more than usual for this one to work….
Marker pen with carbon ink, water-brush with Lexington grey, gouache, A4
Bath Abbey appearing over the rooftops on a bright and breezy day, sketched while leaning on a lamp-post (sincere apologies). I was on Bog Island, named after the public toilets, or ‘bogs’, which used to be there and that were converted into a night-club in the 1980s, since closed. Here’s a Google Steetview link to my view. It could be useful to be able to revisit places in this virtual way, perhaps to add colour to a hurried sketch in the absence of a reference photo?
(There’s a website devoted to sketching locations only seen through Streetview; a sort of armchair world-wide Urban Sketching. Great if you’re homebound or fancy a new view?)
Fountain pen and water-brushes with Lexington grey ink, watercolour, A6
Up on the roof at 7am, sketching Sintra National Palace as the sun rose over the hills. I used a handy folding ruler to draw some pencil guidelines at the start to get the foreground rooflines right, and found that their vanishing point was on the distinctive Palace kitchen chimneys, “which was nice“. It was drawn on tinted paper, with white gouache for the highlights on the tops of walls etc. This didn’t work for the sky so I mixed a blue which looks a little strange… So here it is in monochrome below. Preferences?
Fountain pen with carbon ink, gouache, and Lexington grey ink in a water-brush, A4
Two more airplane sketches, flying to and from Portugal (sketches from Lisbon and Sintra to follow…).
On the first flight I had an aisle seat and drew shoes, the strong perspective and my hands sketching.
Returning home I had the middle seat so focussed on my table contents instead. This sketch started a conversation with my neighbour in the window seat about creativity and learning (don’t forget to play the flute Kate!), and I ended up doing a quick drawing of her delightful baby Henry just before we landed. I love the way that public sketching opens up these chance encounters. The ink blots on the iPod were the result of cabin pressure on the water-brush.
Fountain pen with carbon ink, watercolour, A4
Flying off to Lisbon and nearby Sintra for a week, expecting many sketching opportunities, and hoping that my family patiently indulge my addiction hobby. I’m trying to keep my kit relatively simple…
I’ve packed small and medium sized gouache and watercolour palettes, and the usual pens and water-brushes with their various inks. I’ve also got some long strips of watercolour paper rolled up in a tube for possible panoramic views.
I’ve bound a new A5 sketchbook for the trip, including lots of coloured pages. The blue is for the clear skies we’re hoping for, and the beige is partly inspired by Jean-Christophe Defline’s sketches of Sintra. My paper’s not as dark as his, but should provide a good contrast for the gouache.
Revisiting cross-hatching by drawing a concrete dragon’s head at the bottom of the garden. I’m learning to keep the initial guidelines fairly fine, unlike in the Skansen picture, so they don’t unbalance the overall effect. I’m also starting to understand how the direction of the hatched lines suggests the 3D shape.
I love the cumulative hatching process, adding volume and tone line by line, but my eyes needed a good rest after! I used the trusty Lamy Safari, but with the B nib reversed most of the time to get the fine lines.
Lamy Safari B with carbon ink, A5
Travelling on public transport usually involves some waiting, and opportunities for a quick sketch of people at rest. It’s when a small portable sketch kit is most useful, and provides excellent practise for capturing a likeness. Here’s a selection from the last 2 months.
A bag/bin at Keynsham railway station, and a fellow passenger minutes later.
Catching a #6 bus into Bath city centre.
A reader in the waiting room at Didcot railway station.
And fellow passengers on the #1 Vaporetto water-bus in Venice.
Fountain pen with carbon ink, or water-brush with Lexington grey, watercolour, A5
“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” Samuel Beckett
A good description of learning to sketch, amongst other things, and my frequent attempts at drawing my left hand are an excellent example! So here’s the latest batch of late-night hands. They’re in a range of styles, with some failing better than others…
Pencil, watercolour, A6
Fountain pen with carbon ink, A6
Fountain pen with carbon ink, Windsor and Newton inks in water-brushes, A6
Fountain pen with carbon ink, watercolour, A6
An early Spring Saturday with Jim in Bath Abbey Courtyard, where we tried to sketch with minimal looking down at the paper, ‘blind contour drawing’. We didn’t manage the recommended “90% looking at subject, 10% checking the picture’s progress” proportions, but got much livelier and expressive lines to drape colours over. Here’s a tourist sat on a bench with his 2 children.
Pigma 1mm pen, dilute Windsor and Newton inks in water-brushes, A6
Some tiny views around Bath, including one of Little Solsbury Hill at the top. Gouache seems to work well for thumbnail landscapes. The freedom to paint on top of paint is particularly useful when sketching skies, but still seems strange after using watercolour. A couple of these sketches show the tree I’ve painted before, this time in strong wind and at dusk.
Schmincke Horadam gouache, A7?
Mostly drawing 