Sunny day in Ringsend

Other days we get bright blue skies and sunshine. On this occasion, I chose to ignore the old cinema we were supposed to sketch, I sat in the sun and drew the view across the little street, with its layers of roofs and chimneys, modern houses and old buildings. And it was a day that I felt reminded of how wonderful our community is. I was feeling stressed and anxious that morning. Couldn't get parking anywhere near our location. The sun was low. I couldn't see well. But when I got to the location, one of our sketchers was there, fully focused on the old cinema in Ringsend, oblivious to the cold and vans blocking her view. It felt so energising to see her there. So I sat on the other side of the street, with the sun on my back and I drew the space between the modern container house and the church in the back. It felt good. And by the way, we have a housing problem in Ireland. Why can't we make more of these container houses?  

Cosy in KC Peaches

We don't get very cold winters in Ireland. But we do have damp, grey days. Also windy days when the temperature feels a lot lower than it is. That Sunday was one of those. I was well wrapped up. But I really didn't feel like sitting outdoors for two hours. So I went to KC Peaches on Dame Street. There's a great view towards Great South Georges Street. And also, plenty of opportunities for people sketching!

Doodles

Just doodles with pen and ink.

Gluing paper on top of watercolour paper

Unless you enjoy scrubbing paint off with a rough brush, getting white back in a watercolour isn't easy. So I'm exploring gluing paper on top and painting over it. 

I had some light Japanese paper. I tried to glue it with PVA and acrylics medium. It was very messy. Then I discovered Yamato Nori starch paste medium (it's acid-free) and rice paper (not sure it is acid-free) on Amazon. Both much easier to use and it seems to be easy enough to paint on top.

Not sure this is something I will use in the long term, but it's an interesting experiment. The Yamato Nori starch paste is great - it applies easily, comes in a bright green tube, it's not messy, and it sticks well. Will definitely buy another tube at some stage.

I need to look at it now and figure out what I need to do to highlight the bits I really like and tone down what's not so good.

Here is how it looked before applying a layer of watercolour and scribbles with Neocolor 2 crayons. This is the ugly duckling stage. 

A few interesting colours

If you read all my posts, you will know I posted this picture yesterday. But I wanted to give these pigments the full attention they deserve. And yes, I am fully aware that the Utrecht chain of stores in the US is now part of the Blicks art stores, but I bought that tube of Utrecht Quin Red in New York many years ago and it's still perfect!

FYJ Week 10 - Representational version

It's been a long year, and deciding to do a 12-week online course wasn't a good idea. I know that now. It's a fine course, just not for me, not at this time in my life and in my art journey. Also, it's really a course for beginners abstract painters in acrylics. Not me. I should also have realised that there would be over one thousand people doing this course. Not an environment in which I thrive. I do best in one-to-one interactions, in small groups. I struggle to get my voice heard in larger groups. The teacher and her coaches are on one track, and it seems that any time I asked a question about the structure of the course, or expressing my personal struggle with the structure, rather, I got a fairly standard answer. As an autistic person, that is not good for me, particularly as I definitely struggle with Rejection Sensitive Disphoria.

Well, anyways, there you are. Still discovering things about myself. It will take me a while to process all of this. So what I do in those situations, is I retreat into myself. But I'm also ok with sharing this on social media. It's much easier to do this on social media than in person. And also, I soldier on. Because that is what I do and also, there is still some benefit to the course. And also, fear of missing out. But I have left the Facebook group, and feel much better already!! 

This one was another mark-making assignment (yes, it seems there were many of those - not sure how it differs from the earlier one in the course!!). Done in watercolour, with some Neocolor 2 drawing and lots of dragging of cards through the rich paint! Yes there is plenty I would do differently in this painting, but I do love the pink lines at the top of the cliffs!

And I'm enjoying playing with groups of colours that I don't normally use much.

Pencils4Tea

Loving these Zoom sessions with Pencils4Tea

 

Semi-abstract landscape with mark-making

I always pick myself up. And I enjoyed similar mark-making techniques to create semi-abstract landscapes. I enjoyed the colour mixes here and in the previous abstract versions. I'm exploring colour mixes that are not my usual palette. It's good fun and I'm discovering lots of interesting combinations! The faint lines are Neocolor 2 (a dark purple), which I also used to create a ground in bright green

Old cinema in Fairview

We're continuing with our theme of old cinemas in Dublin. This one in Fairview is now a supermarket. I don't know what's upstairs.

It was much easier to get to Fairview than I would have thought. Luas to Stephen's Green, then the number 14 bus from Aungiers Street. I could actually have taken the 14 from Dundrum, but there's probably not that many of them.

It was a cold sunny day. I drew it all on location - actually, I didn't do all the windows on location. They were all the same. So once I had done the two on the left, I knew I could just rinse and repeat. And added colour pencil in a café. Then had curry chips in the local chipper, as the café of choice didn't have enough room for us all. 

FYJ Week 10 - Mark making for composition

Week 10 of Find Your Joy and I wasn't feeling the joy. I do like the top two pieces, though. So it just goes to show that my true self keeps shining through, even when I'm frustrated with the pace of the course. Maybe I was exhausted? Normally I would do all 6 pieces in one session, but I only managed 4 over 2 days.  It was not that the concepts are difficult to grasp. It's just that I didn't feel the energy anymore! I'm looking at what I painted on week 1, and I'm not feeling like I have progressed. If anything, I think I'm going backwards. I was told that I would be excited in what we do for the last 2 weeks. Really? 10 weeks of very similar stuff, and then all is going to be amazing in the last 2 weeks? I feel the pacing of this course isn't for me. A bit late now. The free taster was a week and it was packed with content. But the full course had basically one concept per week. Maybe I wasn't feeling challenged enough? Will need to think about it when it's all done.

Each square comes from masking a full sheet into 6 sections with masking tape, then painting loosely all over. When each square is cut, then I responded to what was in front of me and explored how marks can create a mood or lead the eye.

At the hairdressers

Sketching a self-portrait while I'm at the hairdresser's waiting for my colour to set is a good reminder why I like to wear a fringe rather than sweeping the hair back! And also a reminder that I'm not getting any younger. And maybe some day I will get around to getting that left ear pinned back. 

 

Aungiers Street

A great afternoon with Dublin Sketchers on Aungiers Street (it rhymes with danger by the way). Got a good spot at the top of steps with a railing to put my sketchbook on. I have probably sketched the Swan pub before, but each time is a different adventure. I'm using colour pencils these days instead of watercolour. The weather has turned damp (very wet today, as I'm writing this on the 18 November actually) and I don't have the patience to wait for watercolour to dry. Like the other day, I worked quickly with a light grey marker first to establish proportions That red chimney was much lower initially, with too little space for the ground floor. When I felt I had enough, I went into the café across the way, hoping to sketch people, but the view out the window was blocked by their huge advertising panels, so I snatched what I could. 

And we were told by the manager in the pub when we met there at 4pm that we were not allowed to sketch strangers, for GDPR reasons. I think that was a bit much, but it's their premises, so they can make the rules. If they had seen my people sketches, I don't think they would have been so worried, though!

Here is how they looked when I was done on location. As you can see, I do about 90% of the sketching on location. But if the sketch needs something more, I will add to it when I get home. 

Diary painting - unstuck

Got a bit stuck with my diary painting. Then unstuck. I glued some translucent Japanese paper on top of parts of the painting that I thought didn't work. Wrote stuff in yellow ink and white resist pencil. Then added a yellow wash, mixed with some carmine and another red to merge it better. What to do next?

Tram

I was too tired. I wasn't going to sketch. I was just going to watch. But once I joined the Zoom, and listened to the others chatting about how they were going to approach this scene (from videos that Suhita took in Turkey), I couldn't resist. I picked up a few pencils and drew from 3 or 4 stills I took from the videos.  I probably should make the 3 people at the front stand out more, but I was happy with how the tram turned out!

Composition - Abstract

I had another go at the Composition assignment, starting with a light abstract layer. Had a great time with this, playing with small and big shapes, different types of shapes and deciding where to place them. With watercolour, I have the extra dimension of edges, soft, hard, rough, which adds to the elements described by Louise. Some of the pieces remained purely abstract, others evolved into landscapes, which is what I'm interested in. Lots of joyous shapes flying around the page! And somehow I have no problem keeping whites in abstract compositions!

The colours I used, except I forgot to photograph the tube of Cobalt Turqoise.

forgot to photograph my tube of Cobalt Turquoise!

Pencils4Tea 14 November

This was my second time attending the Pencils4Tea portrait session. It took me a little while to find my rhythm, but I got there in the end. The time of a song isn't long, anything between 2 and 5 minutes. And I don't see the whole picture, just one detail after another, until about half way through, when I actually thought to myself "just lightly pencil in the overall shape and incline of the head and hands, then just go for it", and it worked out much better! I worked in pencil (Blackwing) and watercolour. My paper buckled a lot. It added to the effect. A little bit of colour pencil when I had time. But the lesson here is that I'm better off when I reduce the tools! And hands are hard!