A week in Ostuni

We were at a 3-day wedding in Ostuni, Puglia. We took a week off and enjoyed la dolce vita! I did a little sketching (not at the wedding). Brought 24 colour pencils with me. Only used 6. Barely used the acrylic markers, though 2 of my favourite sketches include them. Used my purple pencil a lot. Lots of great shadows. Regretted not bringing my usual fude pen. Fineliners are not for me. Brought a small watercolour palette, but only a waterbrush. Never again a waterbrush. It deadened every wash I tried. Will I pack more wisely next time? Probably not. But I did get to wear all my beautiful summer dresses and outfits. And the wedding was wonderful. 

Kingfisher Project garden

Dublin Sketchers had the privilege to be allowed to sketch at the Kingfisher Project garden, by the Poddle in Kimmage. It's a little hidden gem at the end of a lane - it's not your typical allotment, it's a biodiversity project - and the bees love it. And I must have done something right in my sketch of the giant poppies - bees kept landing on my sketch! I used many different tools - Inktense pencils, watercolour, Neocolor II, and magic pencil.

So grateful to the organisers for creating this wonderful space. We need more of this in our city!

 

Land Sea Land

Work in progress? Or ready for the bin? I've been working with much smoother and thinner paper lately, so this Arches Cold Press in 640gsm is a struggle. Added some gouache. Made it worse. Took forever to dry and it looks like nothing. Maybe I'll flush it with water and start again?

Working in ink to explore those shapes

Played with ink on practise paper for calligraphy, which is really thin! My idea was to explore some of those circular shapes I see in the mountains and the coast on the peninsulas in the West (near Beara Bowl, Caha Mountains, across the bay from Cill Rialaig, e.g.). I got quite carried away with inks, but ended up with lots of pages of interesting marks and colours, which I might glue onto some thicker paper to see what happens. I'm just curious to see how it will behave. I have no idea if this particular paper is acid-free -it's Daiso's calligraphy practise paper. I had stared with Sumi ink, then moved onto Pilot colour inks. Because the paper is so light, the result is really transparent, and I loved looking at it against the window. It was like a stained glass window!

You can see I had fun. I even kept some of the paper I had set down to protect my desk from stains!

Rhythm of Summer - leaning towards winter now

I added more watercolour layers and soft pastel to this one. Not what I had originally intended, but I like where it is now. This abstract landscape in mixed media was inspired by looking over the bay from Cill Rialaig during my residency last year. I love dreamy soft watercolour, but I also love intense mark making!

Other headland shapes in ink

A little digression from watercolour.  I used a Pilot Parallel Pen to explore the textures of rocks on headlands in the middle ground, using photos I took in various locations on the West Coast. Worked on scraps of watercolour paper. I wonder if my camera lens smudgy? The pictures look sharp on the left but soft on the right-hand side.