Tea

January is never an easy month. The Christmas decorations have been put away. The twinkly lights are gone. The holidays are over. It's too dark, cold, wet, windy to paint outside. I often hit a block around this time. So going back to the simple things anchors me.
Liz Steel's idea to offer a re-run of SketchingNow Foundations was a life-saver! I don't have to worry about what to draw, or how to draw it. And I get to re-learn all the techniques that will make me better at sketching what's in front of me.

So the outdoor exercise was to go to a café and draw what's on the table, using different tools.

I went to my favourite local café, HX46 in Goatstown. Here is what I did:

 First a pen drawing, with a dash of colour.

 Then the same items, but this time in watercolour pencil, a tool I don't use much.

Then when I got home, I added a touch of water to make the most of the watercolour pencil properties. Definitely must do this more often. Particularly useful for sketching indoors in the winter, like in museums, where watercolours are not allowed.