Another lesson from Uma Kelkar's masterclass - all three thumbnails done from the same photo. Funny how easy I can do that with a view that someone else has chosen. But when I start working from a photo of a place I know and love, I resist change a lot more. How can I move a tree or a mountain from the Dingle Peninsula, for example! Well, not too many trees to start with, so I can't introduce a tree where there is none! I'm going to have to think about how to break that pattern!
I have done a few pieces in half sheet over the last year or so, but they were not very successful - mentally, it's a big jump for me.
So I decided to practise a bit! I have a board big enough for half sheet - it's a cut-up electoral poster that I found on the footpath near our estate after a storm during an election campaign - the best time to find coroplast boards without creating more demand for plastic!! It's slightly damaged on the white side, so I will have the politician's eyes staring at me every time I paint!! And I have to use it upside down because the top of the poster is cut perfectly straight compared to where I cut it myself! When you're dealing with a water medium, you have to think about the even flow of paint down the page!!
I'm using blue tack to keep it stable on my easel board. Fingers crossed that will work ok and my board won't go flying when I paint vigorously!
I haven't thought of a solution yet for the dripping paint from my big brush. I found it was dripping onto my palette and even the carpet. Ah well...
Sometimes, I just want to draw the view out the window. I am blessed with a lovely view, lots of greenery, always beautiful, even in January. I've started a new sketchbook, a watercolour Seawhite of Brighton, and it is lovely for watercolour, and not too scratchy for fountain pen. I'm looking forward to filling it over the next few weeks and months. Sure, there's nothing else to do!
I haven't had much time to experiment with Procreate. This is all I managed to do this month!
The theme for Dublin Sketchers was patterns. So I went out and sketched in my neighbourhood from the car. And I sketched. On location. From direct observation. Telling the story of a bleak January in my neighbourhood, and everywhere in the world. Does that qualify as urban sketching? It follows the letter. What about the spirit? Well, sometimes, I like to stretch the boundaries, just a little!
The thing is when you want to paint bigger, the amount of water in your brush becomes even more important than for small pieces. So I practise. (Quarter sheet - it's not that big - Truth is: the jump to half sheet, that really scares me!)
Apologies for grouping so many sketch pages into the one post, but I just don't have the time to write lots and lots these days. So, I'm also doing Liz Steel's online course, Sketchbook Design. Very interesting to learn how to tie sketches together with borders, titles, text, etc. For some of these pages, I just did some quick sketches, leaving lots of white space and then I came back and added elements to create a design. Great fun. And particularly useful for sketches that didn't really work out the way I had hoped!! It really takes the pressure of the sketch!! I think the only design elements I haven't tried yet are maps, and background colour
Border, headings, text, white space
Still with Uma Kelkar's class. In these 4 small pieces, I tried to combine the first two exercises we did, light & shadow, and flow!
I won't describe in detail what we did here, because, really, you have to attend one of Uma Kelkar's classes to learn the secrets of the magic in her paintings. Some of these quick thumbnails (4 to 6 per quarter sheet) were done in class, some on my own, some from my own photos, some from Uma's photos. I found some challenging, and some a complete joy. Learning can be frustrating - but what would be the point of not learning any more? (Or you could say I've got a long way to go!!). This is what's keeping me sane in the longest January of my life!
And if you want to see the master at work, this video done with Etchr Lab is the best free hour on YouTube. You will learn about composition, values, perspective, colour, shadow, cars, ...
I've got a bit of catching up to do. Am I the only person that achieves less during a lockdown than she would in normal life??
One of the first themes for Dublin Sketchers this year was goals and wishes for 2021 - so, why did I sketch a car parked in a nondescript neighbourhood, a hedge and lots of people?
Well, let's be realistic, the way things are going, we won't be travelling any time soon! Ireland's numbers are stuck at a high level. Our vaccination program is slow to get going. The virus variants are cause for concern. So my simple wish is to be able to get back to sketching on location, with my friends. I did this sketch from the car, in a neighbourhood not too far from where we live. I sketched the same thing three times. Why? I'm not sure. I wanted to look deeper. I didn't want to drive around and have the local neighbourhood watch call the guards. Or maybe I was expressing the groundhog day feeling that I can't shake. Even my cat's routine is more varied than mine! Although, today, we have injected a bit of excitement into our daily walks within our 5km perimeter - at every junction, we alternated who made the decision whether to go right or left, or straight on. It was great fun, and a wonderful way to break the routine. I am full of good ideas!
You can see my lack of focus on this page - I'm jumping around, trying to find something to anchor to. I really don't think virtual sketching is for me - I really need a connection, and emotion that attaches me to a place, before I can sketch it. This is a castle somewhere in Switzerland. I'm more of a sea person, not a mountain person. Maybe that's why I sketched the little seashells on the opposite page?
The paper collage was just to hide something that didn't work. I can't even remember what!!
One bite at a time. I moved up a size - 2 per quarter sheet (the last one was 4 per quarter sheet (which is bigger than A4, but not quite A3). Again, studying light and shade. One thing I need to consider for my next iteration is that no house has a door just like that at street level - there should be a step or something to separate it from the road. Hey, maybe there isn't even a door on that side!
Really enjoying this month-long masterclass with Uma Kelkar. Best way to start the year. And I'm having a ball with the other students in class!
A little diversion from all that painting. Just a few continuous line drawings done in bed. A great way to wind down at the end of a day. And also an essential exercise in observation. I recognise some aspect of myself in all of them!
I'm not doing too much urban sketching these days, but a lot of work on my watercolour and painting skills. This is me going analog - using old projection acetate transparent sheets to place over some paintings with interesting shadows and writing down all the wonderful things that I see happening. I won't be sharing the originals, as they are in books by famous watercolour artists, and I respect their work too much!
This one is by Tom Hoffmann, and it's blowing my mind - he's observed and painted all these amazing cast shadows and reflected light, thinking about temperature and value and getting everything so perfect!
Forgot to post these stones - they look more like icecream scoops, don't they? With lots of artificial colouring!
So the other online course I'm doing this January is Liz Steel's Sketchbook Design. To be honest, I'm not giving it as much attention for now, but I'll get there eventually. There's only so much I can juggle!
This page spread has a lot of empty space. The idea of the course is to learn how to create beautiful pages with sketches, writing and other design elements. I'm looking forward to connecting these three sketches with something - I don't know what yet!!
By the time you get to your third lockdown, any notion of hope seems to dissipate. With the first lockdown, we thought we'd be travelling by summer. The second one, we'd had a week in the West of Ireland, and things didn't feel so bad. But this time, I didn't even get to enjoy the three weeks when we were allowed to go to restaurants and shops and meet friends. I'm no epidemiologist (I still have difficulty saying that word!), but I knew that the numbers were too high and that meeting people in indoors settings was too much of a risk. Plus we had other preoccupations in the weeks leading to Christmas. And now we're facing into the longest January. I miss urban sketching so much. I look around my house, and there's nothing more I want to sketch. I don't want to have to organise another Zoom session ever again. So I'm turning to virtual sketching for solace. It's not my favourite thing, as I need a connection to the place to be able to sketch it, but since I chose one of my favourite views in Dublin, it worked for me. This is a pedestrian alleyway parallel to Dame Street, leading from South Great George Street to Dublin Castle. It's one of my favourite shortcuts in the city centre. I miss the city centre! The vibe. The noise. The people. The gorgeous architecture. Hell, even the tourists!
I did this before learning all about cast shadows, shade and reflected light, but I'm still happy with how it worked out!
In other words, more Stones. Now that I've learned more about shaded side and cast shadow, I'm not so sure about these ones! Still, always good to practise, and to keep a record of where I'm at at a certain point in time.
This is a view of an onsen town in the Nagano prefecture in Japan. I found the photo of the scene on Facebook. It was posted by a friend of a friend. Since the friend I'm talking about died nearly 10 years ago, I've been friends on Facebook with this person, although I've never actually met him. I'm sure if she's looking down, she'd find that weird! But to me, that's the power of the friendships she cultivated.
I don't even know the name of this town, as I can't find the original post anymore. Typical Facebook problem! But what struck me, and what I hope I have been able to suggest here, is all these snow-covered roofs - they're all in shadow, but they reflect so much light, and somehow, the square roof in the bottom left is reflecting some of the rising/setting sun. Maybe it's because it's a flat roof? Or it's standing a little higher than the others?
And if you think the roofs are snow-covered because the houses are well insulated, you're probably wrong. Houses in Japan are not that well heated. Although, maybe in the Nagano prefecture, they are. They do get a lot of snow and cold weather!
