Don't pay the Ferryman

A rainy day in Dublin. I did find shelter across the way from my subject, quite a few steps above the view. I did two thumbnails to figure out what I wanted to include in my sketch. There is a famous bridge to the right of the Ferryman pub, but after trying a thumbnail with it, I thought it would dominate the view too much. And the story I wanted to tell is the contrast between old and new in Dublin. Unfortunately, so many old buildings are being pulled down and replaced by bland offices and hotels. But in some cases, the old warehouses are still standing, reminding us that Dublin used to be a busy industrial harbour city.

I didn't quite stick to two colours in my main sketch, but this is very restrained for me all the same. No sunshine, no shadows, but I feel I managed to give a sense of the volume by using the shadows in the building under construction.

And then I went to the Starbucks that you can see in my sketch. It was very quiet. It's not a busy area at the weekend. I did a sketch with pen and two markers and enjoyed a matcha latte (or was it a hot chocolate? I vaguely remember they were out of matcha).

And then, one final quick sketch in the Ferryman, sketching the sketchers and the view they were looking at. A productive day. It was good to be back!

Turning South - clouds is what I want

This is still work in progress. I want to soften the bit above the wall so it doesn't attract too much attention, and I want to lighten the cars, or at least some of them, because they are too clunky. I might actually do a version without cars.

Because after all, all I was interested in was the sky. Morning just at sunrise, with lots of heavy clouds. I am so happy I kept my clouds soft, yet defined. Exactly what I was trying to achieve. First layer was Monte Amiata Natural Sienna, with a dash of Quinacridone Burnt Scarlet closer to the horizon. Second layer was Quinacridone Burnt Scarlet and Cerulean blue. Quin Burnt Scarlet was a recommendation from Shelley. I had bought a small tube a while ago and did a test with Cerulean blue and loved it, then I didn't think about it for a while, but it's an interesting pigment, PR206. And I love how its transparency works with semi-opaque Cerulean blue! I must try other mixes!

I used the same colours for everything else, plus Neutral Tint. And some Lavender and Pyrrole red for the cars. But as I said, I want to lift paint from the the cars. They attract too much attention. 

And can you spot the scratch in the paper? It really annoyed me when I saw it. It's not the end of the world, as this painting was never going to be a winner. But still I have no idea how I did it. But I need to be more careful next time!

Here is my revised versions - not sure they are better - trying to make the wall less obvious by adding the vegetation on top actually makes it more dominant. Should have experimented in Procreate before messing in watercolour!! Maybe the cropped version works better?

I'm much happier with the cars now, they're not so black and solid.

Any drawing

 ... is better than none. Just one of those days.

Greys

Exploring greys for Sketching Now Watercolour on Location. Watching Liz Steel's videos, it's as much about how you apply the paint with the brush as the paper and the pigments you choose, and of course how much or how little you mix the pigments in the palette. 

This kind of stuff is what makes me happy and keeps me going when I don't have the energy for painting.

 

Pumpkins

I don't do Inktober. It just doesn't appeal to me. But I do enjoy playing with coloured inks. And I do love mini-gourds, and I couldn't resist them when the vegetable lady at the local market was selling them. A bit early for Halloween - I bought and sketched these maybe a month ago. I particularly love the dark green one at the bottom right. It's so dark and yet shiny. I used Schmincke liquid watercolour in Jade Green (I'm not sure I would find much use for this colour without mixing) and ColorVerse ink in Pluto and Beyond (a colour I adore!). All done with Kakimori brass nib and nib holder.

 

Thumbnail exercises

I did these studies from the same photo in France as the previous ones. In this exercise for Sketching Now Watercolour on Location, we were moving from black and grey to values in watercolour. Much harder to do - how to achieve consistent values with certain colours, and also seeing value in colours - is the natural sienna light or medium? Also, I should have used a smaller brush for the details. It's a bit clunky. I do like the grey studies better.

hazelnuts

After my Covid isolation ended, Brendan took me for a short walk in the neighbourhood. The sun was shining and it felt good to get out. I have to admit that I was suffering from cabin fever (and for those of you who use Google Translate to read my blog, no, it's not a fever, just an expression).

And we can across lots of these amazing hazelnuts pods, I'm not sure what they're called, on the ground, and I picked them up to sketch them. It was fascinating to watch the various stages, from shiny and mostly closed over to dry with the nuts falling. I picked a few, and now they're all at the dry stage, all the vibrant green is gone. I must sketch them again!

 

This time I measured - is it any more me?

For this one, I actually measured a little - I'm not sure it's got any more of a likeness than the others? But I see a bit of me in all of them. And now I can change my profile picture, as I'm no longer a redhead and I finally have a self-portrait that reflects more what I look like now.

Blue and Yellow

Every few weeks, I paint some abstracts in blue, yellow and black. Thinking about Ukraine and all Ukrainians.

Isolation self-portraits

By Day 5 of Covid Isolation,  I was feeling like drawing again. I didn't want to sketch the mess in my room, so I did self-portraits. Yes, they're all me, each in their own way! I'm not displaying them in order of execution. But they did make me feel better, for a short while at least. And I got to play with markers, pencils and brush pens. 

Slea Head View

This is the last thing I painted before I got Covid. Trying to gear up for painting nocturnes. And I was very happy with the Van Gogh Ultramarine watercolour - very different from all other ultramarines I've tried before, but it gave such a luminous glow. I've just checked and it's pb29, but it's Ultramarine Deep. I like it.

Shadow studies

Working on values with Liz Steel's Sketching Now Watercolour on Location. I enjoyed drawing my still life and adding shadows with markers. And I learned a lot from painting just shadows from the photos I chose. But it was hard! Some day, I will be able to paint that street, but not yet!

Culture Night

This feels like so long ago. I think Culture Night is in September, and now we're well into October, and I don't know where time went. Well, I know, two weeks of doing nothing because of Covid, then a week in Belgium, with so little time for sketching that I'm not sure I can draw and paint anymore. You know the way it is the moment you stop drawing! 

So I went into town and got a bite to eat in Carluccio's - a wonderful mushroom soup and service with a smile, despite the fact they were super busy and I hadn't booked. I got a table outside. It was still very mild, if a little damp. I warmed up (in the sketching sense) by drawing people hanging out on the footpath across the way. Nothing much, and I need to seriously revisit my approach for sketching people, but when I'm looking at them now, I actually remember exactly how some of these people looked. So it's not so bad.

Then I joined my fellow sketchers inside the Museum Building in Trinity College, where the Culture Night vibe was quite dead, but we didn't care. We just got absorbed in sketching the beautiful architecture of this magical place. Not my most amazing sketch, but it does give a sense of the arches receding into the the distance, so I'm happy that I did it.

 

Rathmines, far from the maddening crowd

Maybe I was camera shy? But on that Sunday, I stayed away from everyone else sketching near Rathmines bridge. I just found 3 locations that combined perfectly for me to explore the folding-page technique I learned from Mário Linhares in London in the summer.

First I sketched a laneway at the side of Rathmines church, where the dome dominates the mews. The road is so narrow that most people have traffic cones in front of their houses in order to reserve parking for themselves. Nothing worse than coming home from dropping the kids to school and finding that you can't get parking in front of your house. Most of the parking in the area is pay-parking, and I guess this laneway is popular with commuters, much to the annoyance of the residents.

Second, I moved to Lower Rathmines Road, and found a spot where the dome can be seen above the row of Georgian houses. I think a lot of these houses, which are 3 to 4 stories tall, are still divided up in rental accommodation, hence the many bins in front of the entrance. Rathmines is still popular with students and young people who want to live within walking distance of town. The main street certainly hasn't been gentrified to the same extent as other areas in the same postal code of Dublin 6.

And then, I joined a few other sketchers in the Grove Road café overlooking the canal, and I sketched the language school building on the other side of the canal. It's a lower building, and I'm not an expert in architecture, but the windows are certainly Georgian, so it offered a good continuity with the previous sketch. And as you can see, I got faster and faster, moving from a detailed watercolour sketch to pen and grey marker to speed things up!

It would seem I forgot to take a picture on location for my third sketch!

And for those of you who get to the bottom of my posts, here is a bonus video!

Life is better when you draw it

Inspired by Koosje Koene's book, Life is better when you draw it, I decided to draw what was in front of me, rather than spend time looking for the perfect subject. Drawing is such a meditation for me, stopping my mind from swirling. And it doesn't matter if it's not perfect. The joy is in the doing.

 

Back at Bluebell

I hadn't been able to go to Bluebell for quite a while, and now it will be weeks again before I can go and sketch the lovely people in the community centre. Between Covid and travel, it's been a struggle to keep normal life going, but I will get there, eventually. 

This is a project that is very close to my heart, sketching every single person who goes to Bluebell for the breakfast and the company. What they do there is simply amazing for everyone in the community and I want to honour it with my sketches. It's just going to take me longer than I had originally anticipated!

I sketch every person on location, from direct observation, with my usual fountain pen. I take a photo of the sketch, and give the original to the sitter. Then I print the photo I have and I add pencil (I can only print on fairly thin paper with the printer I have at present). Then I tape the colour sketch in my book and I add a little note about each person. Some are chattier than others!

Here are the sketches at their earlier stages.