It is only day 2 but boy, I am having so much fun!  I feel inspired, enthusiastic creative and just in the zone…how many of you can say that this evening? I hope it will last the entire 31 day of August…and beyond. Of course it won’t, but even just a little bit of it will be good enough.

Starting off with my café, which helps get me in the “zone”, I sketches the géraniums just opposite. It was raining, the tourists took up all the other covered spots in our small village, so I didn’t have much choice of going out. In the end I am happy I stayed, it turned out not too bad, after initially starting off a bit slow…

Once again, a lot of conversation around me, but it is good in teaching me to focus and listen at the same time.

• I used yellow on the walls with touches of burnt sienna.
• The roofs were done with ivory black and raw umber and blue.
• The shadows on the canopies were done with a light wash of cerulean blue.
• The geraniums done in cadmuim red and the greens in golden green, darkened with phtalo blue.
• In the shade of the canopy in the background, behind the people dining in the foreground, a touch of light black ivory was applied for shadows.
• In the foreground the people and tables  just behind the stone wall, closest to me were  done in bright burnt umber.
• And lastly some yellow ochre touches here and there when the sun came out…

It is a good idea to test the same colour of different brands, because they do sometimes differ. In the above sample at the bottom left I have compared the raw umber of W&N with that of Sennelier. I prefer the Sennelier raw umber which is cooler than that of the W&N.

From top left anticlockwise to bottom: warm grey, naples yellow, burnt umber, raw umber, burnt sienna, raw sienna, yellow ochre, cadmium yellow, cadmium yellow deep, lemon yellow.

My little pocket brushes are one from Arches…le petit gris nr 6, which broke at some time and I fixed it with tape and now it still works perfectly. The other is a Kolinsky that I have no idea where it is from. all I know is that I have used it for years, so much so that I have lost its cover and now use a piece of plastic that I found which fits over the brush. (See photos down below). So you can see, I am a bit like the mechanic whose car is always in pieces…But look ate those lovely brush points…hold as much or as little water as I want them to!

A new sketchbook from Daler & Rowney which I just discovered and am quite impressed with. The paper is not that heavy, only 160g, but it takes watercolor quite well and I don’t mind a little buckling in a sketchbook. The pocket brushes from top my precious Kolinsky nr 8 with its “unbecoming” plastic cover and the “repaired”petit gris nr 6 below.

..Kolinsky pocket brush 8..

..”taped” petit gris pocket brush 6

à bientôt

Ronelle