August sketching – Africantapestry

August 31, 2018

Two sketches

I took the day off and went galavaning. Had coffe and cake and tea, bought a Napoleon chair and a plant. And inbetween I did something useful like a sketch.

Somewhere I’ve lost my burning desire to sketch. Apart from me feeling it, the sketches also clearly show it. They are dull and lifeless. It could be that I have started doing a lot of my first love which is oils. But I do want to sketch, there are so much around to capture in a sketch! So, the question: will that enthusiasm to sketch return if I just keep going?

Teashop

interior salon de the

Architecture Brive la Gaillarde

Brive architecture

à bientôt

Ronell

August 21, 2015August 21, 2015

Spain sketches 3

This will be the last post on Spain sketches. Next will be a post on the splatters I make hat I promised a while back.

man sleeping on deck chair

watercolor and prera pilot pen

..beach scene..

watercolor and pentel brush pen

..around the pool..

watercolor and pilot prera pen

..a bientôt..

Ronelle

August 14, 2014

August sketching 14: a red roof in Beaulieu

My august sketching have slipped a little from under me and I lost a few days. The constant rain we’ve been having added to the difficulty of getting out. today’s sketch is just a large simple house with a impressive red tiled roof…I love these red roofs..

..a red roof in Beaulieu..

watercolor and Prera pilot fountain pen in S&B sketchbook

à demain

Ronelle

August 7, 2014

August sketching 7: Just half of a porcherie(pighouse) and three cows.

The rain came down by the buckets today. Beautiful of course, the rain, but not when you are on a roll and want to be in plein air, sketching or painting. I drank a cafe at out local café, waited for the rain to stop. Went home, waited for the skies to clear; Had another coffee. Starred out my back door, my only door…and looked into the old worn porcherie, or old pighouse if you will. It will be fixed up one day, but for the moment its dilapidated charm will be immortalized on paper. Not the best sketch ever, but the goal wasn’t a great sketch today, it was all about the paper..so there we have it. Just half of a porcherie. And three cows.

..Stillman and Birn Alpha series, vellum surface, 22.9×15.2cm..

..Close-up of the watercolor on the paper..

I went for the Alpha Stillman & birn sketchbook today, a real charmer! Much happier than yesterday with the Epsilon. It has a Vellum texture which is satiny an beautiful to work with in watercolors…like the HP of Arches and Fabriano. I like the color and yes…beautiful granulation…see the blue sky in the close-up above. (Even though it was a grey rainy day, I wanted to see what the paper does with cerulean blue which is known for having lovely granulation..on the right paper). The book opens nice and flat and I am surprised at how much water it can actually take, because I worked with even more water today than usual, really giving this little book a challenge. The buckling is present, but as already said, buckling in a sketchbook doesn’t bother me. All in all, a nice book for watercolor sketches and saying that only after one try, says a lot for me. I am an Arches and Fabriano HP fan and it takes a lot to convince me of something else better…or as good! Snob!!

..à demain..

Ronelle

August 6, 2014August 6, 2014

Agust sketching 6: A church and a house in le Pescher.

Le Pescher is a quaint little village not far from us…when our daughter got married there in 2012, we all walked to our cars through the little village from the church, past the bassin, filled with enormous fish! My sketching for today was the church where they got married(well, only the tower, since I ran out of paper for the rest!) and a house opposite the pond on the route we walked.

..a house across the large pond, bassin..

..the little church of Le Pescher..

I received 2 sketchbooks from Stillman & Birn and did my first watercolor in the Epsilon S&B sketchbook, 150gms. It is really too lightweight for my watercolor, but then it isn’t really meant for watercolor, only for drawing with ink and pen. It is very very smooth with no tooth at all, and I don’t even like it for drawing, for that reason. I like a bit of tooth which grabs a medium, whether it is watercolor or pencil or charcoal or whatever. But it is still early days and I only got started with the book, so there is still time to get used to the paper.

One can see the buckling of the paper, which doesn’t bother me too much, but the watercolor makes hard edges and there is no granulation, something I love in watercolor. It is all very flat and smooth. A sketchbook not fit for watercolor, even though I read comments on internet which convinced me to get it for watercolor sketching.

What is nice about these books is that it folds open without the spiral in the middle, allowing one to paint across two pages if you want to. But if I compare this book to my Daler Rowney, (satin finish, 160gms) that I have been doing the latest sketches in, it totally falls short. I personally prefer the Daler Rowney even with the spiral in the middle.

.. The S&B sketchbook and my brass palette with its 16 colours..

à demain!

Ronelle

August 4, 2014August 4, 2014

August sketching 4: Things I love.

I love old things. Things worn with time and loaded with stories. Old cups, old jugs, tins, doilies from Maman, teaspoons…And so today I sat by my table and sketched all these old things.

..Watercolor and pen in large Daler and Rowney sketchbook, 21x29cm..

(Apologies for the bad scan…I can’t get those dark spots away without changing the colour of the aquarelle)

While we are in the barn, I don’t have an art atelier, so in fact the whole barn is my atelier! I have a large table just behind our little sitting corner where I work when doing watercolors or drawings etc. All the brushes and pencils and pens are at hand in copper containers. Behind me(not seen on photo)is the large easel for when I do painting and all the oil pants are stored on a trolley which I store under the table. So, in fact, it works! One doesn’t need a fancy art atelier to do art! A little corner will do. I hope you too have your little corner, even if it is a corner of the kitchen table!

..my art corner..

à demain

Ronelle

August 3, 2014August 3, 2014

Sketching in august 3: Market scene.

Sundays we spend either at a brocante or at the market in St. Cér2..and coffee and croissant of course! Today was market day in St. Céré with coffee. It was a crazy rainy day with the sun coming out every hour for 10 minutes before it came pouring down again. We sat at the corner café and while I sketched, mon chéri worked(played chess, I think!!) on his computer. I was happy with the sketch I did in pencil. I should’ve only added pen and be done with it, but I couldn’t resist adding watercolour and it all changed…pity.

..pen and watercolor in Derwent artist’s sketchbook, 140x210cm..