people – Page 8 – Africantapestry

Posted on March 15, 2007July 6, 2008 by Myfrenchkitchen

Napping in the shade of the vines

Here is the second batch of sketches of my trip to Stellenbosch, South Africa.

The first two sketches – pencil and watercolor on hotpressed Fabriano paper.

The last three – ink and wash on rough Canson paper, which I am quite happy with – it gives a feel of the roughness of the day and the job…grape picking isn’t so romantic when the heat comes down on your shoulders at about 35 degrees C.

I did the sketching on the spot and the washes later that afternoon. I was mostly interested in catching their actions and gestures and since they were clothed in all the colors of the rainbow, I could only run through my whole color palette afterwards to depict that.

As for the light – it was in the middle of the day and far too white to be spectacular.

I really enjoyed this day of drawing. The Cape folk are so easy to get along with – they take life in their stride, aren’t afraid to laugh, to joke, to talk, to differ and their wit has no equal! They were on lunch break and didn’t mind at all that I sketched them while they were taking naps. In fact, they ganged up behind me, looking to see who the next one was to be sketched, making suggestions, made jokes, even gave advice. I shared in their lunches and drinks, but unfortunately couldn’t share in the napping…would’ve liked to though!!

I had such fun.

I hope I did capture some romance in these napping in the shade of the vines….

6 comments:

Susan Cornelis said…: THanks for sharing all this wonderful sun and relaxation. I really get it from this post, pictures and text!; March 14, 2007 6:06 PM
caseytoussaint said…: I just love these Ronell – thanks for sharing a little bit of your vacation with us! The colors are beautiful – well done!; March 14, 2007 9:17 PM
Christeen said…: These just carried me away- what a great job with the colors, and the people’s positions are really believable- well done!; March 15, 2007 6:44 PM
Jana Bouc said…: These are great. From your colors it looks like it was really hot–no wonder everyone was taking siestas.; March 17, 2007 5:19 PM
Africantapestry said…: Thank you for the nice comments…much appreciated.
Ronell; March 17, 2007 9:10 PM
phthaloblu said…: Your sketches are so beautiful! You really got the postures of the people down so well that you can actually feel them napping.

Posted on March 9, 2007July 6, 2008 by Myfrenchkitchen

Airport people

Being back in France for 3 days after a holiday of almost 3 weeks, leaves me a bit off balance. I’m in slow motion and struggle to pick up the pace. I think my spirit is still lingering in the sun somewhere in the Cape, South Africa. I feel inspired, but at the same time, sad. Having had the most glorious time with friends and family, being spoilt rotten…it is hard to be back and just pick up where we left off 3 weeks ago.
I did do a lot of sketching, took close to a 2000 photographs, soaked up the sun in the vineyards by picking grapes(and sketching and eating and taking pictures, all at the same time) and had close conversation with some elephants (all in good spirit…!), heard a lot of good life stories filled with great humor, ate a lot, drank a lot(I was in the wine lands after all…), laughed a lot, in fact indulged way too much in everything of all sorts, which is a good thing every now and then, no?I’ll post some sketches in batches, starting off with CdG- airport, where we had to change planes because of a technical problem and could therefore only depart 3 hours later. So, here are some sketches of people wandering around…waiting, watching the clock, reading, chatting on their mobile phones, some extremely bored, others not showing any emotion….strangely enough, I couldn’t find anyone sleeping…maybe in fear of being left behind?

I’m still not comfortable sketching people in public….I still have a lot of practicing to do, before I’ll feel competent and at ease doing people in public, but I do enjoy it once it is done, until the next time! These were all done in the small moleskine, which I sometimes find a bit restricting.

So, here they are – all those waiting people at the airport…….

11 comments:

E-J said…: Hello – there are some lovely sketches on your blog! I wish I had such lightness of touch when sketching with watercolour. Bookmarking you. 🙂; March 9, 2007 7:00 PM
Deborah said…: These sketches of the people are wonderful. The gestures are great. Can’t wait to see more from your trip.; March 10, 2007 1:42 AM
caseytoussaint said…: Hi Ronell – great sketches! I’m thrilled to see you getting addicted to drawing people in public too, shall we go on some sketchcrawls? The nice weather is coming too…..; March 10, 2007 10:16 AM
phthaloblu said…: These are wonderful sketches, and the washes look great. I’m curious, did you do the washes while you were sketching, or after you were home? Well done!; March 10, 2007 6:31 PM
gabi campanario said…: hi ronell,
these are great, the person talking on the phone is my favorite. looking forward to seeing more!; March 11, 2007 5:57 AM
Africantapestry said…: HiThank you for your kind comments on my blog.To answer your question, phtalobu, ….It depends. The drawings at the airport didn’t have any specific light or color that I wanted to capture, it was more just gestural, so I just washed them later, no specific order. I actually considered leaving them as pen sketches, but then started putting a wash in on one and liked it…I enjoy color, what can I say! With some sketches, I’d like to capture shadows or light, and then I would do it there on the spot. I carry a small watercolor and 2 waterbrushes with me. And then sometimes I would do a sketch, and would just make notes on the colors or shadows or light and do the washes later, but not too long afterwards, or else I forget!! (Or even become too lazy…hehe!; March 11, 2007 7:14 PM
Jana Bouc said…: Wonderful sketches. I love the painting on the upper right of your site. Is that a self portrait? It’s so expressive and charming.; March 12, 2007 3:56 PM
Africantapestry said…: Thank you Jana…yes, it is kind of a self portrait – oil on canvas..; March 13, 2007 8:31 AM
Renate said…: Lovely sketches. I can’t see that you did not feel comfortable doing them.; March 13, 2007 11:39 PM
martha said…: These are wonderful! Airports are indeed great for people sketching.; March 14, 2007 3:28 AM
andrea joseph’s sketchblog said…: Great studies.

Posted on February 12, 2007July 6, 2008 by Myfrenchkitchen

Crash Ill. Fr.

It seems to be hard work to have a cat and even harder to be one!

Graphite on paper

3 comments:

Casey said…: Wow, this is incredible. Did you draw from life or a photograph? I really love it.; February 12, 2007 5:57 PM
Africantapestry said…: Hi Casey, this was done a while ago, when Tokala was still a kitten, maybe a little over a year ago? They were asleep on the couch and I had ample time to indulge. I dug it up yesterday when the “Crash” assignment came up and did rework it a bit..making the values more distinct/darker, using 9B Monolith. Thanks for your nice comment!
Ronell; February 13, 2007 9:26 AM
Sandy said…: This is beautiful Ronell.I just noticed you linked me..thank you so much.
sandy

Posted on February 8, 2007July 6, 2008 by Myfrenchkitchen

Ink sketches – people

We went to Andorra for a week of snow and ski recently. No skiing though, since there wasn’t any snow except for that made by snow canons. The girls did ski, but H(love of my life) and I passed on that one, so we did a lot of other sightseeing. One thing we did frequently, was going to the sportcentre where H could make use of WiFi available. It may sound like he is a workaholic, but he is as passionate about what he does in life as I am about doing my art. He loves his job, so his computer and notebook and pen and paper go with him, like my stuff travels with me. So, while he “WiFis and calculates and designs, I draw and write and read and watch the world go by and of course, we enjoy a cuppachino or two. The spoet centre was a great place – a big complex with indoor pools, ice skating rink, tennis courts…and a cafeteria. I did these drawings while having our coffee. The first sketch is the “food corner” in the house we stayed in.

5 comments:

Cavalera said…: very nice sketches, keep up the good work; February 8, 2007 8:32 PM
ksklein said…: hey, these sketches are great.; February 8, 2007 9:10 PM
Casey said…: what a great window onto your vacation! Much more fun than photos. Nice, Ronell.; February 8, 2007 9:45 PM
aPugsLife said…: I really like these! 🙂; February 10, 2007 4:51 AM
andrea joseph’s sketchblog said…: These are really great – and I especially love the top one!

Posted on February 7, 2007July 6, 2008 by Myfrenchkitchen

Drawing in graphite

Drawing with graphite on paper. A fair exchange – an hour or so for a new jean.

Posted by Africantapestry at 11:19 AM

1 comments:

Casey said…: This is gorgeous! I love your blog, glad to see it up and running.

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