This is a view from our balcony on the lake.
This was done in pen and watercolor on Fabriano HP.
Fresh from the sea
A drawing in ink and wash. I started out, planning this to be a painting, but somehow it ended up as a sketch with a wash. I chose the wrong day to do a painting…a bit low on energy that day. I used one of my photographs I took on my recent trip and it can clearly be seen in this sketch – it is lifeless and without feeling, without energy. I find that I cannot do a sketch from a photograph, somehow I don’t have the ability to give it …oomph..
Click on the image for a larger view ( hope it works this time, since I have been having problems with this clicking-thing.))
This sketch is pen and wash on Fabriano hotpressed paper.
- Bonny said…
- Ronelle, I think you’re being a bit too hard on yourself. This is a great sketch!
If you really, really think this is medioce (which I don’t agree with), think of it this way:
The sketch is a nice reminder of your trip and what you saw that particular day. When you look at this weeks and months down the road, you will be reminded of that day.
I like this. I can make a story from what I see in the sketch: what the fisherman is doing or thinking, what he might do next. It’s a wonderful sketch! - casey said…
- From here, this looks active, vibrant, spontaneous – everything a sketch should be! I don’t see what you don’t like about it. This is beautiful work, Ronell.
- Lin said…
- MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE IS PEN AND WASH AND HTIS HAS THE VIVID SPONTANEITY THAT MAKES THAT METHOD SO GORGEOUS! I THINK IS THIS GLORIOUSLY DONE!
- Africantapestry said…
- thanks for the comments…I do feel better about the sketch, Thanks!
Ronell - mARTa said…
- Ronelle….this is how I wish to paint! This is so lively and reminds me is many ways of a Singer-Sargent….really lovely
- df said…
- hi ronelle thanks for visiting my blog so that I could get to yours! I love this sketch. It’s very loose and energetic. Of course we have to work from photos every now and then. There’s no way I could ask everyone that I wanted to paint to hold the pose for twenty minutes. Can you imagine asking the fish guy to just hold it for a minute?
Plus, I love the self portrait that you have in your profile area. Very wonderful!
Picking grapes
These are my last sketches on the vineyards and grape picking in Stellenbsoch. They were done in pen and wash. I plan on using all these sketches to put together a series of paintings…hopefully it will move beyond planning!
This was much more difficult than sketching the “pickers” when they were taking a break. They really picked so fast and their heads were constantly bobbing up and down in the vineyard. Just as I thought I could capture one, he would disappear. In the end I stood further back to only capture glimpses of color in the vineyards.
The first sketch is of one of the many women pickers. This woman had such a presence about her and after a few hopeless attempts to sketch her picking, I asked her if she would keep still for maybe just one minute? The minute turned out to be much shorter than I know a minute to be, but I did manage to get her down.
The last sketch of the pressing machine was very boring for me to draw. I don’t like machines of any kind, except of course my coffee machine…I didn’t succeed in capturing it’s function, so it is hard to see what happens where, but at least you have an where the grapes fall into the shaft…
11 comments:
- caseytoussaint said…
- Wow, Ronell, these are incredible. They tell so much – travel journaling at it’s best. I hope there are more to come!
- Lin said…
- These are STUNNING!!! Fresh, VIBRANT! GREAT USE of ink and wash — lovely lovely lovely!! DITTO!! MORE !!!
- gabi campanario said…
- ronell, i can blog-travel to these vineyards thanks to these moments you captured so well with your pen and washes! i really like them. the first one is my favorite. look forward to more!
- Ujwala said…
- the whole series of them are fabulous! and i hope that you do get around to making paintings from them.
- Jana Bouc said…
- Wonderful work! All that’s missing is the glass of wine! You really captured all the steps along the way and your drawings of people are really excellent! I love the colors.
- Africantapestry said…
- Thank you all, for the encouraging comments..
ronell - Anonymous said…
- Hi Ronell This looks cool.
- phthaloblu said…
- What can I say except that these are just beautiful!
- aPugsLife-laserone said…
- Oh my gosh, these are just beautiful. Really nice work!!! …by the way, “Peeps” are little marshmallow candies coated in colored sugar. I just did a second Peep drawing on my art blog and also wrote a bit about peeps and provided pictures and links. Heheheh. 🙂
- “Maggie” said…
- Ronell,I love your loose sketches and colors of the vineyards and that capture moments of time. Wonderful!I want to say thank you for visiting my blog and glad you liked my blind contour. I love drawing them!
- Africantapestry said…
- Thank you everybody for the nice comments, I really appraciate your visiting!
Ronell
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. 🙂
- Deborah said…
- These sketches of the people are wonderful. The gestures are great. Can’t wait to see more from your trip.
- 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…..
- 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!
- gabi campanario said…
- hi ronell,
these are great, the person talking on the phone is my favorite. looking forward to seeing more! - 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!
- 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.
- Africantapestry said…
- Thank you Jana…yes, it is kind of a self portrait – oil on canvas..
- Renate said…
- Lovely sketches. I can’t see that you did not feel comfortable doing them.
- martha said…
- These are wonderful! Airports are indeed great for people sketching.
- andrea joseph’s sketchblog said…
- Great studies.
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
- ksklein said…
- hey, these sketches are great.
- Casey said…
- what a great window onto your vacation! Much more fun than photos. Nice, Ronell.
- aPugsLife said…
- I really like these! 🙂
- andrea joseph’s sketchblog said…
- These are really great – and I especially love the top one!
Africantapestry 
