Prera pilot pen – Africantapestry

Posted on October 3, 2015 by Myfrenchkitchen · 4 Comments

Sketches from Beaulieu and Les Jardins Marquessac.

My artist friend Sarah visited and we visited les jardins Marquessac.I am totally inspired to finish my garden here at Coin Perdu, not to mention painting! I worked in different sketchbooks and I am considering going back to Moleskine, all three sizes.

..a sketch done in Beaulieu while waiting for my physiotherapy appointment..

pencil, pilot prera pen and aquarelle in LANA watercolour sketchbook, 14x22cm(this is a lovely sketchbook with 300g paper, 25 pages and a great size, with the only drawback being the spiral back.)

..a sketch of a street in Beaulieu..

watercolour in Daler & Rowney Ebony sketchbook, 14.9X21 cm(this paper still buckles a lot with washes, but it is not too disturbing. I like the hardback so it makes working across 2 pages quite easy.)

..the marketplace in St Céré..

watercolour and prera pen in Daler & Rowney graduate sketchbook,22X14.9cm(this is suitable only for drawing…a nightmare for washes..but it was all I had in my bag.)

..Jardins Marquessac..

watercolour and prera pen in Daler & Rowney Ebony sketchbook, 14.9X21 cm

à bientôt

Ronelle

Posted on September 17, 2015September 17, 2015 by Myfrenchkitchen · 4 Comments

Sketches of old Fench soupiere and plates.

I love my old French tableware…soupiéres, platters, plates, bowls and other dishware. Sketching them is quite challenging though, since they have such nice old patinas that I would love to capture. The only way for me to get that is to use different media. In the 2 sketches below, I used J. Herbin inks, De-Atramentis inks, watercolour, watercolour pencils, nib pen, pilot prera pen and gouache. I think I sort of got some patina on the dishes..

The sketches below are an old French soupiére, a Polish jug with my chickens’ feathers that I stick in at will.The second sketch is an old French platter and oval plate.

French soupiére and Polish jug

mixed media in Stillman & birn sketchbook, epsilon series14X21.6cm

Old French platter and plate

mixed media in Stillman & Birn sketchbook, epsilon series14X21.6cm

à la prochaine

Ronelle

Posted on September 13, 2015September 13, 2015 by Myfrenchkitchen · 8 Comments

Hibiscus in watercolour.

It is raining outside, proper weather for a nice tajine, which I already have simmering on the stove. In my atelier corner, stands a vase with white hibiscus from the garden and in my Stillman and Birnsketchbook, a sketch of those hibiscus flowers.

After turning the sketch around several times, I felt finally that it looks better upside down, as in the image below. when looking at the top picture the eye wna&ts to get in at the top right corner and run down diagonally towards the bottom. Most of the time it feels uncomfortable to let the eye travel from the top to bottom. It feels more natural to travel from the bottom , upwards, over the painting and out, which is what happens in the upside down version, bottom sketch.

à bientôt

Ronelle

Posted on September 11, 2015September 11, 2015 by Myfrenchkitchen · 14 Comments

Books, books and books.

For those who don’t know..we are temporarily living in the barn , while we are restoring the main house. We have been here for already about 3 years..and yes, it does take that long to restore a house if you do everything yourself. In the meantime, in the barn, we a have everything we need to be comfy. That includes books. Many books.For the time, they are stacked on make-do shelves. Even if they were stacked on beautiful custom made shemlves, it wouldn’t look any better than it does now. somehow we are unable to keep bookshelves neat. It is just how it is.

..Books 1..

Watercolour and pilot prera pen in Stillman 1 birn sketchbooks, epsilon series 14X21.6cm

..Books 2..

Watercolour and pilot prera pen in Stillman & Birn sketchbooks, epsilon series 14X21.6cm

à bientôt

Ronelle

Posted on May 4, 2015May 4, 2015 by Myfrenchkitchen · 6 Comments

EDM-art 4: Spice bottles.

I struggled with this theme today. Not because I don’t like spices, au contraire, it is a delicious theme and I love it. But the ideas didn’t show up today.I couldn’t fix my pen on a cool composition and the brush didn’t work for me either. My wrist was stiff and unforgiving in sketching these bottles. Instead of having a free hand and sketching with some wonk, which is my usual style, my sketches become overworked and controlled. Not me. Not me at all. In this process of struggle today, I paged back through the last few sketches and artwork I did…and there I saw it; Stiffness and control. Slowly but surely during the last few sketches I moved towards controlling the pen and colour, while they should actually have more of a will of their own. That is how I raised my daughters and that is how I like my art.

Sketch 1: a himalayan salt and black pepper mill, totally overworked and in good ole French…“n’importe quoi!”

watercolour and pen in Daler Rowney sketchbook,21X29.7 cm

Sketch 2: without interest, overworked, not funk or peps, actually a bit boring.

watercolour and pilot prera pen in Stillman & birn sketchbook, 22.9X15.2 cm

Sketch 3: this ws my last sketch and almost there, but not quite yet. I think I got tired at this stage, but there is a bit more interest in the dynamics, a bit more wonk and interpretation.But still sloppy. (a loose, free style doesn’t mean sloppy.)

Sketch 4: This was the second last one and I was a bit angry here, trying and trying and not getting what I want (almost went into tantrum mode…). This sketch is downright sloppy.