watercolour – Page 18 – Africantapestry

Posted on February 8, 2013February 8, 2013 by Myfrenchkitchen · 9 Comments

A coffee break..

I cooked the whole day today, but I managed to pack in a doodle sketch during my coffee break. Using only contour lines, most of the objects done in one line, I could sketch quick and without restraint. Adding some watercolour splashes afterwards and voilà, a doodle sketch to show for the day!

I accidentally dipped my brush in my coffee (which happens every tile I paint with a coffee or glass or something by my side). This time I decided to keep it and even added some more coffee splashes. Coffee, wine and tea actually make for great mediums to paint with. Add some aquarelle varnish or finish off by sealing your sketch with aquarelle varnish and it will last as long as watercolour.

..A coffee break doodle..

pen and watercolour in l’atelier du papier aquarelle sketchbook

I am driving up to Paris for the week next week..spending some Valentine time with mon chéri …will show him all my secret corners I love to visit, take him to my favorite Rodin museum and garden, have late afternoon tea at my favorite cafe, stop for our traditional romantic moment on Pont Neuf(he just adores crossing the Seine on Pont Neuf all day long..!!). I hope to come home with some great sketches and photos and …books of course!

I leave you with an old sketch of Paris, done a few years ago…

..Paris-les arbres de Jardin de Luxembourg..

à bientôt

Ronelle

Posted on February 2, 2013February 2, 2013 by Myfrenchkitchen · 8 Comments

Umbrella, ombrelle, parasol, parapluie, they all say one thing…sketch me!

An umbrella is easy to draw..right? DING! Wrong!

So many things to consider: Convex, concave, round, shadows, transparency, folds, foreshortening, colour, patterns…

A good challenge!

..two half open umbrellas..

pen and watercolor on Fabriano artistico watercolor block, HP, 23×30,5cm

..wide open umbrella..

pen and watercolor on Fabriano artistico watercolor block, HP, 23×30,5cm

..two closed umbrellas..

pen and watercolor on Fabriano artistico watercolor block, HP, 23×30,5cm

Posted on January 28, 2013January 28, 2013 by Myfrenchkitchen · 5 Comments

Sketching ellipses..bowls and jugs.

One of my demons in art, is the ellipse. I hate drawing ellipses. Maybe hate is a strong word..I really really dislike ellipses. So many objetcs have some sort of ellipse in it. And like with perspective, you can’t be an artist without coming across ellipses.

With a snowy and rainy weekend keeping us inside, I challenged that ellipse fear and went back to my spiral exercises(see bottom of page).

..Bowls..

pen and watercolor in Arches aquarelle block, HP, 18x26cm

..Jugs..

pen and watercolor in Arches watercolor block, CP, 18x26cm

I do these great spiral exercises to practice ellipses from the book “Sketchbook for artists”. S

Start with drawing a circle and loosely let your hand move downwards in a spiral. It it best to not do it slowly, but at a natural, continuous speed, without stopping.
You can enlarge and diminish to your own liking, creating different shapes and volumes.
Practice placing one spiral into another.
Vary the thickness of the lines. Don’t worry if it is all askew in the beginning..your hand will get steadier as you keep on doing these spring-like spirals.

..Spiral exercises four ellipses..

Bibliography: Sketchbook for the artist, Sarah Simblet..

Posted on January 25, 2013January 25, 2013 by Myfrenchkitchen · 3 Comments

Birds and chickens sketches.

With this very first post of 2013, I wish you all a very good new year..may it be all you wish it to be!

I have gotten myself back to the easel and sketchbook..a great achievement here in January. For myself, I hope that 2013 will be a better year than the previous, especially on the art front. But of course, that only depends on one person..me.

Of all the sketches I did today, the following ones are the most successful. The three chickens kept still long enough with their backsides to me, so I could practice my observation skills which got lost during the past year.

..three chickens in a row..

done in watercolor on Aquarelle block, HP, 18x26cm

It is a different story with the birds. The mésanges(tits) are way too quick for me and I could only succeed in blobs of colour which looked more like flying saucers and even that would be an insult to the Martians. So I took closeups and put my own sketch together. According to my own rule, it is then not by definition a sketch, but more of a drawing, using sketching techniques. That is a mouthful! By my definition a sketch is only a sketch when done right in front of the live subject, “sur le motif”, we call it in French. when using the help of otter media..magazines, photos, it becomes drawing. The observation and rendering become totally different. By saying I used “some sketching technique”, I suggest that I used about 4 different photos, composed 2 birds on my paper, referred to the photo’s for colour and lastly added some branches and seeds from direct observation from the tree. So, finally, the whole sketch is my own composition with my branches and seed block being a true sketch with birds drawn onto it…

..Feeding two mésanges..

done in watercolor in Hahnemuhle watercolour sketchbook, 15.3x25cm.

Posted on November 21, 2012November 21, 2012 by Myfrenchkitchen · 9 Comments

Two favorite Sennelier colours

I am rather boring when it comes to using new colours. Once i find my niche, I am happy for a long time. Probably not the way to be an artist. But I want to believe that it is me, the artist and not the tools that produces the masterpiece (which I’m still working on!!). And so my palette is always very limited to only a few well used colours.

This past week I cleaned out my palette, boutght a new Sennelier palette box and impulsively added some new colours. I am in love, but totally in love, head over heels! Two new colours on my palette..Sennelier grey and warm grey, both from Sennelier.. Absolutely beautiful and perfect for my new search of more faded colours. They will work great this winter…they have mystery, are cool to push you bit back, but then exposes a warmth which draw you closer. I use them clean and pure to have them shine their own star..I think they deserve it. Well, they definitely deserve a permanent place in my palette.

I worked on a thick pad of Canson mixed media paper, which is only meant for exercises, since it doesn’t allow for very wet work and the paper is rather fragile, even though it is 300g.

Posted on November 19, 2012November 19, 2012 by Myfrenchkitchen · 4 Comments

Two..or maybe three eggs in watercolor.

Eggs. Easy to draw. Difficult to paint. but satisfying, because one can play around a lot with painting eggs..or the suggestion of eggs. Sometimes it works. Sometimes not.

..three eggs 1..

in watercolour and pen on Fabriano watercolour block, HP, 23×30,5cm