A Garden Sketch

Sometimes I will post something we’ve sketched in one of our classes, which I think may be helpful to other students

Newrybar is a one street historic village near Bangalow and Byron Bay, NSW Australia.

The very environmentally tuned ‘Harvest’ has a wonderful series of old buildings with an award winning restaurant, deli with mouth watering foods, plus of course their popular Sourdough bread baked daily.
There are bee keeping workshops, yoga rooms, herb and vegetable gardens surrounding below.

Our class was meeting here on a particularly wet morning. First thing was to order a good coffee at the front and decide where it was dry enough to sit and sketch.
We were keen for a garden scene and luckily found enough seats at the far end of the balcony to perch on and survey the scene below.

Somehow the sun managed to shine through and the beautiful shapes of the garden were there begging to be sketched. There was the little bee hive hiding near a fence. Pink leafed bushes sat between olive trees, green vegetables and all sorts of herbs were tucked in under citrus trees and further away tall palms and established fig trees protected it all.
The photo above shows only half of the scene.

Where to start.
This was what we call a ‘Warmup Sketch’. The first one of the day to get your pen flowing and your mind focussed. These are planned for 30 minutes but sometimes become so absorbing that we take longer. They are very much learning sketches. We were all using watercolours.

How will you compose your scene.
What will you focus on.
What will you leave out.
What are your first main shapes going to be.

Often our first sketch starts with our tea or coffee cup. It definitely did here, as we looked at that as a foreground object with a garden scene behind. This really does make it very personal as it’s just as we could see it.

First to think about where the coffee would be placed and not bang in the middle. To one side and sitting on the narrow bench top will lead you in. There were a couple of planter boxes down below with a path on one side and steps leading down to lawn beyond where the beehive was. That made sense. So that was my plan.
The garden is large and very busy so it was a matter of what fitted on the page and what to leave out. I completed the back with some curly shrubs and space to put some blue sky.
Although it rained heavily part way through our time there, we pulled ourselves back for awhile and continued when we could. We didn’t miss a beat!

1. Have all your colours laid out in the palette. Apply Chinagraph pencil to tops and sides where you want white to be left.
2. The coffee cup gets the first dashes of colour.
3. Apply a yellow ochre wash where greens and foliage are.
4. Add a touch of red to that and pick out the red leafed shrub.
5. Sap green goes over foliage followed by Hookers Green Dk to give depth. A touch of Ultramarine can go in to add more darks under whites.
6. Use bright reds and yellows for the flowers, bees and butterly.
7. Burnt Sienna will go on the wood planter boxes.
8. A wash of Cad Red brings the pathway to life leaving lots of white there.
9. Once it’s all dry, you may decide to add a few lines of white Posca pen to complete the sketch.
10. Feel proud of your work. It’s a sketch memory of your day.