A few hints about how our warmup Watercolour Sketches come together.
We begin a lesson with what is on the table and sketch a group of essentially three items, sometimes with a few little added extras for balance. Here we had a delicious French pastry and a muffin so an easy choice.
For many of our classes this is Week 2. In Australia that is😊
The concerns about not being able to draw a straight line are well and truly over. Already our students can say how they’d begin a sketch and what is the main starting shape.
From Gold Coast to Sydney, our students are discovering their sketching skills and many have done quite a bit of work on their own with their new found skills.
Read MoreJoin out first sketch classes for Week 1, Term 1 in NSW Australia now that we are back sketching together. Oh the joy, and it shows in the work. Enjoy
Read More’How can we sketch if we don’t have a lead pencil?’ You can see the disbelief on their faces when they realise there is no lead pencil involved when Erin takes a class or workshop. No erasers. No rulers. Is that even possible!!
Well guess what - it is. What’s more, the sense of freedom when you begin putting down lines in black pen - without any fear of it being right or wrong - wow you can feel the collective sigh of relief.
Read MoreLet the layers go one over the other and watch the scene coming to life, all with step by step guidance of course.
What fun. Look at the different styles and colour we all have. That’s the lovely thing. It’s your impression as you saw it. Being quick is the key. If you have 10 minutes you can sketch. If you have an hour you can sketch. Up to you.
And so ended a marvellous 2 days with such delightful students who were so happy with our time together and the sketches they’d take home.
Read MoreWe were sketching Sunflowers in the South of France. Just pretending!
Warm up sketch was a close up of one or two particular blooms and quickly toss some colour on.
Oops. That feels like rain drops!
Packup everyone. Let’s head fast to the cafe. Off we sped. Most sketches were still wet. Mine had added raindrop patterns all over it. You’ll see the result below.
We took a big table in the cafe, ordered coffee and flapped our sketches to get them dry.
Everyone was settled beside the lake and starting to sketch when a most gorgeous feathered creature decided to join the group. This was the Alexandrine Parakeet. A very friendly one at that. There she was, sitting on the sketching hand of our student! How can one possibly sketch with a rather large parrot sitting on your hand. Oh well. Connecting with nature is certainly fun.
Read MoreLet’s look at composition.
What’s your main subject? How much do we want to put in? We don’t need the story of the world here - just the bit that’s most interesting.
It’s worth taking the time to do a planning sketch first. Seriously. How do you know where all the shapes and forms will be if you just launch in? It might take you 10minutes to observe your subject and decide whether it’s to be portrait or landscape. Try it out on your planning page. You might surprise yourself.
That’s 10 minutes you won’t spend correcting your main sketch.
Where is my eye level? How does that angle work? Does it go up or down?
We guide you through this but it’s still a mystery at times, until you get to ‘see’ how it works. It’s great to see our sketchers thinking through perspective, with guidance from their tutor.
Another perspective is the one where you look straight at a structure. Flat perspective. Always a delight and does capture the character of the place.
We have a marvellous book - ‘London You’re Beautiful’ by David Gentleman.
This book I’ve had since it was published in 2012. He was 82
I’ve used this book often in classes over the years as an example of simplifying a subject, and today we were seeing how he uses line and pattern in his landscapes.
How many colours does a sketcher need?
That’s a good question. How many colours does a sketcher need?
If you’re a Travel Sketcher like us - three. What colours would you choose for the food setting above!
You’ll see how our classes this week certainly used the three combo extremely well and some did their best work. Loose and layered. Every colour gets a chance to bloom.
Read MoreThe best thing about being a sketcher? The places it takes you.
That sketchbook and pen transports you - to anywhere - real or imagined.
You could be in a park under a tree, on an island looking back, under a gazebo, on a bridge, in a great cafe, down by the wharf, at the beach, in a cosy studio, on a street corner and oh so many more locations.
Meanwhile we can’t travel to overseas places but we certainly can in our own neighbourhood.
Not only are we in a beautiful serene park listening to the birds and the surf, but then……
all that gorgeous morning tea and French lunch comes courtesy of Maurice our very attentive butler. One feels very spoiled but we do love a bit of indulgence. Well quite a lot if we can get it.
This rusty old truck is an incredibly creative use of an old vehicle - and I mean completely rusted - with the tray up and hundreds of tiny chrysanthemums flowers spilling out. It’s art in itself. Definitely a sketch for us. Finished our works and felt pretty pleased. It’s so rewarding to sketch subjects like this. I was saying that this sets one up for sketching poppies, sunflowers and lavender en masse as you would in Southern France. It’s all practice for something.
Read MoreFor one of our classes studying lights and darks on citrus fruit - we have a mantra.
”White tops and sides - dark down the centre”. No more worry about where the light comes from because we have decided that already. Sketching is that quick impression so this works well. When you see the sketches - note how we push our darks in behind light edges. Pretty jolly effective don’t you think!
We love the whole nature thing that happens here. Listening to the birds squawk a warning to the other critters that the big goanna was looking for lunch. The bush turkey strutting about, quite unperturbed by who else was around. Parrots, butcher birds, magpies, Australian Minors all chattering to the sound of the waves crashing just meters away.
Read MoreFinding the focal point is the first thing we need to find in creating a sketch. Where is our eye being lead. We often need to play up an area and give it more interest, move things about a bit even. Or it can be done with detail, texture and colour.
Read MoreThe day I happened upon the High Tea Room at Flutterbies Cottage Cafe in the tiny historic town of Tyalgum, I knew we would be bringing back ‘Sketch Your Cake’. These were a big hit in Sydney a while back but when I travelled, we put them on the shelf. But as you’d know, we are not traveling right now, so what better than to bring pleasure to people with an event like this.
Read MoreWhat a gorgeous time we had studying beach sculptures. It’s quite a new thing for sketchers to look at the displays with an eye to getting it into a sketch book. Shapes are odd but fascinating so it’s not important to be precise. We all felt pretty good at the end of the day with a book full of memories and sketches.
Read MoreSet up a flower still life and follow the steps. Always loose. Big strokes of colour and as few strokes as possible. Hold the book up let the colours ‘bloom’. Loose is the idea. It’s an impression only. Tell us how you get on.
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