Charles Reid English Watercolour Sketchbook DVD Trailer

I've always loved Charles Reid's watercolors--so thought you might enjoy this too!

my travel sketchbook : the reality

On Thursday, October 11, 2012 I wrote my thoughts on this blog on creating a travel sketchbook

I had written that blogpost to gather my thoughts "on paper" on how I would approach my own travel sketchbook. I had entered the 2013 Sketchbook Project and chose the theme : Travelogue. At the time I decided to revisit my 2007 holiday to Paris, as if I was there, drawing as much then as I do now ! My sketchbook is based on my diaries, photographs I took and where I thought I would have drawn at the time, as well as souvenirs I bought. Although this is created in retrospect, all the time I thought how would approach future travel sketchbooks.

The journal can be viewed here Travelogue Paris 2007. Over the 18 double pages of the Sketchbook Project I experimented with composition, lettering, maps and came to some  conclusions about what and how I wanted to try and capture in my travel sketchbook journal.

In July this year I had three weeks holiday travelling to London and Barcelona, where I had the opportunity to put all of my thoughts and ideas in practice. I filled two Moleskine watercolour sketchbooks. This post is to review what worked (most things) and what didn't (a few things) in reality. I knew what I wanted to try and achieve and what was important to me on my holiday in my journal.
 
I am so incredibly proud of my holiday sketchbook journals  (see them on flickr: London and Barcelona) and each time I look at them (for example, to write this,) I relive my holiday and it gives me immense joy to see the pages. They are a unique holiday souvenir that will be with me for a long time.

Below are my original theories from the Sketchbook Project  and then the reality of how it worked when I was actually travelling, with examples

· it will be a combination of on the quick on the spot sketching and more detailed drawings

This worked so well - and gave life and an individual feel to my sketchbook.

on the plane Sydney to Hong Kong. a very quick sketch of people queuing for the toilets after a meal. A drawing of my dessert (a delicious ice cream bar) . I drew the ice cream for a while then as it began to melt, I ate it, making sure I opened the packet in an inconspicuous section. I then kept it after the attendant cleared the meals away and finished drawing it then

 

I use watercolour pencils and Lamy Safari Joy ink pen. I can combine these and have a few different styles of drawing that suit different opportunities, the time and place or my mood. The above sketch shows the two extremes.

 

 

· leave first page or two of each day blank – at end of day I could draw maps, streets walked that day, rail/metro routes caught.

I wish I remembered to do that each day . I often forgot to leave the first page blank and would not remember until I had started the first sketch . I would then leave the rest of the page free. Next time I will turn to the next blank page the night before and write in pencil on the page LEAVE BLANK. Two pages could easily be left for this

· draw objects such as tickets, souvenirs, food, headings also at the end of the day in my hotel room. There is time and space to draw. If there is a good view from the room, I can draw it everyday

view inside the hotel room and also looking out the window. This was drawn over two or three sessions, just a bit at a time

 

the leaf and seed were picked up in Hyde Park on this day. I sketched Royal Albert Hall on the spot and then left the space and drew a rough outline of the size and placement of the leaf and drew if at the hotel over the next day or two before it wilted

I stood across the street to sketch the printshop and then drew the books on the plane on the way home.

I had the feathers for a week and then realized that we were flying home the next day and could not take them back to Australia. Three feathers in one night !

   

I drew objects A LOT less than I thought I would, especially since that is a style of drawing I do a lot at home and get a lot of enjoyment out of. In reality, if I was working (that is the wrong word !) on my sketchbook in the evening, it was adding my notes, finishing off sketches by adding a bit more colour or line.

I was travelling with my mother and she was very patient with my sketching, and also appreciated quiet time for herself, while I sketched.

I was also very tired at the end of each day. It is part of being a tourist, walking and seeing a lot. We had 28 degrees in London each day and long summertime hours

 

· MAPS.If I colour the roads or areas between the road on a map I can match them with other colours I have used on the page, bringing it all together. 

the blue and green of the land and river on the map, matching the sky

 

 

The lettering on the page matching the blue of the Serpentine

 

 

just the basics

 

I am really happy with this combination

 

I have never been comfortable with maps I tried to add - too many streets, too messy  looking. But I do want to include maps of my travels. I experimented with a few different alternatives in my Paris Sketchbook project. In the end I have a basic mud map. I have included  the streets we walked down and different types of transport. I did not do a map for everyday - probably only eight in the whole book, but I was pleased with those that I did. They are a gentle reminder of how we get where we went

·  leave lots of white space – I can always fill it in later if it looks too sparse.

as mentioned  , I did not do enough of this .

·   write commentary about how I feel, think, react to things, smells, places but not too much. I will probably keep a separate diary.
 

I want to write too much and have to make decisions about what to include. Often the sketch tells the story and only a few other notes were added.

I feel as though I did not write enough on the moment of thoughts and feelings. It was not often the right time and place. Often I scribbled some thoughts in pencil on the page and left a block of space around it to expand on it later (in the evening at the hotel).

I still want to include something of the history or description of the place I am. But where to stop? In the end, my sketchbook journal is for me, not a history lesson, so I just need reminders of it's place and importance in history. And there is SO much history in London. I am overwhelmed by it.

· Re: buildings and vistas

I know how I draw at the moment. I am at ease drawing objects, food, paper. I am not so good at buildings and vistas. But architecture is an important feature of a city or town and so I want to include it , the trees, roads, sky. I have been considering how it is best for me to capture a scene with these in it. I want to create a little vignette., with a little character and insight, but not too much

-just try and draw a section

-leave the top, bottom or sides unfinished.- lines drifting off

- only colour some parts  

· don’t try and fill the page - only use part of the page

I filled the page in the vast majority of the time -so much to draw !!!

don’t try and get caught up in the detail and try and leave this to a " close up " drawing later if I get the chance

 

Writing this has helped me think about what I have learned about my sketching and myself when travelling. I know that sketching brings me do much pleasure. I hardly took any photographs and when I did they were of people (and then there are those 20 photos of squirrels for reference photos for drawing at a later date).

My art is growing and slowing evolving as I meet other sketchers, go to workshops. These travel sketchbooks seem to be the culmination of a series of events . It is an exciting journey in itself.

 

 

An Imaginary Trip To Greece - Come Join The Fun!

As I'm getting ready for an Imaginary Trip To Greece starting next Tuesday, October 15th, I thought I'd share some of the cool, fun facts about this country. In no particular order:

1. Greece is about the size of the state of Alabama with approximately 10 million people living there.
2. Over 16 million people visit the country each year! Tourism is 16% of the country's Gross Domestic Product.
3. The country has more than 2000 islands with 170 populated. Crete is the largest and beyond gorgeous!
4. Greece is the world's third largest producer of olives...can you guess the first and second?
5. When we think of Greece, many of think of the doors, windowsills, and church domes that are painted a beautiful turquoise blue. This paint color is used because of an ancient belief that this shade of blue keeps evil away. The color is called kyanos. “Cyan” and “cyanide” are derived from the word.
6. The legendary home of Zeus and other Olympian gods and goddesses is Greek’s highest elevation, Mount Olympus at 9,750 feet (2,917 meters). The country's lowest elevation is the Mediterranean Sea.
7. The Parthenon (from parthenos or “virgin”) was built almost 2,500 years ago and sits on the Acropolis above the city of Athens. It took 15 years to build. At one time, it featured colorful sculptures and a large gold-and-ivory statue of Athena. 

I hope you'll join me on this fall getaway and visit this beautiful country! To learn more, please visit here. 

Please let me know of any questions you may have. 

Thanks!

Laure

What's your favorite way to work?

This is one of mine...of course, OUT there, on the spot, is my first love.  I was sitting on a bench by Lake Taneycomo, where I've camped a number of times when I wore a younger woman's clothes...

My favorite Noodler's Creaper pen and Lexington Gray ink let me sketch in the details, as much or as little as I like...

...and then I just splashed in the color, loosely.  I use that a lot, because it keeps me from getting too niggly with details.  This is a very comfortable technique for me.  I often just jump right in with ink, when it's a subject like this, with no pencil underdrawing.

 When my subject is more complex--like architecture!--I'll sometimes do some light graphite guidelines and THEN ink, as I did here.  This was the little Depression-era cabin we stayed in for our anniversary, also at Bennett Springs.  It's a charmer!  (You can see the center fold of my journal right on the leading corner of the building.)

I used a similar technique here, but decided to only color the little building and a bit of background at Bennett Spring State Park where Joseph was fishing.  This was done with a bent-nib Hero calligraphy pen, which makes wonderful brush-like marks, and no pencil underdrawing.

and for this one, I switched to my beloved vintage Sheaffer--probably of an age with the building, come to think of it!--and lost myself in the shapes and textures.  I decided to leave it as it was, with no color...ink can suggest a kind of luminosity all by itself.

All three of the pens used here are fountain pens, so I always carry a tiny vial of ink with me!  It's the same ink, too, which can look gray or black depending on which pen I'm using.

As you can probably tell, for once there was no hurry, no need for quick sketching as I teach in some of my mini-classes, and so I sketched till my fingers smoked!

More of my Bennett Spring sketches, old and new, in my Flickr set, HERE.


So what's YOUR most comfortable way to work?

Bookshelf and Supply Catalog tabs are gone, sorry...

Sorry, all, if you were used to checking our virtual bookshelf or supply catalog...Missouri enacted the internet sales tax law, and as it has in other states, Amazon canceled their associates here.  The links won't open, now.

It's not Amazon, it's my beloved state, so don't blame Amazon!  How cold they possibly collect sales tax for Missouri if someone in Iowa clicked on a link and bought a secondhand book from someone in Florida?  That's how the links worked...convoluted, I know, and no wonder Amazon didn't want to deal with that impossible maze!

IF this unconstitutional law is ever repealed, the bookshelf and catalog will be back! 

I replaced our old Personal Favorite Supplies tab, though...links within it may not work, but the info is still good.

Thanks for understanding...

a secret to quicker sketching

Normally, I am a very slow sketcher --- slow at choosing a subject and slow at determining how to place it on a sketchbook page. Usually penciling in the basics (or more) before ink, then inking in just the most important lines, erasing the pencil lines, and finally adding watercolor washes. Overall, a very slow process!

Lately I have been trying to streamline my process. I've been carrying a pen, one small plastic pill box, a waterbrush, and reusable cloth. I'm getting braver at drawing directly in ink, though sometimes I'll use a blue-gray watercolor pencil which does not require erasing. But the best thing I've found to speed things up has been to cut down to only 2 watercolors: ultramarine blue and burnt umber. The above sketch was painted using only these (except the tiny diagram of optional color). When drawing on-site, I add just the warm and cool shadows. Later at home, I can add a bit of color if I wish. This really lightens my bag as well as taking away distracting options that slow me down.

If I think I'll have time to add color on-site, the second pill box holds 3 half-pans of basic color: quinacridone red or rose, a cool yellow, phthalo blue, goethite brown umber, and quinacridone burnt orange. All my recent sketches have been using these, and I am actually getting better . . . more confident in drawing as well as faster. Maybe I'll get more than one thing drawn at the next sketchcrawl.

limited palette with a challenge

new color chart in sketchbook based on David Barker's limited travel palette

Several years ago, there was an article in Artist's Sketchbook magazine on artist David Barker's limited palette and how he used it in his travel sketchbooks. What really caught my attention was that he first used only ultramarine blue and burnt umber to establish values and temperatures in his sketches, then added color only as needed. Sounds like an interesting challenge to me!

the original color chart and my Bijou box

 At the time, I worked out his colors in a color chart which I recently found while cleaning out old art supplies. I decided to try a similar palette in my Bijou box, substituting a quinacridone version of alizarin crimson, goethite brown ochre for raw umber, and quinacridone burnt orange for burnt sienna. I don't use yellow ochre or aureolin anymore -- these are leftover pans. When they are empty, I will probably replace them with quinacridone gold and Hansa yellow medium.