A sunshine tulip and white sketches.
The tulips I brought back from Amsterdam last year are all in bloom, except for 3 Allium bulbs that I lost to greedy rabbits. I picked all white bulbs and got big surprise when a few of the carefully picked white bulbs turned out to be a bright sunny yellow! That is OK. Oh well, I am not too angry. Seeing that we are still wearing winter clothes and waiting for spring weather, I can only imagine the yellow was chosen by fate to uplift my spirit..some very welcome sunshine in a tulip!
As usual, I wait until the very last to get something done..including sketching the tulips. The yellow ones lost all their petals today, except for one lonely one, hanging on a few petals only for my benefit. While mon chéri saw to diner, I took the opportunity to sketch these tulips, before the fat lady had finally sung. I made it just in time…all the yellow petals are gone..
The white tulips are still flowering happily and elegant in their waving. I am not a huge tulip fan and never had many in my gardens, but I have to admit that they do make for a spectacular show en masse!
à bientôt
Ronelle
30/3/2013: Joyeuses Pâques!
To all my friends and readers and visitors, those who stop for a moment and those who pass right by…whatever you do during this Easter period, whichever way you celebrate it, or even ignore it…I wish you fun and joy, many chocolate Easter eggs, (may you win the Easter egg hunt), and the most important of all…stay safe and pass on that wide smile!!
Joyeuses Pâques a tout le monde!
Ronelle
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
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
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..
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.
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.
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
..three eggs 2..
in watercolour and pen onArches watercolour block,CP, 18x26cm
..three eggs 3..
in watercolour and pen on Fabriano watercolour block, HP, 23×30,5cm
Reds in autumn
Voilà all the reds from fall, the last of my autumn colours.
..the palette for all the autumn reds..
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..line drawings in pen and aquarelle added last..
18×25.5cm aquarelle arches block, CP
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.. wetting the paper, dripped some aqaurelle pigment, leave to dry and finished with pen line drawing..
23×30.5cm aquarelle Fabriano block, HP
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deraing in pan and dripping drops of colour..
18×25.5cm aquarelle arches block, CP
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..drawing in pen and aquarelle wash afterwards..
18×25.5cm aquarelle arches block, CP
Ochre fall leaves
This is my favorite time of sketching.. I love all the ochres and umbers. And on days when the weather is a bit chilly or wet, it is nice to bring in leaves and branches and whatever else I found on walk and fiddle in the studio. I don’t work in my atelier enough and I actually love my atelier! My table is in front of the fireplace, my coffee machine just a further to the left..in fact, the whole barn is my atelier and I am in it for another winter.
..fall leaves..
Both sketches done in pen and aquarelle in Hahnemule watercolor sketchbook, 19X20cm
Sweet chestnut sketch
Sketching a chestnut..not easy.
-pen and watercolor in watercolor sketchbook, 15x25cm-
à bientôt
Ronelle
Sketching two geese in action.
My two geese Aglaé et Sidonie, provide me with hours of fun and pleasure..watching them is better than owning a home cinema! I sketched them this weekend, the first time since I got them earlier this year. I thought it was going to be easy..sketching them. I know them by heart, seeing them every day and watching them, feeding the, following them, being followed by them. When I close my eyes, I can so clearly see them and I can so easily tell them apart. But sitting with the pen in my hand, brought forward all kinds of problems. Even when after changing to a pencil, I couldn’t escape the problems.
..Two adorable geese, Aglaé et Sidonie..
(watercolour and pen in Hahnemuhle watercolor sketchbook, 19x20cm)
I jumped in and tried to capture them while they floated in their fountain(actually MY fountain they took over!). That’s when I realized how little I understood of their morphology! I had trouble sketching their wings and the build of their lower bodies, the length of their necks in relation to their bodies, their typical thoraxes…they are so different from ducks and mine looked like some mongrels of geesed ducks.. so much for thinking I know my geese! So it was back to doing some real studying.
..Two geese in (my) fountain..
(watercolour and pen in Hahnemuhle watercolor sketchbook, 26x18cm)
From a distance, it was fairly easy getting hold of just the shapes and suggesting their actions. They are ideal for studying, because they move slowly(and funny) and rhythmic, with an elegance that originate in their long necks and sideways glances.
..two geese from a distance..
(watercolour and pen in Hahnemuhle watercolor sketchbook, 26x18cm)
Their backsides are quite interesting with their wings crossing one over the other and lying on top of a cute, quirky fantail.
..Two geese’s cute swaying backsides..
(watercolour and pen in Hahnemuhle watercolor sketchbook, 19x20cm)
They have such beautiful character, aren’t mean at all. It seems they love company, so they love lying by my feet or anywhere close by our activities, and they love being by the horses. Only with the chickens do they have a love/hate relationship.
..Two geese watching me as intensely as I did them..
(watercolour and pen in Hahnemuhle watercolor sketchbook, 19x20cm)
The top sketches are the best of all those I did the weekend, trying to understand these two ladies. When I close my eyes now, I actually see them much better! so doing all of this work was really wroth it. Capturing animals is not only about the perfect technique, but also about their character, which to me is more important than the perfect rendition of their morphology. I a feel quite chuffed with the expression in Aglaé in the above sketch..the typical tilt of her head and watchful sideways glance she throws me. Man, I just adore these mesdemoiselles!
à bientôt
Ronelle
Terracotta potholder sketch – 2 May
..terracotta pots on garden pot holder..
watercolor and pen in Daler & Rowney aquarelle sketchbook, 254×178 cm.
Sketching everyday in May – 1 May 2012
Les muguets de 1er Mai..
..Lily of the valley..
watercolor and pen in Daler & rowney watercolor sketchbook, 254x178cm
Some lunch sketches.
I had some lunch at a small restaurant close by and sketched my lunch of a vegetable soup, coffee and the surrounding salt and pepper set.
…vegetable soup and bread…
pencil, pen and watercolor in Daler rowney sketchbook
The coffee sketch was my first and when I tell you that I had a very upsetting experience just before I arrived at the restaurant, you’ll understand why the lines are so dark and the whole sketch is sombre and almost violent. I’m always amazed by the strong influence emotion has on art.
The salt and pepper set was the last sketch and you can see that my emotion has settled a bit by that time. It did my a world of good to do these drawings…therapeutic.
…vegetable soup…
pencil, pen and watercolor in Daler rowney sketchbook
…coffee and water with cpeculoos biscuit…
pencil, pen and watercolor in Daler rowney sketchbook
Sketches of cute sheep.
A sheep and lamb or two from our neighbors camp. If all goes well and I can convince my husband with my sweet puppy eyes, I might just have my own cute lambs this spring!
…Sheep and lambs 1…
pencil, pen and watercolor in Daler Rowney sketchbook CP, 254x178cm
…Sheep and lambs 2..
pencil, pen and watercolor in Daler Rowney sketchbook CP, 254x178cm
Abstract efforts in inks.
I’m not a natural in doing abstracts, but I can appreciate abstract art work. And I mean real good abstract art, not bad art which hides under the cover of “abstract art”. What I’ve done here didn’t exactly end up being totally abstract, but I enjoyed the line work and the ink marks. In fact, it is probably still only more of my exercises in line and mark making, and not real abstract efforts..
…the blues…
..J Herbin inks with feather quill on Arches aquarelle paper rough,18x26cm..
…the Reds…
…Sennelier inks with feather quill on Arches aquarelle paper rough,18x26cm..
…The Blacks…
…Black Winsor et Newton Indian inks with feather quill on Arches aquarelle paper rough,18x26cm..
Still life with copper pots.
With this second attempt at an aquarelle still life, I didn’t to set it up the still life. I only painted what was in front of me, which was my copper pots filled with brushes and other art stuff. I moved the objects a little to avoid “kissing” and to bring them a little closer. the apple that rolled to the side, was left as it found its place and I was very chuffed with it!It might be overcrowded for some, but I rather like the idea…in any case more than a composed and deliberate still life. Maybe it is a mirror of my life…anything BUT composed and deliberate!
… stil life with copper pots…
..in watercolor and graphite on Fabriano paper CP 30.5×45.5cm…
…and a close up of my strokes and layers. I still feel I overworked it and could’ve let go of the brush much sooner..
Colors and foliage in November 4
In the woods I picked up 2 different ivy’s, some pine branches, mushrooms and cushions of yellow green moss. for the greens, my palette c0nsisted of pure olive green, prussian blue, cerulean, cadmium yellow and ochre. I added touches of burnt sienna and raw umber.
In the first sketch I did yesterday, I found the colour too uniform and without depth, too uninspiring.
…greens..
pen and watercolor on Canson Montval watercolor paper CP, 29,7x42cm
…then I went back in this morning and darkened some values – in the mushrooms, the pine branches and I used a thicker .7 pen. I think it has now a bit more more…oomph?
Colors and foliage of November 3.
I found some beautiful grays…some more bluish, others more yellowish and greenish and some just simply…gray.
…grays..
watercolor and J Herbin inks on Hahnemuhle paper CP 15,5x25cm
Doing the above sketch was very quick and dare I say easy, without sounding obnoxious? I’ll tell and you can decide…
- With a goose quill and nib and “gris nuage” ink from J Herbin, I drew the outline of the twig/branch with contour lines.
- I added a wet was over the areas that I wanted to highlight as the greyish moss, in the process flooding some the water soluble ink lines.
- I dabbed in some light dabs of indigo, prussian blue, paynes gray, ochre and raw umber on the wet areas. To finish off the background, I dropped some paint , using the same colours, from a loaded brush to loosely suggest random patches of moss.
- Lastly I finished off with some dark paynes gray(little water, lots of pigment, to give very dark values, suggesting the small dark corners between the moss.
..J Herbin inks and goose quill…
Just some sketches.
I have done just some sketches. Nothing in particular. Just taking out a pen and small watercolor tin and putting something on paper.
…two plants on a coffeetable of a shop…
…a third potplant on another coffee table…
…a branch of berries picked on one of my walks…
All sketches done in pen and watercolor wash on Arches paper, 18x26cm
Africantapestry is off to Provence for a crazy painting experience!
Yes, I’m off to Provence this coming weekend for a crazy painting time with 3 friends for one of three weeks in total.
...africantapestry is off to provence…
sketch in pen and watercolor
Katherine needs no introduction,; if you don’t know about the role she plays in the virtual art world, then shame on you…go and read about her!! And who doesn’t know Robyn and her biggest fan Dermott(or is he??)…? And about Sarah, well I don’t have to say another word, because a professional painter of her standard doesn’t need any introduction!
So there you are, four nutty women off to Provence to paint….mostly paint…and then also feast on Provencal foods…and wines….drive around….get lost….dance to wild music…chat, chat, and chat….laugh, laugh and laugh(we all four have an overly developed sense 0f humor)…swim….cycle… and eveything else one does in Provence?
We’ll be staying in the Vaucluse home of well known painter of Postcards from Provence, Julian Merrow Smith and his wife Ruth Philips, while they will be in England where Ruth will be playing cello at the Garsington festival.
We even have our own blog, Four go painting in Provence and you’re invited to follow us every step of the way on this trip. and Sarah saw to us having our own logo, which you will see on television and on Oprah…oh no, sorry Oprah isn’t any more…oh, well, we’ll probably just get our own show…
…four go painting in provence…
…sketch done by Sarah…
Seriously though, we’re planning on doing a lot of painting…all of us will be doing aquarelle, some gouache, some will do oils(I’m one and I know for sure Sarah is another) and then there will be coloured pencils, charcoal, inks and pens. We will of course leave Provence with cases full of sketches, a lot of plein air paintings and drawings well do in the evenings after the dishes. We will also post regularly on Four go painting in Provence to pin down our daily experiences.
So please drop by and please join us and who knows, our fun might lead to you doing the same in Provence next year. I think we might be in Prague next year…or Sicilia…or Marocco…anyhow, we’ll be somewhere! But for now…move over Cezanne, here come the four mad hatters!
Garden sketches from February
February was a busy month and I didsn’t get around to doing much art. I did succeed on doing a garden sketch and a drawing of Tartelette ad Omelette, on a reasonably nice February afternoon.
I feel happy with the drawing, which was first done as a sketch and then developed further into a drawing. The cloches were done afterwards, rather lazily and not much effort or desire went into this sketch.
…Tartelette et Omelette…
…sanguine and charcoal drawing on paper, 24×20 cm…
..Two garden cloches…
…charcoal sketch on paper, 24x20cm…
