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..
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.
Sketching a coffee in Toulouse and marigolds at Coin Perdu – 4 & 5 May.
..a coffee in Toulouse yesterday while waiting for my daughter to go fit her wedding dress. – 4 May.
pen and watercolor in Daler and Rowney sketchbook, 25,4×17,8cm
Doing this sketching every day in May is meant to get me back on track. I’ve lost some concentration, my ability to observe and interpret instantaneously. the last few months I’ve been distracted by so many things and art got put onto the back burner. My sketches in May is not supposed to be beautiful work, but a program of work and exercises. Flowers are always a good way to sharpen the saw and by looking at my wonky, askew marigolds…I need a lot of that!
..wonky marigolds – 5 May..
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
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..
Still life with quince.
I have moved on from autumn colours to still lifes, done in the atelier. Working in thin washes, laying wet washes over dry ones. not my usual way of working, but I am quite chuffed and will do a series of these watercolors.
I need to bring in a bit darker values and I want to have more informal compositions. I think my inspiration comes here from Cézanne, whose watercolours I love. There is currently an exhibit of Cézanne in the Musee de Luxembourg in Paris until 26 February 2012, for those who want to jump in their private jets for a visit…and a lunch afterwards, maybe at the Mini palais restaurant?
…Still life with quince…
watercolor and pencil on Fabriano artistico CP, 30,5×45,5cm
I’m posting a close up to show the layering of thin washes.
…close up…
Until the next post where I’ll be back with another still life…hopefully a better one with darker values, more expressive compositions…and one where my patience has reigned!
A handpainted aquarelle sketch and provencal pots.
When you forget a paintbrush at home, you use what you have available. In this case, it was my hands. And for this occasion it worked fine, although it will definitely not become my preferred way of working. I will in tie or glue my brush to my bag so I’ll never forget it again.
…interior of “la panettiére” in Toulouse…
pen and watercolorin watercolor sketchbook, 18x24cm..
The next sketch was done in the barn one evening.. and I only noticed the slant during the daytime the next day..the light in the barn at night is just not good enough for any art making, but I quite like the quirky feel to these pots. They are two of my very old terracotta pots from Provence and I adore them! I’ve started doing an oil panting with these pots..a canvas that has already been standing a few weeks on the easel…and now I’m subjecting my name to scandal by admitting it here..
…two provencal pots…
..pen and watercolour on Arches watercolor paper, CP, 18x26cm..
Just some sketches….and a vendange in Vouvray.
Every year I paint these clementines from la Corse. See last year’s sketches at CLementines.
…clementines from Corsica…
Sketch done in moleskine with pen and watercolour
The next two sketches were done a while ago. I just sketched some things around me – a container in the living room with brushes and pens and stuff and part of a bookshelf. I try very hard to keep the bookshelf, neat, but I am starting to think we will never have neat bookshelves.
..brushes and pens…
…disorder…
Sketches done in Moleskine with rotring artist pen and water wash.
On Myfrenckitchen, I have posted some photo’s of a vendange in Vouvray that we did in Octobre. Good freinds have a bio vineyard where the harvesting is still done by hand. On one Saturday during the harvest period in October, all their family and friends get together for a day of grape harvesting. It was hard work, but a fun day, with a delicious lunch, many laughs and jokes and a messy grape fight towards the end of the day. I only took photos, because I didn’t want to hide from the work behind my sketchbook! you can see some photo’s here at Pears in red wine and a wine harvest.
Le Boss is in Paris – sketches
…le Boss is away!!…
It has been quite a while that I held a sketch pen and book in my hand, but now that le Boss is in Paris for the week and I am alone at Coin Perdu, I took my chance to go from …
…this…
…and this…
…to this…
All sketches in rotring pen and watercolour in moleskine.
Oil painting
A few days ago I painted this corner of the Loire in oil. Unfortunately I fiddled with it afterwards while it was standing on the easel in the atelier to dry, resulting in losing some great first strokes and giving the water this almost “swimming pool” colour. Knowing well I have this addiction, I normally hang a painting immediately on the wall when done and then I don’t touch it…on the easel however, I always see something that needs fixing!
…ombre et lumiére..
oil on canvas, 30×30 cm (11.8×11.8 in)
I am leaving for Coin Perdu in Correze for about three weeks, which will be sort of a solitary retreat. And since I’m leaning towards oil painting for now, I’ve decided to pack all my oil stuff for some plein air painting for which the opportunities and subjects there are boundless. So I had a stack of boards, in different sizes, cut at my hardware store, and prepared them at home with first a coat of acrylic primer, then a coat of mixed gesso and modeling paste and lastly a coat of gesso. (after the method by David Curtis).
Some years ago I played around with modeling paste on canvases and several other surfaces, as can be seen in the next two paintings. Given a coat of gesso or acrylic primer, it provides a nice textured surface for some expressive work in oil and other mixed media.
…urn 1, mixed media on canvas…
…detail of texture(with modeling paste)..
…urn 2, mixed media on paper…
…detail of texture(with modeling paste)
…pineapples…
oil on canvas, 30×30 cm.
…detail of texture(with modeling paste)…
Clowns
I sat around a coffee inTours the other day, then still the Old Year, waiting for our youngest who got her hair trimmed. All around me in the brasserie hung these clowns along with clown paintings. They made me giggle. A clown does that. And they make me sad. But these clowns can’t make me sad. Because they aren’t real. And because it was the last day of the Old Year. I didn’t want to end the year sad and I want this year to be filled with much more laughter. I didn’t laugh enough in the previous one. And so the clowns worked their way into my moleskine.
May we all have a year overflowing with good, old fashioned, unashamedly wild laughter and may we laugh the hardest at ourselves.
…haaa ha ha ha ha ha!…
Sketches in moleskine, pen and watercolour.
Drawing in graphite
I haven’t had time to post my drawings from the afternoons with Casey the last two weeks, so here follows…
The first drawing was done at her house and she set up some beautiful statues. I had fun with this. I always have fun doing statues. I find they can hold long poses…
This drawing was done in graphite 9b, on drawing block, 50×35 cm.
…hold it, hold it..
This second drawing was last week and I set up some bottles, thinking I could at the same time play around with “different strokes”, which is the theme of Robyn’s book in our international sketchbook exhange. I enjoyed all the themes of the books and it revealed a little of each book’s owner, which made every book so unique. In this case, I can picture Robyn as someone with a whole variety of “different strokes”, making her interesting, lively with a great sense of humour and strong personality. So to come up with something for her book, “Different strokes”, I played around with this next drawing, which isn’t going into her book, but it did lead me down the path to the eventual pages I am busy adding to her book. And following the advice of her wise bee, I am also having fun doing it!
Drawing done in graphite, watercolour pencils, charcoal pencil, white conté, coffee, chocolate cake…ah…no, that was for eating..
…in search of different strokes…
I have also finally sent Lindsay’s canoe home, with a sniff and a blink… She’ll defintely post her whole book soon, but if you want to catch a glimpse of her canoe, see Captain’s log.
…Adieu..
Montgolfière en France
I’ve had the exciting opportunity recently to go hot air ballooning in Fontainebleau. We took off on the grounds of the chateau and landed some hours later in a farmer’s field. We were treated to champagne by candlelight after landing which couldn’t have been more perfect!
I did two sketches from photos afterwards. I didn’t even consider sketching there, I was too afraid of being left behind, because once the balloon was up and billowing, there was no time for fancy stuff. It was grab your legs and climb that basket. Besides it is far more exciting watching the balloon lift and blow and bulge.
If you’re interested in seeing some pictures you can go to Myfrenchkitchen, where I’ve put up some pics of the whole process and the trip, the amazing sunset, smooth landing and our great crew.
Both these sketches were done on Fabriano artistico block(30x23cm) with pen and watercolour.
…stretching the toile…
…almost there…
Foire aux vins(Wine fair)
September/October is time for Foire aux vins in France. Time to refill those empty spaces in the wine cellar. Try out new wines, restock on old favourites. I enjoy a good red wine. But most of all, I enjoy the grapes. My favourites being Muscat(dark) and Chasselas(green). So I’ll have the grapes now and save the wine for later.
…let there be wine…
Sabre à champagne – a tradition dating from the Napolean empire. Coming back from a battle, the cavalry would pay tribute to victory, vigour, virility and of course…women, by opening up bottles of champagne with theatrical flaunt and flare. The cold bottle is held at the bottom and with a swift movement of the sable from bottom to the neck, the “cork is popped” right under the rim. A clean chop, leaving no shattered glass.
(Edit: I just realized how crooked this sword looks with the completely “off” shadow under the blade! Yes, I confess. I held the sword in my hand and thus cheated on “seeing” the shadow on the surface…now that says a lot for competence…and I didn’t have a single sip!)
…”en garde!”..
Some fancy bottle openers are available today. The most efficient and quickest still remains the “couteau de sommelier“, which is the all-in-one every “garcon” (waiter) walks around with in his pocket.
And how about a decanter for aged wines to separate from their deposits, or a carafe for a young wine to “breathe”
…”1 2 3 breathe!, 1 2 3 breathe”…
I did intend to do more sketches showing the fun of the Foire aux vins, but laziness got the better of me. I think I’ll just stick to finishing the grapes I’ve sketched and open a Pomerol with dinner tonight.
Sketches done in pen and watercolour on Fabriano artistico block, 22×29, 5cm.
Ink exercises
I love inkwork and there are some beautiful inks around not to mention the artists that do beautiful inkwork.
I took my summer shoes to do some excercises with the inks and pens I have. Excercise 1: Summer sandals done in Gris nuage ink from J. Herbin, drawing the lines with a stylo à plume d’oie(quill pen) and afterwards I bled the lines and washed with some powerful blue Eclat de sapphire ink and a small brush. I just can’t help myself. I have to do a wash somewhere with a brush. It is an addiction. I would so love to do only beautiful lines and leave it. Maybe next time.
…the blues…
Excercise 2: A second pair of summer sandals, this time using a speedball pen and Cafe des iles from J. Herbin. Once again just dragged a wet brush over the lines to get a wash, and finished off with some black india ink hatches.
…summer swing…
Excercise3: A pair of Sperry’s…and could I explain the difference in size? Maybe I have one big foot and one small foot…? Or could it simply be bad observation? Done in a reed pen and plume pen with Sanguine 270, from Sennelier. And after dragging a wet brush over the lines to bleed the colour, I decided to add some washes of Lie de the of J. Herbin. Finished off with some scribblings with a rotring pen, 2,5 .
…Bigfoot…
Excercise 4: Since I had now used up all my summer shoes, I had only my shoe blocks left. Linework in rotring artist pen and washed with a wet brush to bleed the lines. Then decided to splash in some colour with Sennelier’s Sanguine 270 and Lie de the, J. Herbin.
…in-and-out…
In the past, I have done a lot of calligraphy work, so I have many speedball pens and nibs that work wonderful for drawing. Added to that, are some reed pens(which I don’t like much), plumes/goose quill pen, which I love to work with, rotring artist pen(Fine), and rotring rapidograph pen, size 2.5.
I enjoy the inks of J. Herbin. They are rich, make for nice washes as well as lines and dry with a nice sheen. I have only recently started working with the J. Herbin inks and they are really beautiful! Wonderful for linework as well as doing bleeding with a wet brush and they are lightfast, can be sealed beautifully…in short, I have nothing bad to say about them! I haven’t yet found a nice dark burgundy red, but Sennelier’s Sanguine 270 is a nice dark red which comes close to what I’m looking for. All the sketches were done in a spiral watercolour pad, 18x26cm (7″x10″) Fabriano Artistico CP. Below you can see part of my “ink workstation”.
…hailing efforts…
Coffee shop sketches
When I said yesterday I have nothing to post, I lied. I forgot I had these four sketches, which I did in February, just after France became a smokefree public area country. We are almost 5 months down the road(why does it feel like more?) and it is still going well and the law is pretty much respected by all. Only nick now is that all the smokers stand right outside the entrance and you thus enter through this haze of smoke, holding your breath, closing your eyes and keeping your hand out in front in good hope you’ll somewhere hit the entrance! Ohh, I’m joking, it’s not reallyh that bad…I’m just happy for having a smokefree interior! Which allowed me in February to enjoy coffee at lenght’s desire in my three favourite coffee spots at the time…it’s changed by now, since I can’t stick to one thing for too long.
…Le duclos…
…le pt gilles…
…le steven…
…les deux hommes, z…
All sketches in moleskine, done with pen and monochrome wash.
Sketchbook exchange sketches
Now that our Flying Pictures Project is a little further down the road and everybody involved had already seen my first sketches posted on our blog FPP, AND since I don’t have much in the form of sketches to post here, AND I haven’t been around much, I thought it good to post my first sketches that were sent off in May. With my theme being “rainbow moments”, I took the first subjects that came into my view that gave me joy and this is what shaped the first two and half pages in my book that went off to Lindsay, and has just landed at Robyn. So, four more stops, before it arrives back home.
Edited: To see Lindsay’s beautiful addition in oil pastel, see our Flying Pictures Project .
All sketches done in our handmade concertina sketchbooks with rotring pen, pencil and watercolour.
My sketchbook has taken to flight.
My sketchbook has taken off on its long journey to Lindsay in the US. This is how it looked just before I pushed it out of the nest to test its wings.
I baptised my little creation “Rainbow moments”, thinking that instead of chasing the “pot of gold” that is always somewhere else, we should look closer at home to find the beauty of the “small moments of rainbow”, right here in front of us and the bigger the mixture, the greater the beauty.
…cover…or wrapping…or dummy….or clue…?
This is my handmade sketchbook, going off to be something of a Phileas Fogg… which there are seven of involved in this voyage which we called the Flying Pictures Project; started off by Lindsay in the US, who acted on her wishful thinking and gathered us together from around the globe to act along with her. So, there is Robyn in Italy, Nina in Sweden, Vivien in the UK, and Glen in the UK and Caseyand I, in France. We decided to make our own books, accordion style, each one choosing what she wants to do with her book and starting off the journey with 2 and 1/2 pages of art. The person receiving it, will add her own paper and continue with her 2 and 1/2 pages of art. And so the journey continues until the books finally arrive back home after 6 stops.
To be continued…
A breather in spring.
I have been taking a long break. I’m doing things I have been neglecting for some time, I’m enjoying spring and everything that goes along with it. I have been waiting a long time for summer to show up and now that it is here, I have to make every minute count, for it passes quickly. I’m basking in the fruits of the season. I have had an attack of fatigue and I am paying attention to my health. And I’m playing around on Myfrenchkitchen, which I’ve allowed to slip from me over the last few months. I’m stopping by here at Africantapestry just for a quick breather before I continue on my road of indulgence. And pretty soon I’ll be back here with full gusto.
Enjoy the season!
Watercolour and pen in sketchbook
…mangoes for spring…
Let your hands do the talking
Sometimes a gesture says more than a thousand words…
Sketches done in dip pen and ink(colour island coffee), with a wash, in moleskine.
