If you are wondering what I’ve been doing lately… I’ve run a half marathon last Sunday (that took a bit of my time and energy). I’m reading a lot on soil regeneration and water cycle (more about that in future posts).
I also took for the second time Liz Steel‘s excellent online course on sketching buildings, and did a bit of practice on it. I had a lot of new learning and insights the second time over.
These sketches are all from photographs, many posted on Instagram by the very talented Sergio Lironi (I want to sketch pretty much every photo he posts, and I’m against sketching from other people’s photos). I used a variety of sketchbooks because I’m working my way through the many half-used sketchbooks I have, and also because I like to compare how they work with ink and watercolor. I’m surprised to see how some “non watercolor” sketchbooks (such as the Stillman & Birn Alpha or some versions of the Handbook sketchbooks) working better for me that “watercolor” sketchbooks (such as the Moleskine or the Hahnemühle watercolor sketchbooks) in which the watercolor seems to float on the surface or not moving at all.
One tip from Liz Steel that has made a big difference in my sketching: use a watercolor pencil with a light neutral color (raw Sienna and light grey is what I used here) for the initial setup, even better if it has a blunt point. You’ll have to focus on the big shapes and proportions rather than on the details and don’t have to erase it after you add ink and watercolor.
This approach is better than using pencil and trying too hard to “get it right” and better than starting with ink and getting lost in the details. It forces me to look at the building structure and proportions and how everything fits together, with the chance of fixing errors when I get to the ink.
Today is a beautiful day in Seattle, so maybe I can carve some time for on location sketching.