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Sunflower 24th September, watercolour
As a quick interlude in my Brasil posts, here are my sketches and watercolour experiments from this month. All have been done in the watercolour Moleskin I got at the recent Urban Sketchers Symposium. Above are the sketches of Degas, which have been done with a Super5 pen, whilst below are the sunflower experiments. What have you sketched this month? Why don't you leave a comment below? You are welcome to link to a post too.
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 Breakfast sketching After Rio, with fellow urban sketcher Béliza, I travelled to the far end of the state to the resort area of Armação dos Búzios. (You can read Béliza's account here: Goodbye jetlag). We decided to explore with a mini-sketchcrawl starting at breakfast in a delightful café overlooking the beach. Whilst sipping freshly squeezed orange juice and munching on croistants we set to painting the scene. The boats were so colourful they cried out to be painted. (Please click on images to see a large version) After breakfast, we wandered along the seafront and stopped near a couple of sculptures, which conveniently were near both shade and seats. Even having someone to sketch with, I struggled all day to draw taking ages to settle and decide on subjects.Whilst my friend started her second sketch in that location, I finally made a poor attempt to capture a blue building nearby. 
A bit further on, we stopped for a drink, and I quickly painted (with no under-drawing) the couple sat in front of us. 
Having wandered around, my final sketch of the day was trying to capture the hews of a nearby tree and the yacht club beyond, but it failed badly. 
On our second day, we took a boat trip. Even thought the water was cold (it is winter in Brazil) I swam at one of the bays we stopped at, but chose to stay warm and dry at the next one and tried to capture the turquoise sea of Ossos bay. (sorry the scan has changed the colour) 
The following day, we took buses the other end of the state, massively delayed due to the Tour do Rio and I did this last sketch staring out of the bus window, not moving through Angra Dos Reis. 
Part 3 is to follow. What do you think so far?  A magical view from Sugarloaf mountain. Part 1: Rio sketches When I'm stressed I find it dificult to draw, even sketch, and my default creative outlet reverts to photography. As many of you know from following me on facebook (www.facebook.com/suepownallartist), I recently went to Brazil for the 5th Urban Sketchers Symposium. Looking at the posts now appearing, I am jealous of the sketching others have done in that beautiful country. Whilst I had a fabulous time, both in the week preceeding the symposium and at the symposium, I am not very happy with my sketches... obviously workshop sketches are experimentations and are not expected to be great yet... it would be nice. I'm very pleased with my photos especially Jump, which I took in Rio's Botanical Gardens and the photo of Cristo Redentor (above).  Jump, Jardim Botânico. My holiday started in Rio and I based myself in the Santa Teresa district, which I explored thoroughly, but it wasn't until the next day when I went to Pão de Açúcar (Sugarloaf mountain), after a diversion in the the Centro and the Brazilian collection in the Museu Nacional de belas Artes (due to missing a bus stop, but that's a whole different story) that I put down my camera and picked up a pen... when I got back to the bottom. Everywhere I went in Rio, there were street vendors and I wanted to capture this one at the base of the mountain. The customer is a composite person and I wish I could delete her. oh well  The following day, I went to the Botanical Gardens. Whilst I spent 3 hours in the gardens, this was the only sketch I did. I think it is a variety of Breadfruit / fruta pão, pão de massa in Portuguese.  Artocarpus altilis, Jardim Botânico  Watercolouring in situ From the gardens I had a walk alongside the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon then caught a bus, deliberately, to Centro and the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil. I saw an exhibition by Brasilian artist Milton Machado Cabeça and had a lovely cuppa before having a wander around. The old pier supports caught my eye, but, as I'd been told not to be in the area in the evening, I had to sketch quickly with the sunsetting.  Estação das Barcas
 Cristo Redentor So that's the first part of my trip. What do you think so far?
 Wren's St Mary Abchurch 2 August 2014  A while ago I received an email from Monologue asking if I would like to review their sketchbooks. Naturally I said yes and a little while later a courier delivered this lovely parcel. They are designed to be used with a variety of mediums listed on the wrap: charcoal, chalk, graphite, pencil, pastel, oil pastel, wax crayon, red chalk, acrylic, collage, oil, marker, spray, tempera... Everything except ink, my prefered medium. As I am part way through the A5 Seawhite sketchbook, I decide I would test drive the soft cover A4, with holding elastic. It has a handy niche on the edge keeping it both in place and away from the pages - neat!  Wren's Monument to the Great Fire of London Pete Scully had arranged a sketchcrawl of Wren's buildings, so I thought that was a good time to testdrive the sketchbook. Aren't new ones scary? At the meeting point lots of peeps were busy sketching the buildings or craning their necks to draw the top of Monument. Eek. I drew 2 construction workers on their break at the bottom. The sketchbook liked my pen, so that was a relief. Getting my map of locations, & sticker for my sketchbook, I drew the church clock and spire of St. Magnus the Martyr listening to the chimes of the bells. I added the watercolour, which the page handled well I am very lazy, mixing colours direct on the drawing with quite a bit of water. It crinkled a little, but not much at all.  St Magnus the Martyr Next it was St Marys Abchurch and I loved its poor green, damp covered, neglected side. I spent a long time on this sketch as I built up the watercolour glazes to emulate what I saw. I'm pleased with the result and the way the Monologue sketchbook took the paint.  Sketching St Mary Abchurch rear entrance  I'm not so pleased with my last sketch of St Mary le Bow Church as the church is soooo vast, my initial marks were way off. The café shot is the best way to view it. I then had to head home to walk my lovely assistant and missed the final meet up at St Paul's. I had a lovely day, thanks to Pete's planning, and look forward to using the sketchbook more as so far I think it's really good. They certainly should add ink to the list of mediums that it's good for. Now, I must try something other than watercolour or ink for a thorough test. Monologue's facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/ilovemonologue Website: http://www.ilovemonologue.com (This post was first published on August 18, 2014 on artofanomad.blogspot.com) |
About me
I am a nomadic artist travelling the world for inspiration. Here, I publish my sketchbook work alongside my new finished pieces. 
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