Lazy Sunday sketches - radishes and berries

It's Friday again already, just a few hours till the weekend, and of course two great parties to join. As I don't have so much time during the week to paing, 'm always looking forward to spending all day in my studio during the weekend. Last weekend, though, I just couldn't get myself to pick up a paint brush at all. I felt totally uninspired, and so I finally gave up and decided to just take have a really lazy weekend and get some rest. By Sunday evening, while happily watching telly, I at last managed to pick up my sketchbook  for some lazy Sunday sketches (although I was too lazy to finish them).

One of the first lessosn in The Art of Wild Abandoment was about sketching radishes. You didn't have to do radishes, of course, but somehow I found them a comforable subject to sketch, and I keep coming back to them. In supermarkets over here, they are sold in bunches with their greens and other bits still on, not in the "tidied up" version found in some other places.

I love all the berries available at the moment. My favourites are no doubt blueberries, but I also love blackberries and raspberries. The blackberries are especially delicious at the moment. Firm and perfectly sweet. Irresistible. And their colour is just gorgeous.

I grew up with Caran d'Ache Neocolor. Well, actually with everything Caran d'Ache. Since it is a Swiss manufacturer, they're the dominant brand here, and the only brand used in school for everything, from pencils to fountain pens (no ballpoint pens allowed in my time), to watercolour and gouache paints, and of course the Necolor crayons. I still have my very first box of crayons, but I haven't used them very often since my school time. It wasn't until I took the first online course with Christy Tomlinson, actually, that I re-discovered them.

I've been using them more and more often lately, and I'm adding new colours to my palette. They're quite cheap here, actually, and I think I'll soon have the whole range of 126 colours! They are especially handy, in combination with a water reservoir brush, for lazy sofa sketchings. But I'll also take them with me on my planned trips this year (not long until the first one now :) ), to do some sketching. I've always wanted to sketch while on holiday, but somehow never managed. But this year, there are no excuses. A sketchbook, a box of Neocolor II crayons and a water reservoir brush - you can take these anywhere!

Linking up to Paint Party Friday (even though they're only half finished sketches) and Palette & Paint (even though there isn't much of a palette to show, and even less paint, I'm afraid).

But this coming weekend, I'm going to spend much time in the studio, and get my paints and brushes, and hopefully, I'll have some more to show next week. Have a great and inspiring Friday everyone!