A weekend trip to sunny England

I couldn't have chosen a better weekend for my trip to England than last weekend. After all the stormy, rainy weather that has been going on in Britain basically since Christmas, I was expecting it to be, well,  cool, wet, and stormy. But instead I had 6 days without a single drop of rain! And while it was a bit cool, grey, and windy on Thursday, Monday, and Tuesday, it was warm and bright sunshine from Friday til Sunday.

I knew I wasn't going to do any sketching while I was there, but I still packed my sketchbook, some pens and pencils, and a small box of watercolours for the journey. The airplane sketch was a bit scary to do, and rather confusing, but I think I can just about get away with the perspective not being entirely right. I added the paint, and did another sketch - of my cup of tea - on the 2 1/2 hour train journey from Woking down to Dorset.

I had only a water reservoir brush and a tiny mixing palette with me, and while I think that the water reservoir brush is indeed very useful for travelling, I must admit that I don't really like it very much. I much prefer a proper watercolour brush, or better, a selection of proper watercolour brushes, and one or two ceramic palettes for mixing. But it's better than nothing, and it made the time pass by quickly.

On the way home, I had to wait about two hours at Heathrow, and while it would have been just the most perfect place for sketching - people sitting around waiting, reading, playing with their gadgets... - I just didn't have the energy to take out my sketchbook, and instead spent the time there, and on the plane, reading my book, or marvelling at the lights of the cities, towns and villages below. We flew right over London City on our approach to Heathrow, and for once, I happened to sit on the right side. Doesn't Tower Bridge look tiny compared to the buildings around? I just love to look at the world from up high.

I took some pictures with my proper camera too while I was there. Mostly of sheep. There are a lot of sheep in Dorset. And they have such beautiful faces.

And of seagulls. There are loads of seagulls too, along the coast. And we spent quite some time on the pier in West Bay, trying to get some good shots of seagulls in flight. They can be quite annoying. But they are fascinating birds too.

And of course some land- and seascape shots too.

Off again...

Have a wonderful summer (break)!

Back again soon...

Travel Journal

I've been wanting to make travel sketches for ages, and I've been filling my suitcase with all kinds of journals, sketchbooks and paint mediums on all my trips in the past two or three years. But it wasn't until my holiday a couple of weeks ago, that I finally started my first proper travel journal, documenting each day of my stay in lovely Dorset. (Well almost, I didn't bother to make a page for the shopping day in Exeter, when it was pouring down with rain all day long). Of course, I'm still dreaming of the ultimate travel sketch experience - placing myself on a cliff top, beach, in a busy town square, or café, my supplies spread around me, and sketching and painting right there. and then But that's rather unlikely. I like my holiday days to be filled, to be on the move, go places, see things, as many as possible. And my camera alone is usually already more than enough weight to carry around all day. And I'm also far to shy to sketch and paint in public.

So instead I'm relying on reference images. This also means a different, or rather extended, approach to my photography. Apart from the carefully composed photos I usually take, I now have to remember to also take photos that will serve mainly or only as reference for the scenes and objects I want to paint later. Most of them are rather boring photos, but that's okay, as they serve their purpose.

I took a travel watercolour box on my holiday too, but I never got round to do any painting. Instead, I just made simple pencil/pen sketches in the evenings, documenting different bits and pieces of a particular day, a double page for each day. Back home, I'm now adding colour to each page. It's so much easier to be able to look at the photo on my computer, rather than on the camera display, and by taking the time to paint the pages now, to do some research for the notes to add to the sketches, feels like going on all the walks, seeing all the sights again.

I decided to use a Molesking A4 watercolour journal. The pages are big enough for lots of details, and the landscape format, which I didn't like at all at first (but it seems almost impossible to find watercolour sketchbooks in a normal format) turns out to be quite useful for this kind of sketches. The paper could be a bit smoother for my liking, but it's a nice crispy white, and paper thick enough to flatten out after the paint has dried, which makes sketching so much easier.

So far, I've only finished painting the first page, but I hope to spend most of the weekends working on the other sketches, and to finish them all before I head off on my next holiday soon. Of course my travel journal will be in my suitcase too.

Linking up to the wonderful Paint Party Friday. Make sure to go and have a look at all the wonderful work of the other party goers. It's always so inspiring.

Gone to the beach...

Foggy beach walks, sea shells & and a rainy Sunday afternoon

For me, who's living in a landlocked country with no coast anywhere close, a trip to the beach is as exciting as birthday and Christmas together. Walking on the sand, listening to the sound of the waves, the fresh sea air in your face. It's so exciting, that it doesn't even matter that it's about 0 degrees C, the wind biting cold, and so foggy, that you can't see anything of the dramatic cliffs that stretch along the coast. In fact, the special mood created by the fog and dusk made it all even more beautiful.

And then of course there's the sea shells. Such beautiful treasures, that are just too irresistible not to be picked up, even if you can hardly bend down because off all the layers you're wearing to keep warm. Oh, there's another one, and another one, and another one, and yes I know, we already have loads of those, but just this last one. And that one... We returned with a whole pocketful of them.

The following Sunday afternoon was rainy, and after another walk on the beach in the morning, a warming soup at the pub, and a handful of more shells, it was best spend at home sketching those precious shells (or watching Rugby, wathever you prefer).

I'm especially pleased about that little pink shell we discovered, and which looks quite different than all the other ones we found.

Most of the more delicate ones were a little damaged, but I thought that just added to their charm.

I had taken my new cheap paints with me, which so far, I had only used in thick, opaque layers. But I was very pleased to see that they also worked very well with more water, creating those typical watercolour effects.

Happy Paint Party Friday!