The joys of travelling by air, and how not to get overwhelmed but keep on sketching

I'm back from a wonderful holiday, which, as usual, went far too quickly. The journeys were rather less enjoyable, though. My very early morning flight to London City Airport got cancelled due to technical problems, and I had to travel to Heathrow instead, which meant that I didn't catch my £14 pre-booked train from Waterloo but had to by a new ticket for £58. My suitcase wasn't on the same plane either, and I didn't receive it until after 8pm the following day.
My return flight was cancelled again, this time due to the heavy thunderstorms over Europe. That, of course, is nobody's fault, but I was beginning to get rather fed up. Luckily, I had arrived at the airport very early, and was re-booked to an earlier flight. Like all the other flights, it was much delayed, and while we waited for another 45 minutes on the plane to finally be able to leave, three passengers were asked to leave the plane again because it turned out that it was too heavy. I've never heard of anything like that. But I was very glad that they hadn't asked me...!

I decided to contact the airline, since this was not the first time I've had problems. Cancellations and and delays seem to have become the norm in the past couple of years, and I'm happy to say that they have agreed to reimburse the extra costs I had as well as giving me a generous voucher for my next flight. So all is well again, and I just hope that my next upcoming journeys in September and October will go a bit smoother for a change.

But anyway. On to more pleasant things. I took my drawing tools, watercolours and two sketchbooks with me on holiday for some outside sketching. It's something I've been wanting to do for a long time, but I have always found it very intimidating and overwhelming. But this time I was determined. I had even treated myself to not only a new box of watercolours, but also some new watercolour brushes, including two beautiful travel brushes. One of our first day trips was to Tintinhull Garden, a charming little house and garden, and when we arrived there, the sun had come out and it was warm and bright blue sky. So no excuses. I got my gear out, switched off my brain and started sketching. I always find it difficult to get the proportions right. My drawings usually tend to get far too big. So instead of trying to capture the whole house, I just focused on a detail, starting with with the bird statue and then added whatever fitted in.

I love visiting those old stately homes and gardens. It's a perfect day out for me. Some interesting history, furniture and art work in the houses, gorgeous flower gardens (with lots of opportunities to photograph bees on flowers), park and woodland walks, and a restaurant to enjoy a lovely lunch and tea breaks in between all the strolling. And the parks are filled with trees. Beautiful, ancient trees.

On Sunday, we drove to Salisbury. Again, after a grey start of the day, the sun came out, and it got hotter and hotter. I never thought that I would ever say the words "it's too hot to sit outside in the sun!" in England! But it certainly was. Thankfully, inside the cathedral and cloister, it was nice and cool, and there were plenty of seats to sit in the cloister to sketch one of its arches.

Glastonbury was a new place to discover for both of us, and a fun place to spend a day. It has a lovely town centre, with almost every shop specialising in some branch of the esoteric. A bit weird, but very charming. We spent most of the time in the grounds of the abbey, though, and much of it sitting on benches in the shade. Another hot and sunny day. The two watercolour sketches were made in different journals, the one on the left in a Seawhite sketchbook, the one on the right in a Moleskine watercolour journal.

Forde Abbey was probably my favourite of the stately homes we visited. The house itself is a 800 year old former abbey, and the park and gardens are just gorgeous. Again I took some time to sketch while N wandered around taking some more photos. The hedges caught my eyes, and of course the trees.

Montacute House was another place we spent a lovely day at. Apparently, it's where Wolf Hall was filmed. I never watched the series. I tried but struggled with it as much after five minutes as I had struggled with the book after the first 30 pages, and eventually gave up, as I had with the book. Again, I was fascinated by the trees in the grounds. So much variety, so much character.

I'm so glad I finally got over my fear of sketching outside. It's not as hard as you think, and most people leave you in peace. Of course Ns comment of "Oh that's good!" on every sketch I did was also very encouraging :)
What helped me most, though, was to approach it with no expectations, and to do what was possible. Of course I would have liked to capture more complex scenes. The entire house. A corner of the garden. But that's still a bit too challenging for me. So instead I keep focusing on the details for the moment. A part of the house or ruin, an arch, trees. Instead of getting frustrated by what I can't do, I enjoy capturing what I can do, knowing that every drawing, every sketch is valuable practice. I'm sure one day I will be able to do those "bigger" sketches I'm dreaming of now. It's all practice, and doing the job. And my holiday sketching has given me so much confidence, that since I got back, I've done some more sketching in public.
I have some more sketches that I'll share next week, and I also hope to post some photos in a separate post. But it'll take some time to go through them and do all the editing.

A little break

Back again soon :)

Landscapes, brushes and daily sketches

I've spent the weekend working through Shari Blaukopf's landscape class, painting alongside her instructions and demonstrations and finishing the various landscape practice pieces that I've started last week. Since I just wanted to learn and practice, I have used her reference images/paintings, rather than finding my on. But now hopefully, I'll be ready for some outdoor sketching on my holiday in England. Maybe I'd better practice some "rainy skies" before I leave next week!

Because the class jumped between the different paintings, and because all of mine were in the same sketchbook, I always had to wait a bit for them to dry, before continuing on an other one. So I decided to sketch some of my watercolour brushes in my other sketchbook. I'm trying to put together a good selection of brushes, and thanks to the class, I've rediscovered some old brushes I had lying around, like the big squirrel mop brushes, perfect for skies. As you can see, there's space left for some more brushes that I want to add to the collection, like a rigger and a dagger brush. And another #6 brush with a proper point, because the one I have just doesn't want to form one. Luckily, they're already waiting for me at Ns.

I've also kept up my daily drawing. Well, almost daily. There are days when, for whatever reason, I don't get a sketch done. But then, on other days, I do more than one, so it all works out in the end. I'm using different mediums, whatever just feels right for the moment, to catch something of the day on paper. On Sunday, I had sweet potatoes for the second in my life (the last time was over 20 years ago) and the first time I cooked them myself (but not the last time). I made myself go to the cafeteria at lunch time to try and sketch some people. There were two men absorbed with their phones, but they left soon after, and I only got one of them on paper. A quick pen and ink sketch of parts of my breakfast before work, and a lunch time sketch of some beautifully twisted trees in a picnic area on the campus. I even added the watercolour when I was there, which is a bit of a big thing for me. Even though I've been carrying my watercolour box with me to work every day for the past three weeks or so, I usually end up just making a pen and ink drawing, and then adding the watercolour later, at home. I'm taking it very slowly to get used to sketching outside.

Also a good tool for sketching outside, especially when you don't have much time, is a brush pen. I've had a couple of them for a while but am only now discovering how great they are to use.

It's going to be a busy weekend, with household chores, laundry and packing. But hopefully some drawing too, especially as it is going to be another rainy day on Sunday. Then two more days at work, and then, finally, it's time for my holiday. I've already prepared a page in my sketchbook, with places we've visited, places we're hopefully going to visit, and lots of space to add more places. And of course I hope to fill many more pages in my sketchbooks.

Some food sketching, and learning how to paint skies

I was really looking forward to this week's Sketchbook Skool class with Matthew Midgley on drawing food. I didn't know Matthew and his work before the class, I have to admit, but I totally enjoyed it, and it certainly inspired me to try and draw some food. I love fennel, and cook it a lot, so there's usually some in my fridge. 

I'm trying out different sketchbooks to find one that works well for me. The first one is a Seawhite A5 hardcover sketchbook with 140gsm all-media cartridge paper, the second one a Moleskine watercolour sketchbook with heavy watercolour paper. The Seawhite does take the watercolour well enough, but as with other brands of sketchbooks, it's just not the same as proper watercolour paper. So I think it's nice to have both. Even if it means carrying around even more stuff.

Following Matthew's example, I tried to sketch some cooked food before eating it. I fried an egg, and this time used two different mediums, watercolour and coloured pencil, in the same sketchbook. The sketching was more enjoyable than my cold fried egg for dinner, that's for sure.

After sketching the fennel and eggs, I wanted to draw a whole meal too, and this week's weekly special at the canteen - hamburger - was just perfect. I have to admit, though, that I didn't draw it there and then, but instead took a photo of it. A packed university canteen at lunch time is definitely way out my comfort zone. So after my lunch, I went to find a quiet corner in one of the many buildings on the campus and made an ink sketch from my photo reference, and then added watercolour later at home. But I'm planning to do some 'life sketching' of my food next month, when I'm in England. In a quiet corner of our local Wetherspoon's, at a time when most people are not having lunch...

There are quite a few sketchbook artists that I admire, and of my absolute top favourites is no doubt Shari Blaukopf. I admire her strong shapes and colours, and I was overjoyed when I saw that she was now teaching on Craftsy. One of my goals for this year is to get to grips with watercolour, and I want to do some sketching when I'm on my holiday next month. So I started to work through Shari's Landscape class, working through the first lessons on how to paint different skies. My skies all look a complete mess, but then I'm well aware that it takes a lot more than a handful of sketches to master watercolours. And I enjoyed painting them and learned a lot about what colours to use and about tehcniques and the medium in general. By the end of the course I'll hopefully have finished all four of these sketches, and I'm looking forward to looking back at them in a few weeks/months' time and seeing some progress.

And last but not least, there's a new addition to my palette - Naples yellow. A quite interesting colour, great for mixing muted colours - and as it turns out, useful for skies too.

I used a different scanner for this post. For my last post, I scanned my watercolour pages at work, on one of those big machines. I like how it turns the paper completely white, blending the page into the blog background and making the drawings and sketches pop out. But it doesn't handle watercolour, or coloured pencils, very well, leaving areas of paint out completely and not being able to distinct between two different colors of coloured pencils. The images here were scanned on my own cheap printer/scanner at home. It handles the mediums much better but turn makes the paper look strangely yellow. I usually edit photos in Lightroom, which has an excellent white balance tool, but for these scans I used Photoshop, and I've never been able to find the white balance tool there. Although I'm sure it must be somewhere. I know I should take some time to figure out both Photoshop white balance and the settings on my scanner, but it's just so boring...

Half finished sketches, life, and a little reminder

I didn't get much sketching done this week, and I very much apologise for not having been commenting much on fellow PPF artists, but sometimes, life just gets in the way. Last weekend was the finest weekend in a long time, and after the shopping and all the boring household chores done by Saturday afternoon, I was looking forward to a creative weekend, and a trip to the Botanical Garden for some sketching on Monday. Something I've been wanting to do for weeks and weeks, but the weather was always too bad. And then my Dad had a bicycle accident on Saturday afternoon and was taken to the hospital. It was a constant up and down for three days, but all's okay now and he was discharged yesterday.

I did actually go to the Botanical Garden on Monday, but it wasn't quite the creative, inspiring day out I had planned. There's a direct bus from the hospital to the Botanical Garden and so I decided to get there, after all, in the afternoon. 40 minutes across the city to the other end, which was actually quite an interesting journey. So many changes, so many new buildings. Maybe I should spend more time exploring. I arrived there after 3pm, walked through the beautiful park, looked for frogs in the pond, and then found a nice place to sit with the palm houses in view. I got out my sketchbook, made a quick ink drawing, got my watercolour box out - and then it started raining. So I went into the palm houses and watched the fish in the pond of the biggest of the them for a while, and then I went back home. I added some uninspired watercolour paint later at home, but it still is a rather unfinished sketch. As is the banana one.

On Wednesday, I attended a librarians' symposium in Aarau. As that meant sitting around all day, I used the lunch break for some wandering around town. I had taken my sketchbook and wanted to do at least one sketch outside. I went to the Kantonsbibliothek (county library) and sat outside, eating my sandwich and looking for something interesting to sketch. The buildings around were all half hidden behind some beautiful trees. The trees themselves would certainly have been very intriguing to sketch, but I didn't have the time for it. So I ended up with just a quick sketch of one of the stone thingies for attaching big heavy chains, that surrounded the square in front of the library, and a tiny little dandelion flower. At least I made a sketch.

When I went through my folder with scans on my computer, I found some sketches that I made back in 2014. For the one of Läckö slott I used a photo that I have taken many years ago as reference. The one of the church was the first, and pretty much only one I've ever actually done outside. Looking through these sketches just reminded me how little I have been sketching recently, and pretty much all of last year. So I'm posting these here as a reminder for myself to sketch more, much more, again. And for finally overcoming that fear of sketching outside...

A colour chart, sketchbook pages, a daytrip abroad and a walk in the forest

After having bought some more colours for my new 24 half pan watercolour box on Saturday, I spent part of the weekend making a colour chart with all the 22 colours. I have to say, I love making colour charts. Mixing colours and seeing what new colours you can create. Especially with colours that you would normally mix together.

There's still room for 2 more colours, and someone mentioned in a Facebook group that you can actually squeeze in two more half pans. I might have to try that out one day.

I've kept up my practice of drawing (almost) daily. I really enjoy drawing portraits with coloured pencils and I have three or four coloured pencil in neutral colours in my pencil case.

I haven't done much sketching with watercolours in my new sketchbook yet, but it doesn't seem to take it worse than other sketchbooks.

Last Friday, I went on a little day trip with my Mum to Freiburg im Breisgau in Germany. We were so lucky with the weather, it was the only mild and sunny day in a period of cold and wet April weather. We had a great day there, good food, ice cream, visits to cafés, walking around the busy streets in the old town and finding a couple of art shops. Even if it's just for one day, a trip abroad always feels like a little holiday. That's the advantage of living in a small country like Switzerland, you can go to Germany, Austria, France, and Italy just for a day.

Yesterday was a public holiday, Ascension day, and after the cold and wet weather, spring has arrived again, bringing sun and mild weather. Perfect for a walk in the forest in the afternoon with my Mum, her neighbour, and Bobby, the neighbour's dog, especially as most people were stuck in traffic queues on their way to the south for a long weekend. I love being in the forest, especially now, when everything is so fresh and bright green. We also past a beautiful old gnarly mossy apple tree in full bloom, buzzing with bees, and stood in front of it for a few minutes, reminiscing about "my" lost apple tree, and how it would be buzzing with life too.

I have probably mentioned it before, but the special charm and beauty of this forest, that conveniently starts just a few hundred meters behind my parent's home, is that it is a natural, wild forest that is left to its own device. The only thing that is being done is when a tree falls over one of the paths, the bit over the path, and only that bit, is cut out. The rest is left as it is. A big part of the forest is covered in wild garlic, carpets of it covering the ground. The buds are just about to open and start blooming in a couple of days, but the smell already fills the air.

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Sketchbook pages

I've taken out my sketchbook again I've been busy filling the pages. Sometimes I feel more like painting with acrylics, in my art journal or on canvas, other times it's ink and watercolour sketches or drawings. But I want to make using my sketchbook a regular practice. It's something I've neglected too often but it's such good practice. And I do love watercolours, and one of my goals for this year is to master this medium. Or at least get a bit more comfortable and skilled working with it.

I treated myself to a new watercolour box and bruhes. And of course I had to make a colour chart. I like Schmincke paints. I also have a few Daniel Smith paints, but since I haven't used them often enough, I find that they do tend to get quite hard after a while. Schmincke are a German brand, and widely available here in Switzerland and also affordable. I'm now working on "perfecting" my palette. I also found a Winsor & Newton box that I bought in London a few years ago. One of those £34.95 instead of £127 speciall offers that one just can't resist.

I'm reading Margery Allingham's Campion books at the moment, I have a whole pile of them and I'm working my way through it. I've never seen the tv series, but Lugg does quite look like his description in the book. The page isn't quite finished yet, and I can't decide whether to add colour or not. But I think I'll just leave it an ink drawing.

I've started taking my sketchbook with me when I go out, and I'm trying to squeeze in half an hour of drawing time every morning before work. It's a peaceful and meditative way to start the day. I also try and draw in my lunchbreak, and next week, I want to start taking my watercolours with me too, rather than just add colour in the evening. And of course I try to draw at home too. Drawing every day

It's taken me well over a year to fill the sketchbook above and I couldn't wait for it to start a new one. Funny, now that I actually have finished it, I almost miss it. The sketchbook was a Stillman & Birn Beta, landscape format and the one I started is a Seawhite. Below are the first two pages. The new Sketchbook course has just started, and as you can see, I've been inspired by the teachers of the classes for these two.

I really want to love this sketchbook. Because Seawhite sketchbooks are available at one of the art shops in town, and it would just be so much easier and cheaper to get them there instead of having to order them from England. What I noticed, though, is that the paper seems to be slightly thinner and the shadow of the ink drawing on the back of the page is very visible. Also, I noticed that erasing pencil lines does not work very well. They remain visible. Both these things are a bit annoying. On the other hand, I added some colour to the page above last night, and the paper seems to take the paint quite well. So that's a plus. And coloured pencil works well too. I'm determined to finish this sketchbook before moving on to the next one, trying out different mediums. One drawing every day. The more I sketch, the quicker I finish the sketchbook.