Sunday, August 10, 2014

Summer sketchbook

French cows in a field
                                                  







I thought I'd show you today some of the sketches I've been doing in the last week. I've bought some of the new Winsor & Newton watercolour markers and am really enjoying learning what you can do with them. They seem like an ideal sketching medium for me. Time will tell how long they will last and that will be the deciding factor as to whether they become a regular medium for me (value for money).
In the sketch of the cows and the flowers in our French garden (the flowers were in our garden, the cows were not) I used the markers on dry paper and then added water with a brush. This creates lovely soft colours and you can pick the paint up on the brush and use it elsewhere, as you can see with the pale stem of lavender. The harbour sketch is mostly watercolours with some pen, watercolour marker pens and gouache. For the fish drawings I used a permanent black pen first, then little spots of colour here and there with the watercolour markers and then plenty of water on the brush. I really enjoyed that and will be definitely using that method again.

2 comments:

  1. Yes love the technique with the flowers, nice, loose and colourful

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  2. Love the harbour study Sargent - cut it out and we'll sell it! Don't waste time doing a sketch in a book - do it straight on to a prepared watercolour sheet and voila, a gorgeous, VERY sellable painting!

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Thank you for your words!