Category: watercolour

Summer sketches – Part 1



We are finally off to Italy for a well deserved summer break! First stop is Pescina, up on the mountains of Abruzzo, in central Italy, to visit my partner’s family.
The town is in the middle of what used to be a lake, il Fucino, drained in 1875. Nowadays it’s a patchwork of cultivated land surrounded by the Sirente-Velino and Vallelonga mountains.

Pyracantha coccinea – Step by step

The Pyracantha coccinea is ashrub which produces masses of white flowers in May that turn into red berries in late autumn. There is plenty of those where I live; I picked a small branch on my way home from work about a month ago. First thing I did was to draw the branch on tracing paper; I then marked the outline with a Staedler fineliner.

I transferred the picture on Fabriano Accademia watercolour paper and masked the whole of the drawing.

I used a bright orange for the background to match the orange theme in my living room. Did two washes as the first one was too pale after drying.

I then removed the masking fluid and re-applied it only on the flowers and stems in front of the leaves.
I painted the leaves with three different shades of green, then removed the masking and painted the stems. The outline of the drawing was however not very precise as the tool used for applying the masking fluid had a large tip. So I decided to outline the edges with a black pen, and this is the final result.

Sycamore Maple Study

It has been a while since I have done a botanical study of some sort. The acer pseudoplatanus, also known as sycamore maple, is very common in my area; it grows everywhere and there is continuous supply of buds, leaves and branches. Spring buds are the best, with their velvety texture and pink/brownish colours. The leaves are more difficult to paint, first because I find it extremely difficult, second because of the texture…so many wrinkles! It was a good exercise, although my observation skills are not as good as I’d like. However, I enjoyed the entire process, the overall idea of creating pages like this in my pad, with a mixture of notes, pencil drawing and watercolour painting.

RWS Friends Sketching Day – 20th March 2011

Wonderful day along the river today! We visited the RWS Spring Exhibition first, with one of the Friends giving us a guided tour through so many inspiring paintings (some others not so much!). Then we headed off towards the Tate Modern. One of the Friends and I found a nice spot on the steps just below the Millennium Bridge and, although it was crowded as usual, the view was not interrupted. I liked the overall view with the modern and sinuous silhouette of the bridge and the very classic St Paul’s Cathedral at the end. I did underestimate, however, the very complex shape and perspective of the bridge! I also realised, after so many years sketching in London, that the colour palette that I use the most is always the same: cobalt blue, yellow ochre and ivory black…..not very exciting! I think I’m going try a different approach next time, I’ll take out these three colours from my sketching kit and let’s see what happens.

St Raphaels Church from Kingston Riverside

What a sunny day! It was warm and calm; we went for a nice walk along the Thames and sat relaxing in the sunshine. The colours of the riverside walk are slowly changing, yellows are starting to show and beds of early spring flowers are announcing the coming season.