One of the organizers of the previous sketchcrawls was actually visiting me last Saturday and so she didn't attend any this time either. Of course I'm talking about my partner in artsy crime Monk (I may have mentioned her here before, haha). So since we were both here on the island we decided to do some sketching together and we had a great day of it.
Because the weather report predicted dismal weather we decided to go indoors and visit the two local museums. Come Saturday the weather was pretty good, but we went ahead with our plans anyway and alternated between museums and sunny terraces with good food and drink. It was one of those perfect days to hang out together, talk artsy stuff and be artsy ourselves and just have a jolly good time. I did five pages in a watercolor sketchbook and that's what I'll be showing you today.
I'm starting with a really bad scan of a drawing I did of a pattern that was in one of the historical rooms of the local Tromp's Huys. It's a bad scan, because the color shows up in a totally different way and the page seems to have all these white patches.
The original is a blue gray and way more solid color. I've tried tweaking it in photoshop, but it just won't go the way I want it to, so you'll just have to take my word for it that the original is better. ;-) Anyway, the pattern was on the wallpaper all over all four walls of this room and seemed to be hand stenciled! I was in awe of the patient person who had performed this act and I felt I needed to honor him/her with this little drawing. Also I just thought the pattern was really cool.;-)
It seems I really felt like copying other people's art that day, instead of drawing objects or views. So that's what I did. This was a portrait that was hanging in the same room as the aboved pattern was found. It's a really bad copy. In fact it's so bad, you can't even tell it's a copy!
I know, it looks like a pretty decent sketch of a woman, quickly done, but okay. But what if I told you this was not a woman at all, but a little girl? Ha! Not so great then, eh? I'm still not sure where I went wrong, except that the face is not wide enough. Maybe I should study children's pictures and learn their features better.This sketch reminded me of how important really looking is when it comes to sketching.
The next two were also copies of paintings in the Tromp's Huys. This home once was the residence of the Norwegian artist Betzy Akersloot-Berg. There's pictures of Betzy sitting in a huge crate wearing protective clothing during a storm just paint paint painting away on the beach. Obviously a more dedicated artist than I ever will be!
I loved the above and below painting. Again mine are poor renditions of the originals, but at least you can see where I got the image from, haha. The blue of the water in the picture above was just breathtaking. While at the museum I mostly sketched, but while sitting outside in the sun I colored these two in. The above with watercolor. I really like how it turned out.
The one below was another beauty in the museum by Betzy.
I'm doing her no justice by showing these, but I need to show you what I did no matter how mediocre it is.
I colored this one in with inktense pencils and regular coloring pencils. The inktense were wetted with water and then I went over them with regular pencils. I do like this one too. Good copy or no, it's still a pretty picture.
One of the cool parts of having a real life artsy pal is to exchange ideas, books and materials. This time Monk brought her new tombow brushmarkers. Of course I had to try them, so I did a little nonsense sketch.
I love the brushtip! They make sketching very pleasurable. When Monk told me they were watersoluble I had to test that too of course as you can see in the above picture. In short: it was love at first sight! And now I have ordered some for myself. Monk, being the generous gal that she is, actually gave me a red one she had double, so until my shipment arrives I can still play with at least one tombow marker! (And I have, but that's for another post.) I look forward to the rest though, but they will not be arriving until august. Oh well...
And that's all I have to offer you from that day. It was fabulous! You can see what Monk did on her blog and there's pictures there of me coloring and my well used watercolor box too! (I know, it takes a special kind of person to drool over well used watercolor boxes.) ;-)
Hope you had a fabulous week too and that you are going to have a wonderful and artsy weekend!