Little red chairs

One of the things that you’ll see everywhere in Vietnam is these tiny red plastic chairs and stools. Everyone having soup at breakfast time in the open air cafes is sitting on them. Look into any local cafe and you’ll see them. And we certainly sat on them for many of our lunches. I really wanted to include them in my second Hoi An sketch. Again I was sketching with friends, on some stairs near the river and around the corner from the very famous 16th century Japanese footbridge.

I decided not to draw the bridge because I loved the energy and movement under the trees at the cafe. But what I did not realize when I chose my subject was that everyone on a walking or biking tour of Hoi An stops on that corner to photograph the bridge. I spent most of my sketching time summoning up my x-ray vision to look through the crowds so that I could see the scene I was trying to sketch.

20+ Free Watercolor Workshops You Can’t Miss

Because I’ve been away, I’m a bit late in promoting a wonderful event that is going on right now. Win with Watercolor is a 6-day free online event with 20+ watercolour workshops (including mine!). I’ve already started to watch some of them, and they truly are excellent quality from some amazing teachers.

My workshop is called “Quick Figure Sketching in Watercolour“, and after you access it you can also watch the extended version of the video on my website. Click here to get all the info and sign up. It’s on until April 26. Hope to see you there!

Kalanchoe

“Good choice. These will last for at least three weeks.” That was what the man next to me in the grocery line said when he saw my flower choice. He followed that with, “I know. I’m in the flower business.” He was right. These cut stems of Kalanchoe have been blooming in my kitchen for almost a month. I’ve only ever had the potted version of this plant, and frankly, the main reason I bought these cut ones was because there was a 2 for 1 special on them, but this won’t be the last time I get them.

As you can see, the bouquet is mainly dark green leathery lobed leaves with a few small flowers at the top. But it’s enough to create a spot of brightness in the kitchen while we wait for spring in Montreal, and it’s a great subject to sketch.

If you are also waiting for warmer weather and looking forward to painting flowers, today is the last day of the spring sale on all my online flower courses. Use the coupon code SPRING25 for 25% off on Sketching Spring Flowers, Wet-in-Wet Blooms, Sketching Fresh Flowers and Sketching a Winter Garden. The sale is on until midnight ET tonight.

Pigeon Cove in pastels

We survived the ice storm without losing power. In fact, in this area it was not as bad as predicted, which meant that I had some studio time to play with pastels. I’ve never used pastels much, but last week my friend Susanne Strater gave me a much appreciated lesson in her studio, and now I am trying to follow up by practicing more on my own.

I found an old set of 36 colours at home so that’s what I used for this sketch. I don’t have any special pastel paper but I wanted to practice what I learned with her, so for this scene in Pigeon Cove, MA, I used some toned watercolour paper from Hahnemuhle. I know there are better surfaces out there, but in an ice storm I wasn’t prepared to drive to the store to get a pad of the good stuff.

In my photo archives I have a series of photos from an early morning outing to Pigeon Cove last year. I’m planning on painting some of those in watercolour, but I thought I’d start with a pastel sketch of moored boats in calm water. Working in pastel is a great way to figure out colour and values since you can layer the rich colours and add white for highlights. But I’m learning a few things about pastels. 1: They sure are messy. 2: I can’t put them on my scanner. 3: It’s hard to get exactly the colour you want (at least from the old set I have) and that takes getting used to. But I sure did have fun doing this and I can’t wait to see how it evolves in the watercolour version.

Waiting for the storm

I’m sitting in my living room listening to the radio, sketchbook and pencil in hand. The forecasts from Environment Canada are for a “potentially critical freezing rain event”. Schools are already announcing closures for tomorrow. Prolonged utility outages are likely. We’ve gone through this before so we are prepared, but there is still some anxiety about how long the power will be out, if that does happen. Drawing helps to calm the nerves as we wait for the freezing rain to start. If you are in the storm zone too, I hope you stay warm and I hope your lights stay on. You can be sure I will be drawing during this event, like I did the last time the power went out.

A brush for drawing and painting

I’ve been having a lot of fun with a new brush I just ordered from Rosemary & Co. It’s the R11 Pointed Red Sable Brush (size 10) travel brush. I’m always a fan of long, pointy brushes because they hold a lot of water and also allow you to create quite precise marks, but this one is extra special because I feel like I can draw with it. I was just reading the description of it on the Rosemary website and I found this: This hair has a beautiful spring and upon retouching the paper, will flow and release water similar to a fountain pen. That explains why I like it so much.

I used it for yesterday’s painting of the fading tulips on my desk. First I drew the gently curving shapes of the flowers and leaves with the point of the brush, and then I filled in the shapes with the wider body of the brush. It’s really a joy to use.

The brush also came in handy earlier in the week with another project I am working on. I used it for drawing quick figures in watercolour, using a diluted colour for the outline of the pose and filling in with colour when the contour line was nearly dry.

Marks that match the mood of the room

My studio shares a space with the only tv in the house. I’ve been trying to remove myself from the excitement of those last few Olympic finals that Canada was in by painting some flowers that I have on my drawing table. But the mood in the room was not conducive to painting anything delicate. I finally gave up and grabbed a big fat clutch pencil holder and a Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook. Scribbling in the booking instead of watching the games was very calming. I filled six spreads with pencil drawings. Here are a few of them.

When Alice moved, I just started again. She moves a lot right after a walk but then settles down into one position.

As I drew, I think my drawings improved a little bit.

My favourite is the last one. She was calmer and so was I. I think this one was the most successful in capturing the weight of her on her big Ikea cushion.