Sand on my scanner
Posted: June 10, 2026 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: beach sketches, Crete, Greece, watercolour 11 CommentsHi! I’ve been absent for a few weeks, on a family holiday in Crete. I’ve missed writing, but since it was a family holiday, I wanted to be fully present for whatever activities everyone wanted to do. It turned out that there was a lot of time spent sitting on various beaches, which is where I spent most of my drawing time. It’s also the reason that when I opened my sketchbook to scan my sketches, a whole pile of sand fell out.
With all this beach time on my hands, I had the opportunity to change the way I work. I didn’t use my big sketchbook, I hardly used good brushes at all, and I tried some new materials too! It was great to mix things up a bit.
Early on in the holiday I decided that I would focus on drawing people. I hardly ever get the opportunity to do this, and isn’t the beach the perfect place? There are lots of exposed body parts, people hold their poses for a long time, and there’s a variety of ages and sizes of the models.
Since I didn’t want to get my sable brushes full of sand, nor did I want to juggle water containers, I used a water brush most of the time. It’s not the most precise of tools, but it gets the job done. And as the week went on, I got a little better at using it and began to appreciate how my already small sketch kit could be reduced even further. These were done in a Hahnemuhle cotton sketchbook, 8″ x 5″ size. It was the perfect size to fit in my beach bag next to my sunscreen and towel. And once I clean the sand off my scanner, I’ll post some more of my beach sketches.
Very nice sketchs !
Hope you had a great time and sure you did. Love the sketches and looking forward to seeing more.
Oh my gosh! You are so good at drawing/painting people!!!
It sounds like you and your family had a really good, well deserved, vacation. Looking forward to more figure sketches!
Great fleshtones and fabulous beach! Have a really nice holiday 🙂
I love that you brought home sand from Crete! 🏖️
Shari- I adore these, esp in watercolor! I saw your colored pencil ones too..so awesome…I go to the beach alot but can never seem to settle in enough to paint..these sketches make it easy to image what to do – so thanks so much!
Good Morning dear friend Shari,
As usual, always your paintings stand awesome.
Blessings
Uma🙏
I really like these sketches Shari. They have an immediacy to them that is fresh and full of life! And it’s interesting to hear about your explorations of a more compact, less cumbersome kit, especially waterbrushes. The lack of needing to set up a water container etc becomes very appealing when you’re sketching while with others I’ve found. Quick, and as you say, gets the job done. I’d love to see more!
You were missed, Shari!
It is nice to see how you sketched the people on the beach. I followed along while you were there and liked seeing the materials you used that were different for you. You got nice results with your waterbrush too. I hope it was a relaxing vacation. You’ve been on the go so much lately.