Plaid and flowers

I have such great memories of this quiet morning in Hoi An, sitting at my favourite café with some of the sketchers in my group.We had an ideal view of a spot in the central market where the vendors were just beginning to set up. I loved the interesting mix of patterns that many of the women were wearing: plaid shirts with flowered pants.

To paint the section of the sketch that’s under the awning, I laid in a wash of pale lavender. The purpose of that is to take away all the white bits in that dark area. The lavender is light enough that I can paint over it with brighter or darker colours, and it works to push back that whole section into the shadows.

When I was almost done sketching, I was surprised to look up and see that I was surrounded by police. I think that our very hospitable café lady had moved her tables a little too far out onto the sidewalk, and the police were doing a market sweep. Fortunately they let me grab my sketching gear before they pitched a few of her tables and chairs into a flatbed truck.