Scooters
Posted: April 23, 2026 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Hoi An, sketchbook, travel sketch, urban sketch, Vietnam, watercolour sketch 17 CommentsThere’s a very welcoming café facing the east side of the central market in Hoi An. You can sit there for hours, undisturbed, drawing and enjoying a Vietnamese coffee or fresh coconut water. It was one of my favourite spots in the city. From there I watched the vendors selling yellow flowers and the ladies shredding fresh coconuts.
I realized quite quickly that there was a constant stream of shoppers parking their scooters in front of me. Instead of ignoring them, I added the scooters in as foreground shapes. In a scene like this where the middle section is full of colour and detail, I decided that it would be best to leave the scooters as near-silhouetted shapes. They are not the focus here. I drew them quickly, knowing that they would be gone very soon, and added a few simple washes of shadow colour on them. Like the yellow walls and the silk lanterns, they are everywhere in Hoi An and a street scene would not be complete without them.
I also did a quick sketch of the coconut ladies on another visit.
Pens need love
Posted: November 23, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Alice drawing, fountain pen drawing, ink drawing, sketchbook 16 CommentsI haven’t done a pen drawing in a while and when I finally sat down to draw yesterday my good Pilot fountain pen was not performing as it should. I refilled the converter with ink and continued my drawing but it ran out of ink quickly and the flow of the pen was not great. It was time for a good cleaning.
I flushed it thoroughly with distilled water and refilled it again but it was still not working as I had hoped. So this time I went to the very trusty Goulet Pen website to see what I could do. I followed a long series of instructions to fill my particular converter — empty it, turn it again to prime it with ink, expel all the ink, then fill it partially, turn it this way and that — basically a series of clockwise and counterclockwise acrobatics for my pen. But it worked! The ink is flowing again, the lines are black, and there’s nothing like sitting down to do a drawing of Alice when the snow if falling outside my window and she is exhausted after a walk. Sketched in a tiny Etchr Hot Press sketchbook using a Pilot E95S pen and de Atramentis Document Black ink.
Olana, home of Frederic Church
Posted: September 19, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Frederic Church, Hudson River Valley, Hudson River Valley Art Workshops, lettering, Olana, sketchbook 19 CommentsYou really do need multiple sketches to properly convey Olana, home of the Hudson River School artist Frederic Church. (I spelled his name incorrectly in my sketchbook, as I just found out!) First of all, the Persian-inspired home is on top of a hill, with views of the Hudson River Valley, the Catskills and four states, on a clear day. It’s best to walk down to a lower level on the property to capture its position on that upper ridge. But if you do that, you have your back to the Hudson, and you need to get that in there too, because the early autumn panorama from the top is quite spectacular too. Once you’ve sketched the distant views, you also need to record the details of the moorish-inspired architecture. I could have completed another spread just of arched windows, inset doors, tiled chimneys, ornate brickwork and stencilled borders but I only had room for a few on my page.
This sketch may not look great if you are looking at it on a phone because I used a double-page spread in my sketchbook, so the final size is quite large: 22″ x 8″. But the location was so grand that I needed a lot of room to really tell the story of the place, and for that I needed both sides of the book.
My students also did some amazing work at Olana. It’s a very welcoming place for artists, as you might imagine. I’ll be teaching again at Hudson Valley Art Workshops next August. If you want to join the group, I’m pretty sure we’ll go back to Olana. We had a really wonderful week with Kim and her team at Greenville Arms, and registration is already open here.
A few from Geneva
Posted: June 22, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Geneva, sketchbook, Switzerland, watercolour 15 CommentsI am still unpacking art supplies from my recent teaching trip in the French Alps, but my sketchbook is sitting on my desk and I’ve dusted off my scanner to begin the process of scanning all the sketches from the two weeks.
These first two are from the only full day we had in Geneva before heading to our workshop location. Drawing is always a great way to knock the jet lag out of your head, and fortunately Geneva is a beautiful and sketchable city.
Place du Bourg-de-Four is a cobblestone square lined with restaurants and cafés, as well as some good benches for tired travellers. It’s also just steps from the Caran D’Ache store, if you are interested in really beautifully presented art supplies.
My friend Evelyn and I also attempted to capture the famous Jet d’Eau de Genève, that giant fountain that throws water 140 meters above Lake Geneva. It’s not an easy thing to sketch, especially in watercolour. I used a bit of Schminke masking fluid in a handy dispenser bottle that I had just bought on a whim earlier in the day, and it was pretty useful for creating a white line for the centre of the fountain. The final sketch falls into the category of “been there, sketched that”, but that’s ok. It’s a lovely spot to sit and watch the boats on the lake as evening sets in.
Javelinas and a hawk
Posted: February 12, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: hawk, javelinas, sketchbook 9 CommentsI’ve started scanning my sketches from last month’s teaching trip in Tucson, and I thought I’d start with two that are quite opposite in terms of process.
Let’s begin with the javelinas that I sketched one morning up at the old homestead at Tanque Verde Ranch. Every Sunday morning there’s an outdoor pancake breakfast up there, and no doubt the small herd of javelinas set their Apple watches to arrive up there just in time for leftovers. Javelinas are such funny creatures. From the side, they have big round bodies but from the front they are quite flattened and narrow. Add short legs to that and you have a classic cartoon animal.
I drew these quick sketches as the javelinas snuffled around the trash bins looking for bits of pancake and hash browns. They were moving around quite a bit as I tried to capture their hairy bodies, flat snouts and short legs. My tools were a water-soluble Pilot pen, a water brush and my watercolour sketchbook.
On our last afternoon of the workshop, some of my participants participated in a falconry session (no hunting involved) at the ranch. Jeffrey (or Geoffrey??) the Harris’s Hawk arrived with his handler, and of course the rest of my group watched the session from an outdoor terrace above our classroom. We were quite lucky to have the hawk land on a railing right in front of us for a few seconds at a time before the handler signalled it to come back. I took a few photos of this majestic bird, and even though I didn’t get a chance to sketch it on location, I wanted it to have a spot in my sketchbook.
This time the process was very different. I could observe its shape and its colouring as well as spend a longer time painting it. I’m happy I was able to sketch it.
Even though both of these pages are very different, they have the same importance for me in my travel sketchbook — both are great records of wonderful experiences that were unique to that place.
Announcing “Design Ideas for Your Sketchbook”, a new online course
Posted: September 30, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: design ideas for your sketchbook, online course, sketchbook 4 CommentsAs a university-trained graphic designer and design teacher, I worked for years in the industry before returning to my first love: sketching and painting in watercolour. That’s why I’m thrilled to be launching a new online course: “Design Ideas for Your Sketchbook.” Because it combines my two great passions — graphic design and watercolour sketching.
This is an extended course (almost four hours long!) because there’s lots to cover. Design theory, practical applications of design, lettering, watercolour techniques, etc. Plus there’s a bonus 25-page PDF with sketchbook examples.
My intention with this course is to show you techniques for page design that you can apply to your own sketches, whether they are done at home or on location. I’m really looking forward to seeing what people post on the course website!!
As always, there’s a special launch price, valid this week only.
Normally priced at $49 USD or $69 CDN, I’m discounting Design Ideas for Your Sketchbook to $42 USD or $59 CDN until midnight (ET) on Sunday, October 6, 2024. Have a look!!
Sad little bouquet
Posted: August 25, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bouquet, flowers, sketchbook, watercolour sketch 26 CommentsThis started off as a sad big bouquet. Too many uninteresting leaves and too few flowers. Then it flopped and shrivelled and I trimmed it down to a sad little bouquet. But sometimes these arrangements are more fun to sketch. For example, the drooping flowers provide movement, the single red zinnia gives it a focus, and the preponderance of leaves gives it a unity of colour — all importance design elements in a sketch. Despite the sad character of this grouping, I will miss the wildness of summer flowers when autumn rolls around and I have to resort to grocery store bouquets again.
A few favourites from Provence and a new YouTube video
Posted: July 17, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: fontaine de vaucluse, ink and watercolour, provence, sketch, sketchbook, waterwheel 11 CommentsI’ve slowly been scanning sketches from my recent teaching trip in Provence and I’ll be posting more of them soon. Here are a few from my favourite spots.
ST PAUL DE MAUSOLE: I visited St. Paul de Mausole for the first time in 2018, when I was teaching my very first workshop with French Escapade. I remember how moving it was to enter the room where Van Gogh spent a year of confinement, look out at the garden from his bedroom window, see the olive trees that he painted, and be surrounded by the landscapes that inspired “Starry Night“, “The Irises“, “Olive Trees in a Mountainous Landscape” and many other paintings.
On this visit, we all did a series of small sketches that represented the place for us. I sketched the lavender fields and the monastery building where the hospital was located, a few of the Romanesque arches in the cloister, some iris leaves (even though they had finished blooming) and a few coquelicots in the garden. It was a very hot day when we visited, and there wasn’t much shade, but everyone sketched something interesting that morning, despite the heat. To note: the gardens — both outside and in the cloister — are much less well tended than they were six years ago. I’m not sure why that is. A lack of staff due to the pandemic, perhaps?
FONTAINE DE VAUCLUSE: On my day off between two teaching weeks, I had a bit of time to sketch on my own. I sat on a bench near the river and sketched the bridge, the waterwheel and the narrow village buildings. At one point, when I looked up from my sketchbook, there were two fisherman in hip waders standing on the landing near the Sorgue river. I was hoping to capture both of them but by the time I started to draw the first one, they were gone. Sketching in that spot by the river is always a pleasure. There’s a bench in the shade and a fountain so I can fill my painting cup. The temperature in the village is always cooler than the surrounding towns because of that cold spring water, and the river is an unearthly green due to the clear spring water and the bright water parsnip that grows in it. If you want to see how I painted this scene, have a look at my YouTube channel. I just posted a video of it there.
Chez Sauvé
Posted: May 24, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: architecture, Hudson, sketchbook, urban sketch, watercolour 29 CommentsIf you want to get a good sketchable view of Casse-croûte Chez Sauvé, go on a Monday or Tuesday when it’s closed. During the rest of the week there’s a constant stream of cars parking in front of it, and you won’t be able to see the small building from across the street.
I’ve been wanting to sketch this Hudson institution for years, but it’s only now that I live nearby that I’ve been able to get here on the right day of the week. At lunchtime during spring and summer, it’s packed outside with people eating hot dogs and fries, which makes it perfect for people sketching, but if you want to sketch the classic snack bar exterior, then you need to go when it’s quiet. Because it’s on Main Road in Hudson, people still park in front of it, but luckily most everyone who saw the sketcher across the street moved their vehicles. The kindest one was the school bus driver who moved his big orange bus when he saw me, and then came over to see my sketch and chat. Hudson is a very friendly place, as I am finding out.
At my feet
Posted: May 16, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Alice, dog sketch, ink sketch, sketchbook 11 CommentsI’m catching up on stuff in the house and garden today, and of course Alice is at my feet. I’ve been checking her after our walks on the trails because I found two ticks on her after our walk on Tuesday. Luckily she’s blond so those nasty critters are easy to spot on her light fur and neither of them had attached themselves to her. Of course I have to keep her on a leash now instead of letting her run free in the long grasses since that’s where they are likely to be, but it’s still a beautiful walk for both of us if we stick to the middle of the trail.
I drew her today using my new Pilot pen in my Hahnemuhle cotton sketchbook. I just love a fresh ink line on white paper so I didn’t do a preliminary drawing with pencil, but that can sometimes get me in trouble. Her hindquarters weren’t wide enough and I had to go back and move the line for her tail, which is why she looks like she might have stitches on her leg. Corrections like this used to bother me, and cause me to start over, but now I just keep going. That’s what sketchbooks are for.
