My first sketch is from last week before the rain set in. I spent a lovely hour sitting in the 17th century garden belonging to a local villa. The 'corner' I sketched was of a garden seat with obelisks on either side and lemon trees behind. There is one of these garden seats on each corner of a crossroads in the typical layout of an old Italian garden. When I'm sketching somewhere like this I always imagine how it once was, with ladies in big dresses and children in knickerbockers.
This is a cafè front in Oxford. It was a freezing day and I was drawn to the bright spots of warm colours in the windows. In this sketch from my photograph, I did an under painting in black to see if I could get the darks really dark.
This month I am exploring what I can do with black, a colour that I rarely use.
The colour was painted in over the top and then more black using a coloured pencil. I still didn't get the darks desired, I think I'm still too hesitant about black. I need to try harder!
8 comments:
When I see images like your garden seat, I remember old movies or movies about old times. Never think that people still live in those places. We don't have anything like that in Kansas. Nice sketches.
Beautiful sketches as always :)
I like your cozy painting alot!
Question:
I'm interested in your black underpainting, with the glowing yellows. Were you using transparent watercolors? If so, how did you handle the black underpainting in those areas?
Thank you Shirley. The black was opaque but diluted and the other colours were transparent. The black was really dry before I went over it.
Thank you for the comment John, the garden is quite run down and needs some attention. It belongs to the council as does the villa. The villa is now used as an art college.
It's difficult to get into the privately owned villas but I jump at the chance when I can.
Thank you Alex!
Lovely sketches Cathy.
Wonderful watercolors, Cathy ! I find your blacks ok, and i love the reflections in the windows too !
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