Yesterday I drew naked people all day.

Flickr

two experiments from 2010:

I’m learning how to wield a pencil. More photos from my sketchbook are on flickr.

Left: A sketch made, for lack of a camera, to document the prototype made during a class in conceptual clothing design. Trouser legs were missing as I was just working on the top element.

Right: The concept developed into jeans or thick cotton trousers with a sort of collar that extends the shape of the waist.

It’s getting cold and grey in Ghent but there are still tropical plants in and around the glasshouses at the university’s botanical garden.

It’s interesting to me how my own inaccurate reproduction of the scene above in paint is already replacing my memory of the real thing in my mind. The more I look at my own painting, the more it becomes my memory. The same thing happens with old photographs, I find.

Although, to be fair to my brain, I do remember more detail from the real scene than I would have if I hadn’t painted it at all, even if the painted version is encroaching on that memory.

A caveat: These images are a tad unsharp because I copied the paintings with my camera instead of scanning the originals.

Though these paintings are still heavy handed and lacking in control, I feel like I’m paving the way for improvement every time I paint something new. The hardest part, again and again, is summoning the confidence and ease of mind to finish the painting when — during every painting in this beginning phase — I inevitably lose control of the painting.

I’m not sure I’m happy with this postcard sketch. What I am sure about is that I need a lot more practice.

I went out and painted in the centre of Ghent today. At first it was uncomfortable — people swarming around you, cars, trams, bikes. Ok perhaps not swarming. Milling.

But once I got into it, I forgot where I was and what time it was, and enjoyed it a lot. Drawing urban scenes is completely different to drawing the natural forms of the countryside.

I was almost finished when I was approached by an old man who talked to me about painting. That was nice. He said he was thinking himself of sitting in that position but with a different subject. And he was politely complimentary about my picture. It was a nice exchange and I thought: that’s something that wouldn’t happen in the countryside.

The picture above is taken from a poor angle using my camera as I don’t have a scanner here. Maybe I can get a proper scan of the image at a printshop.

I don’t have a scanner here so this reproduction isn’t very good. (It’s a photo.)

I’m in Ghent! I went for a walk yesterday to relax a bit, and I took my watercolour gear with me. I found an interesting subject beside the river and sat down on someone’s stoop to begin sketching. After a basic sketch I was ready to create the details and the atmosphere with the paint itself. That’s when I realized I’d brought everything except the paint.

Getting ready to leave, I began to pack away my things. And I noticed there was still a skin of old dry paint on my palette, from the last painting I did, in Mallorca. I had to be very mean with the application of paint, and very creative with the colours I had, in order to save the picture. In the end I also used grass to colour it. The picture isn’t perfect but I was delighted to have found a solution, and to have learnt quite a lot about layering and texturing using watercolour paints.

Like the rest of my watercolour sketches so far, this is a scene depicting rural Santa Margalida. I ought to make the most of my environment here and practice more in the coming days, because I’m off to Belgium on the 29th.

This one’s a bit messy… clumsy… Not very pleased with it. I had the sun on my back and was sat on a rock. Lesson learned: paint in the shade. And think about getting a tripod seat!

I need to learn to prioritize the important parts of these sketches; I tried drawing this scene when the sun was going down and soon learned to appreciate brevity in sketching.

I’m still lacking control of the finished product (I always know what I want but rarely how to achieve it) but having fun nevertheless.

I’m finding it fun to use my instinct and available resources. My brushes aren’t very good but most of the nicest effects I’ve achieved so far are from using bits of plant stem or leaf as brushes. I also used a knife to cut up the paper in places, but that’s less evident in the photo than in reality.

The green grid pattern is meant to represent the protective wire around the two sapling trees (yes, that’s what they are). I achieved it by cutting out some mesh from a garlic bag and making a stamp.

Update: I see now that I should have made the background layers leaner in places so that the thicker paint in the foreground wasn’t muddled. And perhaps I should have been more patient with drying times. Hopefully I’ll remember all this next time.