"when tired at last, he sat on the bank, while the river still chattered on to him, a babbling procession of the best stories in the world, sent from the heart of the earth to be told at last to the insatiable sea.”
― Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
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| River Great Ouse, Hartford, watercolour sketch |
And here it is in my sketchbook, along with a couple of other doodles, one of our garden that I did ages ago, and colour charts for both the Winsor & Newton and Daler Rowney boxes that I use for plein air work. The sketchbook is a Daler Rowney Ebony A5. They take watercolour washes really well, without falling apart as some other brands tend to! Additionally, for this latest sketch I used Kuretake Zig waterbrushes rather than my sable and sable-synthetic pocket brushes. Waterbrushes are really convenient but they are generally made from synthetic fibres and so the sharp ends of the bristles can scrub the surface of the paper and cause it to pill or, even worse, rip ... but the paper in the DR Ebony stands up to the job very well :)
Happy plein air painting my friends!
Interesting to reading your experience with this sketchbook and to see you can go out ;) Happing painting to you too !
ReplyDeleteMerci beaucoup, Lydie!
DeleteI'm glad you finally got to paint en plein air again! And treat us to this wonderful painting! Happy painting, Michael!
ReplyDeleteMe too Judy! It's fine again today ... so fingers crossed :)
DeleteI would like to try a bit of plein air painting - if it stops raining long enough! Great to see your sketchbook - something else I need to do!
ReplyDeleteThank you Sharon. Yes, do try to get out with your paints in between the showers. I think you learn so much by painting plein air.
DeleteNice sketches. Have you ever tried sketching under one of those big umbrellas that fishermen use?
ReplyDeleteThank you Keith and thanks for the +1 too! I have a giant golfing umbrella but I cycle to work so no room for it unfortunately!
DeleteHola Michael.
ReplyDeleteWhat beautiful words and watercolours!
You really enjoy painting plain air. I'm glad that rain gives you a truce. It's very interesting your practice book. Hugs.
Hola Conchi. Thank you very much! I wish I could write like that - I'll concentrate on the pictures and leave the words to the experts :)
DeleteIt has turned into a wonderful quick sketch Michael. Hopefully you'll have dry weather the next few days for plein air painting.
ReplyDeleteAbout the umbrella: just hang it on your back.
Thank you very much, Renske. That's a good idea for carrying an umbrella :)
DeleteA great sketch Michael. And I really enjoyed looking into your sketch book. That's a great idea to have colour swatches in your book. It's a shame about the weather ... I've bought a new backpack for my art stuff so I can get out walking and painting, but it's rained everyday since. lol.
ReplyDeleteThank you John! Excellent stuff ... it sounds like you're all ready to go plein air so let's hope it clears up soon!
DeleteThe weather isn´t better in Sweden I tell you. What a summer! But it´s nice to hear that you atleast got some minutes to paint outside anyway! Nice of you to show us the palett too! I recognize most of the colours ;) Isn´t it a great feeling sitting by the water, looking a mother nature and paint. Sigh!
ReplyDeleteThank you Catharina. I think the rain is pretty much all over North and Western Europe now :( Yes, that's very true, there's nothing quite like relaxing by the river and painting.
DeleteLovely paintings. The top one really goes well with the Wind in the Willows quote.
ReplyDeletebtw I use the same sketchbooks. I love the paper. Great for ink too.
Thank you, Sue! Yes, I've used the Ebony for watercolour, WC pencil, pencil and brushpen ... so I suppose that's ink too! It's the best of all the sketchbooks I've tried, well, so far anyway ;)
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