good sketcher….baaaad painter
September 5th, 2011 § 1 Comment
SO, I had a couple of hours off…great I thought and I packed my stuff and drove to a nice spot outside Winterthur to paint. It was raining of course, so that meant I was sat in the back of the car trying to avoid getting wet, but I’m just making excuses. Watercolours always look so easy when they’re done right (by someone with more practice than me!!). I haven’t been painting outdoors in a while and I think by the end of each session I am starting to learn something. The problem is by the time I get to painting again, I’ve forgotten what I’d learned the first time, which says a lot about my retentive memory. In fact it seems the longer I spend on a painting, the worse it gets and here is a prime example.
The first painting was the one I spent the most time on and I totally overworked it. The second took me about 15 minutes and though not perfect, I’m much happier with it. Maybe you disagree? Anyway if your easily impressed with my work and need more proof of how to do it good then you should take a look at the work of the unpronounceable artist Joseph Zbukvic , who really knows his way around a pan!
Pfäffikersee
August 7th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
The weather has not been kind these last few weeks…and the weeks of rain and overcast skies are now running into months. In german they call this kind of weather durchwachsen (streaky bacon), so the opportunities for getting out to the lakes and pools have been minimal, (only one day since the last time in June!) I did attempt to paint some of the aforesaid clouds but without success, so here instead are some happy sunbathers….
Summer season
June 2nd, 2011 § Leave a Comment
The summer season is now in full swing here in Switzerland which means lots of Radfahren and visits to the Strandbad(s) (cycling and lake swimming)….There are lots of opportunities to do this here in Switzerland.
Most of these doodles were done over the last weekend at Pfäffikersee, a small lake west of Zurich. I couldn’t resist adding a couple of older ladies from our last holiday to Santa Maria di Castellabate in southern Italy….I love to sketch people on the beach, but especially those glamorous, or not so glamorous older ladies….also they are a little easier to paint as they tend to sit still for a bit longer.
