Still Trying to Catch Up ...

More sketches from the backlog I've developed in the past few weeks ... This time it's a few watercolors from various places. Sketching small, in something like a 5" x 8" Moleskine watercolor sketchbook, is certainly enjoyable. And keeping things small usually means keeping things quick and loose, which definitely has its advantages when sketching on location. But to really get into sketching with watercolor I feel like I need more space on the page, and it's easier to work on a 9" x 12" pad or block instead of in a book. Using a larger, better brush is also a nice change of pace from the waterbrush I typically use for small subjects. Waterbrushes are fantastic for the small stuff, but there's nothing like a good sable #6 to get the water and pigment flowing. This first sketch is in the center of Rome, the Via delle Vacche, just off of Piazza del Fico. This was done just after finishing my sketching colurse with students for the morning ... one of my favorite times to draw on my own is immediately after teaching people about drawing!

The second sketch is from Ostia Antica, the ancient port city of Rome. Like the first sketch in this post, I had just finished up with my students and had found a nice shady, quiet spot to settle in and paint. This is the "Case del Giardino" ... i.e., garden apartments.

This one is from Paestum, a Greco-Roman settlement south of Salerno, along the coast. It was founded in the 4th/5th Century BC, and is one of my favorite places to visit ... amazing ruins in an equally amazing landscape. This is the lone intact column around the ancient Forum. I got a little bit lost in the act of painting and paid for it with a painful sunburn on the right side of my neck.

The last of this little collection is from Piazza Umberto I in Atrani. I started this one in the upper-left, and was having fun with the landscape with the little monastery on the cliff ... but I have to admit I got a little lazy toward the end, and sort of gave up toward the bottom. My patience has its limits, I suppose. So perhaps it's back to the small-scale stuff for a while.