I’ve done a little Q&A with Charlie O’Shields at Doodlewash.com where we chat about how I came to urban sketching, and a drawing exercise I’m working on called Three Times Fast. Click on over to find out more :)
~m
Sketching Algarve : the Coastal Towns
Though I thoroughly enjoyed the days painting the rocky coastline, there were also plenty of towns and villages to explore in the Algarve. From our home base in Alvor, we’d head out every few days on a bus trip to nearby Portimão or Sagres, or go inland to Silvas and Monchique. Each ‘travel day’ we’d try a different guided painting exercise in the morning and explore in smaller groups in the afternoon.
Some of the days I’d do a longer demo like this one above. This 11×30″ diptych is a view of Alvor harbor seen looking back from the boardwalk on the salt flats.
Lately I’m doing a kind of classroom demo I call a “paint-along”. I’ll show how I’d break down a scene with the drawing, then help out as people try it themselves. After they’ve had a chance to draw their own, we go back to watch my painting process. As people get the hang of it, they can return to their own pieces and apply the ideas. I might repeat that step again at the end, calling them back to see a demo of the final touches of dark, before people are getting there in their own work.
I like this method as it allows for people to digest the steps – applying the ideas immediately instead of trying to remember the whole process start to finish. Plus it seems more fun for people – as compared to watching me paint for an hour without a break.
On another day in Alvor the Australians from USK:Melbourne asked me to show how I’d handle this narrow street view.
It ended up being kind of an overly long demo – I did a lot of drawing to carefully explain things – but then ended up simplifying it down to just a bunch of brushstrokes on the right hand side. My main goal was to start at the tiny gap in the distance and build the perspective of the narrow lane – making sure to get that small sailboat well in frame. I liked the idea of people parallel parking their boats in the back alley. That’s a slice of life that we don’t have at home.
Note how I use the highest contrast and brightest color to draw focus onto the red and white plaster house at center left. Those black and white windows are the strongest light-on-dark contrast. I softened the value of red painted trim as it vanishes out of the lit foreground (because of course it was the same bright red everywhere in reality) – but that helps keep the attention in the mid ground. This supports the way all the composition lines are pointing you down the alley. (See this old concept – Gradient of Interest).
So – it might have been a long drawn out demo – but it gave one of us time to sell her version of the drawing to the man who owns the sail boat. Meanwhile another artist who’d gone off on her own sold one page of sketches to two separate shop owners. They both wanted the original but she wouldn’t sell, so they settled for prints – and were willing to pay in advance to have her send them back when she got home.
This spot is kitty-corner from the city hall in Portimão. I thought this fallen roof was more interesting than the official looking edifice. That, and I wanted to capture the irony of this run down block covered in old political campaign posters.
Painting these two sketches made me think back to the town of Paraty Brazil. We’d seen the Portuguese marble mosaic sidewalks show up in Macau, and now made the connection with the colorful plaster houses in Brazil. Real evidence the Portuguese once sailed the whole world.
When it came to the city hall itself, I still avoided the issue – finding the parking entrance more interesting than the building itself. Ran out of time too after a false start, so this ended up being a 15 min single line sketch to wind up that day.
As the days went by, we collected something from every town we visited in the area:
Just an ordinary block of buildings in Portimão. This kind of typical shop feels a bit like Italy, but with the little white balustrade along the roofline, it has its own Portuguese style. These were up behind a freeway on-ramp, and I liked the natural ground line it made by leaving that ugly-but-practical modernization out.
This square in Lagos features the Igreja de Santa Maria. This is supposed to be the site of an old slave market. I originally intended to make something grim and moody to convey a sense of the history here – but when we arrived, the place has been so completely changed – all white and sparkling in the sun – it’s hard to imagine that dark side of history ever happened.
The Mercado Municipal in Lagos. This was one just for fun at the very end of the day. Immediately to our left is a taxi stand, which was our ticket home. If you go the other way, reverse to where we’re looking, you’ll get out to the Ponta da Piedade in about 30 minutes of scenic walking, or of course a short drive.
Inside the medieval castle at Silvas. Coincidentally while we were there USK Algarve was having an exhibition in the art gallery on site. Great motivation for our class of sketchers!
This final page starts at Fóia – the highest point of the Algarve, just above Monchique, then back down to Silves, where we got off the bus at this old bridge – then raced up to the cathedral to sketch it before we had to be back on the bus. Not the best way to be a sketch tourist – but this is the reality of travel – sometimes you have to draw fast, or not a all.
My favorite on this last page of sketches is the strange one at the top with the green dome.
I didn’t expect this, but Fóia is of course capped with radio antennas, cell towers and this space station looking dome that might be radar? I don’t know. It was so cloudy when we arrived, we only stayed a few minutes – this was the only thing to see from here. So that’s the oddest sketch – but it’s neat to be surprised sometimes.
Painting the Sea: Rocks and Water in the Algarve
We’ve just returned from our 11 day painting workshop in the Algarve Portugal. There’s of course a wealth of things to see in the area. Much of it is pastoral landscape with picturesque towns and fishing villages. For me – a kid from the Alberta prairies – it was the beach that held the most opportunity.
Since people will ask – these sketches are 1/4 sheet, so approx. 11×15″, and the most important colors are Buff Titanium and Goethite for sand and Indigo, Turquoise and Viridian for the sea and sky.
I used Cobalt Teal Blue in Florida but I was told (by the Queen of Color Jane Blundell) how to make a more complex effect with Buff Titanium added to any cool blue or green.
For the warm colors of the rocks I went to the famous Buff Titanium again, plus Quin Gold, Trans Red Oxide and Raw Umber Violet.
So the take away is – get Buff Titanium! It’s incredibly useful as a pastelizer and opacifier. (Someone can tell me if there’s real watercolor terms for those two words?)
People are always saying ‘I don’t have that color, what is that for?’ – so there you go. It’s for everything that has a dusty yellow to warm white pastel tone. Also comes in handy for trees, concrete, even fleshtones sometimes.
When you have a tremendous location like this, the paintings seem to make themselves. I love the elemental simplicity of rocks and water. It’s almost abstract. It seems like there’s an infinite number of compositions with the ever changing colors of the sea.
These are sketched at the far end of Alvor Beach at a small section they call Prainha. There really aren’t very many rocks here, but it was right near our home base, 30-40 min walk from the harbor, so perfect for a quick day trip to the beach.
They’re building a boardwalk all the way out here, so it will be even easier next year. Today, you can walk along the highway, or do what we did the second time and take a cab to the Restaurant Atlantida – they have the prime spot at the very end of the beach. I suspect it’s a popular choice for a sunset dinner.
If you come on foot by beach, you can get cut off by tides, so you might need to go up the cliff. There’s only one staircase in the area, which is easy to find.
The main challenge at the seaside is breaking down the patterns of moving water.
Seeing zones or ‘stripes’ of color where you can see depth changes, interpreted as horizontal bands of green or blue. I think you can see three or four horizontal passages of dark-to-light, blue-to-green in this one above? It’s of course not that simple in reality – but you can make some judgement calls and simplify it into these bands. I worked fast to lay them while edges were still wet. Just don’t stop in the middle. Paint all the water in one go, and plan ahead not to run out of your water-color puddle in the middle of the page.
As well, I found I had to go back and restate the darkest blue on the horizon with more intense pigment at the very end. (After the first pass was dry).
And of course, note the reserved white of the sea foam. Those gaps are things you’ll have to try and allow to happen as you’re gliding across with sea-blue-green.
Another odd bit is the colors of wet sand – I found that hard to guess at – or the eddies of sand kicked up into the waves. These are perfect places to charge in the extremely sedimentary color DS Goethite.
At different times of day the water bounces back different colors. In the early morning, or a rainy day, it’s almost black in the foreground – reversing the normal sea-green foreground to dark blue horizon.
This one is from the Ponta da Piedade in Lagos. I highly recommend this spot – the best place for rock arches and intersecting lagoons.
In the very early morning, when the water is calm, they do stand up paddle surfing tours. It was just two of us and 10 or 12 of them out there at sunrise.
I only did one full-on painting here. I don’t know what I was thinking! But you could go back over and over and not run out of things to paint at this spot. If you do only one rocky point – this was the best I found. Locals might have better suggestions – let me know in the comments!
I noticed a lot of local sketchers using long horizontal panoramic books. It makes sense – the land here is perfect for them. There’s a 6×12″ watercolor block by Fluid paper that would be ideal for these long, low red-orange cliffs leading out to sea.
Here’s the last two of these we did at a day out with the USK Algarve group. They were kind enough to host a session where we could meet a group of local sketchers.If you’re visiting the area, check out their blog in case they have an event on.
This sketch above with a very simple long low yellow building you can barely see? – the one looking like a stick of butter in the sun? That’s the fort at Sagres. It’s a great spot with views all around it. We did both of these sketches, parking at the nearby Pousada Do Infante and looking back at the point.
Next up: sketching the towns: Alvor, Portimao, Sagres, Silvas. Stay tuned for more from Algarve!
Announcement: 2016 Workshops in Myrtle Beach and Savannah
As we are taking care of announcements today, here’s new info on two workshops for September 2016!
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Sept 19-21, 2016:
This fall, we’re offering a three day watercolor painting event in partnership with the South Carolina Watermedia Society.
We’ll be working at various locations in-and-around Myrtle Beach, painting en plein air, practicing the art of spontaneous sketching in watercolor. This is intended to be an easel-painting type of workshop. Students may want to have a basic familiarity with watercolor painting en plein air, but beginners with a willingness to jump in the deep-end are always welcome! This is the best way not to be a beginner any more :)
More info on my Workshops Page, or Click here to Register for one of the 16 available spots.
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Savannah, Georgia, Sept 23-25, 2016:
We are offering a three day sketchbook drawing workshop in partnership with the Telfair Museums, held in conjunction with their upcoming exhibition One Hundred Years of Harmony: Paintings by Gari Melchers.
We’ll be working in-and-around the historic Owens-Thomas House and other nearby landmarks. This workshop is focused on sketchbook drawing in pen and ink, accompanied by tinting in watercolor.
The class is suitable for beginners, though advanced sketchers are welcome to come and work more independently. It is always a pleasure for other students to have experienced urban sketchers in the group.
More info on my Workshops Page, or Click here to Register for one of the 15 available spots.
Announcement: New Instructor for 2017 India Workshop: Spoilers; I have to replace myself!
For a little while now we have been advertising a sketching workshop to India.
The plan is a travel sketching trip to Delhi, Varanasi and Agra. It should be an incredible opportunity to discover this exotic country through the art of sketchbook journalism.
Unfortunately I have to announce that I must step back from this trip.
We are facing issues surrounding my parents’ ill-health that make future trips of this length impractical. I will still be travelling for workshops in 2016 – but for the foreseeable future afterwards I’m putting trips longer than a few days off the table.
But – I don’t want to dwell on that news. I want to introduce our hand-picked replacement instructor!
On our recent trip to Portugal, we had the great opportunity to work alongside Anne-Laure Jacquart, a watercolor sketcher from France.
Over the two week trip we became increasingly impressed with her obvious love for sketching, her great personality, and her fearlessly direct approach to watercolor.
Her work is remarkably fresh, fun, and informative to watch. And of course, full of the kind of storytelling that makes travel sketching so rewarding.
In her own life she’s been a teacher for many years, and is also the author of seven books on photography and composition. She has been a photography blogger for ages, and is now developing her career as a travel sketcher. She’s launched an excellent sketching blog and youtube channel which I recommend to everyone:
Anne-Laure Jacquart: Watercolor Sketching (dot com).
Some of you might also be interested in her photo blog, as it does relate closely to the art of sketchbook journalism.
While drawing side-by-side in Portugal, we had initially discussed the possibility of Anne-Laure and I co-teaching an event. With this current situation in my family, I am very pleased to say she is willing and excited to take over and lead the sketching trip to India!
I think her work is ideally suited to the kind of trip I would love to have done in such an exotic place. There will be so much color and activity going on around you – the sketchbook is the perfect way for an artist to immerse themselves.
If you have been thinking about this workshop and have any questions, you can mail me separately (marc(dot)taro(at)gmail(dot)com, contact Anne-Laure through her website, or simply go to the direct link to register for the India sketching tour at Nancy Walsh’s Going Places Together.
There are only 10 spaces available, so you might want to register today!
~marc
Montreal Monument Project
Myself, and a small team of people from USK:MTL are developing an ongoing event we call Montreal Monument. This series of public drawing days will culminate with an exhibition in partnership with Heritage Montreal, in early 2017, to coincide with the 375th anniversary of the city of Montreal.
So, this is just a long-term advance notice:) We’ll be doing a Call-for-Entry much later in the year – or even next.
But what we’re doing for the rest of 2016 is dedicating some of our USK:MTL public Sunday Sketching days to drawing things that would make great entries for the exhibition.
You can read more about this over on USK:MTL, or – just check out the google map we’ve made for all the 2016 Montreal Monument sketching days.
Even if you don’t plan to enter the show, the map is a handy guide for Urban Sketchers visiting Montreal.
Ashes to Ashes : Montreal Beaux Arts Pompeii Exhibiton
We’ve just had a quick visit to the Montreal Beaux Arts for the exhibit on Pompeii. (On Feb 6 to Sept 5).
This is the Roman version of the goddess Isis. Representing the ideal mother and wife, also protector of the dead and of children. She was the mother of Horus in Egyptian mythology.
The exhibition features many art objects like this Isis, as well as objects from daily life.
Pompeii was an ancient roman city near Naples, which, in 79AD was suddenly buried by 6 meters of volcanic ash falling from Mount Vesuvius.
The exhibit is all very interesting, if somewhat textbook in presentation, until suddenly you enter a room that contains these plaster casts of the victims bodies.
These plaster figures are people who might have perished in the fumes, falling ash and fires, and were encased by a hundred mile and hour landslide of liquefied earth emerging from the final collapse of the volcano.
There were over a thousand bodies preserved in this kind of natural sculptural mold. Sort of the opposite of fossilization. A void was left in the sea of pumice enclosing the bodies – rather than the people being turned to stone, as it appears at first glance.
They are captured in considerable detail. I had the impression I could see imprints of their clothing. There are no features, or hair. And some of the postures seem to indicate the pugilist stance – typical of death by fire.
I have read they no longer make these plasters, as the process destroys the skeletal remains. These actual objects might have been made before world war two. I can’t say for sure if they are the original impressions from the ash. But I expect so.
This is a chilling end to what at first seems like just another exhibition of classical roman vases and statues. This final room is undeniably moving.
There is something in our culture right now in which these images of apocalypse are all around us. We can’t help but stand and look, and think about our own future. We see climate change and over-consumption bringing disasters. Not always on the scope of Vesuvius. But still. How can we not look at these ancient Romans and think a little bit about our insignificance in the face of nature.
Sketching Tip: Seeing Darks
To me, a painting isn’t complete until is has a full range of values. Even in a quick sketch I like to see strong contrasts in the areas of interest. (Not so much in the background – as that’s often far away).
The great thing about a sketchbook drawing, is you can go right to those solid blacks using a thicker pen line or (my favorite) a brush pen.
When you draw in black ink, you automatically have the highest contrast. It’s just the white paper, and the black drawing. At that point, whatever color you splash on you can be pretty sure it’s going to work.
A short while ago I was answering a student’s question about placement of blacks in the drawing.
I find this comes up a lot – the question: “How do you know where to put the darks?” It seems there’s a natural fear of doing it wrong. The solid blacks are so powerful – they’re scary! What if I put them in the wrong place? Or use too much black? Will I ruin my future painting?
Quick answer: probably not – and even if you do, it’s just a sketch! Try it and find out :) You can always make another one :)
I’ve always found this question a little hard to answer. Because the only thing to say is, “well – you just *look* at the scene”.
Look for the areas that have the darkest shadows. Hit them with the black ink – and suddenly the thing pops out into three dimensions.
It’s like the drawing is the skeleton of the painting. Just the clean bones of the thing, waiting to be fleshed out in color.
This time, when trying for a better answer, I hit on the idea of using a high contrast adjustment layer in Photoshop to show ‘scientifically’ where these darks are in the image. The idea here is to remove every color other than black.
I knew this would work. But I was surprise how perfectly it matches! When you look at the isolated photographic darks next to the drawing – amazing hey?
It’s scientific proof I can draw :) I had never seen this photograph processed this way. I actually didn’t realize how close my sketch was to the real values. It’s just become second nature to look at the world, and see a high contrast version. So – there it is. That’s what you’re looking for. Just the darkest-of-darks.
Here’s another example of this discovery. (By the way, these examples are not original sketchbook drawings done on location. Here’s a few of the original pages over here).
So, here’s the photo vs. the line art – and then the contrast filter vs. the same line drawing. I just can’t get over how closely the ‘eyeballed’ darks match up to the real situation.
One last example, this one shows a little bit of ‘cheating’.
Here’s the photo vs. the line drawing, and then below the high-contrast version vs. the same line drawing.
Notice how in the contrast-tweaked version, the most distant spit of land vanishes into the lights? And as well, there is no top edge to the cliffs. They melt into the sky.
In the drawing, I instinctively blacked in that distant cliff – even though it is not really in the darkest dark value range. And I drew a hard line along the tops of the mid-ground ridges. These are both choices which are photographically wrong but make for a more clear rendition of the scene.
Remember! None of this was pre-planned. It’s just interesting to see how these Photoshop tests reveal that drawing is an analytical process of seeing and interpreting nature.
~m
Reporting in from Algarve, Portugal
The workshop’s just ended here. Its been a great time. Busy every day painting with an excellent group of people from all over. This was our longest workshop to date – and I quite enjoyed getting to know everyone. You break the ice after a few days, and can really start to learn from each other.
Here’s a few temporary pics from the field. More news on the trip soon. Update: Replaced terrible phone pics with real scans :) Here’s a longer post with all the seaside sketches.
My favorite location (so far) in this area: Prainha Beach, Algarve.
This was actually an embarrassing moment. As soon as I saw the waves I was thinking – OMG I have no idea how to paint these. What was I thinking coming here!
We all did our best learning to do it on the spot.
And that is really the main point anyway isn’t it? No matter what you read and study, you only learn to paint by practice:)
~m
Welcome back for part two! Traveling further afield from Siem Reap, visiting the distant temple complexes.
[Ta Prohm’s small 4 face gate. An iconic sight, common to all the temples]
As you head outward from Siem Reap, the various temple complexes become less ostentatious. Some are as small as a single building in the forest, or an empty reservoir moat with a fallen down tower.
Probably the most well known from film and photography is Ta Prohm. This exotic site is overgrown with giant trees whose roots are often bursting through the stone walls. It’s probably my favorite of the temples – though it does not have the most impressive sculptures or architecture.
The place is bustling with workers setting up scaffolding and carrying on reconstruction. But with the constant encroachment of the trees and vines it seems like it would all vanish if they took a week off. Swallowed up by the forest.
It makes you want to rush around, sketching everything madly. Like you have only a limited time to capture everything because once you leave it’s going to be gone for good.
In fact, the experience might well be gone for a different reason. This is our second time visiting. The first trip was in 2002. We could see what tremendous difference the reconstruction makes. Things become safer. No more heaps of disembodied figures waiting to be sorted and re-stacked. No more scrambling over mossy stones and into leaning corridors that might easily collapse on your head.
Sorry to be ‘that guy’ saying how it’s never going to be the same. But really – you should just get out here and see it soon! The sites have gone from a few thousand visitors a year, to over 2 million of us playing Indiana Jones. One way or another, that much attention is changing things.
To talk about painting for a moment. In general with these sketches, you’ll see me working to simplify.
To distill the immense complexity of the carved structures and surrounding vegetation into a painted impression. A set of silhouettes.
With this one, I knew I wanted to record the complete feeling of the place. This was the one image I’d planned to get from the start. The whole trip was made to get here.
I probably spent over two hours at this spot. Not that long for a plein air painter, but quite a while for a sketcher.
I think of the mass of the tree canopy almost the same way I might paint clouds. It seems ‘all in one shape’ now, but it was grown out carefully from the edges of the buildings.
I had the most fun leaving out the negative space for the tree roots, then coming back to paint them into the reserved white. It brings the image suddenly into focus when you drop in the final puzzle piece.
Painting in the rain. There was a lot of that this trip. One day I will work out a way to wear an umbrella on my back, in the manner of the soldier’s flags in a Kurosawa samurai film.
For now I’m just tying it onto my backpack straps (Flimsy). Or holding it in the same hand as my drawing board (Very awkward). I’ve also tried lashing it to a monopod and holding it in the crook of an elbow. That works, but you have to carry the extra monopod.
All these jerry-rigs are highly susceptible to wind-gusts. So nothing is perfect.
By the way, this also works for painting under intense sun. I did a few sketches in Italy with an umbrella sticking out of my shoulder bag.
I’m starting to hate sun screen, but I also worry about melanoma. If you’re going to be out in the sun for weeks at a time, that’s getting to be a real concern. Something on the list, to be worked out in the future.
This is the South Gate of Angkor Thom. The rows of stone soldiers on the bridges reminded me of Chinese Terracotta warriors.
They are meant to be holding up a giant serpent, but the horizontal sections of the snake have fallen away. Probably to be restored soon.
When we were last here years ago, there were classrooms of kids being taught stone carving. I’m sure the idea was to plan ahead, to grow the craftspeople that are stewards of these national treasures today.
Finally, The Bayon. This tower is the best location for 4 face heads. You can climb up to the top and get eye to eye with the giant stone faces.
From a distance, if the lighting is not right (midday, or overcast), the place is really just a jumble of rocks. You have to be conscious to create organized blocks of color and value. Work to separate objects which in reality are camouflaged together.
That being said, this painting is very much ‘artistic license’. Not really a faithful representation. But who is to say? It doesn’t look like photographic reality – but the sketch will be how I remember it :)
Citizen Sketcher 