Saturday 24 July 2010

Noja Beach


Noja


Katherine Thomas is a master of the use of coloured pencils I never fail to be amazed by what she achieves with them. I have never ever used them or kept a notepad with me. I have noticed how many of you do and would love to be able to. Knowing my weakness I have never ever done so. On the last few days of my holiday I was missing painting. It is really not practical to do the kind of art I enjoy doing at a caravan.

I had taken some pastels on holiday with me but very little pastel paper. I visited a little place called Sona’ta. I ventured into a shop looking for pastel paper. With much waving of the hands I was redirected to another little shop. here I met an artist who could speak a little English. With her help I did not get the pastel paper but I did get a sketching pad and some coloured pencils.

This is my first ever attempt at doing this. I have looked at Katherine’s work so often so I know it is nothing of much worth this sketch but I have bravely decided to put it here.

My thinking is that if I do show it to you maybe it will encourage me to do so more often and maybe I will get better at it. My actual painting is never as high as so many on here. I feel pleased if I produce one in a week I like. I know some who do two in a day.

But maybe I could manage the odd sketch and just maybe some of you might help me get better at it.

So hear it is a little spot of the beach at Noja. I did a pastel of this which I gave to the Spanish family I met. It was better than this sketch but this is after all my first ever attempt with the medium.

This blog is linked to my other blog  The Garden Plot

6 comments:

  1. Those reflections look like watercolors to my eyes Ralph. I think this is a delightful piece and truly amazing since it is your first attempt ever with the colored pencils.

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  2. Ralph, it's beautiful. How did you like working with a dry medium? Did you find that you had more control? I will now reveal to you the secret to colored pencils: Layer, layer, layer. To render one blue marble, I will lightly layer about 6 different colors over and over again, until I've built up about 20 layers. At some point they become like paint, and you can push the pigment around. I hope you do more colored pencil work! I think you'll get a lot of pleasure from it!

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  3. Ralph, very admirable for your first effort. I have used watercolor pencils, but they are easier because you can add water to blend. Please don't compare yourself to other artists, God created us all unique with our own set of abilities.

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  4. Thanks Katherine for your advice I will try and see if I can have the patience to do this.

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  5. This is a great drawing! It looks like watercolor pencil to me. You are so right about needing a lot of patience when working with colored pencil!

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  6. Sketches are so charming - done in any medium. They have a freshness and spontaneity about them. Aquarell pencils are my favourite for sketching designs, along with fine texta pens.

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