Jeanette and I paused in Valparaiso, Indiana to recharge our art batteries. Valparaiso is the county seat of Porter County, but not many tourists come here. The library has a fabulous collection of art books and there’s an art museum on the university campus of that we’ll check out tomorrow. Today it’s time for sketching.
We picked this streetcorner: a shoe store in a brick building with a round turret. Here’s how it looked to the camera.
I tried a sepia sketch in the mini-Moleskine watercolor book, using a few washes of tone and then some brown Waterman ink sketched with a fountain pen. Then I added a wet wash here and there to melt the linework, releasing its inner red tone.
Here’s Jeanette to describe her painting: “I did a pencil sketch in my sketchbook (laid-finish paper), then put down some watercolor. I went back in with a ballpoint pen when the color was dry.”
Our fingers got cold from the November weather, so we tucked into a wi-fi café for soup and coffee. An elderly fellow sat near me and hauled out his laptop. Sitting duck, thought I.
These are great little pictures. I get easily discouraged by city-scapes as they always seem too crowded with baffling movement and it seems to lack the same aesthetic as nature. But there is lots of beauty there.
ReplyDeleteI love your cityscapes! And I am amazed at how much detail you are able to paint in those mini moleskine books. I have one, which I used to think was too small to do anything with, but now I'm inspired!
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