St. Patrick's Cathedral

View from Clarence Street side of Victoria Park

A Gallery Painting Group paint out took place this morning. I knew that it was going to be very hot so I decided not to lug my painting gear and instead work in my sketchbook with my Lamy Safari pen and watersoluble ink. There are some problems with perspective here which need to be worked on, but I think once they have been sorted this should be the beginning of an interesting painting. I am attending a perspective workshop on Friday and Saturday and I'll bring this along for suggestions.

Occupy London, Victoria Park

My friend, Cheryl and I renewed our once a week sketching session earlier this week and returned to Victoria Park where we have spent many hours sketching. This time, rather than choosing the lovely old homes across from the park or the businesses on Richmond Street as our subjects, we turned our attention to the tents set up in the park by those who are part of Occupy London. It made for an interesting change...the tents are an intriguing combination of both organic and geometric shapes. It was pretty cold but we persevered.

Urban Sketching: Wellington Street

Today I met my friend Cheryl to do some "urban sketching". We went to Victoria Park and decided to sketch this house on Wellington Street. After several days of painting plein air, it was a delightful change to work in pen in my sketchbook....less paraphernalia to cart, no colours to consider, just black and white. My original plan was to apply watercolour to the sketch but  I decided just to leave well enough alone. Definitely a couple of problems with this sketch, but overall I am OK with it. Cheryl and I agreed that the next time Urban Sketchers holds a symposium in the States or here in Canada, we would like to attend.

Sketchbook: Victoria Park: New Field Sketch Box



Gate at Central and Richmond

  I met up with Cheryl to do some sketching and to test out a new set of watercolours made by Sakura, a Koi water color field sketch box. It will take some getting used to, but the advantage of the little brush which holds water (so you don't need to cart around bottles of water as well as something to contain the water while you work )was wonderful for sketching (especially now when the airboot thing on my foot makes getting around tricky enough). I am not convinced it would do for a painting on location, but for sketchbook work it was great. The whole thing fit easily into my bag so I can take it with me everywhere! The sketch above was done with the Koi watercolors and then modified with pen.