VIDEO: Sketching trees in pen and ink

A new video for you - of me sketching trees in pen and sepia ink. I'm actually drawing looking over the top of iPad Mini which was used to film this video while I was sat in the shade. This is my "normal" way of drawing ie this is how fast I draw.

I'm using a Pilot G-Tec-C4 pen with sepia ink which has a very fine point plus a Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook. The latter is designed for pen and ink and line drawings and is great for this purpose.

This is the view I was drawing. I like this sketchbook a lot for pen and ink work - but I'm not so enamoured with its performance when using coloured pencils. It's got more tooth than I normally like.  The paper is a heavy weight (100lb / 150gsm) natural white paper with a plate surface.

Sketching the lake and trees at Chartwell
copyright Katherine Tyrrell
I don't find the coloured pencil is as receptive on this surface.  It's difficult to get any depth of colour.
I think I need to focus on using this sketchbook just for pen and ink drawings.

and the photo of the same view taken yesterday afternoon after I dropped off my drawings for the Florum exhibition at the Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve (the exhibition is open 6th-13th September).

The view from where I was sat - with departing art group walking up the hill
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

One of the odd/interesting things about yesterday was that there was an art group painting around the lake. I was chatting to one of them and when we introduced ourselves she knew who I was and all about Making A Mark!

More about the great plein air painting chairs they were using in tomorrow's post.

Links: Pen and Ink - Resources for Artists

VIDEO: Sketching with coloured pencils #1

..and finally - we have a video of me sketching! Watch it here - or for the big HD version click the link and go to YouTube where you can view it on my YouTube Channel. Below you can also view some photographs from my day out at Great Dixter yesterday.

Making a video of me sketching!

I can't remember how many years it's been since I started thinking about making a video of me sketching. Last year I did get as far as making a slideshow of a step by step - see © Katherine Tyrrell Sketching the Long Border, Great Dixter (July 2013)

I've long said I'm going to produce a video of me sketching - and years have gone by during which time I have bought tripods etc and never ever done anything about it. We then come to the advent of the mini iPad and I've again begun to think about videos of sketching.  Yesterday quite spontaneously I finally did it!

...and finally - this is it!

This comes with about 15 seconds of thought and preparation and starts with me taking the mini iPad back into my own hands from "he who must not be bored while I sketch" - who was supposed to be filming me - just as he has yet another hay fever attack.

That's when I discovered I could actually hold the iPad Mini and sketch by looking at the sketchbook through my iPad!  For those of you with iPad Minis why don't you try it?

You might be interested in how I hold a pencil....... however my pudgy hands distress me - they come courtesy of both age and disability!

Other than that take a look at my first go at iPad videos of me sketching.  Like I said - this is spontaneous - and you get the usual features associated with sketching (something falls over , the sketchbook goes skew whiff etc).

More about my day out and photos of the sketching set-up

Who would have thought that writing a book about drawing and sketching would have led to a drought in terms of plein air sketching - and blogging about my sketching? My visual capacity in my brain has been completed filled with selecting and gathering in images (and copyright forms), rescanning and photographing over 100 images of my own plus creating lots of diagrams to explain points.

It was absolutely idyllic yesterday to sit in a very English Garden and enjoy the humming of the mower, the singing of the birds and the shade of a barn on a very hot day in East Sussex - and to also enjoy getting back into my plein air sketching!

The view

Here's the view of The Topiary Lawn at Great Dixter with its edge/fence of ash trees that I was sketching.

The trees reminded me of both Sisley (long slim tree trunks) Hockney (tree surgery!). I liked the people on the big bench as it added life into the garden - and of course show me yew topiary and I'm itching to get my sketchbook out - all those nice big shapes!

This shows you how far away I was actually sat - in the old cow shed which was lovely and cool (it was a very hot day yesterday!) - looking out across the wild flower meadow which surrounds the yew topiary! Listening to the grass paths being mown.

The set-up and kit

This is where I was sat

My sketching kit and where I was sat in the old cow shed

This is the pen and ink sketch - after a bit of judicious work in Photoshop - the photograph shows the white paper as actually being blue - as per the one above.
But you can retrieve blue sketches - see my blog posts about how to do colour corrections on Making A Mark

• Correcting colour: How to stop your white paper looking grey and 
• Correcting colour: another way to stop your white paper looking grey)

The pen and ink sketch I usually do some hatching to indicate shadows and form
particularly when it's a time of day when the sun is moving quite fast.

This is where I'd got to prior to the video. One of the aims of the day was a test of my new Stillman and Birn Zeta sketchbook with extra heavy weight paper in Natural White (kindly supplied for review by Stillman and Birn via Jacksons Art Materials). Plus a new pen - a Sakura Micron Pigment Ink - size 01 with archival ink. More about this on Making A Mark Reviews later.

The sketching kit in use - before I started the video
Stillman and Birn Zeta Sketchbook - the double page spread is 30cm x 42cm
the pen is a Sakura Micron 01 and
the coloured pencils are usual ecelectic assortment by Caran d'Ache Pablo, Lyra Rembrandt,
Faber Castell Polychromos and there's even an old Karisma Lime Green in there!

More of my sketches at Great Dixter can be found by clicking this link.

The wildflower meadows at Great Dixter

This is what the wildflower meadows are looking like at Great Dixter at the moment. I have never ever seen so many orchids in one place! The meadows are part of The Weald Meadows Initiative developed by the Wild Meadows Partnership. Great Dixter is supporting the High Weald Landscape Trust's campaign to double the number of wildflower rich grasslands in the High Weald by 2015. Now is the time to see them!

One of the Wild Flower Meadows at Great Dixter

There are thousands of common Spotted Orchids 
in the Great Dixter Wildflower Meadows.

Visit Great Dixter

If you want to visit Great Dixter, I suggest you take a look at a few facts

• Address: Great Dixter, Northiam, Rye, East Sussex TN31 6PH
• consult this Google Map of its location
• Opening Hours: Open 29th March to 26th October 2014 Tuesday to Sunday and Bank Holiday Mondays. (Closed on all other Mondays) Gardens 11am to 5pm (last admission); House 2pm to 5pm
• read http://www.greatdixter.co.uk/plan-your-visit/ 
• review the map of the garden 

Tea plus muffin and a video - at Lynn Painter Stainers

Tea and a Lemon and White Chocolate Muffin.....

at the Mall Galleries - viewing the Lynn Painter-Stainers Exhibition

Want to see more?

Brushes iPad video to Blogger via YouTube - April garden in Cheshire

You can compare this video of a sketch done using a stylus and the Brushes app on my iPad with my last post about my pen and ink and coloured pencil sketch of The magnolia in April.

April Garden in Cheshire
sketch created on iPad using Brushes app and Griffin stylus
copyright Katherine Tyrrell - all rights reserved

This time I developed the sketches alongside one another (they were developed over a couple of mornings because of the way light moves in the early morning).

This time I was making a conscious effort to use the stylus more like I use a pen or pencil rather than pastels.  At the moment I think I prefer the pastels mode - but suspect this is probably more about me needing to get to grips with the different brushes and ways in which these can be adjusted!

You'll be able to tell from the video below that I do tend to take the "wprk all over" approach to a bit of an extreme!



How I got my Brushes actions movie from the iPad to YouTube to Blogger

I'm going to write down how I got my the sketching actions in the Brushes app off my iPad and to this blog post via YouTube

1. Apple iPad - Click share icon in gallery view
2. Apple iPad - Mail actions to one of my email addresses
3. Googlemail - save the gz file associated with the "Brushes Painting Actions" email to my Brushes folder in my Movies folder on my iMac (Note: .gz is the file extension for gzip files created using GNU zip, an open source file compression program)
4. Open the 'gzip' file on my Apple iMac and save the gz file to the same folder
5. After forgetting that gz files can't be read by just any old video software, open Brushes Viewer (previously downloaded to my Apple iMac)
6. check that the file works in animated form in Brushes Viewer
7. export the file to from gz to my hard disc on my my Apple iMac
8. try to upload the file to Flickr (except it's too long and the .mov extension is not recognised!)
9. export the file again(!) - this time saving it as MPEG-4 video and giving it a real name (this one was saved at 1024x768 pixels at medium quality)
10. I now have a file called aprilgarden.mov which is 354.1 MB
11. Flickr limits movies to 90 seconds so this one needs to be uploaded to YouTube
12. Open YouTube account and upload file - it takes about 50 minutes on a good connection
13. Wait for the file to be processed - another few minutes
14. Go to unique URL for video
15. Create the share code for the the video via embed mode 
16. Post embed code to this blog post!

If anybody has an improved way of getting videos of iPad sketches on to a blog post I'd love for you to share!

Something else I learned from the manual.  Worth keeping in mind for the future!

If your painting has many strokes, exporting a movie may take some time, and the resulting file may be quite large (depending on the settings).

Video of Urban Sketchers in Lisbon (Day 1)

This is the first video from the Urban Sketchers Symposium in Lisbon - enjoy!

Urban Sketchers in Lisbon (day 1) from Patrícia Pedrosa on Vimeo.

My first proper postcard sketch

This is a post about my first endeavours to create a proper postcard sketch.  By which I mean a sketch on a support which goes into the mail without an envelope and arrives on the other wide of the world without having suffered any undue wear and tear.

I've also been looking around for references on the web to the phenomenon of postcard sketching - or mail art as it's sometimes known.  You can see what I found at the end of this post.

My first proper postcard sketch

Sketch of "Terrasse a Vernon" by Pierre Bonnard
150mm x 120mm, coloured pencil and pen and ink on Mountboard - posted to Australia
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I often sketch in galleries but February was the first time I'd ever sketched in Christies Auction Rooms in London.  I've always had an aptitude for spotting the most expensive painting in the room! :) 
Terrasse à Vernon, an oil painting by Pierre Bonnard, sold the day after I sketched it for a new world record sum for a Bonnard - £6.4 million.  Which actually cost the purchaser £7,209,250 ($11,578,056)!  That made it the top lot for the Impressionist & Modern Evening Sale on February 9, 2011.


This is a link to a video of the auction of the Bonnard painting at Christies and this is the link to my post on Making A Mark about the experience of sketching at Christies After Bonnard

That particular day, the 8th February, I'd seen four exhibitions and walked a long way and stood for a lot longer looking at paintings.  Standing is absolutely guaranteed to foul up my awful foot with the torn ligments etc and it was perhaps unsurprising that I then had major problems with the foot for the next six weeks - which caused very great difficulties in walking.

As I was unable to get out and walk very far to do my postcard for the February round of A Postcard from my Walk I decided to try and reproduce the sketch I'd done of the painting in my sketchbook.

In the January round of the postcards, some people sent proper postcards (ie without envelopes) and I was keen to have a go.  So this time I tried using pen and ink and coloured pencils on Daler Rowney Mountboard - so that I could construct a proper postcard. 

Formats for postcards

First I had to work out what was the format for a postcard.  The reason for this is that it costs less to send a postcard compared to a letter.  So I can work bigger but I'd have to pay more for the postage - especially one which is going overseas!

As I'm used to working big and I was quite intrigued as to what would happen if I had to start working small.

After much research on the web, I found out what are the minimum and maximum dimensions for sending a postcard overseas.  These are:

• minimum:  90mm x 120mm  (ie a 3:4 format)
• maximum: 140mm x 235mm (ie a 1:1.67 format)

I used pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils - as per normal.  However when I finished I sealed both sides with fixative.

My first postcard didn't quite conform to the postcard format as I had to reduce one dimension to keep to the dimensions of the painting.  However it went all the way to New South Wales in Australia - to the home of Liz Steel (Liz and Borromini).

I've now sent  two more postcards off using the maximum format which gives a more panoramic landscape format - which I've decided I rather like.  You can see my second one here - Trees at Tate Modern - which went to Martin Stankewitz in Germany and the third has yet to reach its (to be revealed) destination so I can't post it yet.

Trees at Tate Modern
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils on ivory coloured mountboard - posted to Germany
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

However I have now started cutting up mountboard so I've got lots of postcards to take with me to Provence!

Surfaces

It seems to me that the weight and type of surface needs to be one that will stand up to movement thtough the post.  That's why I inclined towards trying to mountboard

The mountboard also works very well with pen and ink and coloured pencil.  Not as nice as Moleskine sketchbook paper but then nothing is.......  It could however make a good support for any other surface I fixed to it (oh how I wish for sheets of Moleskine paper!)  I think the next thing to try is a textured surface - maybe using the Daniel Smith watercolour ground or gesso.

If anybody else has used different supports successfully for sending postcards through the post without them getting damaged I'd be interested to hear as mail art is a very much a new endeavour for me

Resources about postcard sketching

It's evident that there are a few "Postcard from...." blogs around which tried to emulate Julian's "Postcard from Provence" project - however it looks like quite a few have departed from the postcard format and size.

There's also the question of postcard sized and postcard format.  For me the latter means it can actually be a postcard and it can actually be sent in the mail as a postcard.  I guess the niceties as to where boundaries on this begin and end is something other people can tell me more about!


There is of course the project I'm involved in A Postcard from My Walk where I think after some initial trepidation people are moving towards postcard formats for their sketches

• You can read a great article about postcard sketching in Japan on Russ Stutler's website
• this is a blog about a Mail Art Postcard Exhibition - but this isn't about sketching, it's about mail art
• the RCA Secret is a unique annual exhibition and sale of original postcard-sized art, made by professional artists, designers and illustrators, plus current postgraduate students at the Royal College of Art.  This struck me as being more about format size than the actual act of posting the art.  You can view the postcards here.
• Sunday Postcard Art is another blog about postcard art.  It limits works to 6" x 4" - but the longest journey this art makes is in its upload to Flickr
• This blog post describes an event project- Watercolor Postcard Painting at the von Liebig Art Center Photo Journal  
• Zazzle apparently has a category for sketch+postcards.  These are prints rather than originals.  What's interesting is the weight of card stock they use.  Plus the scope for possibly generating some income from one's sketches! ;)  (Here's an example from Martin Group of trees with path into the landscape)

Postcard

Keep in touch with Zazzle custom postcards! Add your favorite image to a blank postcard or say “hi” with a pre-existing design. Save paper and mail a note without wasting envelopes!

• 4.25" x 5.6" (portrait) or 5.6" x 4.25" (landscape).
• Printed on ultra-heavyweight (120 lb.) card stock with a gloss finish.
• No minimum order.
• Get custom stamps to match!

So the conclusion I'm coming to at the moment is that maybe there isn't a huge amount of mail art / postcard sketching going on at the moment.  There are lots of small works but rather less finds its way into the mailbox.

If you know of any links to other projects, blogs, websites or any other resources please let me know.

Enrique Flores' Algeria sketchbook on YouTube

I always look forward to getting an email to say that Enrique Flores (acuarelista) has got a new YouTube video of a new sketchbook.

This is his Moleskine Sketchbook completed during one week in Oran, Algeria.



Here's some things to note about Enrique's approach to sketching:

• Lots and lots of sketches - he's sketching all the time and/or sketches very fast and so he fills a sketchbook in a week.
• He's not trying to be a camera (ie photographic); he's focusing on impressions and what interests him
• His sketches are simple, clear and have a lot of impact
• It's mainly a graphic approach to sketching - line and flat colour
• Flat watercolour goes on faster than gradated washes - and he makes good use of lots of areas of flat colour.  
• He typically has sketches which have good composition - he always finds the big shapes and works with them
• He draws lots of people - which make a place come alive.  
• He focuses more of proportion than accurate drawing of individuals
• He never overworks 
• He comments on his blog that he has a 'redraw obsession' - but drawing again things you have drawn before is never a bad idea in my book!

See also my post back in 2007 - Enrique Flores sketches everywhere! which includes an interview with Enrique.

You can:

• see more of Enrique's sketchbooks on his acuarelista channel on YouTube 
• bookmark the sketchbooks page on his website
• read his illustration blog

Sketching Rouen Cathedral - from my hotel bed!

Sketches of Rouen Cathedral
(left) nighttime on 01.10.09
(right) 8am on 02.10.09.
pencil and coloured pencils in Daler Rowney sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Next stop on our French trip was Rouen. Here's my post about Rouen posted while we were travelling - 2nd October: Rouen and Normandy

One of the objectives of the trip for me was to be able to see the paintings by Monet of Rouen Cathedral in the Musée d'Orsay and then to be able to see the Cathedral in real life. (Much as we had done with Monet's paintings of the garden at Giverny and our visit to Giverny)

"Voila mon atelier" Claude Monet 1880
They have better looking construction hoardings in France
- spotted next to the cathedral

I was ecstatic to find that, as promised, the hotel that I'd booked (Hotel Le Cardinal at 1 Place de la Cathédrale) did indeed look out on the Cathédrale Notre Dame. However it was off to the side rather than looking out at the front. Which was probably a very good thing as the front was completely enveloped in polythene and scaffolding - obviously some restoration going on!

What was even better was that I had a balcony which overlooked the south aspect of the cathedral. I think I did mention I wanted to draw the cathedral! Check out the video from my hotel bedroom balcony - which, for the record, was on the third floor at the front of the hotel.

I also started - but didn't finish - a sketch of the interior of the Brasserie Paul where we had dinner. It's the oldest brasserie operating in Rouen and is right next to the hotel - but it had been a very long day!

We had previously walked down to the Place du Vieux Marché (Old Market Square) which is lined with restaurants - but we were on the trail of comfort food rather than haute cuisine! It did however constitute another part of our Jeanne d'Arc trail. Rouen Castle is where she was held and tried from 21 February to 23 May 1431 and the Place du Vieux Marché is the place where she was executed by being burnt at the stake after being found guilty of being a relapsed heretic. (This site records the relevant places)

In the centre of the Place du Vieux Marché is the modern church of Saint Joan of Arc. This is a large, modern structure which dominates the square. The form of the building represents the pyre on which Joan of Arc was burnt.

I was saving myself for late night sketching - of the cathedral from my hotel bed! I did two sketches - both of which involved nothing more strenuous than lying on my bed propped up by a pillow! I did one last thing at night and one about 8am the next morning - both of which you can see at the top of the post. It was actually very interesting to see how the form of the cathedral changed in the different light and how different parts were emphasised less or more.

A view of the west front painted by Monet - above the scaffolding!

At 10am we departed for our journey across Normandy to visit Mont St Michel - via a 2nd World War cemetary asscoiated with the Normandy landings in 1944 - of which more in the next post about our French trip.

Links:

• Monet's Series Paintings - Rouen Cathedral
• Cathédrale Notre Dame on Google Maps (with photos, reviews and links to other information)
• Rouen Cathedral / Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Rouen on Wikipedia
• Rouen - Wikipedia
  
• Rouen Cathedral (Monet) on Wikipedia
• Joan of Arc Biography
  
• Hotel Le Cardinal at 1 Place de la Cathédrale, 760000, Rouen
  

Sketchercise strikes again!

This week I got into yet another pair of jeans I haven't worn in years. As a result of sketchercise and sensible and healthy eating/drinking, I've now reduced at least two dress sizes. A weight loss of three stone is hovering into sight - I should be there by Christmas with any luck.

By way of celebration I went out for lunch at The Pavilion Cafe in Victoria Park - after a long walk of course!

Autumn Trees on the West Lake, Victoria Park (12.11.09.)
6" x 17", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Artcoe Bluebell sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I had 'proper' smoked haddock (none of that disgusting bright yellow stuff!) with a poached egg on champ with bearnaise sauce - yuuuuuuuuuummy (see right)! My diet works on the basis that it's OK to have occasional excesses on the sauce front!

I was thinking this morning that my sketch looks very grey - but then it's a grey day for taking photos of weird sized sketchbooks (which don't scan quickly) and it was greyish day yesterday too! I've now resolved to work out a palette for grey days.

I was sat next to the window in the Cafe eating my meal when I realised that I could probably set up the digi camcorder to film me sketching. I was just about to start when the battery announced it was low - and then switched off!

However now I've got the incentive to try again!

Here's a short video of the West Lake in Victoria Park and the cafe where I go to sketch. This park and lake are just over 2 miles east of the Bank of England and the City of London - right in the centre of the East End of London!

Link:

• Sketchercise (now invitation only)
  
• A second group - Sketchercise on Flickr

Autumn at the Sackler Crossing, Kew Gardens

I'm glad we were able to pay a visit to Kew Gardens before all the leaves began to fall from the trees. The colours were glorious in parts of the gardens and the trees next to the Sackler Crossing were particularly vivid.

Autumn colour at the Sackler Crossing
8" x 10", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The Sackler Crossing pver the lake nearest the Thames is well worth seeking out if you are able to visit Kew Gardens. It's quite beautiful and sculptural. This pdf file tells you moe about it.

This is a video of our walk in Kew Gardens - Autumn afternoon in Kew Gardens which shows quite clearly at the end the light issues you have to deal with when sketching in late afternoon light in Autumn! If you're curious about the noises on the video there's an explanation half way through.

Musée de l'Orangerie, Tuileries, Notre Dame and St Germain

On Monday morning, the sun was shining, the sky was blue and we set off to walk across the very centre of Paris so we could visit some of the places my niece wanted to see.

Here's our route (which seems to be misbehaving at the moment) - I said we walked a lot ! This is a link to a larger version of this map (where you can see the route!) of where we went - starting at the Place de La Concorde and finishing up at the Boulevard St Germain.


View Place de la Concorde to Saint Germain in a larger map

After getting a good look at the Place de la Concorde and the view down the Tuileries in the morning haze, we started with the Musée de l'Orangerie. This is where Monet's famous large panels of waterlilies are located in two oval shaped rooms which were specially built to house them. You can read more about them in Gardens in Art: Monet's final Nympheas.

The Clouds by Claude Monet
200 x 1275 cm, (three adjoining panels 200 x 425 cm)
Salle 1, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris
photo copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I wrote about our visit yesterday on Making A Mark - see Monet's Nympheas in the Musée de l'Orangerie

You can also view a video of what it was like to be in the two rooms viewing the Grand Decorations on my YouTube channel. I've also got two slightly different slideshows - which provides close-ups of the brushwork and way he painted - which you can view either on Flickr or YouTube

After the waterlilies we visited the paintings collected by Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume

I'm skipping fast through the rest of the day because if I don't I'll never complete it. (I'm completely inundated this week with trying to prevent my council ruining my neighbourhood with some thoughtless proposals!)

I should also explain that I'm very bad at sketching when I first get to a place in terms of the wide open spaces and big buildings. Small stuff - what's on my plate - I can cope with (hence what I sketched on Sunday). However big urban scenes need some time for my eyes to accommodate the different visual language of my surroundings. Even the parks and gardens look different in Paris. However for those of you who would like to go on a virtual journey I can provide you with sets of Photos on Flickr which I'll be linking to in my bullet point highlights below.

• we lunched at the fountains at the western end of the Jardin des Tuileries - see Jardin des Tuileries, Paris on Flickr.

Two ladies in the Tuileries
photo copyright Katherine Tyrrell

• After lunch we walked through the Gardens towards the Louvre. We decided that the practice of having very comfortable but movable metal chairs in the parks was an admirable practice. Mostly because it enabled you to sit where you wanted to rather than where the park planners wanted you to.

The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel is at the easternmost end of the so-called Axe historique ("grand historic axis") of Paris, a nine-kilometre-long linear route which dominates central and western Paris. Looking west, the arch is perfectly aligned with the obelisk in the Place de la Concorde, the Champs-Élysées, the Arc de Triomphe and (although it is not directly visible from the Place du Carrousel) the Grande Arche de la Defense.
Wikipedia - Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel

• past the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel and into the coutyards of the Palais du Louvre with its glass pyramid main entrance to the Louvre Museum (of which more in later posts). I stopped to do a video which you can see here Panorama: Louvre and Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel. For those who have not visited Paris, bear in mind this video only shows the exterior of about half of the Louvre - which sort of explains why people can get lost in it and you can spend days in there and still not see everything! (I'm interested as to whether my filming is improving!)
  
• then through the next courtyard of the Louvre and out on to the road that runs alongside the River Seine. We dropped down to the riverside but discovered you can't walk along it in the same way as you can walk alongside the Thames in London
• over the Pont Neuf, the "new bridge" that is now the oldest bridge in Paris and on to the Île de la Cité - the larger of the two islands island between the left (south) and right (north) banks of the River Seine
• we then had a debate as to whether to queue for Saint Chapelle and decided to go and see Notre Dame first and then return and see whether the queues had improved. This is my Flickr set for Notre Dame de Paris. I'd been reading about the carvings on the west front and took rather a lot of photos! Notre Dame also started a bit of a Joan of Arc trail we followed across France.
• Back outside Saint Chapelle the queues were exactly the same - was it ever thus! At which point I rememberd that I've always seen it first thing in the morning! I'd already decided that my feet were not going to hold out if I shuffled in a queue. So as I've seen it twice before (and it is STUNNING!) I decided to join Parisian cafe society and wait over the road at the Les Deux Palais where I sketched what looked like important men in grey suits in the later afternoon and sipped a Citron pressé (no sugar!)

Cafe society at the Brasserie Les Deux Palais
11.5 x 8.5, pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

• after which we walked over the river to the left bank and in to the Latin Quarter of the sixth arondissement.
  
• Time for a little shopping followed by dinner at the Relais de l'Entrecôte Saint Germain - that's entrecote, frites and the famous 'green gold' sauce! By this time I was too tired to sketch plus although I got my sketchbook it out the service was too fast!
  

Addicts of a "mythic entrecote", "crip, hot frites" and "secret-magic sauce" "stand in line" (no reservations taken) and sit "on top of each other" at these "outstanding" steakhouse "staples" in Saint-Germain and near the Champs; when ordering from the "friendly but no-nosense servers","rare", medium or well done are the only words you need to know" because the "reasonably priced" beef’s the only game in town here; but "when they have perfected this so well, why serve anything else?"
Zagat Survey

Then back to the hotel via Metro - Châtelet where I really could have done without the massive underground hike to change lines - and so to bed to read my new book about Monet's Nympheas!

Sketchercise: probably about 4+ miles altogether with more exercise than sketching!

Travels with a sketchbook in France (2009)

I've done long trips before and know that it's difficult enough trying to fit in all I'd like to see and do without taking time out to post what I'm up to - even if I could! I've tried to resolve that problem this year by

• posting about where I was going before I went.
  
• Plus today I'm starting my sequence of posts about what I actually did on my recent trip to northern France.

I always start my record of my trips with a summary of the posts I'm expecting to do about my travels with a sketchbook (and camera). It keeps me organised and helps me to avoid missing anything out. Plus I get to work out how many sketches I need to scan! I'll insert the hyperlinks to the blog post titles and hyperlinks in this summary as I post them and this post will go in the summary of trips in the side column for easy reference.

I'm also going to be posting photos and videos to my Flickr account - so you might want to keep an eye on France - which is going to be the home of those photos and videos from the trip which i publish for people to see.

This was my actual itinerary in Paris, Normandy and the valley of the Rivers Loire and Cher.

Sunday 27th September - there are going to be three small posts

• Travelling to Paris (one sketch) - an interesting story plus an introduction to my companions and hotel
• Eating International in Paris (two sketches) - two sketches from a restaurant that isn't serving French food!
• Sunday afternoon in the Jardin des Plantes (two sketches) - in which I visit the main botanical garden in Paris

Monday 28th September - two posts

• Petit dejeuner @ Dolce e Amaro - I did a sketch every morning in the cafe where I took breakfast. This is the record of an Italian cafe in Paris!
• Musée de l'Orangerie, Tuileries, Notre Dame and St Germain - this was a major walking day and I only got one sketch done - while I sat out the queues for Sainte Chapelle. However I do have YouTube Videos of:
• Monet's Nympheas (the Grand Decorations) in the revamped Orangerie for those who have not seen them before. See 
  Monet's Waterlilies at the Musée de l'Orangerie Paris.
• Plus Monet's waterlilies (slideshow), Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris
• a rather noisy Panorama of the Louvre and Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel

Tuesday 29th September - two posts

• A day in the Musee d'Orsay. No sketches because this time I actually had a camera which took decent photos but didn't flash indoors which gave me the opportunity to record masses of paintings on my camera - so long as I didn't flash(!) and I spent the whole day here - apart from a quick trip to the Sennelier shop!
  
• However I did manage to make a video of the Van Gogh paintings, Musée d'Orsay
• Dining out in Paris - Montmartre and Saint-Germain-des-Pres - Two sketches from dinners in Montmartre (Tuesday) and the Latin Quarter (Wednesday) plus photos.

Wednesday 30th September - Another day spent in a museum. This time it was A Day in the Musée du Louvre followed by a walk through the Jardin du Palais Royal. I've got two sketches of self portraits by Rembrandt two sketches of people taking a break.

The Water Garden, Giverny
11.5" x 17", coloured pencil in sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Thursday 1st October - Off to Normandy in our hire car. First stop Giverny (one sketch of The Water Garden at Giverny, masses of photos and a video of walking around the water garden); next stop overnight in Rouen. (See also The garden behind the paintings - Giverny on Making A Mark)

Friday 2nd October - Two sketches of Rouen Cathedral - at midnight and break of day. Both were done from my hotel bed (right next to the cathedral)! See Sketching Rouen Cathedral - from my hotel bed!

Plus a sketch of the Auberge du Terroir, Servon (near Mont St Michel) where we had the best restaurant meal of the trip.

Saturday 3rd October - a sketch of Petit déjeuner at the Château de Boucéel followed by a sketch of Le Mont-Saint-Michel (done from the back seat of the car in the car park!)

Sunday 4th October - lots of laundry and settling in - plus a sketch of the view from the dining room in our cottage at Chateau du Plessis and a visit to Ronell and her atelier in Montlouis-sur Loire

Monday 5th October - a visit to Château d'Azay-le-Rideau and two sketches of the gardens at Château de Villandry

Tuesday 6th October - a visit to Chinon and a sketch of people lunching in the sunshine under the trees in the town square in Dejeuner sous l'arbres. Followed by a visit to The Château d'Ussé which is the castle which apparently inspired Perrault's tale La Belle au Bois dormant (maybe better known as Sleeping Beauty)

Wednesday 7th October - a visit to market and medieval part of Tours in the morning, sketching over lunch with fellow Sketcherciser and Watermarks member Ronell van Wyk and another sketch of the chateau garden. You can already read about Ronell's post about this on her blog in Katherine in Touraine

Thursday 8th October - a sketch of the Château de Chenonceau

Friday 9th October - we travelled back to Paris, dropped off the car, my sister and niece headed off to L'aeroport Charles de Gaulle and I took the metro to La Mouette to visit the Musée Marmottan. Two sketches of Monet paintings of the water garden and one sketch while having a quick snack before boarding the Eurostar to come back to London - to be met by "he who must not be bored while I sketch"!

I'd just like to record before I get started that I actually finished the trip weighing less than when I went. Which means that Sketchercise very definitely works! I relaxed the diet just a little bit (odd glass of wine and a bit of cheese now and again) but did lots of walking as well as sketching.

So - I better get started! Sketches will be posted to accompany this post as I get them scanned. You can also see a gallery of all the sketches in France in Katherine Tyrrell travels with a sketchbook in France on my portfolio website.

Enrique Flores sketches everywhere!

Nepal
all images copyright Enrique Flores

Enrique Flores has a simply amazing collection of travel sketchbooks - some of which are now listed on my playlist of other people's travel sketchbooks on my new YouTube channel which focuses on travel and sketchbooks.

I think Cin Woods (Learning Daily) was the first person to put me onto Enrique's work - but until I saw his his channel at YouTube I had no idea how many sketchbooks he'd completed - and has now videoed. Enrique's username at YouTube is acuarelista.

Enrique has travelled to some very interesting places (Nepal, India, Cuba Morocco) as well as countries in Europe (Greece, Italy, Portugal) and parts of his home country of Spain.

He produces an incredible quantity of watercolour sketches while travelling through a country. As you can see below his usual output is about 4-5 a day. I wanted to show some images with this interview and asked him for some sketches from Nepal which I found stunning.

Here's what I like best about his sketchbooks. Enrique's work is simple, clear and has huge impact. His sketches of landscapes and scenes are both big and typically well composed. He finds the big shapes in a scene and uses them well. Put simply Enrique makes pictures. He has a really good ability to leave a big empty space when that makes for an effective design. He leads you in and around the scene he's recording and also records small details and objects he saw. He uses saturated colour as required and I can't remember seeing anything which had been fussed and overworked. I like the way he attaches the small mementoes of a place - but without overdoing it.

I wrote to him and asked if I could interview him for this blog - as I very much like to promote travelling with a sketchbook and I thought we could all probably learn something from Enrique. So here's the interview - my questions and his answers.

What's your background in terms of training?

I spent five years at Fine Arts university in Madrid plus 2 years doing a Master in Arts Graphic Design at St. Martins, London. I worked in advertising (JWT) for a while before choosing the weird life of the freelance ilustrator.

How long you've been keeping a sketchbook?

I keep a day-to-day diary since I was 23 or so. Everytime I go on my travels I make sketches. My first one was a black and white Cuba on ruled paper, 1990

How do you manage to get so much done while travelling?

I consider myself quite lazy when travelling and I disagree about the quantity of drawings you think I make. I should do a lot more. None of them takes me more than half an hour and some of my travels are one month long. Anyway I´m OK when I do about 4-5 drawings a day. When I´m in ugly places I try to draw just to keep my hand working, no matter of the subject.

I use small sketchbooks for drawing people and writing and A4 for landscapes and architecture (as I said no more than half an hour sessions)

What sorts of sketchbooks have you have used?

Mostly Winsor & Newton A4, A5 and A6, 50 lbs. I know the paper is awful for watercolour but they have lots of pages. I have been using recently large watercolour Moleskines just to give them a try but I finish them in only five days (they have few pages because of the weight of paper). For a day-to-day notes and sketches I use ClaireFontaine A5

What sort of watercolours do you use/prefer?

I prefer Schmincke but for a long time I´ve used a plastic box of Winsor and Newton 14 half pans. It´s smaller and less heavy than the Schmincke metal box and more comfortable for carrying around.

What sort of brushes do you use/prefer?

Any brush is fine by me and lately I´ve been doing good watercolours with a flat brush intended for ceramics! I never use fine Kolinsky brushes as I´m very absent-minded and I lost them very often.

Where's the next trip?

Menorca, at the Balearic Islands after high season passes. I´ve been there already and it is a fantastic place for sketching. Great rocks and cliffs and turquoise waters.

....and which places do do you still want to visit?

I´m willing to travel in isolated and lonely places such as Patagonia and Tibet but I need at least three monts for doing it with no rushes and I´m still waiting for the appropiate moment.

I know I can't wait to see another Flores sketchbook. Please visit Enrique's blog and let him know what you think of his sketchbooks.

[Note: This post is also being posted on Making A Mark]

List:

• Enrique Flores 4ojos travel sketchbooks - YouTube
  
• Enrique Flores - blog
  
• Enrique Flores - website

Travel sketchbooks in video form

I've included a new module in the right hand column for videos of travel sketchbooks which I like.

My general aim is to get my head round how I can do a video of my own travel sketchbooks. If anybody has any tips please leave a comment below for me and others of a similar inclination.

The new module has a link to my playlist of other people's travel sketchbooks on my new YouTube channel which focuses on travel and sketchbooks.

I've started the playlist by adding a lot of videos from one of the masters of the travel sketchbook - Enrique Flores - whose user name on YouTube is acuarelista. Most of Enrico's sketches are in watercolour, some are in large format (A4) sketchbooks and some use the new Moleskine watercolour sketchbook. You can also see the videos by visiting Enrique's blog and you can see even more on his channel at YouTube.